Rainmaker Entertainment

Rainmaker Entertainment
Public (TSX: RNK)
Subsidiary
Industry Computer animation
Predecessor Mainframe Entertainment
Founded 1991 (1991) (as Mainframe)
2007 (2007) (as Rainmaker)
Founders Ian Pearson
Phil Mitchell
Gavin Blair
John Grace
Headquarters Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Key people
 Craig Graham, CEO[1]
Michael Hefferon, President[1]
Products Television, motion pictures, home video
Parent WOW! Unlimited Media Inc.
Divisions Rainmaker British Columbia
Rainmaker Los Angeles
Website www.rainmaker.com

Rainmaker Entertainment, Inc. (formerly Mainframe Entertainment Inc.) is a Canadian computer animation and design company based in Vancouver, British Columbia. They are best known for producing the first ever CGI animated series ReBoot, as well as the Transformers spin-off Beast Wars: Transformers and Transformers: Beast Machines. In recent years they have also become known for producing most of the Barbie film series for Mattel.

Rainmaker Income Fund announced on August 29, 2006, that RNK Capital Limited Partnership would acquire the 38% of shares it didn't own by merging with Rainmaker Income Fund. After the merger, Rainmaker announced on January 31, 2007 that Mainframe Entertainment's name would be changed to Rainmaker Entertainment. On November 29, 2007, Rainmaker Income Fund announced the sale of Rainmaker Visual Effects and Rainmaker Post to Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, leaving only the animation business.

The current Rainmaker name and insignia was adopted from an older division, the DVD encoding company Rainmaker Digital Pictures, which encoded DVDs as early as 1997.

In 2013, Rainmaker relaunched Mainframe Entertainment as its television division, starting with a CG-animated television series, Bob the Builder.[2][3]

In 2016, Rainmaker acquired American animation studio Frederator Studios and announced that they have consolidated its divisions (including Frederator) under its new holding company WOW! Unlimited Media Inc.[4]

Productions

Television series

Title Years Network
as Mainframe Entertainment
ReBoot 1994–2001 ABC
Syndication
Beast Wars: Transformers 1996–1999 Syndication
Max Steel 2000–02 Kids WB!/Cartoon Network
Weird-Oh's 2000–01 Fox Family
Beast Machines: Transformers 1999–2000 Fox Kids

Films

Title Release Date Notes
as Mainframe Entertainment
Casper's Haunted Christmas October 31, 2000
Barbie in the Nutcracker October 23, 2001
Barbie as Rapunzel October 1, 2002
Barbie of Swan Lake September 30, 2003
Hot Wheels World Race December 2, 2003
Max Steel: Endangered Species 2004
Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper September 28, 2004
Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy November 9, 2004
Max Steel: Forces of Nature 2005
Hot Wheels AcceleRacers January 8, 2005
Barbie: Fairytopia March 8, 2005
Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus September 30, 2005
Max Steel: Countdown 2006
Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild February 21, 2006
Barbie: Mermaidia March 14, 2006
Tony Hawk in Boom Boom Sabotage September 12, 2006
Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses September 19, 2006
as Rainmaker Entertainment
Barbie as the Island Princess September 18, 2007 Animated by former Mainframe animators but under the name of Rainmaker Animation
Barbie Mariposa February 26, 2008
Barbie & the Diamond Castle September 9, 2008
The Nutty Professor November 25, 2008 [5]
Barbie Thumbelina March 17, 2009
Barbie and the Three Musketeers September 15, 2009
Barbie in A Mermaid Tale March 9, 2010
Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale September 14, 2010
Barbie: A Fairy Secret March 15, 2011
Barbie: Princess Charm School September 13, 2011
Barbie in A Mermaid Tale 2 March 6, 2012
Barbie: The Princess and the Popstar September 11, 2012
Escape from Planet Earth February 15, 2013 First theatrically released film
Barbie and the Secret Door September 16, 2014
Open Season: Scared Silly March 8, 2016 produced for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment [6]
Ratchet & Clank April 29, 2016 Video game-to-film adaptation

Rainmaker era

Title Release Date Notes
Bob the Builder 2015–present as Mainframe Entertainment; with HiT Entertainment
Mickey and the Roadster Racers January 2017 as Mainframe Entertainment; with Disney Television Animation
Sly Cooper TBA Video game-to-film adaptation
Surf's Up 2: WaveMania 2017 Produced in collaboration with Sony Pictures Animation
ReBoot: The Guardian Code 2017 Sequel series to ReBoot

References

  1. 1 2 "Rainmaker Entertainment Names Michael Hefferon President". Deadline. November 14, 2012. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  2. ↑ Wolfe, Jennifer (October 7, 2013). "Rainmaker Launches TV Division". Animation World Network. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
  3. ↑ McLean, Tom (April 6, 2014). "Mainframe to Animate HIT's New 'Bob' Series". Animation Magazine. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
  4. ↑ http://www.awn.com/news/rainmaker-entertainment-acquires-frederator-rebranding-wow
  5. ↑ MAINFRAME ENTERTAINMENT AND THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY TEAM UP FOR CG ANIMATED THE NUTTY PROFESSOR
  6. ↑ http://www.awn.com/news/open-season-scared-silly-lands-retail-march-8
  7. ↑ Vancouver Sun - Vancouver-based Rainmaker Animation strikes movie deal Archived March 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ "Work - Ghostbusters". Rainmaker. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
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