WB Animation and Cartoon Network Studios merge; will remain as seperate labels

[Ghoster1987]

Man i remember in the last decade I thought Nickelodeon animation might go in the way like what's happening with CN right now thanks to Cyma and Viacom's incompetence.

But even then they seemed to be smart enough to not mess with something that important. It's like saying Disney getting rid of the one thing that built the company which is animation.

 

[Leviathan]

If nothing else, hopefully this will lay to rest the rumors that Cartoon Network is going under.

A person on life support is technically still alive, too.

 

[Silverstar]

A person on life support is technically still alive, too.

To be fair, Cartoon Network's been stagnant since around 2016 or so, long before Discovery came into the picture.

 

[CNCN2014]

Being truthful here, I hate this mass panic this news has brought on slightly. While it sucks people have genuinely lost their jobs (I'm not disputing that, but this is expected to happen from a merger), I just hate this mass hysteria that "Cartoon Network is dead!"

No, it's not dead, Twitter, calm down. This isn't 2004 when the channel completely changed from a checkerboard to two squares spelling out "CN", signifying the "end" or something. And in all fairness, hate is justified to a corporation like WBD, they've done stupid acts such as removing shows off streaming, but they've never taken shows completely off storefronts (barring a few exceptions, mainly in the AS field), they're greedy, but they're not selfish. Nor are they selfish enough to take down animation studios with the ship.

It's the one thing I mildly hate about Twitter, the fact that a rumour can spread to abhorrent and dangerous levels to which the public just automatically assumes the worst is inevitable.

Still though, I'm glad CNS is staying, albeit with a more streamlined workforce, which may be good for collaboration down the line, but probably not right now as the company tries to recoup their losses and find new employees to fill the boots their ex-employees left.

 

[StellaMagic]

Being truthful here, I hate this mass panic this news has brought on slightly. While it sucks people have genuinely lost their jobs (I'm not disputing that, but this is expected to happen from a merger), I just hate this mass hysteria that "Cartoon Network is dead!"

No, it's not dead, Twitter, calm down. This isn't 2004 when the channel completely changed from a checkerboard to two squares spelling out "CN", signifying the "end" or something. And in all fairness, hate is justified to a corporation like WBD, they've done stupid acts such as removing shows off streaming, but they've never taken shows completely off storefronts (barring a few exceptions, mainly in the AS field), they're greedy, but they're not selfish. Nor are they selfish enough to take down animation studios with the ship.

It's the one thing I mildly hate about Twitter, the fact that a rumour can spread to abhorrent and dangerous levels to which the public just automatically assumes the worst is inevitable.

Still though, I'm glad CNS is staying, albeit with a more streamlined workforce, which may be good for collaboration down the line, but probably not right now as the company tries to recoup their losses and find new employees to fill the boots their ex-employees left.

I showed my mom the stories about Zaslav, and she brought up a good point. It is not just wb stocks going down but other stocks ever since the inflation started. Zaslav in only trying to save the studio by saving money. Zaslav is just a political scapegoat.

 

[JMTV]

It's basically the structure that New Line has under WB. It technically still exists but WB foots the bill for everything they do. It's just a name and not much else beyond that.

So basically it'll be like New Line under WB, or ironically like Hanna-Barbera after it was absorbed into WB/Cartoon Network Studios: separate brand names, but all one studio.

Okay. So what you are saying about New Line Cinema is kinda like Hanna Barbara did back in 2001; HB properties are moved over to WB Animation(and CN Studios for its originals), but the HB name still exists.

I can see the same thing happened with CN Studios at that point.

As for CN's Burbank studio, I imagine they'll still be there for a few years but a plan to move to the WB lot seems well under way at this point.

Similar to what happened with Hanna Barbara. I'm sensing a deja vu.

As I said in another thread, not the most ideal setup (since a lot of people are losing their jobs over it) but still better than no animation studio at all. After all this mess we've been witnessing and all the stories I've been hearing about how Zaslav doesn't care about kids' entertainment or animation, I (like many others I imagine) was worried that the jerk was just going to kill the entire cartoon operation altogether or sell the whole thing off to someone else; at least he's not that stupid and short-sighted.

Yeah same here. It sucks that these animators are gonna be losing their jobs over this, but hey, at least one studio is better than none.

After all the removals, layoffs, and cancellations for the past couple of months, at least I'm glad that Zaslav didn't go to extreme lengths to kill off Cartoon Network like many people are fearing (though that theory is a bit of a reach).

Now I'm wondering what sort of new projects we can expect from WBA once all the dust settles. I hope they're good, and just as importantly, I hope the people behind them receive the proper treatment. After this debacle, it's going to hard to coax people back to working for WB.

