Vancouver: The success of Western Canada’s first independently produced cel-animated series is evidence that Vancouver’s cartoon business is finally moving out from under the thumb of u.s. service work.

Nilus the Sandman has evolved from a three-time special on ctv to a 30-minute series with international distribution. The milestone marks the biggest achievement to date for 11-year-old Vancouver animation house Delaney and Friends Cartoon Productions.

Chris Delaney says the company has had to expand from 15 to 55 people to handle the workload of the Nilus series. The show will also take advantage of Typhoon Toons, a $250,000 animation facility in Manila that opened in December as a partnership of Delaney, Nilus coproducer Cambium Film and Video of Toronto, and a Filipino investor.

Taking advantage of lower labor costs and the animation skills of Asian artists, the Manila facility will employ 80 to 100 people who will provide the painting and camera services. Vancouver animators will handle tasks such as scripting, designing, layouts, key animation and post-production.

The first 13-episode season is budgeted at $4 million, with funding coming from The Family Channel, WIC Western International Communications, Telefilm Canada, Maclean Hunter, Shaw Cable Fund, British Columbia Film, the Cable Production Fund and the federal refundable tax credit. The largest investment, $1 million, comes from Munich, Germany-based Beta Taurus, which will handle European distribution (excluding French-language territories).

The series will begin broadcast in Canada in September on Family on Sunday evenings.

The series explores the character of Nilus the Sandman (the voice of singer Long John Baldry) who visits children in their dreams, where together he and the child work out the child’s current problem or challenge. In each episode, the animation is bookended by brief live-action sequences that set up and sum up the animated portion. Those sequences were shot last month.

‘Animation worldwide is bigger and growing,’ says Delaney, in explaining his company’s recent achievement. ‘As an animation center, Vancouver is taking its share of the increased business.’ With the box office success of films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, animation has a marquee value that proves children aren’t the only audience for animators, he says.

Erna Staples-Horninger – who has been the Vancouver-based Canadian rep for Beta Taurus for five years – says she had been often disappointed by the role of Vancouver animators as service providers to u.s. projects. But, in the past year, she says she has witnessed a definite shift towards independence.

‘Vancouver animators are finally producing internationally salable work,’ she explains, pointing to the Beta Taurus investment in Nilus. ‘Animation travels well and has good (market) potential with a long shelf life.

‘One of the things the Canadians do well is children’s entertainment, and Beta Taurus specializes in non-violent children’s programming,’ Staples-Horninger adds.

Another Vancouver animation series negotiating with Beta Taurus is Kleo the Misfit Unicorn by Gordon Stanfield Animation. Developed for kids aged two to eight, Kleo (the voice of singer-actress Saffron Henderson) is about a unicorn born with wings and banished to a parallel universe for misfits. There she helps the misfit characters find their way back to Earth. Each episode includes a song.

Gordon Stanfield says layouts and posing of the characters begin this month. Coproducer Cindy Lamb of Allarcom Pay Television in Edmonton says the show – when financed – will be a 26-part package.

Hoping to replicate the success of Vancouver’s ReBoot (the first computer-animated series anywhere) and Nilus, other Vancouver animators have their own series in the works as well.

For instance, Radical Entertainment – which specializes in video games for Sony, Sega, 3DO and pc cd-rom platforms – is working to translate its new game tentatively titled Eurit into a series. The Eurit game – which will be published in six languages by Virgin Interactive this Christmas – is an environmentally inspired project.

The game is set on Eden, a planet where rebel good guys from the wilderness do battle with an evil queen who controls an urban wasteland. The tv version is in development.

The 14-member Association of British Columbia Animation Producers, meanwhile, is undertaking a group marketing initiative to add more fuel to the drive for increased independent production.

The association launched its first Animation b.c. brochure at natpe in January with the assistance of the B.C. Motion Picture Association. The brochure’s introduction, in five languages including German, Japanese and Chinese, illustrates the international appeal of animation, says abcap president Mark Freedman, who represents up to two-thirds of Vancouver animators.

While Vancouver animators still rely on service work that is propelled by the attractive Canadian dollar, local talent and proximity to l.a., the perseverance to do independent work is beginning to pay off, he says. ‘The (animation community) is upbeat and getting stronger,’ says Freedman.