Michael Hirsh (born February 8, 1948) is a Canadian television producer and author. He co-founded Nelvana, a Toronto-based animation and entertainment studio, in 1971 with partners Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith; the company produced several animated shows including Beetlejuice, Franklin, Babar, The Magic School Bus, Rock & Rule, the Care Bears movies, and Donkey Kong Country, among others.
After Corus Entertainment's acquisition of Nelvana in 2000, Hirsh became the CEO of Cookie Jar Group, which produced numerous children's shows, among them being Arthur, Johnny Test, and Strawberry Shortcake. When Cookie Jar was acquired by DHX Media (now WildBrain), Hirsh became the Executive Chairman of the company, the largest supplier of kids' programming to online streaming services, as well as a leader in production and licensing and merchandising for children. Three years after the acquisition by DHX Media, Hirsh left the company to serve as CEO and chairman of WOW! Unlimited Media from 2015 to December 2023.
In 2024, Hirsh wrote his memoirs which were published by Sutherland House. Packed with humour and hard-won wisdom, Animation Nation is a frame by frame account of how creative talent and entrepreneurial zeal built a global cartoon empire.
Contents
Early life
Hirsh was born in Brussels, Belgium. At the age of three his family emigrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Both of his parents were Holocaust survivors, his mother hidden by nuns and his father was liberated on a Death March from a concentration camp.
At 13, Hirsh's family moved to New York where he attended the Bronx High School of Science. He started making experimental films after cutting high school classes to watch American underground cinema. Hirsh continued his studies at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio where he pursued filmmaking. Hirsh transferred to York University's Glendon College in the autumn of 1966 where he met his future business partners Jack Christie and Patrick Loubert.
Career
Early career
Hirsh's first feature film co-directed and co-produced with Jack Christie, Voulez Vous Coucher Avec God? was inspired by political turmoil and took over six years to make. The satirical film shed light on topics such as fundamentalist religion, politics, racism, and sexism.
Hirsh, working with animator Marc Chinoy and college friends Patrick Loubert, Jack Christie, and Peter Dewdney made five alphabet inspired animated shorts for PBS's Sesame Street, learning the basics of animation as they went along.
One episode of Drop-In was based on the history of the Canadian Whites, inspiring Hirsh to learn more about the comics published during the Second World War. Hirsh contacted John Ezrin, the most successful publisher of the Canadian Whites at the time. Tired of storing them, Ezrin sold the comics and rights to Hirsh and Loubert for $3,500.
In regard to the Canadian Whites, he co-authored a book and tv Documentary with Patrick Loubert called The Great Canadian Comics(book published by Peter Martin Associates 1971, documentary commissioned by CBC Telescope, 1971 and a National Gallery of Canada travelling exhibition.
Nelvana
In 1971, Hirsh, Loubert and Clive A. Smith founded Nelvana Limited, a new company with a focus on animation and a goal of creating a Canadian studio. The company got its name from Canadian/First Nations female comic book hero Nelvana of the Northern Lights, one of the comic books they acquired from John Ezrin known as the Canadian Whites.
In 1977, Nelvana released A Cosmic Christmas, an animated sci-fi Christmas television special distributed in the U.S. and Canada that caught the attention of George Lucas who watched the special and contacted Nelvana while they were working on a Halloween special, titled The Devil and Daniel Mouse.
Lucas hired Nelvana to help produce a cartoon for the Star Wars Holiday Special that was broadcast on CBS on 17 November 1978. The cartoon introduced Boba Fett, the iconic Star Wars character. Years later, the cartoon became available to watch again in 2021 on Disney+.
Later, Nelvana partnered with Lucasfilm and expanded the Star Wars franchise once again with Star Wars: Droids featuring the continuing adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO and Ewoks, two Saturday morning series.
In 1983, Nelvana released its first animated film Rock & Rule featuring original music by Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Cheap Trick and funk group Earth, Wind and Fire. The film was distributed by MGM/UA and Orion.
In 1983, Nelvana produced The Care Bears Movie, which was distributed by The Samuel Goldwyn Co, and broke the record for an animated movie not produced by the Disney Studio. The film won the Golden Reel Award that year in Canada.
In 1987, Hirsh acquired the rights for Babar from The Clifford Ross Company and produced 65 half-hours for HBO, CBC and broadcasters all over the world. The series was produced with Europe-based Ellipse and led to the joint venture studio Le Studio Ellipse. Together with Ross, Nelvana licensed merchandising for Babar and honoured the event with a party that featured an elephant on the mezzanine floor at FAO Schwartz in New York City.
Corus sale
In September 2000, Corus Entertainment bought Nelvana for $544 million. The company saw the purchase as being a complement to its children's TV networks, including YTV and Treehouse. Corus already owned 6% of Nelvana, and took on the company's $75 million debt.
