The current regime at Warner Bros. Discovery—soon to separate into Warner Bros. and Discovery in the near future—has never really liked its animated history. After licensing out old Cartoon Network hits and their sequel shows to different platforms, the company still have a few more shows to kick out of HBO Max.
In this case, it’s Courage the Cowardly Dog and What’s New, Scooby-Doo that are now no longer on the service. Per Deadline, the two youth-aimed horror shows left the service on July 31 after their recent license deals expired. According to the outlet’s sources, the recent renaming means classic kids’ shows are “lower priority” when it’s time to renew licenses. The good news is, the two shows’ individual episodes and full seasons remain purchasable on iTunes, Prime Video, and the like. Odds are by the end of 2025, they’ll end up somewhere like Hulu’s library, and by extension Disney+.
But as many online have noted, the removal of Courage and Scooby means HBO Max has effectively zero Cartoon Network shows that came out prior to 2010. (The only real outlier appears to be Samurai Jack, thanks to its last season airing on Adult Swim.) And its selection of post-2010s shows it has is similarly incomplete. What’s there is grandfathered in through some other way, like having an HBO Max offshoot (think Young Justice or Fionna & Cake) or being part of the DC family, like Batman: Brave & the Bold. So no Regular Show or Gumball, you’ll have to get those somewhere else.
Newer kids shows like Iyanu will wind up on HBO Max after they air on Cartoon Network. But how long will it be before they, too, are cast out of the service and left in some form of limbo?
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