Warner Bros. Animation

### Key people

Sam Register (president, Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, and Warner Digital Series)

### Parent

Warner Bros.
(Warner Bros. Discovery)

### Divisions

Warner Animation Group

**Warner Bros. Animation** (currently known as **Warner Animation Group** for theatrically released films) is the animation division of Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. The studio is closely associated with the *Looney Tunes*and *Merrie Melodies*characters, among others. The studio is the successor to Warner Bros. Cartoons (formerly Leon Schlesinger Productions), the studio which produced *Looney Tunes* and *Merrie Melodies* cartoon shorts from 1933 to 1963, and from 1967 to 1969. Warner reestablished its animation division in 1980 to produce *Looney Tunes*-related works.

Since 1990, Warner Bros. Animation has primarily focused upon the production of television and feature animation of other properties, notably including those related to Time Warner's DC Comics publications.

## History

### 1972 - 1989: Restarting the studio

The original Warner Bros. Cartoon studio, as well as all of Warner Bros.'s short subject production divisions, closed in 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 1976, 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*, 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 reopened its doors in 1980 to produce compilation films and television specials starring the *Looney Tunes* characters. Friz Freleng left DePatie-Freleng (which became Marvel Productions after being sold to Marvel Entertainment), and returned to Warner as executive producer. Before leaving DFE, Freleng produced new animation for *The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie* (1981). The new wraparounds for *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, with Steven S. Greene and Kathleen Helppie-Shipley taking his place. The studio continued production on special projects starring the *Looney Tunes* characters, sporadically producing new *Looney Tunes* 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.

### 1989 - 1997: Moving into television animation

Beginning in 1989, Warner Bros. moved into regular television animation production. Warner’s television division was established by WB Animation President Jean MacCurdy, who brought in producer Richard Williams and much of his staff from Hanna-Barbera Productions' *A Pup Named Scooby-Doo* series. A studio for the television unit was set up at the Sherman Oaks Galleria northwest of Los Angeles. Darrell Van Citters, who used to work at Disney, would work 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* (1990–1992) 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), *Freakazoid!* (1995–1997), and *Histeria!* (1998-2000) 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), *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 theatrical *Batman* spin-off feature, *Mask of the Phantasm* was produced in 1993 and bumped up to theatrical release. The film was well-received by critics but performed poorly at the box-office, although it eventually became a commercial success through its subsequent home video releases.

### 1997 - 2003: The rise and fall of Warner Bros. Feature Animation

Warner Bros., as well as several other Hollywood studios, moved into feature animation following the success of Disney's *The Lion King* in 1994. Max Howard, a Disney alumnus, was brought in to head the new division, which was set up in two studios: one in Sherman Oaks near the television studio, and the other 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 it produced failed to earn money during their original theatrical releases (due to lack of promotion for their animated features). The first of Warners' animated features was *Space Jam* (1996), a live-action/animation mix which starred NBA star, Michael Jordan opposite Bugs Bunny (Jordan had previously appeared with the Looney Tunes in a number of Nike commercials). Directed by Joe Pytka (live-action) and Bruce W. Smith & Tony Cervone (animation), *Space Jam* 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.

