Many beloved properties of Cartoon Network are about to disappear from Max as Warner Bros. Discovery continues to trim down their streaming library. Congratulations to Nickelodeon for winning the animation rivalry simply by letting us stream SpongeBob SquarePants.
When controversial WBD CEO David Zaslav assumed control of the WarnerMedia empire and its massive, culturally crucial portfolio of original TV shows and movies in 2022, he set the tone for his tenure by cancelling completed and well-screened films like Coyote vs. Acme just to earn tax write-offs and recoup some of the production costs. Very quickly, cartoon-loving Max subscribers and Warner Bros.-associated artists realized that Zaslav’s intention with the post-merger mega-company was to rein in its sprawling streaming library, cut down on animation and focus on pushing shows that are cheaper and quicker to produce, like numerous spin-offs of 90 Day Fiancé or a Harry Potter-themed baking competition.
Since cancelling Coyote vs. Acme, Zaslav has discontinued the classic cartoon streaming service Boomerang, nuked the entire Cartoon Network website and quietly scrubbed dozens of classic, beloved Cartoon Network shows from the Max library. In the most recent wave of cuts, WBD announced that shows like The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Ed, Edd, n Eddy, Teen Titans, The Looney Tunes Show and Static Shock will all leave Max at the end of 2024.
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As one cartoon fan pointed out, there’s a sad irony in the fact that, barely a year before Zaslav took over, Max was using all these shows to sell subscriptions:
After December 31st, the only remaining Cartoon Network shows on Max will be Adventure Time, Courage the Cowardly Dog and, contrary to the above graphic, The Powerpuff Girls. All three of those properties saw sequel projects produced by and released through Warner Bros. — the spin-off series Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake premiered in 2023 to rave reviews, Courage the Cowardly Dog fans loved the 2021 crossover movie Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog and the divisive Power Puff Girls reboot ran for three seasons starting in 2016 — so the logic behind the cuts seems to be to save potential franchises from fading into obscurity along with literally every other Cartoon Network series.
However, we shouldn’t take those three shows’ omission from the newest blacklist as a reason for optimism, as history tells us that Zaslav could simply be saving them for the next round of cuts. For instance, when WBD shut down Boomerang back on September 30th, they attempted to spin the move as cartoon-fan-friendly, claiming that many of the classic shows would migrate to Max where they could be streamed alongside Max’s other cartoon fare like The Amazing World of Gumball. On October 1st, Max removed The Amazing World of Gumball from its library.
With the immense Cartoon Network catalog on its last breath, fans should learn a lesson from The Regular Show and invest in physical media — we’d like to see Zaslav try and take away our Blu-rays.