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Information about Warner Bros. Cartoons

Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was the animation division of Warner Bros. Pictures during the golden age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, Warner Bros. Cartoons was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoon short subjects. The characters featured in these cartoons, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig, are among the most famous and recognizable characters in the world. Many of the creative staff members at the studio, including directors and animators such as Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Tex Avery, Robert Clampett, and Frank Tashlin, are considered major figures in the art and history of traditional animation.

The Warner animation division was founded in 1933 as Leon Schlesinger Productions, an independent company which produced the popular Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated short subjects for release by Warner Bros. Pictures. Schlesinger sold the studio to Warner Bros. in 1944, who continued to operate it as Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. until 1963. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were briefly subcontracted to Freleng's DePatie-Freleng Enterprises studio from 1964 until 1967. The Warner Bros. Cartoons studio briefly re-opned in 1967 before shutting its doors for good two years later.

A successor company, Warner Bros. Animation, was established in 1980.[1] That company continues to produce Looney Tunes related works, in addition to television shows and feature films centering around other properties. The classic Warner Bros. animation studio is sometimes referred to as "Termite Terrace", a name given to the temporary headquarters Tex Avery and his animators were assigned to during Avery's first year as a Looney Tunes director.

History

1930 - 1933: Harman-Ising Productions

Main article: Harman and Ising
Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising originated the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated short subjects in 1930 and 1931, respectively. Both cartoon series were produced for Leon Schlesigner at the Harman-Ising Studio on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California, with Warner Bros. Pictures releasing the films to theaters. The first Looney Tunes star was the Harman-Ising creation Bosko, The Talk-ink Kid. In 1933, Harman and Ising parted company with Schlesinger over financial disputes, [2] and took Bosko with them to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. As a result, Schlesinger set up his own studio on the Warner Bros. lot on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. [3]

1933 - 1944: Leon Schlesinger Productions

The Schlesinger studio got off to a slow start, continuing their one-shot Merrie Melodies and introducing a Bosko replacement named Buddy into the Looney Tunes. Disney veteran Jack King was the studio's first senior director; the other early Warners directors included Earl Duvall, Bernard Brown (who also doubled as musical director), and Harman-Ising alumnus Isadore "Friz" Freleng.[4] In 1935, Freleng helmed the Merrie Melodies cartoon I Haven't Got a Hat, which introduced the character Porky Pig. [5] Duvall departed, and a new arrival at Sclesinger's, Fred "Tex" Avery, took Freleng's creation and ran with it. Avery directing a string of cartoons staring Porky Pig which established the character as the studio's first bonafide star. <ref name="TermiteTerrace" /> Schlesinger also gradually moved the Merrie Melodies cartoons from black and white, to two-strip Technicolor, and finally to full three-strip Technicolor between 1934 and 1936. The Looney Tunes would be produced in black-and-white for much longer, until 1943.

Because of the limited spacing conditions in the Schlesinger building, Avery and his unit - including animators Robert Clampett and Chuck Jones - were moved into a small building elsewhere on the Sunset lot, which Avery and his team affectionately dubbed "Termite Terrace" [6] Although the Avery unit moved out of the building after a year, "Termite Terrace" later became a metonym for the classic Warner Bros. animation department in general, even for years after the building was abandoned, condemned, and torn down.

From 1936 until 1944, animation directors and animators such as Freleng, Avery, Clampett, Jones, Arthur Davis, Robert McKimson, and Frank Tashlin worked at the studio. During this period, these creators introduced several of the most popular cartoon characters to date, including Daffy Duck (1937, Porky's Duck Hunt by Avery), Elmer Fudd (1940, Elmer's Candid Camera by Jones), Bugs Bunny (1940, A Wild Hare by Avery), and Tweety Bird (1942, A Tale of Two Kitties by Clampett). By 1942, the Schlesinger studio had surpassed Walt Disney Studios as the most successful producer of animated shorts in the United States. [7]

1944 - 1960: Warner Bros. Cartoons

In 1944, Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros., who renamed the company Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. By 1946, Avery, Tashlin, and Clampett had all departed, and the remaining directors - Jones, Freleng, McKimson, and Art Davis - carried on the Warner Bros. cartoon legacy. Edward Selzer was appointed by Warner Bros. as the new head of the cartoon studio, which moved to a larger building on the Sunset Blvd. lot in 1948. The following year Mr. Schlesinger died. Among the Warner Bros. cartoon stars who were created after Schlesinger's departure include Yosemite Sam (1945, Hare Trigger by Freleng), Sylvester (1945, Life with Feathers by Freleng), Foghorn Leghorn (1946, Walky Talky Hawky by McKimson), Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner (1949, Fast and Furry-ous by Jones), and Speedy Gonzales (1953, Cat-Tails for Two by McKimson). In later years, even more minor Looney Tunes characters such as Jones' Marvin the Martian and McKimson's Tasmanian Devil have become significantly popular.

