HBO Max takes yet another cruel buzzsaw to its kids programming library

Update, 8/18/21 at 2:05 p.m.: Cartoon Network sent us a statement this morning, noting that “Victor & Valentino and Summer Camp Island will continue to air on Cartoon Network.” Dates are TBD, but, “fans can look forward to the remaining new episodes of both shows on CN this year.”

Original story:

Another week, another revelation that Warner Bros. Discovery is taking a sharp and bloody implement to its HBO Max content library—and especially the animated and kids’ programming in the streaming service’s catalogue. This is per Deadline, which reports that 37 more titles are being stripped from the service, most of them either animated shows or reality TV. And while some of the affected programs are licensed shows that the streamer was simply distributing, a decent chunk of them were HBO Max originals or products of Warner Media’s various animation branches—including shows that are reportedly still in production, and were expected to broadcast new episodes next year.

Take, for instance, the case of Summer Camp Island, which was previously supposed to release its already-completed final season a few weeks ago, before suddenly getting hit with an order delaying it until 2023. Now, like a number of shows that originated on Cartoon Network before migrating to HBO Max to bulk out its content over the last few years, the series is on the list of shows being pulled from the service outright this week—leaving a massive question mark about where these 20 finished-but-never-released episodes of TV will air, if anywhere. Series creator Julia Pott expressed her dismay at the move (which she apparently learned about from the Deadline piece!) on Twitter today.

(See also fellow Cartoon Network translpant Victor And Valentino, which is in the midst of a third season on HBO Max—a streaming service it’s suddenly apparently about to get kicked off of.)

Even if this move—which we’re sure makes perfect sense if you’re a media executive who views TV shows as disposable building blocks to relentlessly rearrange in pursuit of the biggest possible tax break, or whatever—was only focused on great shows that have already ended their runs (Aquaman! OK K.O.! – Let’s Be Heroes! The beautiful, thoughtful, bizarre Infinity Train!), this would still be a bummer. (Each of these shows was some kid somewhere’s favorite series, y’know?) But Warner Bros. Discovery’s ugly willingness to toss away the work of creators that it already hired to make their art—previously seen with the shocking cancellation of the nearly finished Batgirl and Scoob movies—is getting pathological at this point, drifting downward from “bummer” into the realm of “demonstrably cruel.”

The service issued a statement today putting a positive spin on all this; you can read it over on Deadline if you’re feeling masochistic. Meanwhile, here’s the full list of titles leaving HBO Max in this latest cull:

12 Dates of Christmas
About Last Night
Aquaman: King of Atlantis
Close Enough
Detention Adventure
Dodo
Ellen’s Next Great Designer
Elliott From Earth
Esme & Roy
The Fungies!
Generation Hustle
Genera+ion
Infinity Train
Little Ellen
Mao Mao, Heroes of Pure Heart
Messy Goes to Okido
Mia’s Magic Playground
Mighty Magiswords
My Dinner with Herve
My Mom, Your Dad
Odo
OK K.O.! – Let’s Be Heroes
The Ollie & Moon Show
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures
Ravi Patel’s Pursuit of Happiness
Select Sesame Street Specials
Make It Big, Make It Small
Share
Squish
Summer Camp Island
The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo
The Runaway Bunny – Special
Theodosia
Tig n’ Seek
Uncle Grandpa
Victor and Valentino
Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs