{"id":359065,"date":"2025-12-21T04:58:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T04:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/359065\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T04:58:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T04:58:19","slug":"actra-accuses-unicorn-academy-maker-spin-master-of-sidestepping-union-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/359065\/","title":{"rendered":"ACTRA accuses Unicorn Academy maker Spin Master of sidestepping union talent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Spin Master co-produced Unicorn Academy with Mainframe Studios and also created two batches of short videos for YouTube that ACTRA says have featured unionized members of the original cast.Andrew Lahodynskyj\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s biggest actors\u2019 union is pressing Spin Master<\/a>, the major Toronto toy maker and entertainment company, to avoid recruiting non-union talent for a series of Unicorn Academy YouTube videos. <\/p>\n

Spin Master is known globally for launching the massive Paw Patrol franchise with Guru Studio. Its newer show Unicorn Academy, co-produced with Vancouver\u2019s Mainframe Studios, first launched on Netflix in 2023 and has aired two seasons. The Toronto company has also created two batches of short videos for YouTube that ACTRA says have featured unionized members of the original cast.<\/p>\n

The Toronto branch of the nearly 30,000-member Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, or ACTRA, says it found out in early November that Spin Master did not plan to hire the original cast for its latest round of shorts, and instead would seek non-union actors. The union says it has been sending proposals to Spin Master that it believes would let the original cast return for the YouTube clips.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members want to work,\u201d Kate Ziegler, ACTRA Toronto\u2019s president, said in an interview. \u201cThey want to do this job. They created these roles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tammy Smitham, Spin Master\u2019s vice-president of communications, said in an e-mail that the company was talking with ACTRA about the YouTube series, but that \u201cfor these promotional shorts we chose to produce them in this manner.\u201d She said that for the full-length Netflix show, \u201cwe support the use of ACTRA members in the production of the series and will continue to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s animation and visual effects industry was one of our proudest exports. Now it\u2019s struggling<\/a><\/p>\n

ACTRA says that Spin Master wanted to buy the rights to the vocal performances in perpetuity, which would, according to an agreement<\/a> with the Canadian Media Producers Association, require a 205-per-cent buyout fee for the session. The union says Spin Master rebuffed paying that level of fee, though Spin Master did not respond to specific questions clarifying its discussions. <\/p>\n

While perpetuity clauses have been appearing more regularly in collective agreements, ACTRA says, it\u2019s trying to ensure that both unionized and non-unionized voice actors are not exploited for their work. Voice work is already broadly under threat by generative AI: In the three years since such AI tools became widely accessible, voice actors have also been expressing concern about voice cloning using the software.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe threats are coming from all sides,\u201d Ms. Ziegler said. \u201cVoice actors are just extremely raw right now and feeling very vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The entertainment company reported last quarter that its operating income fell 26 per cent year-over-year, to US$151-million, primarily because of operational losses in its toy division, and to a lesser extent its entertainment division. <\/p>\n

In a press release discussing those financial results, the company blamed the decline in toy revenue on the uncertainty wracking global markets, including from tariffs and tariff threats that have affected trade with the U.S. One consequence has been slowing orders from U.S. retailers, the company said. It remains profitable, though its profit fell 24 per cent, to US$106.8-million, in the same quarter.<\/p>\n

The Globe and Mail reached out to members of Unicorn Academy\u2018s main Netflix cast; those who responded declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Spin Master co-produced Unicorn Academy with Mainframe Studios and also created two batches…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-359065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}