Wang Film Productions (formerly known as Cuckoo's Nest Studio; Also known as Thai Wang and in Chinese as Hong Guang[1]) is a Taiwanese studio founded in 1978 by former Hanna-Barbera employee James Wang as a means for the company to outsource animation to (when the technique was still relatively unheard of at the time). Since its founding, Wang has worked with and/or for several companies like Warner Brothers, Disney, Nelvana, Klasky Csupo, Film Roman, Universal, Kennedy Cartoons, Trickompany and Studio Pierrot (among others). And thus, has done animation for shows made in the US, UK, France, Canada, Germany, China and on occasion, Japan.
Their main claim to fame, though, is being used by a large number of shows. The Other Wiki, in fact, has a list of their works about a mile long. The works below are just scraping the surface.
Wang also owns a CG company (creatively named CGCG), founded in 1988 (Originally independent, they joined with Wang in 1998). Like Wang, the company's not only done CG work on their productions, but they've also done All CGI Cartoons on their own (and likewise being used by everyone in the biz). In addition, Hong Ying is generally considered an offshoot of them, having started out getting extra Wang work.
Compare AKOM, Dong Woo Animation, Philippine Animation Studio Inc, Synergy Animation, JM Animation, DR Movie, Plus One Animation, Studio DEEN, Toei Animation, Rough Draft Studios, Digital E Mation, Saerom, Studio Gainax, Sunrise, TMS Entertainment, Toon City, Hanho Heung Up, Sunwoo Entertainment, Walt Disney Animation Japan, Koko Enterprises, Dong Yang Animation, Kyung Kang, Tama Productions, Hyun Young, AIC, Studio 4°C, Actas, Kyoto Animation, Xebec, Yearim Productions, Yeson Entertainment, KK C and D Asia, Studio Shaft, Big Star, Animation Service HK, Far Eastern, Animal Ya, Rainbow Group, and Madhouse. All of whom are likewise based in Asia (Wang and CGCG having worked (either directly or indirectly) with AKOM, Dong Woo, Sunrise, AIC, PASI, Synergy, Plus One, TMS, Rough Draft, Saerom, Toon City, Hanho, Sunwoo, WDAJ, Koko, Xebec, Yearim, Yeson, Kyung Kang, Rainbow Group, Hyun Young, Kyoto, Actas, Tama, KKC&D, Shaft, Big Star, Animal Ya, Far Eastern, and Toei at various points in the 80's, 90's, and 2000's).
The amount of work this company did is staggering, so only a few can be shown (CGCG series noted with name in parentheses)[]
Shows and TV Specials[]
Disney[]
- 101 Dalmatians: The Series (Certain episodes, such as "Valentine Daze"; Some as sub-contractor for Toon City.)
- Aladdin (TV series only; 14 episodes)
- American Dragon Jake Long
- Bonkers
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
- Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
- Darkwing Duck (3 episodes)
- Dave the Barbarian
- DuckTales (Seasons 2 & 3)
- The Emperor's New School
- Fillmore
- Gargoyles ("Enter Macbeth" and Support work for "Awakening Part 2" for WDAJ)
- Goof Troop (;[2] also provided ink & paint for four Kennedy [3] and [4] for Walt Disney Animation France)
- Hercules: The Series
- The Legend of Tarzan
- Lilo and Stitch: The Series (numerous episodes; as well as Leroy and Stitch)
- The Little Mermaid
- The Mighty Ducks (2 episodes; others by Sunwoo, Koko, Animal-Ya, Plus One and WDAJ)
- The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (Later episodes)
- Winnie the Pooh: Boo To You Too! (additional services for Toon City)
- My Friends Tigger and Pooh (CGCG; also did animation for a DTD film with Polygon Pictures)
- Quack Pack
- The Schnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show
- Raw Toonage
- The Replacements
- Phineas and Ferb (several episodes and the Christmas special)
- Tale Spin
- Timon & Pumbaa
- The Weekenders
- W.I.T.C.H. (First season with Hong Ying, replaced by Dong Woo in the second)
Other[]
