Amblin Entertainment

Type	Private
Founded	1981
Headquarters	Universal City, California, U.S.
Key people	Steven Spielberg Kathleen Kennedy Frank Marshall
Industry	Film, Television

Amblin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded by director, Steven Spielberg, film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1981. Amblin is only a production company, and has never distributed its own movies, nor has it fully financed its productions, needing the help of the studios that distributed it. Its logo, first seen in complete form at the end of The Goonies, features the silhouette of E.T. riding in the basket on Elliot's bicycle flying in front of the moon from the movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. (The logo music was composed and conducted by John Williams.)

Amblin is named after Spielberg's first commercially-released film, Amblin' (1968), a short independent film about a man and woman hitchhiking through the desert. The film, which cost $15,000 to produce, was shown for Universal Studios and won Spielberg more directing roles. Although Spielberg owns shares in both Amblin and DreamWorks, it's Universal that distributes many Amblin productions and Amblin operates out of a building on the Universal lot.

In addition to various Spielberg films, Amblin has produced movies by other directors including Joe Dante (Gremlins, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Innerspace, Small Soldiers), Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future: The Trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit), Brian Levant (the Flintstones duology), Penelope Spheeris (the 1994 film remake of The Little Rascals), Don Bluth (An American Tail, The Land Before Time), Gil Kenan (Monster House), Richard Donner (The Goonies), Jan De Bont (Twister), Barry Sonnenfeld (the Men in Black duology) and Martin Scorsese (Cape Fear) and Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III). The majority of these directors are close friends of Spielberg , who has an executive producer or producer credit on many but not all of Amblin's non-Spielberg films (his name does not appear on the credits of Small Soldiers, The Little Rascals, Cape Fear, or the two Flintstones films - the "Steven Spielrock Presents" credit on the latter notwithstanding).

Amblin's most critically acclaimed production is Schindler's List (1993). The film was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won seven, including Best Picture. (However, the Amblin logo does not appear on the film itself.) A companion study guide, Facing History, was prepared through a grant from Amblin and Universal. Amblin's television series credits include Amazing Stories, seaQuest DSV, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Freakazoid, Earth 2, ER, and Fievel's American Tails.

Fievel's American Tails and others were produced by Amblin's animation division Amblimation, which was active from 1991 until 1995. Another studio which has distributed many Amblin productions is Warner Bros. Entertainment. DreamWorks (which was co-founded by Spielberg) has distributed a number of Amblin productions since 1994. The Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group also has collaborated with Amblin in such films as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Arachnophobia, Noises Off and A Far Off Place.

[edit] Motion pictures

This section's factual accuracy is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (October 2008)

Asterisked films indicate Spielberg is uncredited.

[edit] Television shows

[edit] Live-action

[edit] With DreamWorks Television

• On the Lot (2007)
• The Talisman (2009, miniseries)

[edit] With Universal Television

• Amazing Stories (1985-1987)
• Harry and the Hendersons (1991-1993, through MCA TV)
• seaQuest DSV (1993-1996)
• Earth 2 (1994-1995)
• Fudge (1995, through MTE)

[edit] With Warner Bros. Television

• ER (1994-2009)

[edit] Animated

[edit] With Universal Animation Studios

• Back to the Future: The Animated Series (1991-1992)
• Fievel's American Tails (1992, also with Nelvana)
• The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper (1996-1998)
• The Land Before Time (2007-)

[edit] With Warner Bros. Television Animation

• Tiny Toon Adventures (1990-1995, 2009-)
• The Plucky Duck Show (1992)
• Animaniacs (1993-1998)
• Freakazoid! (1995-1997)
• Pinky and the Brain (1995-1998)
• Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain (1998-1999)

[edit] With Universal, WB and Nelvana

• Family Dog (1993)

[edit] External links

• Amblin Entertainment at the Internet Movie Database

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