Universal Toons

Universal Toons was an American pay television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group subsidiary of NBCUniversal. The channel primarily broadcasted animated television series and primarily aimed at children and young teenagers between the ages of 6 to 15. Its format had similarities to those of Discovery Kids, Cartoon Network, Nicktoons and Disney XD (formerly Toon Disney).

Development (1991-1998)
After the foundation of Universal Cartoon Studios (currently known as Universal Animation Studios) in 1991, it didn't take long for Vivendi SA, its owner at the time, to grow interest in forming a cartoon content channel, given the sucess of some other channels which followed the same genre, such as Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.

Consequently, on May 18, 1998, the company announced the planning for launching a pay television network that would house the Universal animations. They also had made an association with Toei Animation, so it could aire some big japanese productions, which would streghten the new channel.

Space Era (1999-2002)
On November 27, 1999, Universal Toons launched at 12:00 p.m., starring The New Woody Woodpecker Show, one of its flagships. The programming contained classic toons such as Little Lulu, the classic Woody Woodpecker Show, The Alvin Show, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show and yet new ones, including Pikmin, Hatty, The Mummy, Swamp and Tad and many others. Also, the network had its own block for cartoon shorts, named CoolToons, with the purpose of giving unknown creators the oportunity of presenting pilots from their toons ideas. The block aired from 1999 to 2004. Universal Toons also got famous for broadcasting animes such as Saint Seiya, Cardcaptor Sakura and One Piece.

The bumpers from the schedule followed an animated galactic aesthetic, showing a few characters as astronauts or aliens. Bumpers for "Now on Universal Toons..." would always present an animation clip from the upcoming show inside a rocketship flying through the galaxy.

Kaleidoscope Sphere Era (2002-2007)
On July 15, 2002, Universal Toons surprises its watchers at 12:00 p.m. by rebranding radically without prior marketing. It was so confusing that, in the first months of this era, the bumpers had to confirm that the channel was Universal Toons indeed, with the slogan "Still Universal. Still Toons".

The bumpers followed scenes of Universal Toons shows inside an spherical kaleidoscope. Then, the sphere closes itself and rolls to the center of the screen, forming the planet Earth and Universal Toons logo. It had three colors commonly during the programming: Pink, Yellow and Blue.

Throughout the years, several successes debuted, including The F Tales, Sonic X, Astroboy, Mano Majik and many others. On 2006, the network debuts its most famous and viewed series from the channel history, Golden Kiddos, an adaptation from the homonym comic from Helix Comics, that mixes live action with animation.

Simply Modern Era (2007-2009)
For this era, the network opted for testing the new bumpers first and changing the old ones slowly. On January 2007, the bumpers were ambiented still on the white mirrored background and the logo still had the Planet Earth. On November from the same year, in celebration of the network's 8th anniversary, the old bumpers were removed from the programming and the Earth removed from the logo permanently.

Those bumpers had actors from Universal Toons series or characters from the toons dancing and interacting with the line that forms the Universal Toons logo, as the line circles them, touches them, etc. Then, the line draws the logo in the corner of the tv screen, and the actor or character in a close-up shot says the slogan "Universal Toons. Only U Favorites". The gradient background was only attached to the era on May 2007 and it followed the same three colors from the past era.

The slogan "Only U Favorites" was thought with the idea of having a double meaning. For example, it can both mean that Universal Toons has only your favorite shows and that it has the Universal favorite shows from all time.

The shows that marked this era were Golden Kiddos, How to Survive School (a teen soap based on the homonym book series), Fate/Stay Night, Horror Hour, Fly'n Fall and Dreamworks' Sinbad. On November 27, 2009, it was announced by NBCUniversal that Universal Toons would be replaced by another network, since the focus of the channel has changed so much during its active years, not focusing anymore on cartoons. On January 1, 2010, at 12:00 p.m., Universal Toons gave way to Universal Teens channel.

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