7 groundbreaking shows that defined the WB Animation renaissance
The recent decision by Warner Bros. Discovery to purge HBO Max of both dozens of beloved animated series and a number of ones in development was a sting. Regardless of whether it made sense financially (and the jury’s certainly out on that), it was unequivocally a disappointment in comparison to the treatment Warner Bros. has historically given to animated series. There was an era when the company was producing a stellar lineup of televised cartoons good enough to match any other in history.
Thirty years after the debut ofBatman: The Animated Series, perhaps the most consistently lauded American animated series of all time, let’s look back at the Warner Bros. animation renaissance that occurred in the early ’90s. Bolstered in confidence and resources after a few uneven decades, the studio quickly turned things around with a string of hits like…
When it comes to animation in America, the company to beat has always been Disney. However, not even Disney was safe during the ’60s and ’70s, the same years Warner Bros. saw their Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck fall off the payroll. But by the late ’80s/early ’90s, the Disney revival had begun in earnest, with films like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast and the Disney Afternoon block with DuckTales and TaleSpin granting Disney its powerhouse status once again. This was what Warner Bros. aimed to compete with… and it had Steven Spielberg’s help.
Joining with Spielberg’s Amblin Television division gave Warner Bros. extra resources and clout. Spielberg, along with tireless producers and executives like Tom Ruegger and Jean MacCurdy, worked to reinvent the Looney Tunes brand with Tiny Toon Adventures. New characters were introduced, though they were obviously ones based on
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