Well, CN Studios announced 3 new originals are coming up very soon (Invincible Fight Girl, Unicorn Worlds Eternal, and Adventure Time with Fiona and Cake), so we'll see what WBA can do.

I hope they're good and the people behind those shows get proper treatment, but yeah, it's gonna be hard for the animators to get back to WB after all this mess.

This is me being optimistic, but maybe after WB's crushing debt is under control, perhaps the shows that were recently yanked from HBO Max will return to the merged HBO Max and Discovery Plus streaming service, whatever it ends up being called.

Who knows? Anything can happen.

Being truthful here, I hate this mass panic this news has brought on slightly. While it sucks people have genuinely lost their jobs (I'm not disputing that, but this is expected to happen from a merger), I just hate this mass hysteria that "Cartoon Network is dead!"

No, it's not dead, Twitter, calm down. This isn't 2004 when the channel completely changed from a checkerboard to two squares spelling out "CN", signifying the "end" or something. And in all fairness, hate is justified to a corporation like WBD, they've done stupid acts such as removing shows off streaming, but they've never taken shows completely off storefronts (barring a few exceptions, mainly in the AS field), they're greedy, but they're not selfish. Nor are they selfish enough to take down animation studios with the ship.

It's the one thing I mildly hate about Twitter, the fact that a rumour can spread to abhorrent and dangerous levels to which the public just automatically assumes the worst is inevitable.

And that's why I really hate Twitter in the first place.

I showed my mom the stories about Zaslav, and she brought up a good point. It is not just wb stocks going down but other stocks ever since the inflation started.

Well, you're not wrong.

Zaslav in only trying to save the studio by saving money. Zaslav is just a political scapegoat.

Well, to be fair, I wouldn't even hate Zaslav so much if he actually cares about kids and family entertainment way before he got his hands at Warner Bros.

 

[DogBoneController]

No, it's not dead, Twitter, calm down.

I don't think anyone is saying it's dead. It's just that any remaining autonomy CN had from WB is gone now. CN's Third Street office in Burbank is living on borrowed time before they inevitably move to the WB lot a few miles away.

I showed my mom the stories about Zaslav, and she brought up a good point. It is not just wb stocks going down but other stocks ever since the inflation started. Zaslav in only trying to save the studio by saving money. Zaslav is just a political scapegoat.

The problem is Zaslav is overplaying his hand and making things worse. There was no reason to write Batgirl off considering the money they saved wasn't anywhere close to what they need to pay down debt. Not helping matters was how much previous owner AT&T cooked the numbers to make Warner's results look better than they really were.

 

[ThePharaohZ]

In my 20 years, I have never seen a bigger mess than the WBD merger.

 

[CNCN2014]

I don't think anyone is saying it's dead.

Some YouTubers and article writers beg to differ.

 

[Peter Paltridge]

Some YouTubers and article writers beg to differ.

YouTubers know nothing. Anyone can get that job. Trust actual sources.

 

[cartoonnetworkpoke]

Being truthful here, I hate this mass panic this news has brought on slightly. While it sucks people have genuinely lost their jobs (I'm not disputing that, but this is expected to happen from a merger), I just hate this mass hysteria that "Cartoon Network is dead!"

No, it's not dead, Twitter, calm down. This isn't 2004 when the channel completely changed from a checkerboard to two squares spelling out "CN", signifying the "end" or something. And in all fairness, hate is justified to a corporation like WBD, they've done stupid acts such as removing shows off streaming, but they've never taken shows completely off storefronts (barring a few exceptions, mainly in the AS field), they're greedy, but they're not selfish. Nor are they selfish enough to take down animation studios with the ship.

It's the one thing I mildly hate about Twitter, the fact that a rumour can spread to abhorrent and dangerous levels to which the public just automatically assumes the worst is inevitable.

Still though, I'm glad CNS is staying, albeit with a more streamlined workforce, which may be good for collaboration down the line, but probably not right now as the company tries to recoup their losses and find new employees to fill the boots their ex-employees left.

If only all those people who are complaining on twitter and social media could have the same energy to watching cartoon network right now. I bet majority of people complaining about CN don't even watch the channel like that anymore.

Some YouTubers and article writers beg to differ.

Lol some of those youtubers are to blame for the state CN is in my view as well. Instead of making multiple videos about TTG for the past few years they could've done videos to promote other shows the channel was showing but oh well.

 

[Checkerboard]

https://www.ign.com/articles/adult-swim-bipoc-creators-and-more-under-threat-from-latest-warner-bros-cuts?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook

This doesnt help.

