Warner Bros. pulls hundreds of Looney Tunes shorts from HBO Max - The A.V. Club

Disney lobbied the national authorities to alteration however copyright instrumentality works to support Mickey Mouse, but implicit astatine Warner Bros. Discovery, they can’t adjacent beryllium bothered to support Bugs Bunny connected their ain streaming service. As of the precise extremity of 2022, 256 Looney Tunes shorts person been removed from HBO Max, covering everything from 1950 to 2004, which is astir fractional of what that the streaming work had erstwhile it launched. Older shorts from 1930 to 1940 are inactive available, but Vulture notes that the deleted cartoons see “What’s Opera, Doc?” (see above), “Rabbit Of Seville,” “Duck Amuck,” and “One Froggy Evening” (as if the decease of The WB wasn’t capable of an insult to the large Michigan J. Frog).

But wait, there’s more: HBO Max has besides pulled seasons 4 done six of The Flintstones, which amounts to 78 episodes, leaving lone the archetypal 3 seasons connected the level (where are kids expected to larn astir The Great Gazoo now?). Variety explains that these shows were licensed to HBO Max by Warner Bros. (once much for those successful the back: THAT COMPANY OWNS HBO MAX), but the streaming work reportedly decided not to renew those licenses (with ITS OWN COMPANY) to prevention money. That’s successful keeping with Warner Bros. Discovery’s crusade against animation and animators, with WBD brag David Zaslav having already gutted his company’s cartoon offerings earlier successful 2022.

Curiously, 1 of the archetypal places to drawback connected to this quality was a Twitter relationship called @thecartoonnews, a Twitter Blue relationship (take from that what you will) that someway abbreviates its sanction to “CCN.” That relationship tweeted astir the Looney Tunes shorts being removed on December 31, which was correct, but earlier this week it claimed that the shorts were removed “temporarily owed to a attraction cheque to hole the photoshop titles” and that they “will beryllium returning to HBO Max soon.” A rep has confirmed to The A.V. Club that that portion is not true and that the shorts were removed connected intent and that they volition not beryllium coming backmost to HBO Max (or astatine slightest they won’t beryllium coming backmost “soon”).

All of that means that fractional of Looney Tunes and fractional of The Flintstones are nary longer disposable connected HBO Max and—as with astir things pulled from HBO Max—may ne'er beryllium disposable to watercourse anyplace again. Some HBO shows similar Westworld will beryllium licensed to other, ad-supported streaming services successful the future, but it’s unclear if Warner Bros. intends to bash thing with these discarded Looney Tunes episodes. (But hey, don’t archer Zaslav that immoderate of these are inactive disposable connected YouTube.)