{"id":53286,"date":"2022-08-22T23:46:07","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T23:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/hbo-max-is-treating-animation-fans-and-creators-like-garbage\/"},"modified":"2022-08-22T23:46:07","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T23:46:07","slug":"hbo-max-is-treating-animation-fans-and-creators-like-garbage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/hbo-max-is-treating-animation-fans-and-creators-like-garbage\/","title":{"rendered":"HBO Max is treating animation fans and creators like garbage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Infinity Train<\/em><\/figcaption>
Image: HBO Max<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It’s telling that, when trying to analyze the current PR and talent disasters surrounding HBO Max, you have to start by getting specific about which one you mean. Are you talking about the destruction of almost fully completed films<\/span>, suddenly transformed from creative works into mere tax write-offs at the stroke of incoming CEO David Zaslav’s pen? the numerous layoffs<\/span> Afflicting the employees at the relevant streaming services as Warner Media and Discovery shed copious blood while jamming themselves together into an unholy new media conglomerate? The optical trainwreck of taking swipes at the Sesame Street <\/em>archives<\/span>which HBO made a lot of noise about treating as sacrosanct when they acquired the show seven years ago?<\/p>\n

But when looking, simply, for the largest number of well-loved pieces of art now being treated as little more than hard-used playthings by this big, multibillion-dollar baby, it’s hard to get more apocalyptic than Zaslav’s treatment of HBO Max’s kids and animated programs<\/span>. Over the last two weeks\u2014and framed as part of Zaslav’s efforts to cut $3 billion out of HBO Max’s operating budget before it merges with Discovery+\u2014the service has slashed almost 40 shows from its streaming roster. the vast majority of these shows weren’t licensed series that the service had to pay outside parties for; with a few exceptions, these were HBO Max originals, and the money-saving here appears to be primarily focused on residuals going out to the people who created these series. <\/p>\n

Said creators have been vocal over the last week about how these changes were communicated to them by Warner Bros. Discovery\u2014ie, with no communication at all. (In at least one case, a creator for one of the shows affected apparently learned about plans<\/a><\/span> for what was happening to her series from our <\/em>reporting, because Cartoon Network had reached out to us with info\u2014but not her.) Parker Simmons from Mao Mao: Heroes Of Pure Heart<\/em>Julia Pott of Summer Camp Island<\/em>Owen Dennis of Infinity Train<\/em>Stephen P. Neary of The Fungies!<\/em>Myke Chilian of Tig ‘n Seek<\/em>, Jennifer Skelly <\/span>of Little Ellen<\/em><\/span>\u2014<\/em>creators of well-loved series who had accepted, for years, low budgets and the always-present specter of sudden cancellations from Cartoon Network (where many of these shows originated, before being moved to HBO Max amidst Warner’s various mergers and restructurings over the last few years) are now opening up about this new low on Twitter, Twitch, Substack, and more.<\/p>\n

What creators are saying<\/h2>\n

Dennis\u2014whose Infinity Train <\/em>had been both critically lauded and embraced by audiences before it was quietly canceled by WarnerMedia last year\u2014has written a detailed piece<\/span> about what this process looks like from the point of view of the people actually making these shows. The picture he paints is of a thoroughly disorganized mess, as executives terrified of losing their own jobs botched the timing of explaining the cuts to anyone on the creative side. (Higher-ups appear to have pulled the trigger on the cuts before executives expected them to, throwing any chance of bringing those creators onboard before headlines started rolling in straight into the toilet.) Dennis does note that these cuts do note <\/em>appear to be part of the tax break situation that killed the Batgirl <\/em>and Scoob <\/em>movies\u2014although speculation that they’re about cutting residuals for creators, which help to pay things like health insurance for employees on the shows and which allegedly add up to some tens of million dollars across all the series affected, is only that: Speculation. (Zaslav, meanwhile, reportedly made $246 million at Discovery in 2021<\/span>a number that probably <\/em>hasn’t gone down now that he’s running the merged company. Just say’.)<\/p>\n

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