Nerd launches with Dragon Booster

Vancouver – After Asaph (Ace) Fipke left his role as a senior VP and producer at Mainframe Entertainment in Vancouver two and half years ago, he was approached by Alliance Atlantis Communications (AAC Kids) and New York-based company The Story Hat to produce a new animated series called Dragon Booster.

Fipke and Story Hat CEO and cofounder Kevin Mowrer (ex-head of Hasbro Entertainment’s in-house production arm) had worked together on a number of projects at Mainframe, including the Emmy Award-winning series Beast Wars and Beast Machines for Hasbro.

Fipke, in turn, approached Chuck Johnson, another former Mainframe animator, to start a new animation company in Vancouver to handle production of the 39 half-hour Dragon Booster episodes on order.

Nerd Corps Productions was incorporated in January 2003 and turnkey production on the 3D-animated series began last December. With 70 employees, the company is currently animating episodes five and six and expects to deliver 10 complete episodes in 2004.

Dragon Booster is a good-versus-evil tale set in a world where humans and dragons coexist. The young hero is thrown into adventure when he is chosen to ride Beaucephalis, the dragon of legend, and is transformed into a mythical hero known as the Dragon Booster, who unites humans and dragons. It’s created for boys aged six to 11.

According to Johnson, broadcasters have high expectations for the show. The Canadian-content series, which is owned by AAC and ‘created by’ Story Hat, will headline ABC Family’s new Jetix action block – aimed at boys – starting in October. The series will also air in Canada on CBC and, starting in January 2005, on a number of international broadcasters, including Sky in the U.K., making it one of the biggest animation series launches ever.

‘We’ve spent a great deal of R&D time creating what we feel is a very innovative 3D pipeline,’ says Johnson, who goes by the title ‘Dungeon Master’ and head of CGI production. ‘It’s vital to the long-term success of companies like ours to create higher-caliber projects while working within tight time constraints and aggressive budgets.’

‘The ways our creative and technical teams have responded to Dragon Booster’s graphic anime-influenced style has delivered a show that exceeds the expectations of our partners, and maybe even ourselves,’ says Fipke, president and ‘Supreme Commander.’

The Canadian voice talent includes Matt Hill (Ed, Edd n’ Eddy), Lee Tocklar, Kathleen Barr (Barbie of Swan Lake), Nicole Oliver (Barbie of Swan Lake), Mark Oliver (Shadow Raiders), and Trevor Gevall.

Johnson says Nerd Corps is developing proprietary programs as part of being a full-service animation production company. Ian Edwards