End of an Era: CartoonNetwork.com Is No More
It’s the end of an era for the official Cartoon Network website, which helped raise a generation of ’90s babies and Centennials. Now, people are taking to social media to mourn its loss, and boy oh boy, do they have some strong words for Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
I can’t tell you how many times I fell asleep to the glow of my TV screen growing up, serenaded by the hum of static and overly-loud Bumpits infomercials after a long day of watching Teen Titans—only to be rudely awakened by the Futurama theme song when Cartoon Network switched to Adult Swim at 9PM sharp. Sadly, the days of cable TV are long behind us, and all we have left to remind us of this golden age of children’s programming is a heavy dose of nostalgia—and a wave of middling reboots in its wake.
Still, when The Powerpuff Girls or Dexter’s Laboratory was finished airing for the day, you could always rely on cartoonnetwork.com to help fill the void. I, for one, used to dominate at Codename: Kids Next Door – Operation S.T.A.R.T.U.P. and the Courage the Cowardly Dog game flash games, but the website also offered a number of silly quizzes, puzzles, and clips from all your favorite shows.
But now, just like the good ol’ days of cable TV, cartoonnetwork.com is a thing of the past.
The official Cartoon Network website has been shut down
As of Thursday, August 8, the Cartoon Network website has been shut down after 26 years. If you enter the web address in your browser, you’ll be redirected to the Max sign-up page. Here, the corporate overlords at HBO will ask for a subscription fee of $9.99/month (with ads, mind you) to access their catalog of “larger-than-life animated shows and specials” for the whole family—instead of games and a library of free, full-length episodes. Damn you, capitalism!
Sadly, the collapse of cartoonnetwork.com was something of an inevitability, as I’m willing to bet that kids today aren’t booting up their family desktop and clicking on sites like nick.com or Disney Junior for entertainment. Instead, mobile gaming has risen in popularity, and multi-player games like Roblox and Fortnite are all the rage with Gen Alphas or whatever generation we’re on these days. They will never experience the epic highs and lows of Cartoon Cartoon Summer Resort—IYKYK.
Flash games aside, this also makes it a lot harder for Cartoon Network fans to keep up with shows that are currently airing, begging the question of what Warner Bros. Discover hoped to achieve by doing this.
“RIP GOAT”: In memoriam of CartoonNetwork.com
1990s and early ’00s nostalgia isn’t something to be messed with, and those who grew up religiously watching Cartoon Network are now taking to Twitter (X) to pay tribute to the now-deleted website—as well as fire insults as Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav.
Is Cartoon Network in trouble?
Following mass layoffs, it’s no secret that the animation industry is looking pretty bleak at the moment, with much of the blame falling at the feet of CEOs like Zaslav—especially Zaslav. And with The Animation Guild (TAG) set to begin negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) on August 12, the Cartoon Network website folding is just another nail in the coffin.
Ever since Cartoon Network Studios (CNS) fully merged with Warner Bros. Animation in 2022, there’s been a persistent question of whether or not the longtime animation hub would cease operations and operate solely under the Warner Bros. Animation banner. Under this agreement, CNS no longer has creative control like it did when it was an independent studio, signaling that we could see a rise in IP content from James Gunn’s corner of the rebooted DC Universe. This isn’t exactly a bad thing, but outlandish, original shows like Adventure Time are kind of the cornerstone of the brand—not franchises.
At the time of writing, the international version of Cartoon Network’s website, cartoonnetworkhq.com, is still around, but the U.S. version appears to be long gone. The Cartoon Network app is also functional, and the channel itself appears to be alive and well. From the sound of it, CNS itself isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but with these rifts in the animation industry continuing to be a serious issue, I’m definitely fearful that it could end up on the cutting room floor at Warner Bros., just like the old site.
Are some of these public outcries a bit dramatic? Perhaps, but I don’t think it’s dramatic to be worried about Cartoon Network’s future in a world where even the most beloved movies and TV shows can be wiped from the face of the earth in an instant with only few left to remember their legacies. Physical media is all but dead, the entertainment landscape is changing, and sadly, cartoonnetwork.com just couldn’t survive long enough to bring joy to the next generation. Maybe the future really does suck, huh?
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