Warner Animation Group

Warner Bros. Feature Animation or currently known as Warner Animation Group (WAG for short), headquartered in Burbank, California, is an American animation studio that is the feature animation label of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which is part of Warner Bros. Discovery. Founded in 1994, it is a division of Warner Bros. Animation. In 2013, Warner Bros. Feature Animation took over its current name as its successor, Warner Animation Group, with the first film The Lego Movie was released on February 7, 2014 and its latest release was Space Jam: A New Legacy on July 16, 2021; their upcoming slate of films includes DC League of Super-Pets on May 20, 2022, ''Scoob! Holiday Haunt in 2022, Coyote vs. Acme on July 21, 2023, and Toto'' on February 2, 2024.

Similar to Disney's 20th Century Fox Animation, Universal's DreamWorks Animation and Illumination, Paramount Animation and Sony Pictures Animation, WAG outsources their animated films' production to other studios, such as Animal Logic (The Lego Movie franchise, DC League of Super-Pets and Toto), Sony Pictures Imageworks (Storks and Smallfoot), Reel FX Creative Studios (SCOOB!), Framestore (Tom & Jerry) and Industrial Light & Magic (Space Jam: A New Legacy).

The budgets for their films tend to range within $60–80 million. Their most expensive films to date, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, SCOOB! and Space Jam: A New Legacy, cost $99 million, $90 million and $150 million respectively.

The screenplay department is reportedly somewhat similar to Pixar Animation Studios' "brain trust" in terms of how its members consult with one another and give feedback on each other's projects. The group is nicknamed the "think tank".

Why They Entertain the World

 * 1) A decade later after the release and financial flop of Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Warner Bros. still decided to go back taking the risk at making big-budget animated features again, beginning with The Lego Movie (which is amazing way to reintroduced).
 * 2) The animation in their movies looks beautiful and unique, for both traditional animation and CGI. The Lego Movie series is the most example that provided by Animal Logic.
 * 3) Many of their films can range from being decent to amazing.
 * 4) Alongside their movies, they also make plenty of great shorts.
 * 5) Some of their movies spawned video games, such as The Lego Movie and Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
 * 6) They are also known for their unique and creative concepts, such as making films based on the perspective of construction toys (The Lego Movie(s)), yetis (Smallfoot), babies metaphorically coming at birth from birds (Storks), super-powered pets (DC League of Super-Pets), and are also kickstarting a Hanna-Barbera Cinematic Universe (SCOOB! (depending on your view)).
 * 7) They also are known to create live-action/animated hybrid films in the veins of Who Framed Roger Rabbit to make themselves stand out apart from just making all-animated films, with many of them ranging from decent to amazing, such as Space Jam (and Space Jam: A New Legacy, despite not being good), Osmosis Jones, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, as well as Tom & Jerry (despite also not being good).
 * 8) The movies usually manage to have great voice acting.
 * 9) They have been very well known for animating effects that is never done before.
 * 10) Their films manage to have plenty of heartwarming moments, like Emmet's speech to Lord Business
 * 11) Great soundtrack for many of their films.
 * 12) Some movies spawned TV shows like Unikitty!.
 * 13) There were also many great films that weren't produced under Warner Bros. Feature Animation/Warner Animation Group labels, like The Polar Express, Corpse Bride, Happy Feet, TMNT and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.
 * 14) The logo is great, as the colors of the WAG shield are more reminiscent of the how the shield appeared in Looney Tunes cartoons that were released in the 1950s. In 2021, the updated WAG shield not only now matches the current WB logo, but it now looks even more like the Looney Tunes shield, which is a cool reference.
 * 15) Several characters are likable and awesome, like Emmet, Wyldstyle, Batman, Metal Beard, Benny, Unikitty, General Mayhem, ect..
 * 16) They sometimes give the fans what they have wanted for a long time, In the cases of Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog, and King Tweety, the former being the gift to have both Scooby Doo and Courage to meet each other, and the latter for having Tweety becoming king, which proves Warner Bros isn’t afraid to make movies requested specifically by fans.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) While most of films were good or decent, some are weak, bad or at the very least mediocre most of time, even some of the films that aren't produced under the Warner Bros. Feature Animation/Warner Animation Group banner as well, such as:
 * 2) * mh:awfulmovies:Quest for Camelot;
 * 3) * The King and I;
 * 4) * mh:awfulmovies:The Ant Bully;
 * 5) * mh:awfulmovies:Star Wars: The Clone Wars;
 * 6) * mh:awfulmovies:Happy Feet Two;
 * 7) * SCOOB! is arguably one of the weakest movies from Warner Animation Group, even more than The Lego Ninjago Movie, since the movie is your typical standard "find the MacGuffin" trope film, clichéd and rushed plot, being focused on the idea for more setting up a Cinematic Universe for the Hanna-Barbera franchise, rather than being an actual Scooby-Doo! movie, the Mystery Inc. members (except for Scooby-Doo, who is still currently voiced by Frank Welker) were recast with celebrity voice actors for no discernible reason and the crossover is not done too well as the film tries to shoehorn too many Hanna-Barbara characters in, resulting in Mystery Inc. not getting as much focus as Scooby, even though this isn't the first time the franchise has done crossovers.
 * 8) * Tom & Jerry, while better than the 1992 film, is still a weak film, due to the movie being focused on the humans than the main characters, unnecessary humor, and feel like an extended cartoon rather than an actual movie.
 * 9) * mh:awfulmovies:Space Jam: A New Legacy is regarded as the worst film from WAG, due to the excessive amount of product placement, the live-action characters' cameos looking like extras dressed in Halloween costumes or people you see in an SNL skit, predictable storyline, lots of unnecessary filler moments, the use of dated references, too much CGI and special effects in the movie that it may look like they spent almost their entire $150 million budget on it during the second half of the movie for the start of climatic basketball gaming.
 * 10) * The Lego Ninjago Movie, while decent in general, is considered to be the weakest of all of the good Warner Animation Group movies, as it has a rather cliched plot, the main villain, while still likable and pretty funny, not living up to the best animated villain standards.
 * 11) Some of their films have underperformed at the box office, such as The Iron Giant, Osmosis Jones, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, The Lego Ninjago Movie, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, and Space Jam: A New Legacy.
 * 12) While other companies do this, Warner Bros., in particular, has a thing for panty shots on their animated females, even if they are clearly underage (such as Darla from Cats Don't Dance).
 * 13) Unfortunately, Warner Animation Group went under a slight decline in quality throughout the 2020s after they stopped making Lego movies, following the box office disappointment of The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, as Universal Pictures became the distributor of the franchise's future films for five years. Fortunately, the original The Lego Movie characters and films are still owned by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Trivia

 * In October 2019, while Disney took over 20th Century Animation, Locksmith formed a new multi-year production deal with Warner Bros., which will distribute future Locksmith films under the Warner Animation Group label after the release of Ron's Gone Wrong, which will now be the only Locksmith film to be distributed by 20th Century Studios. Furthermore, in June 2021, it was announced that Natalie Fischer, the former COO of Illumination Entertainment, will step in as CEO. Locksmith co-founder Sarah Smith exits the company to pursue her own creative endeavors. It was also announced that Locksmith is currently in production on That Christmas, a holiday film based on filmmaker Richard Curtis' children’s book series and developing on an original musical-comedy film.