Despite smatterings of uncomfortable court cases in recent months, legal woes seem to be taking a back seat as entertainment giant Viacom (VIA) roars ahead with new business deals.

As the owner of such cable TV staples like MTV and Nickelodeon, the cable TV brand has been an industry leader in stock gains during 2010 and the first half of 2011.

Its movie segment has up until now been dominated by Paramount Pictures, whose summer blockbuster “Transformers 3” has brought in nearly half a billion dollars worldwide.

Looking to move beyond Paramount, and building up the success of its first animated blockbuster, “Rango” — which this past spring that saw receipts nearly double what the company spent on making the film — Viacom recently announced it will launch an animation unit in 2014 with the aim of making at least one $100 million film per year.

Up until now, Viacom’s animated experience, other than Rango, has remained mostly on the distribution side with its deal with DreamWorks Animation. That distribution agreement runs out in 2012 however, leaving Viacom wide open to pursue its own piece of the growing animated film pie.

Higher targets

Though big-budget animations are a bit of a risk, analysts seem to still have faith in Viacom’s TV-dominated portfolio and expect it to keep breaking records, as it has so far over the past 18 months or so. Wunderlich Securities and Trefis both have a price target of $60.