While at Corus, Hirsh worked on Beyblade, Nelvana's biggest hit during his time. Broadcast on YTV and Cartoon Network, the Japanese anime based on a line of spinning-top toys generated billions of dollars of toy sales from a toy deal with Hasbro that Nelvana negotiated.
Hirsh worked on Max & Ruby, based on books by Rosemary Wells, a preschool series about two anthro sibling rabbits Two years after the sale, Hirsh left Nelvana.
Cookie Jar Group
After winning an auction in 2004, Hirsh and former Nelvana president Toper Taylor working with Toronto's Dominion Private Equity Partners (now Birch Hill) and Omers acquired Quebec-based CINAR for more than $190 million. Two weeks after its purchase, on 29 March, CINAR was renamed to Cookie Jar based on a suggestion by author Huck Scarry.
Prior to the acquisition, CINAR was facing serious legal trouble. With new leadership, Hirsh and team were able to resolve many of the company's legal and public affairs.
The first series produced by Cookie Jar after Hirsh's acquisition was Busytown Mysteries based on the book series created by Richard Scarry and Doodlebops. Hirsh began developing Doodlebops with co-creator Carl Lennox after agreeing to do a music show with Head of CBC Kids Cheryl Hassan. US broadcaster Disney Channel bought the show after positive test screenings. With the support of Disney, Hirsh and Taylor were successful in bringing Feld Entertainment in to organize a musical tour of the show's characters across the U.S. and Canada. The Doodlebops went on to be a hit show, inspiring appearances at Walt Disney World and American nationwide tours for two years.
Caillou, an animated television show for preschoolers, was one of the properties inherited through CINAR. Hirsh facilitated settling a lawsuit between CINAR and Caillou's author and illustrator, Christine L'Heureux and Helene Desputeaux. At the time, Caillou was successful on PBS in the US and a hit in merchandising and publishing in every country such as Turkey, Spain, and Brazil.
Other properties inherited included Arthur, a major hit on PBS, CBC, and the BBC. Cookie Jar continued to produce Arthur, resulting in six Emmy Awards. Cookie Jar faced a turning point when Warner Bros. auctioned off the rights to produce Johnny Test. The highly-rated comedy created by Scott Fellows (writer of Nickelodeon) and produced by Cookie Jar lasted six seasons and was a global hit for broadcasters around the world including Cartoon Network, Teletoon (since bought by Cartoon Network) and Netflix.
On 20 June 2008, Cookie Jar Group announced a deal to acquire DIC Entertainment from CEO Andy Heyward. On 23 July 2008, the acquisition was completed, and eventually DIC was folded into Cookie Jar's entertainment division. Through that acquisition Cookie Jar also acquired Copyright Promotions Licensing Group (now WildBrain CPLG). Cookie Jar now had more than 6,000 half-hours of programming as well as rights to several children's brands.
WOW Unlimited Media Inc.
After leaving DHX, Hirsh met with Randy Lennox and agreed to create another kids' entertainment company. Enlisting Bob Ezrin and Neil Chakravarti, the group thought they would have better results combining several existing companies to create one new one. Hirsh brought CGI animation studio Rainmaker Entertainment (now Mainframe Studios) with US television and animation producer Fred Seibert's company, Frederator Studios and Frederator Networks. This would be the beginning of WOW! Unlimited Media. Hirsh oversaw hit television programs including Castlevania, Bee and Puppycat, Madagascar: A Little Wild, and Octonauts.
In 2022, Hirsh together with Chakravarti and CFO John Vandervelde sold WOW! Unlimited to Genius Brands (now Kartoon Studios) led by CEO Andy Heyward, for $53 million. Heyward and Hirsh have enjoyed a long history starting with the production together of Inspector Gadget, followed by Hirsh's acquisition of DIC led by Heyward and finally Genius Brand's acquisition of WOW! Unlimited.
Hirsh served as CEO and chairman for the holding company, with Seibert as Chief Creative Officer and CEO of Frederator. Hirsh left WOW! in December 2023.
Floating Island Entertainment
In 2014, Michael Hirsh founded Floating Island Entertainment, where he continues to serve as CEO and Executive Producer.
Personal life
Hirsh has been with his wife since 1973. They have one son and live in Toronto.
As the child of two Holocaust survivors, Hirsh visited Auschwitz in 2015 on the suggestion of Eli Rubenstein to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the camp's liberation. In 1995, Hirsh's father, Jack Hirsh, testified about his wartime experience to an interviewer from Spielberg-founded Shoah Foundation.
Both of Hirsh's grandfathers and step-grandmother died in the camps, while his maternal grandmother suffered from PTSD as a result of the war. Hirsh credits his success to his parents' resilience and strength.
Awards
A number of productions that Michael has been involved with have been nominated for or won awards. For their work on shows including Beetlejuice, Babar, Little Bear, Rupert, Franklin, Rolie Polie Olie and The Adventures of Tintin, Hirsh and his colleagues have received awards such as Daytime Emmys and Geminis.