This is the week of the Annecy animation festival, which means we’re receiving a ridiculous amount of news relevant to this site right now…but the largest is the multi-pronged announcement from Warner Discovery regarding the future of Cartoon Network Studios, Warner Bros. Animation and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe (formerly Cartoon Network Studios Europe). The panel was 75 minutes in length and though no real footage has been released from it, here are all the important details.
CN is betting big on Dexter’s Lab and Primal creator Genndy Tartakovsky (as they should). They have signed an exclusive, multiyear cross-studio deal with the man where he will create content JUST for CN and WB Animation. Since 2020 he’s been working on “Unicorn: Warriors Eternal” for WB, and there was still no mention at Annecy on when we could expect that show. But there’s a whole lot more coming after that!
We learned more about Fionna and Cake, the Adventure Time spinoff coming to HBO Max and CN. The first publicly-released image from the series was shown before the crowd (and no photos were allowed, so it’s not online). The series begins in “an alternative world where there is no magic and [Fionna and Cake] can’t remember their lives or adventures.” CN head Sam Register also mentioned this series will be aimed at a slightly older audience than the original Adventure Time was.
Ben Bocquelet showed up to tease the return of Gumball, in a fashion very reminiscent of the show. He said he had a page from the screenplay for the Gumball movie, as well as style guides and other behind-the-scenes content, but everything that appeared onscreen was covered in black bars and pixelated censorship. For the film, Bocquelet promised “new animation techniques that, to my knowledge, had never been used…before,” but it’s hard to tell if this is another joke.
More footage was shown from Velma, the upcoming adult take on Scooby-Doo, and it was just as gruesome as that infamous decapitation drawing that was passed around a few weeks ago. It was revealed that Velma’s main concern is solving the disappearance of her mother. Hope nothing graphic has happened to her.
New projects based on WB’s classic properties were also revealed. A stop-motion take on Wacky Races is in the works at H-B Europe, and a Looney Tunes musical movie called “Bye Bye Bunny” was announced for the first time. The plot seems to be that Bugs wants to “retire,” but from what we don’t know. All he does is walk around, chew carrots and antagonize mean people — a sweet gig if you can get it. Why quit?
[Source: Variety]