After the verdict of the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust case ended the practice of "block booking", Warner Bros. could no longer force theaters into buying their features and shorts together as packages; shorts had to be sold separately. Theater owners were only willing to pay so much for cartoon shorts, and as a result the budgets at Warner Bros. Cartoons became tighter. Selzer forced a stringent five-week production schedule on each cartoon (at least one director, Chuck Jones, cheated the system by spending more time on special cartoons such as What's Opera Doc, less time on simpler productions such as Road Runner entries, and had his crew forge their time cards). With less money for full animation, the Warner Bros. storymen - Michael Maltese, Tedd Pierce, and Warren Foster - began to focus more of their cartoons on dialogue. While story artists were assigned to directors at random during the 1930s and 1940s, by the 1950s each story man worked almost exclusively with one director: Maltese with Jones, Pierce with Freleng, and Foster with McKimson. Art Davis' separate unit was dissolved in 1950, and he became an animator for McKimson.

With the advent of the 3-D film craze in 1953, Warner Bros. shut its cartoon studio down, fearing that 3-D cartoon production would be too expensive (only one Warner Bros. cartoon was ever produced in 3-D, Jones' Lumberjack Rabbit starring Bugs Bunny). The creative staff dispersed (Jones, for example, went to work at Disney on Sleeping Beauty, Maltese went to Walter Lantz Productions, and Freleng went into commercial work). Warner Bros. Cartoons re-opened in 1955 after the end of the 3-D craze, with the staff returning and moving into a brand new facility on the main Warner Bros. lot in Burbank.

By 1957, Selzer had retired, and John Burton took his place. Maltese, Pierce, and Foster all departed Warners for Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1958, leaving a new storyman, John W. Dunn, to come up with scenarios for all three directors.

During Burton's tenure, Warner Bros. Cartoons branched out into television. The Bugs Bunny Show was a package program featuring three theatrical Warner Bros. cartoons, with newly produced wraparounds to introduce each short. The program remained on the air under various names and on all three major networks for three decades, finally ending its long broadcast run on ABC in 2000. All versions of The Bugs Bunny Show included edited versions of Warner Bros. cartoons made after 1948, as all of the Technicolor cartoons produced before that year were sold to Associated Artists Productions in 1956.

1961 - 1969: The latter days of Warner Bros. Cartoons

David H. DePatie became the last executive in charge of the original Warner Bros. cartoons studio in 1961. The same year, Chuck Jones moonlighted to write the script for a UPA-produced feature titled Gay Purr-ee. When that film was picked up by Warner Bros. for distribution, the studio learned that Jones had violated his exclusive contract with Warners and he was terminated.

In late 1962, word came down from the main Warner Bros. executives to close the studio, a task DePatie completed by the end of the following year. The last cartoon produced at the original studio was Senorella and the Glass Huarache, directed by Freleng's former layout artist Hawley Pratt. Before the studio closed for good, McKimson directed the animated sequences for the 1964 Warner Bros. feature The Incredible Mr. Limpet.

DePatie and Friz Freleng started DePatie-Freleng Enterprises in 1963, and leased the old Warner Bros. Cartoons studio as their headquarters. In 1964, Warners contracted DePatie-Freleng to produce more Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, an arrangement which lasted until 1967. DePatie-Freleng moved to the San Fernando Valley in 1967, and Warner Bros. Cartoons re-opened for business at its old studio.

For two years, Warner Bros. Cartoons, with William L. Hendricks as production head and Bob McKimson as lead director, produced cartoons starring Speedy Gonzales, Daffy Duck, and new characters such as Bunny and Claude, Cool Cat, and Merlin the Magic Mouse. These shorts were released without much fanfare, and in 1969 Warners ceased production on all its short subjects and shut the studio down for good. The back catalog of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts would remain a popular broadcast and syndication package for Warner Bros. Television well into the 2000s, by which time it had reacquired the pre-1948 shorts it sold to A.A.P. in 1956.

1970 - present

With Warners' own animation studio closed, the studio had to resort to outside producers whenever new Looney Tunes-related animation was required. In 1976, Chuck Jones, by this time the head of his own Chuck Jones Productions studio, began producing a series of Looney Tunes specials, the first of which was Carnival of the Animals. In 1979, Jones produced new wraparound footage for a compilation feature of Looney Tunes shorts entitled The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie. The success of this film spurred Warner Bros. to establish its own studio to produce similar works, and Warner Bros. Animation opened its doors in 1980.