- Animaniacs (87 shorts, plus a handful of bumpers)
- Arabian Nights (1994 Hanna-Barbera TV special)
- Around the World with Willy Fog (1990 series)
- Baby Looney Tunes
- Back to The Future
- Beetlejuice
- Bob the Builder (Recent Seasons, CGCG)
- Care Bears (Nelvana TV series)
- Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue
- Challenge of the Go Bots
- The Comic Strip
- Courage the Cowardly Dog
- David the Gnome
- Dino Breaker (CGI only, CGCG for XEBEC)
- Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds (1990 series)
- Donkey Kong Country (CGCG)
- Eek the Cat
- Fanboy and Chum Chum (CGCG)
- Fantastic Four (First season only)
- Fievel's American Tails
- Fish Police
- The Future Is Wild (Animated version; CGCG)
- Garfield and Friends
- Green Lantern the Animated Series (CGCG)
- Hero Factory (CGCG)
- Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling (with Hanho and Shaft)
- Inspector Gadget (Whenever TMS wasn't available during the first season,[5] credited as Cuckoo's Nest; also listed as co-producer)
- Kitaro (Outsourced by Toei; CGCG)
- Lazer Tag Academy
- Mighty Mouse the New Adventures
- My Little Pony (G3/3.5 only)
- The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil
- Ni Hao, Kai-Lan
- Ozzy and Drix
- Peanuts: Several specials
- The Penguins of Madagascar (CGCG)
- Pet Alien (CGCG)
- Pirates of Dark Water
- A Pup Named Scooby Doo
- Random Cartoons (Multiple shorts)
- The Real Ghostbusters (With other studios[6])
- The Ren and Stimpy Show ("Lair of the Lummox" and "It's a Dog's Life/Egg Yolkeo" only)
- Rescue Heroes (originally, replaced by AKOM)
- Rugrats (First season only, they also helped out on the pilot episode, credited as Cuckoo's Nest in the latter)
- Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat (rather fitting, considering the setting)
- The Smurfs
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars (CGCG, with Lucasfilm Singapore; Film also with Industrial Light and Magic)
- Star Wars: Ewoks
- Street Sharks
- Stripperella (With Mook DLE and Sunmin)
- Tales from the Cryptkeeper (ABC Seasons)
- Taz-Mania
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Tiny Toon Adventures (37 episodes - 30 episodes solo, Ink & Paint and camera services on seven Kennedy Cartoons episodes and the re-animated scenes in The Looney Beginning. Also, footage from "K-ACME TV" was recycled into the TMS-animated "Take Elmyra, Please")
- Tom and Jerry Kids (With Fil-Cartoons and Mr. Big)
- Transformers: Go-Bots
- The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat
- Two Stupid Dogs
- What a Cartoon Show (A few shorts)
- What's New Scooby Doo (Season 1 and Christmas Special)
- Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa
- Winx Club
- Xcalibur (CGCG)
Movies[]
- Bebe's Kids
- The Bionicle movies (Co-producers for the original trilogy, Animation for all films done by CGCG)
- The Brave Little Toaster
- Curious George (2006 film)
- The Care Bears Movies (80s and CG films; Latter films by CGCG)
- Go-Bots: Battle of The Rock Lords
- Devilman (Live Action Adaptation; CGCG with Toei)
- Felidae
- Fern Gully (alongside Rough Draft, Hanho, Saerom, A. Film, Available Light Productions, and Luk-Film (Among others), and the only studio from the original kept around for Ferngully 2)
- Heavy Metal 2000
- Jetsons: The Movie
- Joseph King of Dreams
- Kleines Arschloch
- The Land Before Time (Movies VII-XII)
- Leroy and Stitch
- The Little Punker
- Maz und Mortiz
- Once Upon a Forest
- The Pagemaster
- Pippi Longstocking
- Pound Puppies: The Legend of Big Paw
- Return to Neverland (with Disney's Australian and Canadian units)
- Rover Dangerfield
- Scooby Doo in Arabian Nights
- The Thief and the Cobbler - They only did Ink & Paint and thus doesn't quite shoulder the weight that the other studios do. But are a still guilty party nonetheless.
- Tom and Jerry: The Movie
- Tron - Yes, you read that correctly. Credited as Cuckoo's Nest
- Rankin/Bass Productions' The Wind in the Willows
- Yu Yu Hakusho: The Movie (additional animation)
- Werner - Das Muss Kesseln
Video Games[]
- Crisis Core (Cutscenes, CGCG)
- Dirge of Cerberus (Cutscenes; CGCG)
- Final Fantasy XII (Cutscenes; CGCG)
- Metal Dungeon (Opening Movie, CGCG)
And a lot more. These guys are just busy.
Tropes Associated with Wang includes[]
- All CGI Cartoon: The Bionicle films, Fanboy and Chum Chum, Star Wars: The Clone Wars; most, if not all of CGCG's output actually.
- Animation Bump: Fairly often, particularly in The Brave Little Toaster and Animaniacs
- Animesque: Some of their works (Mainly W.I.T.C.H. & Winx Club), the fact that they worked on the sequel series to both Willy Fog & Dogtanian, Yu Yu Hakusho: The Movie, three Final Fantasy games and Dino Breaker (the latter three through CGCG) among others and having worked with numerous Japanese studios (several indirectly; somewhat incomplete list at top of page is included); helps.
- Conspicuous CG: The Land Before Time sequels take this to levels beyond our understanding.
- Deranged Animation: The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat and Courage the Cowardly Dog definitely have this.
- I Have Many Names: As mentioned at the top of the page.
- Limited Animation: When working with Hanna-Barbera for the most part, though most of their work in the 80s suffer because of that. They became better though during the 90s.
- No Flow in CGI: Played straight often in CGCG's works. TRON and FernGully also to an extent (CG was done in America for both however).
- Medium Blending: Featured in The Land Before Time sequels they did. Also present in TRON, Courage, Winx Club, The Pagemaster, Ferngully, The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, Bionicle 3 (Albeit as an effects screw-up), Dino Breaker, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (not directly though) and Phineas and Ferb (occasionally).
- Motion Capture: Xcalibur, some of the scenes in Bionicle: The Legend Reborn also contain this.
- Off-Model: As explained above, the less talked about the Pound Puppies movie the better. This also occurs in many of their other projects, including a surprisingly inconsistently drawn first season of Tiny Toon Adventures (although for the other two seasons, It Got Better). This also happened in all of their 101 Dalmatians: The Series episodes.
- Parodied in the Garfield & Friends segment "Mistakes Will Happen"
- Shout-Out: To CGCG in The Legend Reborn in Matoran.[7]
- Thick Line Animation: Went through a period of this during the TTA era (mainly season one). Their Ren and Stimpy work tended to suffer from this as well.
- Tron Lines: TRON obviously.
- Unfortunate Names: ....[8]
- ↑ both are actually separately credited studios, though still one and the same; serving as Wang's Thailand and Chinese satellite studios, respectively. Both studios credits are listed here for obvious reasons.
- ↑ including "Buddy Building", "Calling All Goofs", "Where Theresa Will Theresa Goof", "Rally Round The Goof", "Mrs.Spoonerville", "Frankengoof" and "Terminal Pete"
- ↑ "Counterfeit Goof", "Cabana Fever", "Lethal Goofin'", and "Hot Air"
- ↑ "To Catch a Goof and "The Good,The Bad & the Goofy"
- ↑ and rotated photography duties with Asahi Production and T Nishimura
- ↑ Toei, T Ms, Trans Arts, Dai Won, Sei Young, Saerom/Plus One Animation, Studio Korumi, Hanho Heung Up and KKC&D
- ↑ It's in the laboratory scene
- ↑ To quote Dragon Ball Abridged - "It's funny because Wang means Penis"