A Case Study on Slugterra from Starting to End.

If you are also one of those few people who have enjoyed watching this amazing show on your TV, So congratulations!! Today you are going to refresh all the hazy memories related to this series. But if you don’t know that any show called “SLUGTERRA” even exists. So…. You will know everything from A to Z about Slugterra.

This is the story of Eli Shane who went to an underground world about 160 KM below the earth surface. And the name of that world is “SLUGTERRA – The world that lies beneath the ground.” Some small creatures are found in this world which have some elemental superpowers. And people call them SLUGS. The story is quite simple. Dr. Black is the villain in this story who want to rule SLUGTERRA by converting all the SLUGS into GHOOLS with his scientific formula. And Eli Shane is the hero of this story who is born only to defeat Dr. Black. And so it happens… Eli Shane and his some friends get out to resist Dr. Black.

This is the list of that show which “NERD CORPS ENTERTAINMENT” created. And a fun fact if you didn’t know, This show called “HOT WHEELS BATTLE FORCE 5”, the main character of this show also reaches a new world same as the SLUGTERRA. From where the adventures ahead of it begin.

Well!! Weather it is HOT WHEELS BATTLE FORCE 5, MAX STEEL STOM HOCKS or SLUGTERA. And watching these animation series can be said that Nerd Corps Entertainment loves action too much. And SLUGTERRA, the great combination of action, adventure and science fiction became so popular at one time that all the people like me who have seen it on TV will not be able to forget it till date. So lets begin to know the entire story of this amazing show from A to Z.

SLUGTERRA: The Back Story

Asaph Ace Fipke is the creator of Slugterra was born in year 1970 in CANADA, a country in North America. As his father was associated with TV show business So Asaph Fipke worked as a child actor in some TV shows in his childhood.

He started his studies in University of British Columbia But dropped it in the midway because the film and animation world had taken over his heart and mind. And leaving his college, he set out to learn computer animation. After wandering here and there, he reached Vancuver film School. Where he learned computer animation.

If you don’t know, then let me tell you that hand drawn animation was already being made But the Mainframe studio created the world’s first fully CGI animated TV series, “REBOOT” later on the Mainframe studio produced many popular shows. Or were a little involved in their production, Including many more shows such as the REBOOT, BEAST WARS TRANSFORMERS, Max Steel, Spider-Man – The New animated series, Phineas and Ferb, Bob the Builder, Barbie Dream House Adventures. But how is Mr. FIPKE related with Mainframe Studios?

So relation is that after learning computer animation, Mr. Fipke joined Mainframe Studios as an employee. Where he was appointed as Producer and Supervising production Designer. And this the list which I shown you, Mr. Fipke is involved in production of these all.

Mr. Fipke worked as a producer for almost 10 years in Mainframe Studios. After that in year 2000, he was promoted to the post of Senior vice president of Development and Production in Mainframe Studios. But in 2001, Mr. Fipke left this position and He made a new company “Nerd Corps Entertainment” with his friends Chuck Johnson. See this list, this is list of those shows which Nerd Corps Entertainment produced.

And out of these we have to focus “Slugtera. SLUGTERA is one of the original creations of Mr. FIPKE. Which was produced by his company Nerd Corps Entertainment between 2012 and 2016. There are total 6 seasons were made of it which contains total 63 episodes. Which was Originally broadcast mainly on Disney XD channel all over the world. You must have guessed that Slugterra is very similar to Pokemon, for sure its creator took inspiration from seeing the Pokemon.

I accept two slugs fights against each other in SLUGTERRA same as two Pokemon fights in Pokemon. All the slugs in SLUGTERRA are based on the elements like Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Energy. Same as Pokemon. But, according to the facts, Mr Fipke didn’t create this show inspiring from any other shows. This was his own idea.

In 2014, Asaph Fipke was asked in an interview that how did he get the idea to create Slugtera? Was he given a challenge by a toy company to create the such show? Or anything else?? What’s the story of Slugtera’s creation?

So Mr. Fipke answered, “A challenge from a toy company?” No, actually we have worked in many boys action shows. And based on those experiences, I got the idea of Slugterra. But yes, some contribution of the toy companies can be considered in a part of this idea. Because toy companies believed that we cannot sell guns under any circumstances.

Because why would anyone buy a toy gun? And then I did brainstorming for a my own cartoon series that What if I show guns as a launch pad from which something is shoot, And the shooted thing (bullet) is a friend of the shooter. And at the end I created a show with this concept which is obviously Slugterra. So yeah! I got all the idea from this because I dedicated my whole carrier in creating boys action shows. So the a little bit role of toy companies in creation of Slugtera can be considered.”

Well! Mr. Fipke’s company created many amazing shows But in 2016, his company Nerd Corps Entertainment completely disappeared. But how? WildBrain studios is that biggest shark of the animation sea, which acquired many small and big animation studios.

The very first and original name of this shark was “DHX MEDIA”. Yes! in 2006, two Companies “Decode Entertainment” and “Helifax Films” got merged theirselves, and named themselves a new name “DHX MEDIA“. After that DHX MEDIA aquired “WildBrain Entertainment” in 2010, “Cookie Jar Group” in 2012, “British Ragdoll world wide” in 2013, “Epitom Pictures” and “Nerd Corps Entertainment” in 2014. And after eating (aquiring) these all fishes (companies), in 2016, DHX MEDIA killed itself. I mean it changed its name based on a company it acquired in 2010.

