Adrian Dingle

The Junior Defenders is a quirky comedy about the cast of a 1970s TV superhero show. With a fan base that rivals Star Trek's, The Junior Defenders is one of the top hits of its era. Twenty-five years after the show's sudden cancellation, a crazed fan named Norman Nields goes on a cross-country mission to kidnap the show's four washed-up ex-child stars, take them back to Hollywood, and then force them at gunpoint to act in his brand-new episode of The Junior Defenders.

Film accompanying the book of the same name by Nelvana Enterprises founders Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert, with partner Clive Smith as designer and illustrator. It looks at the "Canadian Whites" series of comic books made during World War II, with some focus on Nelvana of the Northern Lights, the genre's first superheroine, and Johnny Canuck. It was accompanied by a two-year travelling tour of the art, the National Gallery of Canada's "Comic Art Traditions in Canada, 1941–45". This is Nelvana Enterprises' first film.