Just so weird that Warner Brothers considers its association with great artistic achievement and beloved entertainment a dark secret from their past. - ThreadSky

frankconniff.bsky.social • 3 days ago

Just so weird that Warner Brothers considers its association with great artistic achievement and beloved entertainment a dark secret from their past.

Reposted from ToonHive

The entirety of ‘Looney Tunes’ has been removed from Max.

Comments

kurtweldon.bsky.social•3 days ago

Collaborator and I had a pitch meeting with WB Animation around 2006 - we were told they were only interested in Batman, and Scooby-Doo. 8 years or so and a regime change or two later we tried again. We were told they were only interested in Batman, and Scooby-Doo

Sounds like that is still the case

flyingsquid.bsky.social•3 days ago

And a Looney Tunes feature film just debuted. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing at WB.

craftyang.bsky.social•3 days ago

This is why we've been cutting streaming services and buying physical media as we can afford it. We dropped Max, Netflix, and Prime. They keep removing titles we love, anyway, so no loss.

vrpj.bsky.social•3 days ago

My Laserdisc player and Looney Tunes discs are in our storage unit. No… They’ll probably stay there.

colin-holmes.bsky.social•3 days ago

I've been watching with my five year old and was heartbroken to log in today and see that they were gone

dylanroth.bsky.social•3 days ago

It’s no 90 Day Fiancée

rlgrey.bsky.social•3 days ago

Are we sure this isnt just a license deal thing? Likewhen the "Star Trek" movies weren't available on Paramount+ for a while.

electrogoth.bsky.social•3 days ago

Jack Warner also absolutely didn't care about Looney Tunes. The history of the TV rights to these shorts is crazy considering how much we think of them as priceless culture now. KaiserBeamz on YouTube made a great multipart history documentary all about the entire history of Looney Tunes.

cheerijessie.bsky.social•3 days ago

Oh yes! The Merrie History of Looney Tunes is a fantastic series
and yes, WB's disregard for the franchise does feel historically on-brand, sadly

peanutbcrunch.bsky.social•3 days ago

While the recently announced bluray certainly isn't nothing, the way they have to outsource the Merry Melodies/Looney Tunes wins to outside parties...

peanutbcrunch.bsky.social•3 days ago

Also, in its own strange way, the shorts presumably moving to Tubi for a few months would make them more accessible than behind a subscription paywall would. Then again again, the fact that wouldn't kick in until next month, leaving the shorts floating in the ether when the movie is out.

missrori.bsky.social•3 days ago

Disney isn’t much better - part of the corporate reasoning behind their current craze for remaking animated features as CGI fests is that, supposedly, teens/adults don’t /won’t appreciate the originals as anything more than children’s films. They love the stories but don’t want to watch animation.

worldswerth.bsky.social•3 days ago

Many of those cartoons are available on blu-ray.
Looney Tunes were among the best comedy written in the 20th century.
Alas, 80-year-old cartoons aren't as popular as new cartoons.
https://looneytunes.fandom.com/wiki/Looney_Tunes_Platinum_Collection

jedigarcia.bsky.social•3 days ago

Let's take the concept of an expletive deleted, and let it instead inhabit a headspace of exponential multiplication.

That should suffice to illuminate my position on the subject.

eddiejc1.bsky.social•2 days ago

I'd like to make a modest proposal. A hundred years ago, an innovative filmmaker sought to make an adaptation of Bram Stoker's "Dracula", but he made it anyway, changing the names of the characters and never using the word "Dracula" at all. (1)

eddiejc1.bsky.social•2 days ago

It didn't work. Bram Stoker's widow sued and shut down any screenings of the film she could find. Furthermore, whenever she DID find a cinema showing this film, she made sue to have the prints burned. (2)

eddiejc1.bsky.social•2 days ago

The only reason that today we are able to see F.W. Murray's "Nosferatu" is that people illegally went against the wishes of Stoker's estate and preserved this movie, whose recent remake may be the best adaptation of "Dracula" ever filmed. (3)

eddiejc1.bsky.social•2 days ago

In other words, piracy can be film preservation. (4)

eddiejc1.bsky.social•2 days ago

If Zaslav is going to treat WB's Looney Tunes cartoons the exact same way he has treated every other animated series he has cancelled---not allowing another streaming platform to have it or even make a physical release, it is our DUTY not to let these treasures rot in WB's water tower (5)

hallenbeck77.bsky.social•2 days ago

At least the DVDs are still available; even those early batches from the Golden Collection (2007-2008) have been reissued in recent years, and there's a new set this summer.

I'm curious if the infamous "Censored Eleven" will ever see the light of day as an official release.

eddiejc1.bsky.social•2 days ago

This is NOT something I would advocate if WB was run by someone who valued these cartoons and wanted them preserved for future generations. That is NOT the case anymore. (6)

eddiejc1.bsky.social•2 days ago

People who still have working DVD collections of these cartoons need to burn these onto hard drives, and then make more copies onto fresh discs. (6)

eddiejc1.bsky.social•3 days ago

Just found physical proof of how deeply woven into American culture Looney Tunes have become.

mralanspencer.bsky.social•3 days ago

Probably because the characters mock authority and corporate power.

eddiejc1.bsky.social•3 days ago

I wish it were that simple, but I honestly think Zaclav hates cartoons. I suspect the reason that "The Day The Earth Blew Up " did get deleted like "ACME vs. Coyote" is that or some reason Zaclav COULDN'T do it.

mralanspencer.bsky.social•3 days ago

Actually, your contention is the simple one. Mine gives credit for sentience which is probably a mistake.

jasonrwickersty.bsky.social•3 days ago

My Dad passed away last summer, and I've been cleaning out the house I grew up in. We had LOTS of VHS tapes, both stuff we taped off TV and ones we bought. At first I thought to unload all the bought ones, but now I'm keeping everything. Weird it feels turning back to VHS and DVD is resistance.

jasonrwickersty.bsky.social•3 days ago

Long live physical media!

theragingcelt.bsky.social•3 days ago

Joe Dante's using a Ouija Board to contact Chuck Jones to bring about a cleansing fire.

awholeskeptic.bsky.social•3 days ago

They'll take my DVDs when they pry them from my cold dead fingers.

ctkatz.bsky.social•3 days ago

circulate the tapes!

robbykarol.bsky.social•3 days ago

Apparently a lot of stuff is getting moved to Tubi. So I guess it is a licensing thing, but it's still a really stupid move to move it off of your subscription-based platform onto the free ad-supported site you don't have any ownership interest in!

billdg.bsky.social•3 days ago

Just move it all to YouTube where we all can enjoy it!

littleangus.bsky.social•3 days ago

Zaslav hates anything scripted.

ptcurley.bsky.social•3 days ago

Such an own goal.

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