I’m not going to sugarcoat anything, the animation industry has been going through it the past few months. Animated projects are getting canceled left and right, mostly for greedy tax write-offs, or to prevent having to pay hard-working animators the royalties they deserve. Infinity Train, OK KO, Uncle Grandpa, Victor and Valentino, and many more; all wonderful kids shows worked on by massively talented artists that are being shelved for extremely and solely corporate reasons.
What’s Going On?
There are many concerns that come with this latest decision on behalf of the Warner-Discovery merger. However, one of the biggest concerns facing me, as an artist myself, lies in preservation. A lot of these shows that are leaving HBO Max are not available on any other streaming platform, leaving a lot of them unwatchable unless you resort to pirating them. There are very little preservation efforts happening on behalf of these shows and within these companies. While sources say people are working on bringing some of these shows to different platforms to be streamed, the skeptic in me will only believe it when he sees it.
For now, there is no legal way to access these works of art. An art form that is severely underappreciated and often misunderstood by those not in the industry, a la Oscars “animation is a kid’s genre”, but an art form nonetheless. Art has an inherent right to be preserved, for the sake of education and the advancement of the medium itself. Think how paintings are stored in galleries and museums for the general public, including fellow artists, to stop and look as they please. Animation is no different, and it too has a right to be protected and stored accessibly. This way the public can easily reach it for their own use and engage in the beautiful medium that is animation.
For years, this protection has directly supported the animation industry, with at-home releases in the forms of DVDs and VHS tapes as well as reruns on cable television helping slowly boost profits and spread advertisement for projects. A good example is The Iron Giant, which flopped in theaters upon its original release due to a lack of good, solid marketing from Warner Bros. However, thanks to reruns on Cartoon Network and VHS tapes of the movie being sold, the movie gained back much of its budget and quickly became seen as an animated classic. (It’s also just a really good movie money aside, please go watch The Iron Giant.)
(Note: between the time it took writing, editing and publishing this article, The Iron Giant has also been taken off of HBO Max but thankfully is still watchable on Amazon Prime and Apple TV)
What Happens Now?
This streaming debacle has denied these works of art their right to preservation and will undoubtedly have an impact on the future of the medium itself. So many animated projects now exist in this weird limbo out in the unknown, and the only thing stopping them from falling into complete lost media obscurity is piracy. The people who worked on these shows now can’t turn on their TVs and witness their hard work. Aspiring animators can’t start watching these shows to study from and boost their own artistic practices. Average viewers who would love to engage with these beautiful works of art simply can’t. Is corporate greed seriously allowed to come before the inherent right for art to be displayed for engagement? What will our future look like, and where will these projects go if not on display?
I’m only a college student and don’t have any solid answers for these questions. All I know is that I’m hoping that the animation industry sees a change in the near future, for the sake of all the overworked, underpaid, massively talented artists who pour their hearts out for these projects and deserve way more money and respect than they currently receive.