Warner Animation Group

The **Warner Animation Group** (abbreviated as **WAG**) is an American animation studio that serves as the computer-animated feature film label of Warner Bros.' theatrical film production and distribution division, Warner Bros. Pictures. Established on January 7, 2013, by Jeff Robinov, the studio is the successor to the dissolved 2D traditional hand-drawn animation studio Warner Bros. Feature Animation, which shut down in 2004, and is also a sister to the regular Warner Bros. Animation studio.

Its first film, *The Lego Movie*, was released on February 7, 2014, and its most recent film was *DC League of Super-Pets* on July 29, 2022; their upcoming slate of films includes *Coyote vs. Acme* in 2023, *Toto* in 2024, *The Cat in the Hat* in 2025, *Thing One and Thing Two* in 2026, and *Oh, the Places You'll Go!* in 2027. Films produced by WBPA have grossed a total of $2 billion at the box-office.

## History

On January 7, 2013, Jeff Robinov (then head of the studio's motion picture division) founded a screenplay development department, nicknamed a "think tank" for developing theatrical animated films, known as the Warner Animation Group. The group includes John Requa, Glenn Ficarra, Nicholas Stoller, Jared Stern, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Warner Bros. created the group with the hope that the box-office reception of their films will be competitive with other animation studios' releases.

On February 7, 2014, Warner Animation Group released their first film, *The LEGO Movie*, a film animated by Animal Logic, which also provided the animation for both spinoffs. It was met with positive reviews and proved to be a box-office success.

WAG's second film, *Storks*, was released September 23, 2016. It received mixed reviews from critics.

On February 10, 2017, Warner Animation Group released *The LEGO Batman Movie*, which received positive reviews from critics and was a box-office success. On December 14, 2017, Warner Bros. announced Allison Abbate had been named Executive Vice President, and Chris Leahy has been named Senior Vice President.

*The LEGO Ninjago Movie*, based on the *Lego Ninjago* toys, was released on September 22, 2017. Upon release, the film was met with mixed reviews from critics and became the first film from the studio and franchise to fail to recoup its budget.

*Smallfoot*, released September 28, 2018, earned a 75% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with mostly positive reviews from critics and has grossed over $214 million worldwide.

*The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part*, a sequel to *The Lego Movie*, was released February 8, 2019 and earned an 85% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with generally positive reviews from critics but only grossed around $192.3 million worldwide, almost barely recouping its budget and becoming the studio and franchise's second box-office disappointment.

In October 2019, Locksmith Animation formed a multi-year production deal with Warner Bros., which will distribute Locksmith's films.

An animated reboot of the *Scooby-Doo* film series titled *Scoob!* was initially set for a theatrical release on May 15, 2020, but then it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 21, 2020 it was announced that it would instead go to video on demand in response to the pandemic. It received mixed reviews from critics.

A live action/animated film based on *Tom & Jerry* was released internationally on February 11, 2021 and on February 26 in the United States in theaters and HBO Max simultaneously, which also debuted the company's new logo to match with the design of the new shield logo that Warner Bros. debuted back in November 2019. Just like its regular WB logo, which was revamped earlier that year with *Locked Down*, it is made by Devastudios, with clouds created using Terragen. It received mostly negative reviews from critics.

*Space Jam: A New Legacy*, starring LeBron James, was released on July 16, 2021, and was the first film from Warner Animation Group to incorporate traditional animation. It also received mostly negative reviews from critics.

*DC League of Super-Pets*, starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart was released on July 29, 2022.

A Christmas-themed spin-off prequel titled *Scoob! Holiday Haunt*, taking place in the gang's youth, with the actors who portrayed their younger selves reprising, was set for release in 2022 on HBO Max, but was cancelled following the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc. to form Warner Bros. Discovery in April 2022 by CEO David Zaslav on August 2, 2022, citing cost-cutting measures and a refocus on theatrical films rather than creating projects for streaming. Following the merger, it was announced in August that Allison Abbate would be leaving the studio.

On February 9, 2023, it was reported that former DreamWorks Animation chief creative officer Bill Damaschke was in talks to lead the studio. On May 5, 2023, it was confirmed in a Warner Bros. Discovery earnings call by Zaslav that Damaschke had been hired, and was hard at work with Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-CEOs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy on developing a new slate of films. On June 9, 2023, Damschke announced the rebranding of the division into **Warner Bros. Pictures Animation** and stated that they planned to follow the creative lead of Abdy and De Luca.

## Upcoming releases

WBPA's third live-action/animation hybrid, a Wile E. Coyote film titled *Coyote vs. Acme*, will be released on July 21, 2023. The film will be directed by Dave Green and produced by Chris DeFaria and James Gunn.

A musical feature adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's children's book *Toto: The Dog-Gone Amazing Story Of The Wizard Of Oz* began animation production in February 2021. It is being directed by Alex Timbers, from a screenplay by John August, and produced by Derek Frey.

Warner Bros. Pictures Animation is also collaborating with Dr. Seuss Enterprises to produce films based on a series of children's books of Dr. Seuss properties, including film adaptations of both *The Cat in the Hat* (2025) and *Oh, the Places You'll Go!* (2027). The firm is also developing a spin-off film of *The Cat in the Hat* with the focus on *Thing One and Thing Two* (2026), with collaboration with J. J. Abrams' production company Bad Robot Productions. There are also plans to develop a *DC League of Super-Pets* franchise following the film's critical and commercial success.

The second Hanna-Barbera based film titled *Meet the Flintstones*, an origin movie based on *The Flintstones* is in early development. It will be written by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, who both previously directed Illumination's *The Super Mario Bros. Movie*.

## Production

Similar to Disney's 20th Century Animation, Universal's DreamWorks Animation and Illumination, Paramount Animation and Sony Pictures Animation, WBPA outsources their animated films' production to other studios, such as Animal Logic (*The Lego Movie* franchise, *DC's League of Super-Pets* and *Toto*), Sony Pictures Imageworks (*Storks* and *Smallfoot*), Reel FX Creative Studios (*Scoob!*), Framestore (*Tom & Jerry*) and Industrial Light & Magic (*Space Jam: A New Legacy*). However, *Space Jam: A New Legacy* did included in-house animation by WAG, with several animators hired by the studio to work on the film's hand-drawn animated segments.

The budgets for their films tend to range within $60–80 million. Their most expensive films to date, *The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part*, *Scoob!* and *Space Jam: A New Legacy*, cost $99 million, $90 million and $150 million respectively.

The screenplay department is reportedly somewhat similar to Pixar Animation Studios' "brain trust" in terms of how its members consult with one another and give feedback on each other's projects. The group is nicknamed the "think tank".

## Franchises

 *DC Comics* | 1
 *Hanna-Barbera* | 2
 *Looney Tunes* | 1