 

[[classic swim]]

I do believe it’s important to be as vigilant and responsible as you possibly can when going over news like this.

I’m trying to get a little better about that myself in my day-to-day just observing.

Outsiders are going to have negative responses no matter what. We’re the general public. It just comes with the territory.

I’m finding folks like Cartoon Brew to be the real snake oil salesmen at the moment.

Some of the anger is justified! People have the right to express their disdain whether they have the credentials or not.

The panic does however only add to the already existing stress.

All sides in this should continue to be upset. We just gotta strive to be more cautious as well.

 

[VG_Addict]

OK, what more has to happen for Zaslav to get fired? He's shown himself to be completely incompetent. Stop him before he does any more damage to WarnerMedia.

Zaslav is worse than Stuart Snyder. YEAH, I SAID IT. At least Snyder was doing what he thought was best for Cartoon Network, even if it was completely misguided. Zaslav seems to be actively TRYING to tank WarnerMedia.

 

[cartoonnetworkpoke]

OK, what more has to happen for Zaslav to get fired? He's shown himself to be completely incompetent. Stop him before he does any more damage to WarnerMedia.

I know everyone hates him but the issue is AT&T has mismanaged this company so much. Zaslav is just tryna make sure that everything is in the green and doing damage control to what AT&T did.

 

[lowell]

Think it would be cheaper to sell the both of them and buy out one big building?

Also, someone on Twitter mentioned that the laid-off staff will make it harder for the crewmembers to produce their shows as it would mean crunch time for them all. That would give them the right to strike under those kinds of conditions. Unless of course, they decide to hire independent animators and such from all over the country for half the pay.

The Warner lot is actually expanding so wouldn’t be surprised if Zaslav moves everything from downtown Burbank into the new buildings:

Warner Bros. Expanding Burbank Studio With New Buildings

Warner Bros. has unveiled a major expansion plan with two Frank Gehry-designed office buildings adjacent to its main lot.

variety.com

This is already the plan in Atlanta with CNN eventually moving from the recently sold CNN Center onto the WarnerMedia Techwood campus.

I would expect Zaslav to look at selling the real estate assets soon in order to help pay off the debt.

 

[mqg96]

I'm not sure if this is like that time Hanna-Barbera became defunct & merged with Warner Bros Animation in 2001, or that time when Nickelodeon Studios shutdown in 2005. Is it a combination of both? I'm not 100% sure on this.

But either way, from what I'm hearing, if Warner Bros & Cartoon Network studios merging together, along with the ppl in the studios losing their jobs, is going to force Cartoon Network to make the drastic changes it needs to. Then I'm okay with this news. But if not, then I have every reason to be concerned.

I'm looking at it from a different perspective than the ones who are panicking. I haven't seen Cartoon Network thrive with fresh original cartoons since the early to mid 2010's. So we'll see where the company goes from here.

 

[lowell]

I'm not sure if this is like that time Hanna-Barbera became defunct & merged with Warner Bros Animation in 2001, or that time when Nickelodeon Studios shutdown in 2005. Is it a combination of both? I'm not 100% sure on this.

But either way, from what I'm hearing, if Warner Bros & Cartoon Network studios merging together, along with the ppl in the studios losing their jobs, is going to force Cartoon Network to make the drastic changes it needs to. Then I'm okay with this news. But if not, then I have every reason to be concerned.

I'm looking at it from a different perspective than the ones who are panicking. I haven't seen Cartoon Network thrive with fresh original cartoons since the early to mid 2010's. So we'll see where the company goes from here.

The leadership structure is similar to Lasseter and Catmull when they oversaw WDAS & Pixar together.

The funny thing is Warner doesn’t actually have an actual theatrical animation studio anymore so technically Zaslav should be making WB Animation take that spot and have Cartoon Network Studios be the flagship TV animation studio.

 

[Perla Magica]

I don't believe in anything that Cartoon Brew wrote in a single article, people blindly believe in every word from that website about CN Studios being doomed while one person who works on the said studio assumes that CN Studios is not going to close down.

For me, as a long-time CN fan I would like to wait for more offical sources about the future than an article with false inside information.

 

[cartoonnetworkpoke]

I don't believe in anything that Cartoon Brew wrote in a single article, people blindly believe in every word from that website about CN Studios being doomed while one person who works on the said studio assumes that CN Studios is not going to close down.

For me, as a long-time CN fan I would like to wait for more offical sources about the future than an article with false inside information.

Yep even though things have been kinda bad. A lot of people are just looking for clicks and views on their youtube or twitter page.