Mainframe Entertainment
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Mainframe Entertainment was a Canadian based animation studio, founded in 1993, which specialized in computer generated animation.
Their founders having established themselves with Dire Straits' ground-breaking "[[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Money for Nothing (song)#Music video|{{#if:Money for Nothing|Money for Nothing|Money for Nothing (song)#Music video}}]]" video, the company's first huge success was with their award-winning premiere series [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}ReBoot|{{#if:||ReBoot}}]]. They were chosen by Hasbro (or its then subsidiary Kenner) to be the company to produce their big gamble; the Beast Wars televison series. This gamble went on to win an Emmy and became possibly Mainframe's most successful project. This led to more work, not only with the follow-up Beast Machines, but with a revival of fellow Hasbro franchise [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Action Man (2000 TV series)|{{#if:Action Man|Action Man|Action Man (2000 TV series)}}]] (which also aired on Fox Kids), the [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Shadow Raiders|{{#if:War Planets|War Planets|Shadow Raiders}}]] show/commercial and the CGI Spider-Man series for MTV.
Upon firing much of their writing and animation staff, Mainframe Entertainment began a slow descent in terms of critical acclaim and financial consistency, distracting themselves with direct-to-video Barbie, [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Max Steel|{{#if:||Max Steel}}]] and [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Scary Godmother|{{#if:||Scary Godmother}}]] movies. The company was purchased by Rainmaker Entertainment in 2006, and renamed as Rainmaker Animation. As Rainmaker, they produce animation for video game related projects, providing cinematic cutscenes for games such as [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Prototype (video game)|{{#if:Prototype|Prototype|Prototype (video game)}}]], [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}50 Cent: Blood on the Sand|{{#if:||50 Cent: Blood on the Sand}}]] and Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Having failed to sell the animation studio in 2012, Rainmaker re-launched Mainframe as a television production firm in 2013 with plans to release a continuation of ReBoot; said continuation finally emerged in 2017 as ReBoot: The Guardian Code, a live-action/CGI hybrid that has drawn critical derision. At the same time, Rainmaker managed to enter the feature film animation business, starting with [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Escape from Planet Earth|{{#if:||Escape from Planet Earth}}]].
In 2020 the studio rebranded itself as Mainframe Studios to return to their "Mainframe Entertainment" name roots. In 2021 they would also begin a 2D-animation pipeline which would result in The Guava Juice Show and also open up a virtual studio in Toronto building upon its earlier remote work experience that was fostered during the COVID-19 era.
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