Cartoon Network Studios

Cartoon Network Studios, formerly known as Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. is a cartoon animation studio founded by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera that has produced television cartoons for over forty years.

Quality controversy

The Hanna-Barbera studio has been accused of contributing to the decrease in quality of animation and TV cartoons from the 1960s through the 1980s. This relates to their being one of the first studios to do animated cartoons for television and dealing with constrained budgets. The perception of cartoons as a "kid's medium" made them a low priority for television executives. For example, one 22-minute (30 minutes with commercials) episode of Josie and the Pussycats in 1970 had the same budget--$45,000--as one 8-minute Tom and Jerry short from the late-1940s. Such budgetary constraints demanded a change in production values.

Related Topics:
1960s - 1980s - Commercials - Josie and the Pussycats - 1970 - Tom and Jerry - 1940s

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Hanna-Barbera introduced limited animation, popularized in theatrical animation by UPA, on the television series The Ruff & Reddy Show as a way of reducing costs. This led to a reduction in animation quality. The studio's solution to the resulting criticism was to go into features, producing both higher-quality versions of their TV cartoons (Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! in 1964, The Man Called Flintstone in 1966), and Jetsons: The Movie in 1990) and adaptations of other material (Charlotte's Web in 1973 and Heidi's Song in 1982).

Related Topics:
Limited animation - UPA - Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! - 1964 - The Man Called Flintstone - 1966 - 1990 - Charlotte's Web - 1973 - Heidi's Song - 1982

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The field of animation reached its low point in the mid-1970s, even as the audience for Saturday morning cartoons was at its peak. The strong focus on scripting and dialogue that had carried the earlier cartoons was more-or-less gone by 1973, as the studio's output had increased to the point that story quality had to take a backseat to production output. By this time, most Hanna-Barbera shows had degenerated into variations on but a few themes, with each successful formula (The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, SuperFriends) milked dry through repetition. Various animation short-cuts became unfortunate Hanna-Barbera trademarks, such as plots being advanced by characters seen only as "talking heads," and crashes and disasters happening just off the frame, heard but not seen, as sound effects. The soundtracks rather than the visuals carried the majority of the plot and humor of the cartoons. This era of H-B animation is skewered in many of Robert Smigel's "TV Funhouse" segments on Saturday Night Live.

Related Topics:
1973 - The Flintstones - Scooby-Doo - SuperFriends - Sound effects - Robert Smigel - TV Funhouse - Saturday Night Live

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