WarnerMedia is revamping its inconspicuous EMEA preschool brand Cartoonito for the US and Latin America as part of its strategy to attract more families to HBO Max.
Tom Ascheim
If WarnerMedia’s main children’s brands are a family, then Cartoonito, the youngest of three siblings alongside Boomerang and Cartoon Network, could justifiably lay claim to being somewhat neglected by its parent company so far.
For years, Cartoon Network has been the apple in the eye of the US media giant, thanks to a report card overflowing with hit shows over the years, from Dexter’s Laboratory to The Powerpuff Girls to Adventure Time.
Meanwhile, somewhat awkward middle child Boomerang was the subject of an extensive and no-doubt expensive brand refresh in 2014, even getting its very own shiny SVoD service in the US in 2017.
But the baby of the family’s fortunes, sitting in the corner all this time, look set to change as WarnerMedia prepares to make its biggest ever commitment to preschool programming, with hundreds of hours of new content in the pipeline.
Cartoonito began life as a programming block on the short-lived Cartoon Network Too in the UK way back in 2006, as some of the execs involved in its creation have been reminiscing over on LinkedIn this week.
It went on to become a standalone channel in the UK, arguably the spiritual home of preschool content, where it remains on air with a schedule predominantly consisting of acquisitions like Masha & the Bear and Fireman Sam.
It has made some headway in EMEA over the years, with its own standalone channel in Italy and presence as a programming block on older-skewing Boomerang and Cartoon Network in markets such as Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Turkey.
Amy Friedman
History is now repeating itself, with an eight-hour Cartoonito programming block set to launch this fall on Cartoon Network in the US and Latin America, almost a decade after then-Turner Kids exec Michael Carrington revealed how he hoped a Cartoonito channel would one day travel the world. Since then, the decline in relevance of linear TV has put paid to that happening, but the freedom OTT affords looks set to give the preschool brand a new lease of life.
Cartoonito will have a major presence on HBO Max, WarnerMedia’s flagship streaming service, which launched in the US last May and is scheduled to expand into Lat Am and the Caribbean in June.
Crucially, WarnerMedia looks set to splash the cash on original content as part of its major push into preschool. This comes after Tom Ascheim, president of global kids, young adults and classics at Warner Bros, admitted the media giant had only “dipped its toe” in content aimed at the youngest demographic in previous years.
The US media giant unveiled major plans for preschool kids last week during its upfront, marking its biggest ever commitment to preschool programming with hundreds of hours of new content in the pipeline.
Speaking at the virtual Kidscreen Summit, Ascheim said WarnerMedia would be coming at the preschool demo with “full force” in the coming years. It is aiming to have reached around 50 original titles within the next two years, beginning with a raft of new green lights unveiled last week that will feature in the new programming block.
In EMEA, its fair to say Cartoonito lacks a coherent brand identity compared with local players such as CBeebies in the UK, which remains the go-to destination for parents of preschoolers.
Cartoonito has been working with Sesame Workshop on Bea’s Block
Aware of the need to get parents on board first and foremost when reaching such a young audience, WarnerMedia looks to have taken some cues from public service broadcasters. Its refreshed version of Cartoonito for the Americas is based on the proprietary preschool educational framework of “humancentric learning,” focuses on curiosity, courage, humanity and creativity.
So, what to expect from the new-look Cartoonito? According to Amy Friedman, head of kids and family programming at Warner Bros, Cartoonito will be “a modern version of what a preschool channel can be.”
“If we can create a trusted, respectful, creative, original, fun environment that’s valuable to kids, it’s going to be valuable to our business partners. We get to lean on our legacy, but we get to be modern, beautiful, stunning and really funny.
“There’s a debate going in preschool about whether you can be funny for both kids and parents and we have a very strong opinion on that: yes you can,” says Friedman.
