RIP Cartoon Network's Burbank studios 2000-2023

[y4j1981]

www.cartoonbrew.com/studios/rip-cartoon-network-studios-burbank-building-2000-2023-230408.html

RIP, Cartoon Network Studios Burbank Building (2000-2023)

Cartoon Network Studios (CNS) is vacating its animation studio in Burbank. The news was announced on Twitter by Brian Miller, who was the general manager of the studio from its opening in 2000 until 2021.

Miller wrote on Twitter, “Sadly, this building will no longer be CNS. From what I’ve been told, everyone will be out by August 1. All moving together in a WB building as one animation unit. Farewell CNS as it was.”

The 43,000-square-feet three-story building is located at 300 N. 3rd Street. Cartoon Network spent around $1.2 million to transform the former commercial bakery into its animation studio and officially opened the studio on August 24, 2000.

Dozens of Cartoon Network shows were produced at the Burbank studio including Samarai Jack, The Powerpuff Girls, Johnny Bravo, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Adventure Time, Uncle Grandpa, and Steven Universe.

Over the years, the studio outgrew its space and also rented space in other buildings in the Burbank Media Center area.

The news of the building’s closure isn’t exactly a surprise. Last October, Warner Bros. Discovery announced a “strategic realignment”, in which revealed plans to consolidate its tv animation divisions by merging Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios.

Cartoon Network Studios will continue to operate under the auspices of Warner Bros. Animation. Both studios are overseen by Sam Register. WBD has not yet officially announced where Cartoon Network staff will relocate, but our understanding is that employees will move a few miles away, to the new Frank Gehry-designed Second Century Development, a striking pair of office buildings off the 134 freeway. The iceberg-looking buildings which total 800,000-square-feet of space, are adjacent to the main Warner Bros. lot in Burbank and are expected to be completed this year.

As the news of the building’s closure has spread this weekend, artists who worked in the buildings are posting their memories on Twitter.

[Feargus McReddit]

Getting animation closer together is something I sort of "get" about all this new WBD stuff (and "get" in quotes is doing a lot of work) but it's still sad to lose something so prominent to the history of animation, especially as Craig McCracken himself said, it was a building he and Genndy Tartakovsky had a lot of input in designing and making the best place for animators to work and hang out in. It's such an iconic building, it cameo'd in a bunch of shows, too, as recently as Close Enough last year.

The Second Century Development buildings look nice, though, so it's not like their replacement's a Termite Terrance-style rundown shack next to the studio but it does feel like a piece of animation history'll be gone by the start of August.

[Feargus McReddit]

[y4j1981]

www.ebay.com/itm/166558320670

For $1,050 + $500 shipping, you can own the "C" & the "N" from the former tower