Canadian animated series ‘The Raccoons’ sees resurgence of interest

Four decades after a gang of anthropomorphic woodland creatures took hockey — and television networks around the world — by storm, a beloved Canadian animated series is getting a new lease on life.

On the 40th anniversary of “The Raccoons on Ice” — the number one syndicated special in the U.S. in 1981 — Toronto’s Kevin Gillis is leading the charge in bringing popular ‘80s and ‘90s series “The Raccoons” up to today’s technological standards. Driven by the demand of adults who grew up with the show and want to introduce their own children to raccoons Bert, Ralph and Melissa; aardvark Cedric; and of course, Cyril Sneer, the show’s creator is restoring the five-season series for re-release later this year.

“We are enjoying a new resurgence of interest — possibly due to the fact that our original audience is now having young families of their own and want to reach back to what helped form their early lives,” said Gillis in a phone interview from the Ottawa Valley, where he’s been working on the show. It’s the same area where the president and executive producer of Run With Us Productions and his friend, Gary Dunford, first came up with the character of Bert Raccoon in the 1970s.

Several iterations — “the raccoons were originally taller and different colours, and Cyril Sneer was grey and more devious,” said Gillis — later, he approached lawyer and friend of the arts Sheldon Wiseman, who became the show’s executive producer. “The Christmas Raccoons” debuted the characters in 1980, followed by three more specials — “The Raccoons on Ice” (1981), “The Raccoons and the Lost Star” (1983) and “The Raccoons: Let’s Dance!” (1984) — and starting in 1985, “The Raccoons” television series.

The show, which ran in 180 countries worldwide — including on CBC in Canada and the Disney Channel in the U.S. — follows a group of animal friends who try to save the Evergreen Forest from millionaire industrialist Cyril Sneer. Animation by Atkinson Film-Arts (later renamed Crawley Films) and Hinton Animation Studios showed “The Raccoons”’ Ontario roots. “You can see Canadian landmarks like a train station, or an untouched shoreline,” said Gillis, an award-winning creator, director and executive producer whose credits include “RoboCop: The Series,” “Atomic Betty,” and the “Universal Soldier” television movies, “I Was a Rat,” “The Nutcracker Prince” with Peter O’Toole, Megan Follows and Kiefer Sutherland and Disney shows “Camp Lakebottom” and “Jimmy Two Shoes.”

“The Raccoons” remains one of Canada’s highest-rated prime-time family series, and was among the first Western animated series acquired by China Central Television and Russia State Television. Gillis has a few theories about the show’s popularity.

The music made up a huge part of the show’s budget, and in addition to its catchy theme song, “Run With Us” — co-composed by Gillis, Jon Stroll, and Stephen Lunt — “The Raccoons” featured animated music videos and original music performed by Canadian and international pop singers and the National Arts Centre orchestra. “Music has always been the heart of any show I’ve worked on,” said Gillis, who was “aware of the power music can bring to a story; to the drama of what’s happening.”

Characters on the show were multi-dimensional, going beyond just heroes and villains. “Cyril Sneer had a conscience that could be appealed to in certain circumstances, and he had a very warm spot for his son, Cedric,” said Gillis, and “we cheered for Bert Raccoon because he wasn’t perfect, we could see our own foibles in his personal conflicts.”

It was also one of the first animation drama series aimed at a family audience that explored environmental and climate issues, which led to a 1991 Canadian Federal Minister of The Environment’s Achievement Award for Communicating Environmental Awareness.

Although the series and the specials were released on multiple formats in the ‘90s and ‘00s, they are now out of print and the series is currently only available on the Run With Us YouTube channel. Until recently, the archives had been stored in a climate-controlled environment. After receiving proposals from international distributors asking to update the shows to modern platforms, Gillis and his team began restoring and remastering the series and specials from the original 35 mm to 4K and 8K last year. “We have already restored two episodes and the results are amazing. It’s like when the original artwork first went under the camera.”

Gillis estimates that the first two seasons will be available on subscription, advertising-supported channels and networks such as Disney, Tubi or Amazon Prime by May, with all five seasons — and never-before-seen extras — released on BluRay and DVD before the end of 2022.

A five-CD box set of remastered music from the series is planned for release this year, and Run With Us has partnered with companies in North America and Europe to distribute fashion, graphic novels and collectibles. They were also approached to license artwork for NFTs and are now developing new content, including interactive stories, technology for phone apps and an all-new holiday special, “When Raccoons Fly.”

Gillis is “amazed and honoured” about “the effect that ‘The Raccoons’ had on a whole generation of people worldwide,” and hopes it will appeal to their children as well. “I think people are looking for a gentler time, when (shows) were less about promoting merchandise and more about great storytelling,” he said. “Parents are very cognizant about what they were watching and they want to make those values available to their kids.”