Hanna-Barbera

Hanna-Barbera "From the creators of Tom and Jerry, comes all these wonderful cartoons." Founded: July 7, 1957 April 7, 2021 (as Hanna-Barbera Europe) Defunct: March 22, 2001 Headquarters: Jim Henson Company Lot (then Kling Studios), Hollywood, California (1957-1963) 3400 Cahuenga Boulevard West, Hollywood, California (1963-1998) Sherman Oaks Galleria, Sherman Oaks, California, United States (1998-2001) Key people: William Hanna (1957-2001) Joseph Barbera (1957-2001) George Sidney

"Hanna-Barbera Productions" was an animation studio that impacted and dominated television since it was founded in 1957 by William Hanna, Joseph Barbera and George Sidney.

On 7 April 2021, WarnerMedia, a predecessor to the current-day Warner Bros Discovery, announced that the studio "Cartoon Network Studios Europe" had rebranded it as Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe.

Why They Are Funtastic!

1. They were the total peak of television animation back then.
2. It was officially considered the world's very first major animation studio to successfully produce cartoons exclusively for television.
3. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who both worked together for the Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts at the Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer cartoon studio, were hugely successful to have founded this animation studio alongside George Sidney.
4. Great shows for the franchises, like Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, Wacky Races, Space Ghost and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. The show for the NBC network, entitled The Ruff and Reddy Show, was the very first series made by the company.
   • It also created shows based on franchises, which are not related to Hanna-Barbera, including The Smurfs.
5. Great memorable characters, like Yogi Bear, Boo Boo, Huckleberry Hound, Snooper and Blabber, Snagglepuss, Top Cat, Benny the Ball, Fancy Fancy, Choo Choo, Spook, Brain, Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble, Mr. Jinks, Scooby Doo, Ranger Smith, Touche Turtle, George Jetson, Atom Ant, Morocco Mole, Quick Draw McGraw, Augie Doggie, Doggie Daddy, Magilla Gorilla, Peter Potamus, So So, Baba Looey, Squiddly Diddly, Space Ghost, and more.
   • Others who fit the bill include Captain Caveman, Wally Gator, Hokey Wolf, Ding a Ling, Winsome Witch, Mildew Wolf, Paw Rugg, Maw Rugg, Floral Rugg, Grape Ape, Granny Sweet, The Biskitts, Yippee, Yappee, Yahooey, Blue Falcon, Dynomutt, The Banana Splits, The Teen Angels, Shazzan, The King, Clyde and Yuka Yuka.
6. Some of the shows use the laugh track for every episode, which is entertaining.
7. Many of their series, especially those from the 1950s, have a strong sense of humor.
8. It spawned films, books, toys, and all manner of other media becoming virtually ubiquitous as cultural icons.
9. The company was also produced some shows that were based on DC Comics, like Super Friends and The World's Greatest Super Friends, well as other properties like Fantastic Four and Pac-Man.
10. Speaking of which, some of the shows on Cartoon Network, like What a Cartoon!, Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, I Am Weasel, and The Powerpuff Girls were made by the studio during the 90s.
11. Since the studio was absorbed into their parent company Warner Bros. Animation in 2001, Hanna-Barbera can now do a revival company used to market properties and productions associated with the studio's "classic" works, such as Scooby-Doo and The Flintstones. Meanwhile, Cartoon Network Studios was a separate company that was now focusing on producing new shows that aired on Cartoon Network.
    • Ironically since WB owns Cartoon Network since 2019, due to new owners AT&T, they were ultimately bringing Hanna-Barbera and the Cartoon Network properties under one roof again for the first time in 18 years.
12. It's overseas animation units for many shows like Toei Animation, Rough Draft Korea, Sunwoo Entertainment, Big Star Enterprise, Saerom Animation, etc.
13. They have a wide range of iconic cartoony sound effects (a.k.a. Hanna-Barbera SFX) which became widely used in other shows such as Mickey Mouse Works and Harvey Girls Forever!, as well as other types of media to this day.
14. They even tried to handle live-action shows, such as The Banana Splits.
15. Like Blue Sky Studios, Sony Pictures Animation, and Illumination, their animations in the 1990s to 2001 has noticeably improved since instead of using limited animation, they used full animation that is energetic, as shown in Tom and Jerry Kids and The Addams Family (1992).
16. The studio saw a revival of the same name ever since Cartoon Network Studios Europe got rebranded in 2021, named "Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe" and still producing shows and films such as: The Heroic Quest of the Vailant Prince Ivandoe,

