Warner Bros. Animation

Warner Bros. Animation Inc. is an American animation studio which is part of the Warner Bros. Television Studios division of Warner Bros., a flagship of Warner Bros. Discovery. As the successor to Warner Bros. Cartoons, which was active from 1933 to 1969, the studio is closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters, among others. Warner Bros. re-established its animation division in 1980 to produce Looney Tunes–related works, and Turner Broadcasting System merged with WBD predecessor Time Warner in 1996. In March 2001, Hanna-Barbera was absorbed into the studio.
In recent years, Warner Bros. Animation has specialized in producing television and direct-to-video animation featuring characters from other properties owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, including Turner Entertainment (which owns the rights to properties originally created by the MGM cartoon studio), Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears, and DC Entertainment.
== History ==
=== 1970–1986: Restarting the studio ===
The original Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, as well as all of Warner Bros.'s short subject production divisions, closed its doors on October 10, 1969, due to the rising costs and declining returns of short subject production. Outside animation companies were hired to produce new Looney Tunes-related animation for TV specials and commercials at irregular intervals. In 1975, Warner Bros. Cartoon alumnus Chuck Jones began producing a series of Looney Tunes specials at his Chuck Jones Productions animation studio, the first of which was Carnival of the Animals. These specials, and a 1975 Looney Tunes retrospective feature film titled Bugs Bunny: Superstar (distributed by United Artists, the previous owner of the pre-1950 Warner Bros. library), led Jones to produce The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie for Warner Bros. in 1979. This film blended classic Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts with newly produced wraparounds of Bugs Bunny introducing each cartoon. Warner Bros. responded to the success of this film by reestablishing its own cartoon studio.
Warner Bros. Animation opened its doors on March 15, 1980, to produce compilation films and television specials starring the Looney Tunes characters. The studio's initial head was Hal Geer, who had been the original studio's sound effects editor during its final days, and he was soon joined by Friz Freleng, who left DePatie–Freleng (which became Marvel Productions after being sold to Marvel Comics), and returned to Warner as executive producer. The new wraparounds for The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981), Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982) and Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island (1983) featured footage by a new Warner Bros. Animation staff, composed mainly of veterans from the golden age of WB cartoons, including writers John Dunn and Dave Detiege.
By 1986, Freleng had departed, and Hal Geer also stepped down the following year. Geer was briefly replaced by Steven S. Greene, who in turn was replaced by Freleng's former secretary Kathleen Helppie-Shipley, who would spearhead a major revival of the Looney Tunes brand in the years that followed. The studio continued production on special projects starring the Looney Tunes characters, sporadically producing new Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts for theaters such as The Duxorcist (1987), Night of the Living Duck (1988), Box-Office Bunny (1990), and Carrotblanca (1995). Many of these shorts, as well as the new footage in the compilation film Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (which includes The Duxorcist), were directed by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon, as well as Darrell Van Citters.
=== 1986–1996: Moving into television animation ===
Beginning in 1986, Warner Bros. moved into regular television animation production. Warners' television division was established by WB Animation President Jean MacCurdy, who brought in producer Tom Ruegger and much of his staff from Hanna-Barbera Productions' A Pup Named Scooby-Doo series (1988–1991). A studio for the television unit was set up in the office tower of the Imperial Bank Building adjacent to the Sherman Oaks Galleria northwest of Los Angeles. Darrell Van Citters, who used to work at Disney, would work at Warner Bros. on the newer Bugs Bunny shorts, before leaving to form Renegade Animation in 1992. The first Warner Bros. original animated TV series Tiny Toon Adventures (1990–1995) was produced in conjunction with Amblin Entertainment, and featured young cartoon characters based upon specific Looney Tunes stars, and was a success. Later Amblin/Warner Bros. television shows, including Animaniacs (1993–1998), its spin-off Pinky and the Brain (1995–1998), and Freakazoid! (1995–1997) followed in continuing the Looney Tunes tradition of cartoon humor.
Warner Bros. Animation also began developing shows based upon comic book characters owned by sister company DC Comics. These programs, including Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1995), Superman: The Animated Series (1996–2000), The New Batman Adventures (1997–1999), Batman Beyond (1999–2001), and Justice League/Justice League Unlimited (2001–2006) proved popular among both children and adults. These shows were part of the DC animated universe. A Batman spin-off feature, Mask of the Phantasm, was produced in 1993 and bumped up to theatrical release. The film was near universally-well received by critics but performed poorly at the box-office, though it eventually became a commercial success through its subsequent home video releases. In 2003, Warner Bros. Television Animation was folded and was subsequently merged with Warner Bros. Animation.
