Cartoon Network Studios is not shutting down, says Warner Bros.

On Wednesday, Warner Bros. TV Group laid off 82 staffers throughout scripted, unscripted, and animation divisions, a Warner Bros. consultant confirmed to Polygon. The firm will depart 43 of the at present unfilled positions empty. While the three model labels Warner Bros. Animation (WBA), Cartoon Network Studios (CNS), and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe will stay distinct, WBA and CNS improvement and manufacturing groups can be introduced underneath one division.

According to Deadline, Warner Bros. has additionally stepped again on its preliminary determination to shutter the Warner Bros. Television Workshop, which was designed to foster new expertise and supply a pipeline that many within the animation trade have cited as invaluable in serving to marginalized creators break right into a extremely aggressive area. The workshop can be moved to Discovery’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion unit.

These adjustments at Cartoon Network Studios come at a time when a few of its cartoons have already change into more durable to trace down and watch. The cuts additionally arrive on the heels of Discovery’s acquisition of Warner Media from AT&T. HBO Max and Discovery Plus are set to change into one streaming service in 2023. After taking on in April, CEO David Zaslav, who beforehand ran Discovery, pledged to chop $3 billion from the corporate, and he’s taken an aggressive method to get there.

Zaslav has made good on the promise, and primarily within the space of style leisure. In August, Discovery laid off 14% of HBO Max employees and canceled the Batgirl film. Later that month, beloved cartoons have been yanked from HBO Max, blindsiding the cartoons’ creators. Dozens of Sesame Street episodes have been taken off of the streaming platform, and different reveals have been completely eliminated — together with fan favourite OK Ok.O.! – Let’s Be Heroes, in addition to Infinity Train, which ran for 4 seasons and is not airing on Cartoon Network. (It can fortunately nonetheless be discovered on different streaming providers.) Other reveals like Summer Camp Island and Victor and Valentino nonetheless air on Cartoon Network, even for those who can’t discover them on HBO’s streaming service.

According to Variety, “output will remain the same,” following WNA and CNS consolidating — however the response from animation trade denizens and pundits has not been as optimistic. Cartoon Brew declared the studio “gone,” which impressed pushback from a Cartoon Network staffer. Polygon spoke to a Warner Bros. consultant who mentioned that CNS is not disappearing and that it nonetheless has many tasks in improvement. The actual query is how this joint division will set its priorities, which kind of relies on what viewers truly watch and what the corporate deems worthwhile.

Mostly, digging into every respective animation studios’ again catalog heightens the variations between the 2 over time — a distinction many people who grew up watching and obsessing over Cartoon Network’s numerous cartoon blocks might simply determine, even earlier than the consolidation and layoffs. It’s arduous to know the way these two studios will come collectively, particularly after these layoffs have left so many proficient staff jobless.

Warner Bros. Animation (WBA) created some actual gems, particularly within the Fifties-Nineteen Sixties, together with Tom & Jerry, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, and naturally, Looney Tunes. But over time, WBA has hewed to this acquainted system, kind of rehashing and rehashing its basic IPs and airing them on Cartoon Network. As a child I tuned in to observe variations of Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes, and Tom & Jerry. As an grownup I can nonetheless watch these equivalent characters — and not simply by way of reruns.

While Warner Bros. Animation’s imprint feels emblematic of the previous, Cartoon Network Studios has produced vital and ground-breaking reveals over the course of time which have additionally stood the check of time. Yes, there are reboots, notably of Cartoon Network’s extremely in style late ‘90s and early 2000s series, like Powerpuff Girls and numerous iterations of Ben 10. But there are also bangers and plenty of paradigm-shifting programming, from shows that cemented the all-girl action team (Powerpuff Girls, of course), to shows that took cues from anime, like Samurai Jack. And that’s not to say Cartoon Network’s Toonami block, which launched quite a few children within the U.S. to anime earlier than it captivated a Western viewers — and which aired Pokémon for a few years.

Image: Cartoon Network

CNS was additionally one in all few main animation studios to highlight queer characters within the 2010s — particularly sapphic romances — laying the groundwork for different animated reveals. Adventure Time, which debuted in 2010 and ran for 10 seasons, was solely not too long ago in a position to repay the “Bubbline” romance that sparked between Princess Bubblegum and Marceline; the 2 flirtatiously met in 2011’s “Go With Me.” Princess Bubblegum later sleeps in Marceline’s shirt, and the present’s 2018 finale seals the cope with a kiss. 2013’s Steven Universe would go on to change into one of the crucial beloved and influential modern queer cartoons with a solid of non-binary Crystal Gems, quite a few homosexual characters, and an exquisite marriage ceremony episode.

The regular trickle of LGBTQ+ animated tv that may now be discovered throughout streaming providers owes a lot to those Cartoon Network Studio titans. Warner Bros.’ personal Velma is a lesbian! This would have been unthinkable years in the past, whilst Hayley Kiyoko (referred to as “Lesbian Jesus” by her followers) portrayed her within the made-for-television movies that aired in 2009 and 2010.

Though CNS does nonetheless exist after this consolidation, layoffs nonetheless have very actual penalties. According to The Daily Beast, numerous the HBO Max executives laid off in August have been individuals of colour. Former Warner Bros. staff alleged to The Daily Beast on the time that this was due an ideological shift, with content material steered in direction of a much less numerous and extra “Middle America” viewers. Now we’re seeing adjustments at an animation studio identified for forward-thinking programming. How WBA and CNS will work collectively is an open query – in addition to whether or not unforgettable, envelope-pushing cartoons will stay a precedence at a conglomerate with a philosophy constructed on actuality leisure.