Cartoon Network Studios

**Cartoon Network Studios** is an American animation studio owned by the Global Kids, Young Adults & Classics division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, a subsidiary of AT&T's WarnerMedia. Located in Burbank, California, the studio primarily produces and develops animated programs and shorts for Cartoon Network. In the 2010s, their programs began to expand into their sister companies Adult Swim and HBO Max. The company has only produced one theatrically released film, *The Powerpuff Girls Movie*, which was distributed by what is now its sister company, Warner Bros. Pictures.

The actual animation service for their productions is done overseas, mostly in South Korea at Digital eMation, Saerom Animation, Rough Draft Korea, and Sunmin Image Pictures, with pre-production and post-production being United States-based.

## History

Cartoon Network Studios originated as a division of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. that focused on producing original programming for Cartoon Network, including *What a Cartoon!*, *Dexter's Laboratory*, *Johnny Bravo*, and *The Powerpuff Girls*. Following the 1996 merger of Hanna-Barbera's parent, Turner Broadcasting System with Time Warner, and after being located on Cahuenga Boulevard in Los Angeles since 1963, the Hanna-Barbera studio, its archives, and its extensive animation art collection, were relocated in 1998 to Sherman Oaks Galleria in Sherman Oaks, California, where Warner Bros. Animation was located. This relocation was executed by its chief executive, Jean MacCurdy. After Hanna-Barbera was completely folded into Warner Bros. Animation following the death of the studio's co-founder, William Hanna in 2001, Cartoon Network Studios was resurrected as a separate entity.

In 2000, Cartoon Network Studios transferred its production offices to a new facility located at 300 N 3rd St in Burbank, California, which was the location of a former Pacific Bell telephone exchange. Former DiC and Nickelodeon employees Brian A. Miller and Jennifer Pelphrey have managed the company since it began production in the same year.

In 2002, Cartoon Network Studios produced two television pilots for Cartoon Network's late night programming block Adult Swim: *Welcome to Eltingville* and *The Groovenians*. Neither of them were picked as full series. Also, the studio released this year its only theatrical film to date: *The Powerpuff Girls Movie*, based on *The Powerpuff Girls*, which received positive reviews from critics but performed poorly at the box office. In 2006, Cartoon Network Studios collaborated with sister studio Williams Street for the first time for *Korgoth of Barbaria*, a television pilot made for Adult Swim, which was also not green-lit as a series.

In 2007, Cartoon Network Studios began its first foray into live action with the hybrid series *Out of Jimmy's Head*, and then its first fully live action project, *Ben 10: Race Against Time* and its sequel, *Ben 10: Alien Swarm*, along with the television pilots *Locker 514*, *Siblings* and *Stan the Man*. The studio's first live action series *Tower Prep* would arrive in 2010. Former New Line Television reality producer Mark Costa was hired to oversee the projects and Cartoon Network Studios' live action production company Alive and Kicking, Inc.. *Incredible Crew* was the last series in that genre the studio produced for Cartoon Network. Despite the failure of live action on the channel, the studio's infrastructure was retained to produce live action fare for sibling programming block Adult Swim, identifying on-air as Alive and Kicking, along with two other companies (Rent Now Productions and Factual Productions), instead of using the Cartoon Network Studios banner.

In 2010, *Adventure Time* premiered on Cartoon Network. It began life as a short featured on Nicktoons' *Random! Cartoons* that was ultimately not green-lit as a series by that channel. Cartoon Network picked it up later. The show ran until 2018 with 10 seasons and 283 episodes. A film was announced in 2015, but in 2018 Adam Muto said that the movie was never officially announced. In 2019, a continuation, titled *Adventure Time: Distant Lands*, was announced for HBO Max with a release in 2020. Also this year, *The Cartoonstitute*, an incubator series similar to *What a Cartoon!*, debuted on Cartoon Network Video. The pilots of *Regular Show* and *Uncle Grandpa* were presented here among with other shorts, with the *Uncle Grandpa* pilot also serving as a basis for *Secret Mountain Fort Awesome*, which preceded the actual series.

In 2014, Cartoon Network Studios produced its first miniseries, *Over the Garden Wall*. The following year, *Long Live the Royals* was also premiered.

In 2016, Cartoon Network Studios produced two reboots based on *The Powerpuff Girls* and *Ben 10* respectively. Also, the studio produced its first television series based on a series of online shorts, *Mighty Magiswords*.

In 2017, after plans as old as 2002 for a movie failed to work, *Samurai Jack* was revived for a fifth and final season for Adult Swim, to critical acclaim, concluding the series after its cancellation from Cartoon Network in 2004. Also this year, it was announced that Cartoon Network Studios, in collaboration with Studio T, would produce an adult animated series titled *Close Enough* created by *Regular Show* creator J. G. Quintel. Originally planned for TBS, the series was eventually dropped from there after the failure of its planned animation block; eventually, in 2019, HBO Max picked it up from TBS.

In 2019, after handling a few episodes of *Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law*, the second season of *Black Dynamite*, the above-mentioned fifth season of *Samurai Jack* and producing the above-mentioned television pilots *Welcome to Eltingville*, *The Groovenians* and *Korgoth of Barbaria*, Cartoon Network Studios produced its first full program for Adult Swim: *Primal*, an adult animated series from Genndy Tartakovsky. The first five episodes were also packaged for a limited theatrical release as a feature film titled *Primal: Tales of Savagery*.

In 2020, Cartoon Network Studios marked its first foray into producing content for streaming services since the second season of *Secret Mountain Fort Awesome* and *The Problem Solverz*, which were released exclusively on iTunes in 2012 (for the first) and on Netflix in 2013 (for the second), with *Adventure Time: Distant Lands*, *Tig N' Seek* and *The Fungies!* planned for HBO Max. More recently, Warner Bros. Animation president, Sam Register was appointed head of the studio, succeeding Rob Sorcher.

## Filmography

### Successful pilots

See also: What a Cartoon! § Original show (1995–97), The Cartoonstitute § List of completed shorts, and Cartoon Network Shorts Department

### Other shorts

This is a list of Cartoon Network Studios/Cartoon Network original shorts that were not pilots.

### Theatrical films

All the films are theatrically distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

## See also

* List of programs broadcast by Cartoon Network
* Williams Street - sister studio of Cartoon Network Studios
* Hanna-Barbera - the former owner and predecessor of Cartoon Network Studios
* Warner Bros. Animation - sister studio of Cartoon Network Studios
* Cartoon Network Studios Europe - European sister studio of Cartoon Network Studios owned by WarnerMedia International
* Nickelodeon Animation Studio - the animation division of Nickelodeon
* Disney Television Animation - the animation division of Disney Branded Television
* 20th Television Animation - the television animation division of 20th Television
* DreamWorks Animation Television - the television animation division of DreamWorks Animation
* Universal Animation Studios - the animation division of Universal Pictures
* List of animation studios owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment

## Notes

1. ↑ Season 2 of The Problem Solverz was produced for air on Cartoon Network, but the channel opted not to air it. Streaming rights were later leased to Netflix, who got to premiere season 2.
2. ↑ The final eight episodes were produced for air on Cartoon Network, but the channel opted not to air them. The episodes eventually made their debut on the iTunes Store.