Professor Tom Sito informs us:
Jan 28, 1930 - Warner Brothers Cartoons Born.
Leon Schlesinger, the head of Pacific Art and Title, signed a deal with several unemployed Disney animators who had left Walt to form their own studio to draw Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but had been stiffed by their contacts.
Leon Schlesinger had connections with the Warner Bros. since he helped them get funding for the 'Jazz Singer'. They created Leon Schlesinger's Studio Looney Tunes, in imitation of Disney's Silly Symphonies. Their first character was Bosko, but eventually they would create Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Pepe LePew and more.
The Warner brothers purchased Schelsinger's studio during World War II. Unlike Walt Disney, the Warners never regarded animation as anything but a side line, and allowed a bunch of early Warns shorts to fall into the public domain.
Also unlike Disney, Warner Bros. has gotten in and then out of the animation biz through the years.
WB Cartoons downsized in the early sixties and disappeared entirely in 1969. Relaunched as Warner Bros. Animation in 1980, it has been a presence in the making of cartoons ever since, but its potency has ebbed and flowed. WBA was little more than a cipher until the 1990s, when it plunged into animated series for TV in a major way.
Warner Bros. Animation has been a major player ever since, and today has close to a dozen series in work. Theatrical features, however, are something else again. In the 1990s, Warners launched Warner Bros. Feature Animation, but after a servies of under-performers (one of being the iconic Iron Giant) the division closed its doors. Today, Time-Warner is again in the feature animation business with Warner Animation Group (WAG). How it will fare over the next few years is really anyone's guess. To date, its track record is spotty.
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