Following *Space Jam's* success, Warner Bros. Feature Animation continued production on its next feature, *Cats Don't Dance* (1997), which was met with warm critical and audience reception but bombed thanks to little marketing and fanfare. The following year, their next feature *Quest for Camelot* (1998), panned by both critics and audiences, but its soundtrack (especially one of the songs, "The Prayer") did receive some accolades. The fourth Warner Bros. animated feature, Brad Bird's *The Iron Giant* (1999), was not a commercial success, although it received rave reviews and performed well with test audiences. *The Iron Giant* would eventually became a modern cult classic. The studio's next film, *Osmosis Jones* (2001) was another animated/live action mix which suffered through a troubled production. Directors Tom Sito and Piet Kroon completed the animation long before the live-action segments, eventually directed by Bobby & Peter Farrelly and starring Bill Murray, were begun. The resulting film was a box office flop, although it was successful enough on the home video market for Warner's Television Animation department to produce a related Saturday morning cartoon, *Ozzy & Drix* (2002–2003) 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. The final Warner Bros. Feature Animation production was another live-action/animation mix, *Looney Tunes: Back in Action* (2003), which was meant to be the starting point for a reestablishment of the classic cartoons brands, including a planned series of new *Looney Tunes* and *Tom and Jerry* theatrical shorts. The newer Looney Tunes were produced by *Back in Action* writer and producer Larry Doyle. while the Tom and Jerry shorts were produced by co-creator Joe Barbera, whom also wrote and directed some entries. After *Back in Action*, directed by Joe Dante (live action) and Eric Goldberg (animation), received mixed reviews and failed at the box office, production was shut down on the new shorts and the feature animation unit was dissolved to avoid the financial ruin of the entire studio. Two TV series based loosely upon the *Looney Tunes* property, *Baby Looney Tunes* (2002–2005), *Loonatics Unleashed* (2005–2007) and *Tom and Jerry Tales* (2006-2008) have assumed the place of the original shorts on television.

### 1996–present: Acquisitions and Warner Bros. Animation today

Warners' parent company Time Warner merged with Turner Broadcasting System in 1996, not only reacquiring the rights to the pre-August 1948 color *Looney Tunes* and *Merrie Melodies* (plus all the B&W *Merrie Melodies* except *Lady, Play Your Mandolin!* and the post-Harman/Ising B&W entries, which WB had held on to since 1967 after merging with Seven Arts Productions, which had owned that cartoon and the B&W *Looney Tunes*) but also taking on two more animation studios: Turner Feature Animation and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. Turner Feature was immediately folded into Warner Bros. Feature Animation, while Hanna-Barbera merged with Warner Bros. Animation itself. With the death of William Hanna in 2001, Warner fully took over production of H-B related properties such as *Scooby-Doo*, producing a steady stream of *Scooby* direct-to-video films (beginning with *Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island*) and two new series, *What's New, Scooby-Doo?* (2002–2005) and *Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!* (2006–2008). The Turner merger also gave WB access to the pre-1986 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library, which included its classic cartoon library (including such characters as Tom and Jerry, Droopy, Barney Bear, and Screwy Squirrel). WBA has since co-produced a few direct-to-video films with Turner which starred Tom and Jerry. Besides producing content for the daytime market, Warner Bros. Animation also produced Baby Blues with sister company Warner Bros. Television and 3 South with MTV Animation for primetime.

The series which Hanna-Barbera had been producing for Turner's Cartoon Network before and during the Time Warner/Turner merger were shifted to production at Cartoon Network Studios, a sister company to Warner Bros. Animation. Warner Bros. Animation is today exclusively involved in the production of animated television programming and direct-to-video features. It produced many of the shows airing on the Kids' WB Saturday morning programming block of The CW until May 24, 2008. These programs included *Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!*, *Krypto the Superdog*, *Xiaolin Showdown*, *The Batman*, and the aforementioned *Loonatics Unleashed* and *Tom and Jerry Tales*. By 2007, the studio had downsized significantly from its size during the late 1990s. Warner Bros. downsized the studio further in June, shut down the Sherman Oaks studio, and had Warner Bros. Animation moved to the Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank, California. In early 2008 after the demise of Kids' WB!, Warner Bros. Animation became almost dormant with only *Batman: The Brave and the Bold* in production at the time.

To expand the company's online content presence, Warner Bros. Animation launched the new KidsWB.com (announced as T-Works) on April 28, 2008. The new website gathers its core animation properties in a single online environment that will be interactive and customizable for site visitors. The Kids WB offers both originally produced content along with classic animated episodes, games, and exploration of virtual worlds, all supported by advertising. Some of the characters to be used in the project from the Warner libraries include those of Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera, and DC Comics.

