Warner Bros: Isn't It Time To Bring Back Hanna-Barbera Properties?

With studios struggling to find new fresh ideas, more often than not they’re turning to classic characters, movies, and shows. Streaming has led the nostalgia charge bringing back properties from our youth to entice subscribers with comfort shows. Disney is going all-in on their own content including Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars but their main competitor as a studio, Warner Bros, doesn’t seem to match their effort. Warner Bros does have all the rights to DC properties and Looney Tunes but they’re missing out on some classic characters from the past, Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Isn’t it time to pull some of these fan favorites out of the vault on into the homes of a younger generation?

While WB has put the right amount of focus on DC movies and cartoons, they have barely put their eggs in any other basket. They’re already rebooting the Harry Potter franchise for a streaming television series, but what else are they doing? Space Jam 2 was the closest to new Looney Tunes content. Multiversus explores a full roster of properties for console gaming, but even then it’s spread thin. Why aren’t they exploring their vaults for fresh ideas on old properties?

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Hanna-Barbera had some of the best characters for Saturday Morning Cartoons. The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, and Scooby-Doo started with Hanna-Barbera and to this day are some of the more popular and iconic cartoon franchises. Then there are characters from the Smurfs, the Snorks, Jonny Quest, and so many more. It seems while they are developing a new Flintstones movie and constantly updating Scooby-Doo, the majority of these properties are sitting collecting dust.

There’s even a field to bring them to the gaming industry. With cart racing games being so popular, imagine Mario Kart-like game but they’re the characters from The Wacky Races show. Fox made a similar game with their animated properties from King of the Hill, Family Guy, and Solar Opposites. Disney is even getting on board with a Micky racing game. Warner Bros has the upper hand in this one as they could make it with simply the Wacky Racers, or create a massive roster with Looney Tunes, Warner Bros, and Hanna-Barbera characters.

They can even expand past a simple racer. Remember the Laff-a-lympics show where your favorite cartoon characters would have to compete in an Olympic-style event against each other? How fun would a movie or game like that be? It wouldn’t be hard to create. Some evil villain tries to take over the world and pits these characters against each other in one big family-friendly movie. As a game, people love to compete against each other and unlock their favorite characters. With a long list of characters, they have every shot at making a competitive game. They just have to find a way to bring these older characters to a new audience.

Whatever the case may be, Warner Bros is sitting on properties that could be making them money. Instead of hammering home the same 5 characters you’ve used for the past two decades, maybe it’s time they switch it up and bring back some forgotten favorites from Hanna-Barbera.