Disney/Hanna-Barbera Question

[Zen Man]

Is it true that at one point 'The Mouse House' was actually interested in acquiring all of H-B's assets? I remember the Disney Channel use to air old Hanna Barbera specials back in the 1980's and 90's; but does anyone have anymore information? Course Turner Broadcasting (and ultimately Warner Bros.) would wind up getting the rights to the Hanna-Barbera characters and film library.

 

[SF4Ever]

Is it true that at one point 'The Mouse House' was actually interested in acquiring all of H-B's assets? I remember the Disney Channel use to air old Hanna Barbera specials back in the 1980's and 90's; but does anyone have anymore information? Course Turner Broadcasting (and ultimately Warner Bros.) would wind up getting the rights to the Hanna-Barbera characters and film library.

As far as I know, highly unlikely- former Disney chairman Michael Eisner did rant at one time about how he missed out on an opportunity to buy the Hanna-Barbera library, just after Ted Turner purchased it. That's really too bad, because the Hanna-Barbera library, including a majority of Ruby-Spears programming, are now part of Warner Bros. animation library. Disney, however, does hold the rights to Ruby-Spears produced Lazer Tag Academy and although Marvel is now part of Disney, to some extent, 1967's Fantastic Four series might involve Disney, although the 1967 series, itself, is in Warner Bros. possession. Now, that being said, before the 1967 Fantastic Four series can be released on DVD, some sort of agreement has got to be worked out, between Warner Bros., who owns the TV series and Disney, who through Marvel, is responsible for the characters. This is a rather complex process, when it comes to TV cartoon series, based on licensed property. BTW, Disney Channel did air some animated Hanna-Barbera specials, before Ted Turner bought H-B. Yes, Disney, at one time, was interested in acquiring H-B, but balked. I was thinking, after missing an opportunity to acquire Hanna-Barbera, what if Disney bought rival Filmation, instead of Loreal Industries? Think about that.

 

[Eric B]

I surely have! I wished someone interested in animation would have bought them.
It seems they were always trying to be like Disney with the feature length films, in the beginning, and especially in the end (With even Snow White sequels).
Since Disney bought out DiC for a while, and DiC reminded me of Filmation (especially earlier on, and Filmation became very DiC-ish in adopting even the same background musician), that would have seemed to have fit what happened in real life.

 

[ToonEGuy]

Hmm, Mickey Mouse and Fred Flintstone?

As difficult as that is to picture (perhaps only because I'm so used to seeing the Hanna-Barbera characters associated with Cartoon Network or Universal Studios), the idea of it is quite intriguing. I do know that Disney Channel once showed The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones some time in the late 90's. Here's the proof of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPdKvCSQ1qM

 

[Zen Man]

Hmm, Mickey Mouse and Fred Flintstone?

As difficult as that is to picture (perhaps only because I'm so used to seeing the Hanna-Barbera characters associated with Cartoon Network or Universal Studios), the idea of it is quite intriguing. I do know that Disney Channel once showed The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones some time in the late 90's. Here's the proof of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPdKvCSQ1qM

Yeah that's what I was talking about. Would've been really interesting if Disney had actually bought H-B. I'd think H-B's animation would've been a lot more fuller under Disney; granted by the 1980's, H-B's animation had gotten significally better. They also would probably have been a lot more generous to the other H-B stars (i.e. Yogi Bear, Flintstones, Jonny Quest) instead of focusing on just Scooby Doo like Warner Bros. has.Though to be fair, Warner's has started showing some love to non-Scooby properties lately.

 

[Eric B]

The most natural merger would have been for MGM to take over HB. Tom & Jerry would have been reunited with the rest of the HB universe directly without Turner, and I imagine 90's productions such as the first movie and Tom & Jerry Kids might have been done better than under Turner productions.
(They probably would have at least received a much better 50th anniversary celebration than the little, easily missed and long forgotten TNT special that aired).

Back in the day, I had imagined the MGM/HB universe competing with both the more popular and fancied WB and Disney universes. With them being owned by either one or the other, it would lose its identity.
Modern HB productions would bear the MGM logo instead of the WB logo, creating a continuity of the HB universe from the MGM world HB came out of.

I would think also, aap would be split, with the LT's going back to WB, and the Popeye's going back to Paramount (viacom). Then, if UA had been split off from MGM and bought by WB (or just bought by WB in the first place), then the DFE films would be united with their LT/MM first-cousins.

Anyway, Disney and HB together would have been quite interesting.