Warner Bros. Animation continues sporadic production of Looney Tunes-related specials and TV series to this day, the most recent being the Saturday morning action series Loonatics Unleashed. The studio's main focus is on original and licensed television programming; in this field, Warner Bros. Animation has had major successes with Looney Tunes-esque shows such as Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs, DC Comics-licensed shows such as and , and shows based upon other properties such as ¡Mucha Lucha! and Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo. The studio briefly delved into feature animation production from 1994 to 2003, although Space Jam (1996), a live-action/animation combination film starring National Basketball Association star Michael Jordan opposite the Looney Tunes characters, remains the studio's only financially successful feature.

The "Termite Terrace" Hall of Fame: Warner Bros. Cartoons staff, 1930-1969

Studio heads

Directors

Storyboard artists/writers

Layout artists/designers

Animators

Voices

Music

Filmography

Short subjects

Further information: Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1930-1969)

Feature-length films

Theatrical films

Live-action Warner Bros. features with animated segments

TV series

  • The Bugs Bunny Show and various spin-offs (1960-2000)
  • The Adventures of the Road Runner - produced as a pilot, not sold (1962)
  • Philbert - produced as a pilot, not sold (1963)

Notes

1. ^ Maltin, Leonard (1980, rev. 1987). Of Mice and Magic. New York: Plume/Penguin Books. Pg. 273.
2. ^ Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood Cartoons. New York: Oxford University Press. Pg. 164. ISBN 0-19-516729-5.
3. ^ Barrier, Michael (1999). Pg. 323.
4. ^ Barrier, Michael (1999). Pg. 324-328.
5. ^ Barrier, Michael (1999). Pg. 329-333.
6. ^ Maltin, Leonard (1980, rev. 1987). Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. Penguin Books. Pg.s. 229-230 ISBN 0-452-25993-2.
7. ^ "Warner Bros. Studio biography". AnimationUSA.com. Retrieved June 17, 2007.

References

  • Chuck Amuck : The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist by Chuck Jones, published by Farrar Straus & Giroux, ISBN 0-374-12348-9
  • Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons, Leonard Maltin, Revised Edition 1987, Plume ISBN 0-452-25993-2 (Softcover) ISBN 0-613-64753-X (Hardcover)

See also

External links

Warner Bros. Animation and Comics
Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies
Primary: Bugs Bunny • Daffy Duck • Porky Pig • Elmer Fudd • Sylvester • Tweety Bird • Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner • Foghorn Leghorn • Pep Le Pew • Yosemite Sam • Speedy Gonzales • Marvin the Martian • Tasmanian Devil
Secondary: Bosko • Buddy • Goopy Geer • Foxy • Happy Rabbit • Piggy • Beans • Michigan J. Frog • Petunia Pig • Henery Hawk • Rocky and Mugsy • Granny • Hector the Bulldog • Goofy Gophers • Cecil Turtle • Sylvester Jr. • Gossamer • Spike and Chester • Hippety Hopper • Marc Antony and Pussyfoot • Witch Hazel • The Three Bears • Hubie and Bertie • Claude Cat • Sniffles • Ralph Phillips • Beaky Buzzard • Willoughby • Charlie Dog • Pete Puma • Crusher • Count Blood Count • Private Snafu • Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf • Slowpoke Rodriguez • Merlin the Magic Mouse and Second Banana • Blacque Jacque Shellacque • Nasty Canasta • Cool Cat • Penelope Pussycat • Egghead Jr.
Comics and TV Shows: Honey Bunny • Wendell T. Wolf • Digeri Dingo • Daniel and Timothy Platypus • Lola Bunny • Melissa Duck • I.Q. Hi • Star Johnson • Queen Tyr'ahnee
Television Animation
Tiny Toon Adventures : Babs and Buster Bunny • Plucky Duck • Hamton J. Pig • Montana Max • Elmyra Duff • Dizzy Devil • Furrball • Calamity Coyote • Little Beeper • Gogo Dodo • Sweetie Pie • Shirley the Loon • Fifi Le Fume • Li'l Sneezer • Concord Condor • Byron Basset • Fowlmouth • Arnold the Pitbull • Barky Marky • Mary Melody
Animaniacs : Yakko, Wakko, and Dot • Ralph the Guard • Thaddeus Plotz • Dr. Otto Scratchansniff • Hello Nurse • Ms. Flamiel • Pinky and the Brain • Snowball the Hamster • Slappy Squirrel • Skippy Squirrel • Walter Wolf • Buttons and Mindy • The Goodfeathers • Rita and Runt • Flavio and Marita • Minerva Mink • Chicken Boo • Katie Ka-Boom • Mr. Skullhead
'Freakazoid!''
Histeria! : List of Histeria! characters
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways.
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Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., or Warner Bros. (pronounced Warner Brothers), is one of the world's largest producers of film and television entertainment.