==== 1990–2004: Warner Bros. Feature Animation ====
During the rise of the animation renaissance in the early 1990s, Warner Bros. distributed its first animated films: The Nutcracker Prince in 1990, which is a Canadian-produced feature film based on E. T. A. Hoffmann's classic holiday tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King; and Rover Dangerfield in 1991, whose title character is a dog whose look and mannerisms are inspired by his voice actor Rodney Dangerfield. Both films received negative and mixed reviews respectively and under-performed at the box office due to lack of promotion. Three years later after the release of Rover Dangerfield, Warner distributed Don Bluth's Thumbelina, which also received mixed reviews from critics and under-performed at the box office.
That same year, Warner Bros., as well as several other Hollywood studios, moved into feature animation following the success of Walt Disney Feature Animation's The Lion King. Max Howard, a Disney alumnus, was brought in to head the new division, which was set up in Sherman Oaks near the television studio in nearby Glendale. Turner Feature Animation, later merged and named Warner Bros. Feature Animation, like all of the in-house feature animation studios, proved an unsuccessful venture, as five of the six films, under-performed during its original theatrical releases (due to lack of promotion).[citation needed]
The first of Warner's animated features was Space Jam (1996), a live-action/animated hybrid which starred NBA star Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny (Jordan had previously appeared with the Looney Tunes in a number of Nike commercials). The film featured live-action sequences directed by Joe Pytka and animated sequences directed by Bruce W. Smith and Tony Cervone. Space Jam received mixed reviews from critics but proved to be a success at the box office. Animation production for Space Jam was primarily done at the new Sherman Oaks studio, although much of the work was outsourced to animation studios around the world.
Before the success of Space Jam, a Turner Entertainment-run studio that spun off from Hanna-Barbera were already producing animated features following the success of the Disney features. The first was The Pagemaster, a fantasy adventure directed by Joe Johnston (live-action) and Maurice Hunt (animation) that starred the performances of Macaulay Culkin and Christopher Lloyd with the live-action segments serving as bookends for the film's story. Released by 20th Century Fox, the film under-performed and received negative reviews from critics during its holiday release of 1994. After the merger with Turner and Warner Bros.'s parent company Time Warner in 1996, Turner Feature Animation completed its second and last feature, Cats Don't Dance (1997), directed by Mark Dindal, which was met with warm critical and audience reception but under-performed due to little marketing and fanfare.[citation needed] By the time of the film's release, however, Turner Feature Animation had merged with Warner Bros. Feature Animation and transferred a majority of its staff from said studio, making Cats Don't Dance the second film from Warner Bros. Feature Animation.
The following year, its third film, Frederik Du Chau's Quest for Camelot (1998), underwent production difficulties and also received mixed reviews from critics. However, its soundtrack (such as one of the songs, "The Prayer") received some praise and accolades, including an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win.
The fourth animated feature from Warner Bros. Feature Animation, Brad Bird's The Iron Giant (1999), received widespread acclaimed reception from critics and audiences. However, the studio decided to rush its release to the end of the summer with a rushed marketing push.
The studio's next film, Osmosis Jones (2001), was another animated/live-action mix that suffered through another troubled production. This time, the animation sequences, directed by Piet Kroon and Tom Sito, were completed long before the live-action parts were filmed, eventually directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly and starring Bill Murray. The resulting film received mixed reviews and underperformed, although it was successful enough on home video for Warner's Television Animation department to produce a related Saturday morning cartoon, Ozzy & Drix (2002–2004) for its WB broadcast network.
Following the releases of The Iron Giant and Osmosis Jones, the feature animation staff was scaled back, and the entire animation staff – feature and television – were moved to the larger Sherman Oaks facility.
Warner Bros. Feature Animation's sixth and final project, Looney Tunes: Back in Action was released in 2003. It was intended to be the starting point for a reestablishment of the classic cartoons brands, including a planned series of new Looney Tunes theatrical shorts, produced by Back in Action writer and producer Larry Doyle. After Back in Action, directed by Joe Dante (live-action) and Eric Goldberg (animation), received mixed reviews from critics and under-performed at the box office, production was shut down on the new shorts, and, in 2004, Warner Bros. Feature Animation was folded and merged into Warner Bros. Animation, and Looney Tunes has been mostly relegated on television until 2021's Space Jam: A New Legacy.
== Gallery ==
Category:Companies of March
Category:1980
Category:March
Category:Companies founded in 1980
Category:Warner Bros.
Category:Animation Companies
Category:Television Companies