Company type | Subsidiary (2001-2023) Division (2023-) |
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Industry | |
Predecessor | Hanna-Barbera |
Founded | October 21, 1994 |
Headquarters |
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Key people |
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Products | |
Parent | Warner Bros. Television Studios |
Divisions |
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Website | Official website |
Cartoon Network Studios is an American animation studio owned by the Warner Bros. Television Studios division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. The studio is the production arm of Cartoon Network, and was founded on October 21, 1994, as a division of Hanna-Barbera, until the latter was absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation on March 12, 2001.
The studio primarily produces and develops animated programs and shorts for Cartoon Network and Cartoonito, and has also developed properties for Adult Swim and Max. The studio has produced dozens of shows, including Dexter's Laboratory , The Powerpuff Girls (and its film adaptation), Johnny Bravo , Time Squad , Samurai Jack , The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy , Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends , Camp Lazlo , Ben 10 , Chowder , The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack , Adventure Time , Generator Rex, Regular Show , Sym-Bionic Titan , Uncle Grandpa , Steven Universe , Clarence , We Bare Bears , OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes , and Infinity Train .
In 2000, the network purchased a large building in Burbank, California to serve as its headquarters. Cartoon Network Studios operated in these facilities for over twenty years, and also expanded into other buildings as well. In the 2020s, after multiple corporate mergers, the studio was consolidated into Warner Bros. Animation, and continued to operate as a separate division, although it was relocated to Second Century Development as the company's new headquarters on August 1, 2023.
In the 20th century, animation as a medium became popular on television. Hanna-Barbera became the premier studio for small-screen animated programs, launching a dominant series of Saturday-morning fare, including Scooby-Doo , The Flintstones , The Jetsons , and more. [1] By the 1980s, cable television was developed, [2] with businessman Ted Turner one of its pioneers. [3] Turner founded several cable channels and also acquired vast film libraries, and in 1991 his company signed a joint deal to buy Hanna-Barbera. [4] The Cartoon Network was developed as a cable outlet to air these animated properties, which largely consisted of H-B reruns. [5] As the channel grew in subscribers, executives at the Atlanta-based company sought out original programming to supplement its catalog. Other animation-heavy cable channels, including Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, founded their own in-house studios throughout the decade as well. [6] [7]
Cartoon Network Studios originated in 1994 as a division of Hanna-Barbera that focused on producing original programming for Cartoon Network. Hanna-Barbera had been located on Cahuenga Boulevard in Los Angeles since 1963, and housed the studio, its archives, and its extensive animation art collection. [8] Its first productions included What a Cartoon! (1995), an anthology series of short subjects serving as pilots for new CN programs. The first of these, Dexter's Laboratory , launched in 1996 and was an immediate success. The same year, Turner Broadcasting System was merged with Time Warner, and Hanna-Barbera closed its Cahuenga campus, relocating to Sherman Oaks Galleria in nearby Sherman Oaks, where Warner Bros. Animation was located. [9] Over the course of this transition, the Cartoon Network Studios branding was briefly phased out, with newer programs, including Johnny Bravo (1997) and The Powerpuff Girls (1998), opting for H-B branding.
On July 21, 1999, Cartoon Network officially started the studio to separate itself from the complete folding of Hanna-Barbera into Warner Bros. Animation. The network acquired a three-story 43,000-square-foot facility located at 300 N 3rd St. in Burbank, California to house its new offices, previously a commercial bakery, and prior to that, the location of a Pacific Bell telephone exchange. [10] [11] According to Cartoon Brew, the network spent around $1.2 million to renovate the building. [12] The network took counsel from its top cartoonists, Genndy Tartakovsky and Craig McCracken, on the site of its new studio, as well as design proposals for its offices. [13]
In March 2000, the network began to transfer its production offices, and on May 22, 2000, the studio was christened by veteran animator and animation advisor Joseph Barbera with a bottle of champagne. [14] The building's official opening came on August 24, 2000; former DiC and Nickelodeon employees Brian A. Miller and Jennifer Pelphrey were hired to manage the studio. [15] Mike Lazzo, then head of programming and development, [16] designed a pirate flag, with a skull bearing the channel logo in its teeth, that flew over the building for several weeks before local police threatened action over its lack of permit. [17] Its artists quickly took to its stairwell with doodles and other graffiti that filled over its twenty-year history; it was also home to a mural by artist Ian Anderson titled Mazeway to Heaven. [18] The first new productions at the new offices included Samurai Jack and Time Squad (both 2001).