And that new name is “WildBrain Studio“. So this was a small story of a big Shark. Well! in 2014, aquiring Nerd Corps Entertainment, DHX media gave it a new name “DHX Nerd Corps Entertainment“. But what is the use, later on, its name was erased and changed to the common name “WildBrain Studio“. And that day Nerd Corps Entertainment got deleted at all.

Well! Nerd Corps Entertainment gave us Slugtera, also gave”SLUGISODES” along with it. “SLUGISODES” used to be 1-2 minutes episodes, In which shown that what activities Slugs do in their free time. And good news is that these all episodes are available for free on YouTube. You can watch those. By the way! in 2019, WildBrain started streaming all its shows on online flatforms like Amazon Prime and Netflix instead of TV.

This was a new strategy of them after analysing audience behaviour, That’s why many shows of WildBrain got stopped streaming on TV, but streaming for sure on OTT plateforms. And because Slugtera is now the property of WildBrain, Therefore Slugtera is also being streamed on Netflix.

SLUGTERA In India

In the year 2012, Slugtera was released in Canada, And 1 year after that, means in 2013, it was released also in India. Fun Fact is that watching Slugtera and Pokemon, we Indians tend to find both shows alike, which is because of similarly in their concepts, as well as their Hindi dubbed version. Because Ash Ketchum and Eli Shane both are the main characters in their shows

And both are given Hindi voice by same person and he is Nachiket Dighe Sir. Parigna Pandya Shah gave her voice to Trixy who given her voice to Gwen Tennyson also. And the list of rest dubbing artists, you can on my website www.blogs.animationvibes.com.

In 2013, when Slugtera was released in India, It was aired on Hungama channel. Although it has total 6 seasons but only 3 season were dubbed in India in Hindi. Which contains total 39 episodes. Well! Later Slugtera was also aired on Disney XD Channel.

Why Slugterra Got Cancelled?

So…. Why was series of Slugterra got cancelled? Due to low TRP?? No, not possible. Due to low profits??? Ahhh… What nonsense. Profits are still being made from its animation series Toys & Games. In simple words, purpose of animation series of Slugterra has been completed.

There are two reasons :

1. Because Nerd Corps Entertainment company has been acquired, So now no one wants to make it anymore, even if it had to be made, by now its atleast 1-2 seasons would have come.

2. Purpose of animation series of Slugtera was to get space in people’s hearts, So that people buy its toys and games. And if you have a look to Slugtera’s Facebook page, You will see company keep posting actively there about Slug It Out 2. Which means now Slugterra will keep updating only in games and toys.

Because cartoon series has achieved its purpose, Still, because till today no official announcement of completely cancellation of Slugtera is made by Nerd Corps or WildBrain. So maybe Wildbrain can make new series of it which I don’t think they will make. Because he has a lot of many other amazing Animation shows.

Personally, I believe that Slugtera has gone farther than it should have. I means only the first three seasons are great, from the fourth season, its story has been changed completely. So if you didn’t watch it yet, so do watch its first three seasons. And the trick to watch it, you will find it on my Telegram channel for sure.

THE LEARNINGS

Asaph Fipke states that both me and Chuck Johnson were earning good in Mainframe Studios, were on good positions, But I was desperate that we should make something of our own. We don’t just have to be employees, we also have to be artists and creators. So we also decided and left a stable job and formed our own company.

Initially we were 10 people and we started with an apartment on rent. Where we kept some powerful computers. Chuck Jhonson states that that day we were drinking bear and saying we’re a group of Nerds, Like marine corps full of nerds- lets call it “Nerd Corps“. So this is how they named their company Nerd Corps.

Initially Fipke’s studio did service work for other companies. And along with service work, they also worked on their own shows regularly. And absolutely, shows made by them greenlitted. Whether its rated A for Awesome and SLUGTERRA. According to an interview of October 2013, Mr. Fipke states that :

“We were not only a studio but also we were creators. We focused much on working for other companies, But side by side we were working on our own shows. Within a few years we hired 70 people, Later, adding Second Production Line, we have been a total number of 140. And as of now we have total 5 Production Lines, which means that now we can work on 5 different show at a time.”

The moral is that think big but start small. Mr. Fipke thought something big but started with a few people and 2-3 computers. Which later became a big company with 5 production lines and a staff of 350 employees. So you also think something big but start with small. If you feel that you need to build your body, then start exercising or gym.

Even if do 5 minutes on the first day, but atleast do, On the next day you may extend it 10 minutes. One day will come when you will start exercising for two hours on your own. Means to change a habit, to make change in yourself. Or to create a superhit animation series like Mr. Fipke, you need to take that first and smallest step.

Thats it!!! If you want to ask something related to this video, You can direct message me on my Instagram ID – @animation_vibes. Also, if you are new to my website, check my other blogs too. QWe will meet soon with another interesting article. Till then, Tata!!! Bye-bye!!!! See you again!!!