David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, is on a mission to dismantle the animation legacy of Warner Bros. Pictures. The way he’s going about it feels vindictive, which is upsetting for fans at the very least and devastating at most.
Reportedly, WB is set to demolish Building 131 on its Burbank studio lot. This building was the final home of the original Warner Bros. Animation studio, operating from 1955 until it closed in the late 1960s. Countless animated shorts were created here, including titles like Robin Hood Daffy, Three Little Bops, Birds Anonymous, Tabasco Road, and What’s Opera, Doc?
A report claims the building is being torn down to make way for more base camp space for the numerous HBO shows filming on the lot. Currently, there are no plans to replace it with a new structure. The demolition is expected to happen soon.
The building was originally built for the animation department and opened in the Fall of 1955. An internal company newsletter, Warner Club News, features a glimpse of the building during its construction in 1955.
The choice to tear down this building follows on the heels of WB removing all classic Looney Tunes from its main streaming service, Max. The studio has also chosen not to release its last two completed Looney Tunes features—”The Day the Earth Blew Up” and Coyote vs. Acme—instead choosing to sell them to outside distributors.
Additionally, last year, WB vacated the Cartoon Network building in Burbank, merging Cartoon Network Studios into a division of Warner Bros. Animation. Sadly even the Cartoon Network Logo was sold off letter by letter. But could this lead to an opportunity in the area? With so much history perhaps they will choose to open a museum of sorts. It would have been cool to keep it in the official building, but with other work going on in the area it would probably be disruptive for creatives.
