Lionsgate has signed on as the North American home entertainment distributor for the Little Tikes brand from MGA Ent., the company behind the girls merchandising phenomenon Bratz. The multi-year deal covers both electronic sell-through and video-on-demand (VOD) for the United States and Canada under the new Animated Little Tikes Entertainment label. Little Tikes Land, the first of four initial CG-animated stories, is scheduled to hit retail this fall.
MGA and Lionsgate formed a partnership in 2006 when Lionsgate agreed to distribute the Bratz animated home video productions and the live-action, theatrical feature film based on the popular fashion dolls. The deal was expanded in 2007 to all Bratz catalog features and extended Lionsgate’s rights to include VOD and international distribution in the U.K.
Lionsgate’s catalog of animated properties includes Scholastic’s Clifford the Big Red Dog, American Greetings’ The Care Bears, HIT Ent.’s Thomas & Friends, Bob the Builder, Barney and Angelina Ballerina, Cookie Jar Ent.’s The Doodlebops, Nelvana’s Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Friends and Speed Racer, and the Marvel Animated series of direct-to-video features. The company recently became the exclusive distributor of HIT’s catalog of children’s non-theatrical product throughout North America, and signed a worldwide agreement with learning technology developer LeapFrog to develop, produce, and distribute original direct-to-video features.
