In 1978, an obscure ani­mat­ed TV show pro­duced by an upstart Toron­to firm caught the eye of the world’s hottest film­mak­er, George Lucas.

He was look­ing for some­one to pro­duce an ani­mat­ed short for a CBS Star Wars tele­vi­sion spe­cial. The ensu­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion not only put Nel­vana on its path to becom­ing the world’s lead­ing inde­pen­dent ani­ma­tion com­pa­ny but kick­start­ed Canada’s most suc­cess­ful cre­ative indus­try — children’s ani­mat­ed entertainment.