



Animating by Cels or celluloids is a format from long ago. The hand-painted process is a classic staple in Animation history. Little do people know that the classic children's series Arthur was animated in the Cel inking process. A grand total of 85 25-minute episodes were animated with cels by Cinar Animation in Montreal Canada.





One question I've always had was what happened to the hand painted animated cels from the show? I have tried to find the answer to this question for years but I have never found a definite answer. For this article I have compiled the most likely answers to the question to "Where could the Cels Be?"

In Storage at DHX Media

Currently, Cinar animation is under the name/branding of DHX. Cinar was originally an independent animation company from 1976 to 2004, until it was bought-out by Nelvana Animation founder Michael Hirsh and was re-named and re-branded as "Cookie Jar Media". Later in August 2012 it was purchased again by Vancouver animation studio DHX media. I would be assumed that through all these buyouts the cels would have been retained along the copyrights for the Arthur program which DHX currently retains from Cookie Jar.

In Private Collections Another assumption to where they could be is in private collections, specifically in the ownership of previous animators of the show. Again there is no backing to this theory, but we can assume that after a show or episode was finished an animator would have been allowed to keep their work, again, this has not been confirmed.