Key to the brand is the aforementioned humancentric learning, which is based on two major movements in psychology and education. Focusing on encouraging people’s strengths, Cartoonito will also aim to get children to explore their own backgrounds and become curious about other people’s.
“What I’m really talking about here are racial and cultural differences. For far too long there was the belief that we shouldn’t be talking about this and maybe those things would go away. But what we know is that diversity is our greatest strength,” said Dr Laura Brown, head of curriculum at Cartoonito, said during the upfront last week.
CGI-animated Lucas the Spider is based on a viral YouTube hit
Clearly, central to WarnerMedia’s idea of creating a modern preschool brand in 2021 will be programming with the events of 2020, and some of the ways the kids’ TV industry pledged to change for the better, front of mind.
A major coup for Cartoonito and HBO Max is WarnerMedia’s ongoing partnership with Sesame Workshop, one of the leaders in the field when it comes to pursuing racial justice in the media and teaching children racial literacy.
Cartoonito has been working with Kay Wilson Stallings, head of creative and production at Sesame Workshop, on shows such as Sesame Street’s first CGI-animated spin-off Mecha Builders; Bea’s Block, set in the vibrant and diverse neighbourhood of Blocktown; and The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo, an alternative ‘late-night’ show fronted by the Sesame Street favourite that was first teased at C21’s Kids Content Futures event at Content London in 2019.
From the look of what’s been greenlit, acquired or coproduced so far, Cartoonito will be a combination of shows mined from Warner Bros’ deep library of classic IP, alongside high-end in-house originals, complemented by savvy acquisitions and pre-buys from the international market, mirroring the strategy for Boomerang in recent years.
Ascheim said: “It is essential we be good at this. Preschoolers are the starting place. If you get preschoolers early you have a much better lifetime value of fandom in things like superheroes. We’re going big and there’s no turning back. We’ll have original work coming from our own studio, plus coproductions and acquired work from all around the world.”
There will be “age-appropriate” versions of superheroes from the DC Universe and Looney Tunes characters, such as Batwheels, an action-adventure comedy series from Warner Bros Animation (WBA), and Bugs Bunny Builders (working title), another show from WBA set within the infamous ACME Construction Company and featuring a host of iconic characters, including Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Tweety.
La Cabane and Thuristar’s Mush-Mush & the Mushables
Other new projects for Cartoonito include Jessica’s Big Little World (wt), a spin-off from Cartoon Network Studios series Craig of the Creek; Tom & Jerry Junior (wt); Ladybird Lu, produced by 9 Story’s studio Brown Bag Films; Mush-Mush & the Mushables, made by France’s La Cabane and Belgium’s Thuristar; and Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go, from Mattel Television and produced in 2D animation in partnership with Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana Studio.
These join previously announced preschool green lights such Little Ellen, a 2D animated series from Ellen Digital Ventures and WBA; a collection of projects with children’s book author Mo Willems; and Lucas the Spider, a CGI-animated show based on a viral YouTube hit. The latter comes from Fresh TV in association with WexWorks Media, with UK-based Cake handling international distribution.
“Cartoonito is going to a preschool-appropriate place filled with trust, credibility, education, delight, curiosity and humour,” said Friedman, outlining the brand to advertisers at the company’s upfront last week.
Cartoonito has hung on in there and survived its parent WarnerMedia’s tumultuous transition from traditional media company to the streamlined, streaming-focused media business it now presents itself as.
For years, linear TV brands have been something of an albatross around the necks of media giants such as WarnerMedia, their cumbersome nature allowing the likes of Netflix to sprint ahead and gain a sizeable head start in the world of streaming.
WarnerMedia will be hoping the brand it has been sitting on all these years will help HBO Max differentiate itself from the many tech giants that have made such ambitious landgrabs in the kids’ sector in recent years, but all of whom arguably remain without a coherent ‘kids’ brand that unites all their shows, for better or worse.
But in Cartoonito, WarnerMedia has found a ready-made home for its new preschool content, 15 years in the making.
