Cartoonito (American programming block)

**Cartoonito** (also known as **Cartoonito on Cartoon Network**) is an American weekday morning programming block on Cartoon Network and a content hub within the Max streaming service that launched on September 13, 2021. It aired series aimed at children aged 2 through 6, and was the first dedicated preschool block to air on Cartoon Network in over fifteen years. The programming block ceased operations on May 23, 2025.

### Background

In 1996, Cartoon Network created a Sunday morning block of preschool programs, consisting of _Big Bag,_ a live-action/puppet television program by the Children's Television Workshop, and _Small World_, an anthology of foreign children's shows. _Big Bag_ and _Small World_ moved to the 11:00 a.m. ET hour on weekday mornings in 1998 before moving back to Sunday mornings later that year. After _Big Bag_ and _Small World_ left Cartoon Network's lineup in 2001 and 2002 respectively, an unbranded preschool block on weekday mornings consisting of _Baby Looney Tunes_, _Pecola_, _Sitting Ducks_, and _Hamtaro_ was created during the 2002-03 television season.

On August 22, 2005, Cartoon Network debuted _Tickle-U_, the network's first official attempt at weekday-morning preschool programming block. The block aired from 9 to 11 a.m. and featured a mix of domestic and foreign-imported series, with interstitial segments hosted by two CGI characters: a red butterfly-like creature named Pipoca (voiced by Ariel Winter) and a yellow rabbit-like creature named Henderson (voiced by Tom Kenny).

Programs on Tickle-U included Warner Bros. Animation's _Firehouse Tales_ (its sole original series), Canadian co-productions _Gerald McBoing-Boing_ and _Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs_ (with Teletoon and Treehouse TV), and British series _Gordon the Garden Gnome_, _Little Robots_, _Peppa Pig_ and _Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto!_, some of which were re-dubbed for American audiences. The block was criticized by the CCFC, for its marketing strategies. Tickle-U ended on January 13, 2006; some of its programs still aired on Cartoon Network until a year later and in the United Kingdom on the native Cartoonito channel.

### Launch

On June 14, 2021, Cartoonito's YouTube channel uploaded videos featuring new idents of the block's programs (which included _Esme & Roy_, _Mush-Mush & the Mushables_, _Care Bears: Unlock the Magic_, and _Love Monster_), and a newsletter was announced, with a new banner and avatar on the Cartoonito YouTube Channel in July. A trailer for the block was released on July 29, 2021.

### Scheduling

The block, originally eight hours in length between 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET/PT weekdays and two hours (6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. ET/PT) on weekends, premiered on September 13, 2021 with an episode of _Baby Looney Tunes_. From there, the block would lose time due to viewer and ratings feedback, with the 1:00 p.m. hour returning to Cartoon Network on November 16 of the same year, then the noon hour on December 20. The weekend schedule was entirely retired on January 29, 2022, followed by the 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon block two days later.

Through the summer of 2022, the block ended at 11:00 a.m. until the resumption of the academic year on September 5. A month later on October 3, the 6:00 a.m. hour was abandoned for Cartoon Network content, leaving it as a four-hour block going into 2023. It underwent two additional cuts, with 2½ hours removed on March 13 with a new 9:00 a.m. endtime, then another 30 minutes cut on February 19, 2024, resulting in the block airing for only 60 minutes between 7:30 a.m.–8:30 a.m. until its closure on May 23, 2025.

## Programming

Cartoonito featured co-productions and acquired programming, in addition to original series exclusive to the program block on Cartoon Network. Cartoonito's lineup included _Bugs Bunny Builders_, _Batwheels_, and _Jessica's Big Little World_; with _Sesame Street_ exclusive to Max.

## Related services

|style="background:darkRed;"|Service|style="background:darkRed;"|Description|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|style="text-align: center; width:200pt;"|**Cartoonito on Demand**|A video-on-demand service, which launched concurrently in 2021, and was available to most subscription-based providers. The service offers select episodes of Cartoonito programming seen on Cartoon Network.||
|style="text-align: center; width:200pt;"|**Cartoonito App**|An online mobile app based on the Cartoonito website.||
|style="text-align:center; width:200pt;"|**Max**|A subscription video-on-demand hub that launched on Max.||

## Related pages

- Cartoon Network
- Boomerang
- Tiny TV
- HBO Max
- Discovery Family

## Infobox (television channel)

- **name**: Cartoonito
- **logo size**: 230px
- **logo**: Cartoonito - Logo 2021.svg
- **picture format**: 1080i High-definition television, HDTV
(downscaled to Letterboxing (filming), letterboxed 480i for the Standard-definition television, SDTV feed)
- **network**: Cartoon Network
- **country**: United States
- **area**: Nationwide
- **owner**: List of assets owned by Warner Bros. Discovery#Warner Bros. Discovery Networks, Warner Bros. Discovery Networks
- **parent**: List of assets owned by Warner Bros. Discovery#The Cartoon Network, Inc. (Cartoon Network Group), The Cartoon Network, Inc.
- **headquarters**: Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, U.S.
- **availability note**:

- **sat serv 2**: Dish Network
- **sat chan 2**: Channel 176 (East)
Channel 177 (West)
- **sat serv 3**: DirecTV/DirecTV Stream, Stream
- **sat chan 3**: Channel 296 (East)
Channel 297 (West)
Channel 1296
 (Video on demand, VOD)
- **sat serv 4**: C band (IEEE), C band
- **cable serv 1**: Available on most cable providers
- **cable chan 1**: Channel slots vary on each system
- **iptv serv 1**: Prism TV, CenturyLink Prism
- **iptv serv 2**: Google Fiber
- **iptv chan 2**: Channel 351
- **iptv serv 3**: Verizon FiOS
- **iptv serv 4**: U-verse TV
- **online chan 1**: YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV