What if Lionsgate was founded in 1942?/Lionsgate Animation

Lionsgate Animation is an animation unit of Lionsgate formed in 1962 under the name TempleToons.

History
In March 1962, the Maroon Cartoon Studio (now ABC Animation) was sold to the Elvis Presley Record Company. with Lionsgate losing this, they decided to make a cartoon distribution deal with the remaning Independent animation studios, such as Hanna-Barbera, Format Films, and UPA. However, Lionsgate had failed to distribute a single cartoon. By the time TempleToons launched in July 1962, Lionsgate had an idea to distribute, produce and present TempleToons' cartoon shorts.

In 1965, Lionsgate bought TempleToons, due to the sucess of the earliest cartoons. Lionsgate renamed the studio as the Lionsgate Cartoon Studio after Shirley Temple refused to keep the Temple name. Also, Lionsgate decided to air these cartoons on Television. However, the shorts continued to be released in theaters until 1974.

In 1971, Lionsgate was sued by Temple for using the character based on her into its cartoons. Due to this, Lionsgate closed its cartoon unit down. However, the Temple cartoons were co-produced by Lionsgate and Filmation until 1974, when Lionsgate sold the Temple cartoons to Shirley Temple LLC (which made a video deal with Artisan from 1998 to 2004, when Lionsgate reunited the Temple cartoons).

In 1979, Lionsgate revived its animation unit under the name Lionsgate Television Animation. This leads to the creation of The Loud House, which premiered on TV in 1980. The success leads Lionsgate to make more cartoons.

In 1992, Lionsgate launched its new feature animation unit called Lionsgate Feature Animation. Their first animated feature was The Swan Princess, released in 1994. The film became a huge success, reaching 2nd place behind The Lion King.