Warner Bros. Discovery pulled the original Looney Tunes shorts off Max

The original Looney Tunes animated shorts that aired between the 1930 and 1969 are no longer available to stream on Max, Deadline reports. Warner Bros. Discovery removed them from the streaming service as part of its ongoing shift away from children's shows and towards adult and family programming.

For now, newer Looney Tunes series and spin-offs remain, like New Looney Tunes and Baby Looney Tunes, but the decision still feels odd because Warner Bros. Discovery just released The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Story in theaters on March 14. Of course, the company is no stranger to ill-conceived (frequently anti-art) decision making.

The original Looney Tunes were last on the chopping block in 2023, when a press release covering shows and movies that were being added and removed from Max included the iconic animated shorts. Warner Bros. Discovery walked back that announcement, saying it was an error, but apparently plans change. While it seems strange to remove something Warner Bros. Discovery owns and doesn't have to pay an exorbitant licensing fee to offer, pulling shows and scrapping the release of movies has been the company's recent strategy to save money and earn tax breaks — see another Looney Tunes-related release, Coyote vs. Acme, or Batgirl.

As far as this recent deprioritization of children's programming on Max goes, Warner Bros. Discovery has been working on it for a while. The company shutdown Boomerang, Warner Bros. Discovery's streaming service for classic cartoons, in 2024. Warner Bros. Discovery decided to not renew its distribution deal for Sesame Street last year, too, but removing around 200 old episodes of the show in 2022 was probably a good sign the company had lost interest way earlier.

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