Sailor Moon Producer Moves to The Web With New "Celeb-Toons"

When possible, we here at Moon Chase try to keep fans updated with where the staff behind Sailor Moon is today. This update focuses on Andy Heyward, the former CEO and founder of DiC Entertainment, which was the production company responsible for the first two seasons. Back in the 80s and 90s, DiC was the name in hit cartoons for children, with big shows like Inspector Gadget, Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, The Real Ghostbusters, the Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Brothers Super Show, and countless others. So, with such a legend in children's broadcasting, to studios back during the time that Sailor Moon first came along it looked like if DiC had a show, it would be a hit. Of course though, poor Sailor Moon did not have such a smooth run the first time - and fans can check out our first survey results which show how much the fans appreciated the work Andy did for the series. He only got 15% of the fans' votes! In 2008, the company was folded into Canada's Cookie Jar Entertainment, and Andy Heyward was left with (supposedly) nothing to do (as the article suggests).

Last year, a press release we came across during the early stages of our campaign told us that Andy was back in action with a brand new company creating webtoons cetnered around celebrities for kids. A few of our staff members questioned some of the ideas that were being tossed around (Gisele Bundchen will never come close to Captain Planet, and we would have gone crazy watching perfect Martha Stewart and her perfect crafts in cartoon form). In this weekend's USA Today, he is featured once again now that some of his cartoons have come to life. The article has the bit of an air of a "puff piece" to it, and we find it interesting that it drops the name Sailor Moon twice, without really mentioning how and why DiC didn't produce the movies or the 3rd & 4th seasons of the show. The video has a tiny glimpse of Sailor Moon as well - can you spot it in our shot above? We're pretty sure that while it was one of DiC's biggest successes, it was also one of it's biggest failures due to mismanagement. In the video on the USA Today site, he talks about how there is an opportunity for a strong girl's property in the wake of the imminent "death" of Barbie and Bratz. How many Moonies are with me that Sailor Moon could kick Gisele's butt any day? Who would you rather watch?

His new cartoons are cross-platform making apperances on the web, TV (on The Hub) as well as comics. While we admire Andy for choosing to start fresh, it's our opinion that the shows he's workin' on today don't have the same kind of appeal as the shows he worked on for DiC. Yes, we are in a recession but do kids really need to be learning lessons from Warren Buffet at an early age, or should we let their imaginations run through a world of fantasy for a few years while they still can?


(So the article sort of sanitized something with regards to the sale of DiC: there are many rumors swirling around Hollywood that his divorce to Evelyn Heyward as a result of an extramarital affair had something to do with it. One doesn't have to look too far on the web to learn about it. We also don't buy the comment about him never having worked so hard in his life - the cartoons he is working on now are only a fraction of what he did 20 years ago. We've known about this for a few years now but kept it in our Moon Chase files for pondering...Oh Sailor Moon, so many scandals behind your scenes...)