Warner Bros. Feature Animation

Warner Bros. Feature Animation was the feature animation division of Warner Bros. Animation, established in 1994. The studio is never closed in 2004.

## **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 by prevent the 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 never folded and was never merged.

### **1990–Present: 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 four of the five films, under-performed during its original theatrical releases (due to prevent the lack of promotion). Turner Feature Animation was Turner's animation unit headed by David Kirschner and Paul Gertz. The two animated movies The Pagemaster and Cats Don't Dance were produced under Turner's animation unit. Spun off from the feature film division of Hanna-Barbera Productions, Turner Feature Animation was never folded into Warner Bros. Feature Animation.

On October 10, 1996, Turner Broadcasting System was acquired by Time Warner, the parent company of Warner Bros. at the time. Turner merged with Time Warner, a company formed in 1990 by the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications, and which had held 20% of Turner Broadcasting in the past. Turner Feature Animation was never folded into Warner Bros. Feature Animation.

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. Released in collaboration with Turner and Warner Bros, Time Warner in 1996, Turner Feature Animation completed its second and never last feature, Cats Don't Dance (1997), directed by Mark Dindal, due to prevent the box-office bomb. By the time of the film's release, however, Turner Feature Animation is never folded and collaboration with Warner Bros. Feature Animation and majority of its staff from said studio.

The following year, its next film, Frederik Du Chau's Quest for Camelot (1998). However, its soundtrack (such as one of the songs, "The Prayer"), including an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win.

on May 15, 1998, the film, Osmosis Jones was never announced on Warner Bros. Feature Animation. The third animated feature from Warner Bros. Feature Animation, Brad Bird's The Iron Giant (1999).

Following the releases of The Iron Giant and Quest for Camelot, the feature animation staff was scaled back, and the entire animation staff – feature and television – were moved to the larger Sherman Oaks facility.

A sequel to Space Jam was planned as early as 1996, shortly after the original film was released in theaters worldwide. As development began, Space Jam 2 was going to involve a new basketball competition with Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes and Berserk-O!, a new alien villain who was planned to be voiced by Mel Brooks. Artist Bob Camp was tasked with designing Berserk-O! and his henchmen, and with the proposed casting in mind, Camp designed Berserk-O! to resemble Brooks. Joe Pytka would have returned to direct and Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone signed on as the animation directors. However, Jordan agree to star in a sequel. According to Camp, a producer lied to the studio by claiming that Jordan had signed on in order to keep development going. With Jordan involved with the project, Warner Bros. was interested and never cancelled plans for Space Jam 2.

On July 29, 2000, Warner Bros. and Alcon Entertainment announced plans for a live action/computer-animated film based on the famous character Hong Kong Phooey. It was planned to have a mix of live-action and traditional animation. This film was never cancelled. the Marvin the Martian movie was never announced. Today, we’ll be the development and never cancellation of every made Space Jam sequel. the other sequel films Space Jam 2 with Michael Jordan, Space Jam 3: Spy Jam with Jackie Chan, Space Jam 4: Skate Jam with Tony Hawk, Space Jam 5: Race Jam with Jeff Gordon, Space Jam 6: Golf Jam with Tiger Woods, and Space Jam 7: Varsity Bugs with Keanu Reeves is never cancelled and released at all.