Warner Brothers Creates "Think Tank" For New Animated Films

It was bound to happen. All the major Hollywood entertainment corporations are making formidable entries in the animated film competition in this decade except Warner Brothers, which hasn't done one thing right since 1998. For 15 years, their animated/family films have been either CG-live-action hybrids, poorly-marketed, veered too far into the uncanny valley, and/or are just poorly-received. It was only a matter of time when their heads realized they cannot earn enough if they don't step up their game too.

Execs announced yesterday that they developed a "think tank" hub of operations that get several big producers together to form its own line of animated films to compete with Disney, Dreamworks, and the like. The producers are John Requa, Glenn Ficarra, Nicholas Stoller (wow, The Muppets must've really made him a big name!!), Phil Lord and Chris Miller (now we know the reason for why they couldn't direct the Cloudy sequel!), Jared Stern, and Pixar-alum Doug Sweetland. Their first film in this plan is one we are already expecting: The LEGO Movie, which is more like a Batman movie only starring LEGO people, for 2014. That will be followed by 2 original stories: Storks, for 2015 which I assume will focus on the idea of storks delivering babies, and Smallfoot for 2016, the premise of which hasn't been revealed yet. This, along with what I hope are more great Looney Tunes CG shorts on the line of "Daffy's Rhapsody", gives Warner Brothers a brighter future.

edited 8th Jan '13 7:47:13 AM by kyun

Intresting.

WB has no idea what they are doing half the time, I look forward to watching all of these attempts crash and burn.

Yes, because negative outcomes are always correctly predicted.

I'm just going by what they've done so far. Unless they are completely dedicated to improving for the sake of profit, I don't see any of these going well.

I know. All I'm saying is that, you never know until the movies really come out. Who knows.

My concern is that Steven Spielberg, who was once Warner Brothers' biggest cartoon producer in the early 90's, left to start Dreamworks and produce his own line of new animated films that only had passing resemblances to what he used to head. Will these films reach the same level of popularity those reached? What does he think of this decision?

edited 8th Jan '13 8:20:26 AM by kyun

He probably doesn't care. He's at Paramount working on the Tintin movies now.

I notice you put an s at the end of the words "Tintin movie".

This is where I kill myself.

edited 8th Jan '13 10:11:36 AM by kyun

"Yes, because negative outcomes are always correctly predicted."

- You

Smallfoot's going to be about a small Bigfoot-like creature

Little Foot was already taken.

So was Small One.

Smallfoot just sounds like too many other titles of other stories.

With the myths of Bigfoot, and storks delivering babies (again, assumed premise), Warner Brothers must now have a boner for myths!

edited 8th Jan '13 11:59:48 AM by kyun

Isn't Time Warner this huge congolmerate anyway? There's gotta be some market where they've been able to compensate for their lack of successs in animated films

Some MegaCorp, huh? Can't even figure out how to exploit anything they own.

Yeah, The Looney Tunes Show turned out SPLENDIDLY. :P

If by splendid you mean pissing off every fan of the Looney Tunes out there, then we're on the same page.

Note the :P

Right Shota? We must be the few people who actually like the looney tunes show!

and There are - though the smarter of us are in the right to stick with the classics; myself being an example. Keep in mind on a personal note that THIS is coming from someone who DOES NOT want to live in the past with ANYTHING...

I don't see this going well for WB, especially if they aren't vying to be original, as it is, getting back on subject... May Pixar and Dreamworks get their acts together/continue to kick ass and put these unoriginals in their rightful place.

edited 9th Jan '13 6:16:55 AM by LostAnarchist

As horrible as it is, The purple rabbit and dumbass duck show is, somehow, actually popular. It's actually sorta revived the Looney Tunes franchise (though personally, I'd rather it die off completely than have something as bad as that represent it.) It's also a perfect example of why I think WB has no idea what they are doing.

Da wabbit ain't poiwpel anymo'!

@Lost Anarchist Seriously, what do you have to gain by calling yourself smarter by sticking to the classics? No need to insult fans of newer stuff, even we don't think it's perfect.

And I'm sick of the mentality that original automatically means better material. It's good to have a fresh perspective, but have a solid approach to the material. I'm not a huge fan of Warner Bros, but it's always interesting to open up the playing field.

edited 9th Jan '13 8:29:30 AM by blueflame724

I like that they tried to be new, but it bears barely any resemblance to the original. Its just sitcom characters that look like Looney tunes characters.

This interests me.

edited 9th Jan '13 11:08:37 AM by T4448eight

I thought of the Iron Giant, but Brad Bird has long escaped WB studios.

But I feel like the pure hatred for the new Looney Toons' show is loud enough to warn WB of what they're doing, unless they really are behind on the industry.

Well, what do people think of the CG Looney Tunes shorts? So long as they make them a little longer and they don't always rely on vintage recordings of Mel Blanc, they can take those to other great opportunities while still being relevant. You also know that test animation for the upcoming live-action movie with a CG Marvin the Martian is actually looking promising too. I can see all these announcements directed to a eventual, full-on, Looney Tunes CG feature someday.

It seems like the moment Brad Bird leaves a studio, he leaves a great film behind him that fans wish more of but he'll never grant.

edited 9th Jan '13 2:18:12 PM by kyun