Looney Tunes has been around for nearly a century. This is the Warner Bros’ franchise that most people think of when asked to name a WB property. It features some of the most beloved and iconic characters in animation, such as Bugs Bunny; Daffy Duck; Marvin the Martian; Porky Pig; etc. This is a show enjoyed by kids and adults alike.
In March of 2025, Max (formerly known as HBO Max, and soon to be known as HBO Max again) removed the entire original Looney Tunes series from their streaming service.
Looney Tunes is not the only show that has been pulled from Max. Ever since Warner Bros has been under David Zaslav, plenty of animated shows that were either HBO Max exclusives or shows from Cartoon Network (Warner Bros-owned, herein referred to as WB) have been removed. In 2022, many shows were removed from Max as tax write offs including the critically acclaimed Infinity Train and Final Space, a show I really liked, but never got to finish. Also, Max has recently gotten rid of a lot of Cartoon Network (herein referred to as CN) shows such as Ed, Edd and Eddy, Teen Titans GO! and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (Siegal).
WB’s treatment of animated shows, including one of their biggest franchises, is very troubling for several reasons.
For starters, Looney Tunes was taken down on the weekend that The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie came out. There was no warning or indication that it would happen. Seeing the way WB treated its franchise feels malicious, especially pulling this stunt on the weekend a Looney Tunes movie came out. It also shows that no franchise or series is safe when it comes to WB hacking down their catalogue.
Worse yet, Warner Bros/Discovery (WBD) announced that they are going to raze a single-story building that the Looney Tunes animation team was housed in. This is a building where iconic characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck were born and over 1,000 shorts were created (Bouma). It is a building full of history for this iconic series and it is set to be destroyed to make room for production on HBO shows. While it is understandable that WBD needs to expand and make room for more filming opportunities, this decision comes off as showing a lack of care and taste when dealing with preserving their own history and legacy.
Even before the series was removed from WBD, under David Zaslav, Looney Tunes had been getting a lot of mistreatment over the last couple of years. Two of their movies, planned for digital release on HBO Max, ended up being sold off to other networks with only one of them finding a distributor for release (The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie). WBD removed half of the Looney Tunes shorts back in 2022 and only brought them back because of fan outrage. Lastly, they cancelled Coyote vs Acme, and it only has been brought back to life by the same distributor who released The Day the Earth Blew Up, Ketchup Entertainment. I am one of many fans who is frustrated with how WBD continues to treat one of their most notable franchises like disposable content.
Another problem with streaming services is that there are shows I might want to watch that will end up on all kinds of different services. HBO Max had all of the different Cartoon Network and Adult Swim shows and now a lot of them have been pulled from the service. To watch ones not on Max, I would have to pay for another service or I would have to rent them on Video-On-Demand (VOD). Some shows might not even be available at all.
From my personal experience, I only pay for two streaming services a month, which allows me access to only so many shows. I have a hard time switching to different services too, because a show or movie will keep me from cancelling my current streaming services. This makes it a lot harder for me to keep up with the shows and movies I want to watch, forcing me to use VOD, which sometimes isn’t even an option, like in the case of seasons 1 and 3 of Final Space (which is super annoying, especially when you are not inclined to break the law and pirate any unavailable content).
It can be very frustrating trying to keep up with a lot of different shows, and some of them are hard to come by. My solution to streaming-woes, especially when it comes to Looney Tunes, is home media. There are plenty of DVDs and Blu-rays with high quality Looney Tunes shorts that I have watched, at least once. I have about nine Looney Tunes collections!
Home media is fantastic because unlike with streaming services, the shows and movies we love will always be on our shelves. We can watch the DVDs whenever we feel like watching them, and we never have to worry about them being removed from anything. DVDs will always be ready to go on our shelves. On top of that, there are no ads to interrupt the show at any point. Streaming services have been charging people extra just to get ad-free versions of their services.
Another great thing about home media is that it is a way to preserve shows. There have been a lot of worries about preservation of media, especially with tax-write offs becoming more common in the entertainment industry, specifically since the emergence of streaming services. With DVDs, a show or movie will never disappear or become lost, especially with people owning the home media for a show or movie.
A big personal reason why home media is a great option above streaming is that DVDs and Blu-rays often contain a lot of neat special features showcasing how the movie or show was made. An example of this would be all of my Looney Tunes: Golden Collection DVDs which have commentaries from critics and sometimes the creators, documentaries on how certain characters were thought up, clips of The Bugs Bunny Show from the 1960s, a couple old commercials for a drink, and how the creators made the sound effects and worked on the animation.
My favorite feature was this amazing documentary of Mel Blanc who voices a lot of the Looney Tunes characters, because I learned a lot about Blanc and how he would voice each of his characters. I also learned how Bugs Bunny saved his life after a car crash he suffered! I learned to admire Mel Blanc more than ever after learning his dedication to these characters through a lot of the special features in these discs.
These DVDs also contain shorts that are not broadcasted on TV or were not on HBO Max. Now some of these shorts have some offensive content, but Warner Bros does put a disclaimer in their later Looney Tunes releases about the content before it takes us to the DVD menu. I was obsessed with Bugs Bunny and I wanted to watch as many of his old shorts as possible, and I ended up finding a lot of old shorts that I have never seen before that grew to be some of my favorites to watch. Max had no special features for Looney Tunes when it was still available.
I also really like the cool presentations for the DVDs and Blu-rays. Most presentations are standard nowadays, but some of the older DVDs are quite creative. The music on the menus alone keeps me from turning the TV off right away. The look of the menus make a small detail that show how much the people distributing the DVDs care about the show they are releasing. They add a certain level of charm lacking in the streaming services.
Home Media is not only a great alternative to streaming services, but they are an improvement to me. DVDs and Blu-rays are more important than ever with how shows are getting pulled without warning from streaming services. I also get the feeling that the people who work on home media show more respect for what they are distributing than a streaming service does. I am guaranteed to be able to watch any show or movie I want with my DVD or Blu-rays, but I cannot say that with shows and movies constantly leaving one streaming service to hop on another one.
Sources
Animation Magazine. Classic ‘Looney Tunes’ Completely Removed from Max. Animation Magazine. https://www.animationmagazine.net/2025/03/classic-looney-tunes-completely-removed-from-max/.(2025, March 17)
Bouma, Luke. “To Demolish Historic Looney Building 131 for HBO Base Camp Expansion.” Warner Bros, Cord Cutter News, March 2025, https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cordcuttersnews.com/warner-bros-to-demolish-historic-looney-tunes-building-131-for-hbo-base-camp-expansion/ .
Cuson, Jeff and Jaclyn Mandelbaum. “Warner Bros. Discovery Announces Max to Become HBO Max this Summer,” Warner Bros Discovery, 14 May 2025, https://press.wbd.com/na/media-release/max/warner-bros-discovery-announces-max-become-hbo-max-summer.
Siegal, J. “Max is Removing These 9 Beloved Animated Shows in 2025.” BGR. https://bgr.com/entertainment/max-is-removing-these-9-beloved-animated-shows-in-2025. (2024, December 2)
Segarra, E. “‘Coyote vs. Acme’ revived after Warner Bros. shelved the Looney Tunes”. USA Today, https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2025/03/31/coyote-vs-acme-revived-warner-bros/82750728007/. (2025, March 31).
That’s all folks!
This article was written by Enhance’s friend Jared Jacoby and edited by team member Sidney J Floyd-Armstrong. Be sure to subscribe and keep an eye on the blog for more from our team and for more movie and video game reviews from Jared!
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