United Productions of America
United Productions of America, typically abbreviated as UPA, was an American studio founded in 1941. Beginning as an animation studio, UPA produced several theatrical shorts for Columbia Pictures such as the Mr. Magoo series, and went on to find success with the television series Gerald McBoing-Boing it produced for CBS. When UPA's financial condition declined in the 1950s and 60s, it was purchased by producer Henry G. Saperstein, who initially increased the quantity of television output it produced before turning the studio toward distribution instead. Benedict Productions (ベネディクト・プロ Benedikuto Puro), a subsidiary of UPA, co-produced three kaiju films with Japanese studio Toho in 1965 and 1966; UPA would go on to license numerous other Toho productions for release to theaters, television syndication, and home video from the 1960s[1] through 90s.[2][3]
UPA became defunct in 2000 following Saperstein's death in 1998, and was sold to Classic Media, itself acquired by DreamWorks in 2012 and then by Universal Pictures in 2016.
Selected productions
Benedict Productions
- Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965) [with Toho]
- Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) [with Toho]
- The War of the Gargantuas (1966) [with Toho]
United Productions of America
- Monster Zero (1970) [American version[4]; released by Maron Films][5]
- The War of the Gargantuas (1970) [American version; released by Maron Films][5]
- Godzilla's Revenge (1971) [American version; released by Maron Films]
Selected releases
- Terror of Mechagodzilla (TV 1978)[note 1]
- ESPY (TV 1980s)
- Evil of Dracula (TV 1980s)
- The Lake of Dracula (TV 1980s)
- The Last Days of Planet Earth (TV 1980s)
In addition to all aforementioned films, UPA also held the U.S. television and home video rights to the following Toho films:
Notes
- ↑ UPA's version of Terror of Mechagodzilla was produced for and distributed to television. UPA sold its theatrical rights to the film to Bob Conn Enterprises, which subsequently released a differently-edited version as The Terror of Godzilla; UPA would distribute the theatrical version, re-titled Terror of Mechagodzilla, on television and video beginning in the 1980s.[6]
References
This is a list of references for UPA. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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Bibliography
Steve Ryfle (1998). Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G". ECW Press. ISBN 1550223488.
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