In 2002, the studio 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. [19] [20] 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 [21] 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. [22]
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 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 [23] that was ultimately not green-lit as a series by that channel. [24] Cartoon Network picked it up later, and production of the show moved to Cartoon Network Studios. [25] The show ran until 2018 with 10 seasons and 283 episodes. A film was announced in 2015, [26] but in 2018 Adam Muto said that the film was never officially announced. [27] In 2019, a continuation, titled Adventure Time: Distant Lands , was announced for HBO Max with a release in 2020. [28] 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, the studio produced two reboots based on The Powerpuff Girls and Ben 10 respectively. [29] [30] Also, the studio produced its first television series based on a series of online shorts, Mighty Magiswords . [31]
In 2017, after plans as old as 2002 [32] for a film failed to work, [33] Samurai Jack was revived for a fifth and final season, which the studio returned to produce for Adult Swim, [34] to critical acclaim, [35] [36] 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 the adult animated series Close Enough for TBS, created by Regular Show creator J. G. Quintel. [37]
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. [38]
Cartoon Network Studios also began to produce content for parent company WarnerMedia's upcoming streaming service HBO Max, including Adventure Time: Distant Lands. [39] After the failure of its planned animation block, Close Enough was also shifted from TBS to HBO Max. [40]
In the 2010s, the studio began to outgrow its original building, and began to rent space in other facilities in the Burbank Media Center district. [12]
In August 2020, Warner Bros. Animation president Sam Register was appointed head of the studio. [41] Amy Friedman was named head of programming for Cartoon Network after Rob Sorcher resigned his roles as head of the studio and chief content officer, and switching to Warner Bros. Television Group for an overall production deal.[ citation needed ]
In 2021, Jason DeMarco was named SVP for Anime & Action Series/Longform for Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios, [42] and Cartoon Network Studios Europe was renamed Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe as a tribute to the original Hanna-Barbera studio. [43]
On May 11, 2022, after Tom Ascheim exited his role as president and departed, the Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics division was dissolved as part of a restructuring by new owner Warner Bros. Discovery, with its studios—including Cartoon Network Studios—moved directly under Warner Bros. Television. [44]
On October 11, 2022, Cartoon Network Studios and Warner Bros. Animation consolidated their development and production teams as part of a restructuring by Warner Bros. Television, with Audrey Diehl overseeing kids and family, Peter Girardi overseeing adult animation, and Sammy Perlmutter overseeing animated longform productions. The merger will not impact their output as labels, with Cartoon Network Studios continuing to focus on original content, and Warner Bros. Animation used for classic franchises. [45]
On July 9, 2023, Miller announced via Twitter that the Cartoon Network Studios Burbank building will close its doors on August 1, with all operations being transferred to Warner Bros. Animation as both CNS and WBA will be both moving to the new Warner Bros. Second Century building. While unconfirmed, Amid Amidi of Cartoon Brew reported its production teams will move to the Second Century Development, a pair of buildings with over 800,000 square feet of office space, [46] just adjacent to the Warner Bros. lot. [12] On December 5, it was revealed that Hollywood Production Center has moved into the CN Burbank building. Brian A. Miller revealed that HPC has always owned the building and Cartoon Network had a long-term lease on it. [47]
Hanna-Barbera was an American animation studio and production company, active from 1957 until it absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation in 2001, founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's decision to close its in-house cartoon studio, formerly headquartered on Cahuenga Blvd from 1960 until 1998 and at the Sherman Oaks Galleria in Sherman Oaks, both in Los Angeles, California.
Dexter's Laboratory is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network as the first Cartoon Cartoon. The series follows Dexter, an enthusiastic boy-genius with a hidden science laboratory in his room full of inventions, which he keeps secret from his clueless parents, who are only referred to as "Mom" and "Dad". Dexter is at constant odds with his older and more extroverted sister Dee Dee, who always gains access to the lab and inadvertently foils his experiments. Dexter has a bitter rivalry with his neighbor and classmate Mandark, a nefarious boy-genius who attempts to undermine Dexter at every opportunity. Prominently featured in the first and second seasons are other segments focusing on superhero-based characters Monkey, Dexter's pet lab-monkey/superhero, and the Justice Friends, a trio of superheroes who share an apartment.
Modern animation in the United States from 1987 to 2004 is widely referred to as the silver age of American animation. During this period, many large American entertainment companies reformed and reinvigorated their animation departments, following a dark age during the late 1950s to mid-1980s. During this time, the United States had a profound effect on global or worldwide animation.
Gennady Borisovich "Genndy" Tartakovsky is a Russian-American animator, writer, producer, and director. He is best known as the creator of various animated television series on Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, including Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Sym-Bionic Titan, Primal, and Unicorn: Warriors Eternal.
Warner Bros. Animation Inc. is an American animation studio which is part of the Warner Bros. Television Studios, a division of Warner Bros., which is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery and serves as the animation division and label of Warner Bros.
What a Cartoon! is an American animated anthology series created by Fred Seibert for Cartoon Network. The shorts were produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions; by the end of the run, a Cartoon Network Studios production tag was added to some shorts to signal they were original to the network. The project consisted of 48 cartoons, intended to return creative power to animators and artists, by recreating the atmospheres that spawned the iconic cartoon characters of the mid-20th century. Each of the shorts mirrored the structure of a theatrical cartoon, with each film being based on an original storyboard drawn and written by its artist or creator. Three of the cartoons were paired together into a half-hour episode.
Warner Bros. Television Studios is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of Warner Bros.. Since 2006, it is one of the two companies that serve as television production arms of The CW, alongside Paramount Global's subsidiary CBS Studios; it also serves as a television production arm of DC Comics and distribution arm of HBO, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim. Warner Bros. Television Studios has also produced shows for other networks such as Blindspot & Found on NBC, Person of Interest on CBS, The Cleaning Lady on FOX, Abbott Elementary on ABC, It has also produced series for streaming services, including The Sandman on Netflix, Ted Lasso on Apple TV+, The Peripheral on Amazon Prime Video and Mrs. Davis on Peacock.
Craig Douglas McCracken is an American cartoonist, animator, director, writer, and producer known for creating the Cartoon Network's The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Disney Channel and Disney XD's Wander Over Yonder, and Netflix's Kid Cosmic.
Sam Register is an American film and television producer, animator, and businessman. He is currently the president of Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe.
Van Partible is a Filipino-born American cartoonist, writer, producer, director, and animator best known for creating the animated television series Johnny Bravo.
Cartoon Network is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Cartoonito, Adult Swim, and Toonami under its purview. The channel is headquartered at 1050 Techwood Drive NW in Atlanta, Georgia.
Tooncast is a Latin American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its International division. It was launched on December 1, 2008; its programming consists of classical animation, both from Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network. The channel is a commercial-free service.
Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe Ltd., formerly Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe and Cartoon Network Studios Europe, is a British animation studio based in London and owned by the UK division of Warner Bros. International Television Production, a subsidiary of the Warner Bros. Television Group, the television business segment of Warner Bros. Discovery. It is the EMEA arm of Cartoon Network Studios.
Lawrence "Larry" Huber is an American television producer, writer, and animator who is known for his long history as a producer at Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears, and Nickelodeon. Huber began his animation career in 1969 while working on Hanna-Barbera's The Perils of Penelope Pitstop. He went on to work for Ruby-Spears for 15 years. Returning to Hanna-Barbera in 1990, Huber worked on 2 Stupid Dogs and Fish Police. He was hired by Buzz Potamkin to supervise production on Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons in 1995.
Robert James Alvarez is an American animator, storyboard artist, television director, and writer. Alvarez studied at the Chouinard Art Institute, which later became the California Institute of the Arts, graduating in 1971. He began his career as an assistant animator for the 1968 film Yellow Submarine. Throughout his five decades in the animation industry, Alvarez has developed an extensive resume. He has worked on hundreds of productions, mainly for television. He is best known for his work on multiple shows at Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network Studios, and has also worked at other animation studios, such as Disney Television Animation, Nickelodeon, Frederator Studios, and Warner Bros. Animation. His studio credits include, in chronological order, Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs, The Jetsons, G.I. Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, DuckTales, SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, Animaniacs, Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, Ben 10, Regular Show, and Adventure Time. He has been awarded six Primetime Emmy Awards and a total of 25 Emmy nominations for his achievements.
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