On March 25, 2009, sister network Cartoon Network announced *Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated* in the Fall 2009-2010 season by Warner Bros. Animation. Warner Bros. Animation recently announced several new projects, such as *The Looney Tunes Show* (formerly called *Laff Riot*); a reboot of *ThunderCats*, and several series based on DC Comics properties such as *MAD (TV series)*, *Green Lantern*, and *Young Justice*. Meanwhile, more recently, Fox has begun commence on a reboot of Hanna-Barbera's *The Flintstones*, developed by *Family Guy*/*American Dad!* creator Seth MacFarlane.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Animation is producing also *DC Showcase*, a series of short subjects featuring lesser known comic book superheroes, to be released in tandem with direct-to-video films based on DC Comics properties.

On July 30, 2010, *Coyote Falls*, a 3D cartoon featuring Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner was released, being the first time WB Animation produced theatrically released content since *The Karate Guard* in 2005 (The only 2003-produced cartoon to have an theatrical screening) and the first time which the studio used full CGI and stereoscopic 3D. Two more theatrical Road Runner cartoons have followed during the year (*Fur of Flying* and *Rabid Rider*) but no more shorts were announced during the moment owing to the deepening recession in the US and production delays on most WB animation shows until much later, however, on June 8, 2011 *Daffy Rhapsody* a 3D CGI cartoon featuring Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd will be release with the movie *Happy Feet 2*, Two more will follow, *I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat* with Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Pie and Untitled Coyote & Road Runner.

### 2013-present: The rise and success of Warner Bros. Pictures Animation Formerly as Warner Animation Group

On January 2013, Jeff Robinov found a "think tank" for developing theatrical animated films, known as the **Warner Animation Group**. It is the successor of the dissolved Warner Bros. Feature Animation. The group includes John Requa, Glenn Ficarra, Nicholas Stoller, Phil Lord and Chris Miller and Jared Stern. Warner Bros. hopes the box office receptions of their films will be competitive to Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, DreamWorks Animation, Blue Sky Studios, Sony Pictures Animation, and Illumination Entertainment.

On February 7, 2014, Warner Animation Group released their first film *The Lego Movie*, a film animated by Animal Logic using Lego Digital Designer and Autodesk Maya as the animation technologies, Houdini Effects as the effects technology, Autodesk Softimage as the animation, compositing, rendering, and lighting technology, Pixar's Renderman as the rendering technology, and Autodesk Inventor as the camera technology. This film also has a segment shot in live-action using Steadicam. It met with an overwhelming critical acclaim and is currently proving to be a box office success.

On January 8, 2013, Warner Animation Group announced their second film *Storks* which will be releasing in 2015. On the same day, they announced their third film *Smallfoot* which will be releasing in 2016.

On February 7, 2014, the same day The Lego Movie was released, Jared Stern and Michelle Morgan were hired to write Warner Animation Group's first sequel *The Lego Movie 2*. However, later that year, it was reported that a spin-off film featuring Batman from The Lego Movie might take the sequel's release date, pushing the sequel to May 18, 2018. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller returned to script and co-direct the sequel. Rob Schrab will direct it. In June 2016, the release date was pushed to February 8, 2019.

On March 27, 2015, it was reported that Jason Segel and Drew Pearce are going to co-direct and write a script to a new "Lego Movie" spin-off named "Billion Brick Race". Other WAG films announced in 2015 are based on Adventure Time, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, Speedy Gonzales and Bone.

In Late September 2015, it was reported that WB and WAG are working on an animated musical called Meet The Beatles to do with The Beatles, the film is to be directed by Paul King, who directed Paddington.

In March 2016, Warner Bros. announced plans for a shared universe of animated films based on various Hanna-Barbera characters, starting with S.C.O.O.B., a reboot of the Scooby-Doo film series, scheduled for September 21, 2018, in the United States.

On June 9, 2023, Warner Animation Group was renamed To Warner Bros. Pictures Animation.

## Filmography

*Main article: List of Warner Bros. Animation filmography*

## See also

* Warner Bros.
* Warner Bros. Family Entertainment
* Warner Home Video
* Warner Premiere
* Warner Bros. Television