Glass Ball Productions

Glass Ball Productions (formerly known as Double G Productions, commonly referred to as Glass Ball) is an American production company and animation studio founded by Geo G., behind the animated series Gabriel Garza, BJ and Wally, Eilonwy's Magical Tales, Niz Chicoloco, Zina Supermoon, Adventures of Kit Mineko, TeenV, Cland Ann, Zoe vs. the World, FusionMania, College University and Disney Princess, as well as the films Kit Mineko (1999), The Gabriel Garza Movie (2002), Zina and the Vivid Crew (2004), The TeenV Movie (2005), Zoe Tarr: The Drinking Detective (2007), FusionMania: The Movie (2012), and Havoc on the Planet of the Apes (2019). Glass Ball has also associated on other works, including Dusk and Dawn, The Princess and the Pied Piper, Nepola's Odyssey, Prism and Imagimals.

Based in Los Angeles, California, the studio has mostly associated with such companies as Universal Pictures and The Walt Disney Company.

History
Animator Geo G. left Michael Wildshill Productions (later known as Multimedia Animation) in early 1988. While at the studio, he worked on The Master of Colors as animator, The Workers as character designer and additional animator, and Liche's Wish as an uncredited animator. After leaving, he founded Double G Productions. For its launch, the studio produced many logo designs, commercials, promos and shorts for a wide variety of clients.

In 1988, Double G produced some shorts for The Toon Hour on Gingo and later signed a deal with the network to produce shows starting in 1990, with Multimedia handling funding and a minority interest in the studio. As part of the deal, Double G retains creative control and Multimedia/Gingo exclusively distributes the series. In 1991, the company made its breakout hit with Gabriel Garza, one of the first original animated shows for Gingo, which was based on an unsuccessful comic book pitch Geo had created in the early 1980s while at high school. Their next major series with Gingo was BJ and Wally. The show revolved around the lives of BJ Wilson and his adoptive brother Wally in the fictional small town of Tootleville, Illinois. The series ran from 1994 to 1997.

In December 1996, the studio was renamed to Glass Ball Productions and produced a show for Disney, titled Eilonwy's Magical Tales, the first show not to air on Gingo, which lasted 65 episodes (per Disney's rule). It was followed up with Niz Chicoloco and Zina Supermoon; both of these shows were critically acclaimed. In 2001, Glass Ball signed a six-year deal with 20th Century Fox Television to produce animated series. The first series out of the deal is TeenV, the studio's first adult animated series, created by Terry Ward.

In 2004, Glass Ball named former Warner Bros. Animation executives Clive Nakayashiki and Scott Setterberg vice president and head of production for the studio, respectively. The following year, the studio purchased Vivendi Universal Digital Arts and renamed it into Double G Games (which is named after its original company name). In the same year, they also teamed up with David Webber and Jason Stewart to co-produce another animated series for Fox titled Cland Ann, created by TeenV creator Terry Ward. However, it was cancelled in 2008 due to low ratings, but later gained a cult following. In 2007, after its deal with Fox expired, the studio signed a non-exclusive deal with Universal Television Animation to produce newer animated series. In 2016, Glass Ball produced Disney Princess for Disney after many years in development hell and the series lasted three seasons.

Glass Ball was supposed to be involved with Geo G.'s films Nepola's Odyssey and Imagimals and their sequels as well as the Dusk and Dawn franchise, but the production company name was never formally credited.

Logo
The Glass Ball Productions logo depicts a large glass ball being shattered by a butterfly, followed by a loud cracking sound. The logo was designed by founder Geo G. Some special versions of the studio's animation were made to fit episodes of shows like TeenV and Cland Ann. Often, dialogue from some TeenV episodes can be heard during the animation.

The Glass Ball logo was parodied in the "Rejected Pokémon" segment in an episode of the Cartoon Network animated series MAD, where it features a rejected Pokémon called Glasstar, who is shattered by a butterfly (which resembles the one in the Glass Ball logo), thus echoing the famous Glass Ball logo.

Miscellaneous productions

 * Comedy Central (IDs, commercial)
 * Everyone's Hero (2006; commercials)

Trivia
Coming soon!