It is currently a subsidiary of the Time Warner conglomerate, with its headquarters in Burbank, California.
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The Golden Age of American animation is a period in American animation history that began with the advent of sound cartoons in 1928, peaked during the mid 1940s, and continued into the 1960s when theatrical animated shorts slowly began losing to the new medium of television
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Looney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theatres from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and is Warner Bros. Animation's first animated theatrical series. The regular Warner Bros.
..... Click the link for more information.
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969. The series was produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions until 1944, when Schlesinger sold his studio to the Warners. The newly renamed Warner Bros.
..... Click the link for more information.
Bugs Bunny is an animated rabbit who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Warner Bros., one of which, 1958's Knighty Knight Bugs
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Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball" characters that emerged in the 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as
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Porky Pig is an Academy Award-nominated animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators (particularly
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Chuck Jones

Birth name Charles Martin Jones
Born September 21 1912(1912--)
Spokane, Washington
Died January 22 2002 (aged 91)
Corona Del Mar, California

Spouse(s)
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Isadore "Friz" Freleng (August 21, 1906[1] – May 26, 1995) was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros.
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Robert "Bob" McKimson, Sr. (October 13, 1910–September 29, 1977) was an animator, illustrator, and director best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros..
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Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros.
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For the professional golf player and broadcaster, see .


Robert Emerson "Bob" Clampett (May 8 1913–May 4 1984) was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes
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Frank Tashlin (born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, February 19, 1913 – May 5, 1972, also known as Tish Tash or Frank Tash) was an American animator, screenwriter, and film director.
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Traditional animation, also referred to as classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation, is the oldest and historically the most popular form of animation. In a traditionally-animated cartoon, each frame is drawn by hand.
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Leon Schlesinger (May 20, 1884 – December 25, 1949) was an American film producer, most noted for founding Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the golden age of Hollywood animation.
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Looney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theatres from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and is Warner Bros. Animation's first animated theatrical series. The regular Warner Bros.
..... Click the link for more information.
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969. The series was produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions until 1944, when Schlesinger sold his studio to the Warners. The newly renamed Warner Bros.
..... Click the link for more information.
Short subject is a format description originally coined in the North American film industry in the early period of cinema. The description is now used almost interchangeably with short film; either term is often abbreviated to short (as a noun, e.g. 'a short').
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Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., or Warner Bros. (pronounced Warner Brothers), is one of the world's largest producers of film and television entertainment.

It is currently a subsidiary of the Time Warner conglomerate, with its headquarters in Burbank, California.
..... Click the link for more information.
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (sometimes abbreviated to DFE) was a Hollywood-based animation production company, active from 1963 to 1981.

Origins

DFE was founded by Warner Bros.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1930s  1940s  1950s  - 1960s -  1970s  1980s  1990s
1961 1962 1963 - 1964 - 1965 1966 1967

Also Nintendo emulator: 1964 (emulator).

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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1930s  1940s  1950s  - 1960s -  1970s  1980s  1990s
1964 1965 1966 - 1967 - 1968 1969 1970

Year 1967 (MCMLXVII
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1930s  1940s  1950s  - 1960s -  1970s  1980s  1990s
1964 1965 1966 - 1967 - 1968 1969 1970

Year 1967 (MCMLXVII
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Warner Bros Animation

Subsidiary
Founded Hollywood, California, USA (1980) [1]
Headquarters Burbank, CA, USA

Key people Lisa Judson, President
Industry Television
Products television programs, direct-to-video motion pictures
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1950s  1960s  1970s  - 1980s -  1990s  2000s  2010s
1977 1978 1979 - 1980 - 1981 1982 1983

Year 1980 (MCMLXXX
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Hugh Harman (August 31, 1903 – November 25, 1982) and Rudolf "Rudy" Ising (August 7, 1903 – July 18, 1992) were an American animator/film director/film producer team best known for founding the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation studios.
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Hugh Harman (August 31, 1903 – November 25, 1982) and Rudolf "Rudy" Ising (August 7, 1903 – July 18, 1992) were an American animator/film director/film producer team best known for founding the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation studios.
..... Click the link for more information.
Hugh Harman (August 31, 1903 – November 25, 1982) and Rudolf "Rudy" Ising (August 7, 1903 – July 18, 1992) were an American animator/film director/film producer team best known for founding the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation studios.
..... Click the link for more information.


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