Bad Qualities

1. In the late 60s to mid-80s, their limited animation at their in-house studio became stilted and robotic. It came to the point where not much effort is being put into the action of cartoon characters, matching that of Filmation's style. Only a few classical animators from the Golden Age (ones that aren't inexperienced) had the knack of customizing poses according to the voice track.
   • Though to be fair, limited animation is a recurring problem problem found in every original television cartoons of the 1950s to the mid-1980s from every single animation studio of the time including Hanna-Barbera, due to the lower production budgets for television at the time. It's not until at least when Disney officially launched it's television animation studio in 1985 when television animation started being produced with higher budgets and higher production values similar to those of the Golden Age-era theatrical animation.
2. Some of the shows were either bad or mediocre, such as The Tom and Jerry Show (1975), Shirt Tales (1982), The Robonic Stooges, Godzilla (1978), Jabberjaw, Popeye and Son (1987) and Yo Yogi! (1991).
3. The theatrical film adaptations such as Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992), The Flintstones (1994), Scooby-Doo (2002), Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), and Yogi Bear (2010) weren't that good either.
4. They were notorious for constantly recycling elements from their previous works for other works such as plots, character designs, names, and especially animation and music scores.
   • They were also notorious for who plays a character; they put a whole series worth of voice actors in the credits for each episode, even if they had nothing to do with the specific episode in question. This makes identifying each voice actor a nightmare.
5. Some of their characters are forgettably cliched and generic, such as Quick Draw McGraw, Cindy Bear, Ruff, Reddy, Baby Puss, and The Great Gazoo.
   • Other bland characters include Yakky Doodle, Chopper, Shag Rugg, Tinker, Big H, Skids, The Cattanooga Cats and Glump.
6. Their Filipino subsidiary, Fil-Cartoons was very lackluster, due to the poor animation they did to other shows like The Ren and Stimpy Show in Season 1, and also for their poor work condition.
7. They have created some shows that were clones of Scooby-Doo back in the 1970s, such as Goober and the Ghost Chasers, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, Jabberjaw, Josie and the Pussycats, Speed Buggy, and many others.

Trivia

• Most of the shows we're currently aired on Boomerang and streaming on the Boomerang app and HBO Max.
• Despite this, Hanna-Barbera had a partnership with Screen Gems, a TV unit of Columbia Pictures, until in late 1966, when it was sold to Taft Broadcasting. In late 1991, the studio was purchased from Taft (by then named Great American Broadcasting) by Turner Broadcasting System. Turner merged with Time Warner (now as WarnerMedia) in 1996 and the studio became a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Animation, which Hanna-Barbera would absorb into before Hanna died in 2001. Barbera went on to worked for Warner Bros. Animation until his death in 2006.
• Most of the shows (mainly from the 1950s to the first half of the 1990s) were popular in many countries.
• Since Warner Bros. owns the company, many of the Hanna-Barbera characters have appeared in the comics published by DC Comics, as well as some shows and movies for either crossovers or cameos.
• Speaking of which, not all of some cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera were owned by Warner Bros. such as the following: Jeannie and The Partridge Family 2200 A.D., The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, Laverne & Shirley in the Army, Amigo and Friends, The Little Rascals: The Animated Series, the 1970 Harlem Globetrotters cartoon, Gravedale High, Capitol Critters, Pink Panther and Sons, The Adventures of Sinbad Jr., Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures, Midnight Patrol: Adventures in the Dream Zone, and most of the theatrical library.
• In 2021, Cartoon Network Development Studios Europe has renamed Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe as a homage to the studio's legacy. A show produced by the company is The Heroic Quest of the Vailant Prince Ivandoe

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