A new Boomerang streaming service will cost $4.99 a month, per an announcement from Turner Broadcasting this week. Shelling out the $4.99 a month will get you access to the full complement of MGM, Looney Tunes, and Hanna-Barbera cartoons in the Turner library, amounting to more than 5,000 titles. These were the shows that dominated Cartoon Network in reruns for several years and its spinoff network Boomerang for several more. They include:
- Looney Tunes
- Scooby Doo
- The Flintstones
- The Jetsons
- Jonny Quest
- Hong Kong Phooey
- Secret Squirrel
- Space Ghost
- The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show
- Yogi Bear
- Top Cat
- Wacky Races
- The Smurfs
- Herculoids
…and many, many more.
Historically, this is pretty significant. For decades, these were the shows that dominated cartoons on television (whereas Disney largely ran train in the theaters). Hanna-Barbera gave the likes of John Kricfalusi (The Ren and Stimpy Show), Andrea Romano (Batman: The Animated Series), and Fred Seibert (the What a Cartoon Show and Nickelodeon at large) either their first inspirations for what animation could do or their first big breaks. (Eds. note: John Kricfalusi, the creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, was accused of underage sexual abuse on March 29, 2018.) They also provided decades of source material for parody shows and sharply barbed homages from Adult Swim like Harvey Birdman, Sealab 2021, and Venture Bros. — which in turn gave career opportunities to the creators of current shows like Archer, Gravity Falls, Spongebob Squarepants, and countless others.
The Looney Tunes and other MGM properties probably left an even larger stamp. I can’t wait to throw on the classic cartoons directed by the likes of Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, and more. They built animation from the ground up and their characters—even the Looney Tunes—haven’t been shoved down audiences’ throats for the last 70 years in the same ways that Disney made a cash cow of the likes of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Decades removed from their context, I promise you much of their work will pop off your screen with the same energy. As Seibert previously told The Dot and Line — speaking about the inherent creative magic of the old classics: “As an adult, when I look Looney Tunes, I realize how much I didn’t understand, but it didn’t stop me from loving those cartoons.”
At $5 a month (or $39 a year), what more could anyone want?
Time Warner to Launch Boomerang Cartoon Streaming-Subscription Service for $5 Monthly
Thanks for reading The Dot and Line, where we talk about animation of all kinds. Don’t forget to ❤ this article and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
