Rare Warner Bros. Animation pitches from the Seven Arts era!

[wiley207]

Currently there's a batch of very rare (and very EXPENSIVE) animation cels made by Warner Bros. Animation during the infamous Warner Bros.- Seven Arts era of 1967-69 (in a way, it now feels like a precursor to the current Warner Bros. Discovery mess) that are all pitches for potential new projects from the cartoon studio! Fellow animation enthusiast on Facebook, Anthony White, has saved copies of the images and has given me permission to re-post these images. I am posting this to commemorate today being the 20th anniversary of the premiere of "What's New, Scooby-Doo?", a show from the same company 35 years later that I've often compared to the Seven Arts cartoons (but are a lot more realistic).
These were bought by someone else at the William Hendricks Estate Sale a few years back (Hendricks was executive producer at Warner Bros. Animation during that time), and according to Jerry Beck, sold for hundreds of dollars. But now you can see them all HERE on my blog:
Rare Warner Bros. Animation pitches from the Seven Arts era!
Come take a look at What Could Have Been during that turbulent era... or what we're glad didn't happen due to Kinney National buying Warner Bros.- Seven Arts, kicking Seven Arts out of the picture and closing WB Animation (until they reopened in 1980). Don't expect a lot from your favorite Looney Tunes pals, as during this time Warner Bros.- Seven Arts didn't really want to use their classic cartoon stars in new material, since they already had a good-sized library of shorts to rerun on television, and they wanted to try and work on fresh new ideas and characters (and veteran director Robert McKimson sure wasn't happy about that).

Any comments?

 

[Classic Speedy]

Of the concepts pitched, the one that sounds most intriguing is Lovey Doveys. I guess Keystone Kops could've worked too- authority vs. criminals is always good material for short subjects.

 

[Leviathan]

Toyland is interesting, cause it looks like it was intended to be an intentional throwback to the 30's Merrie Melodies, down to the art style.

 

[Checkerboard]

I'm not surprised they didn't make it. Most are generic or ripoffs. But it's cool to see them and see how many shows fell through for comparison.

 

[Daikun]

The designs look nice, but they have the same general problem with the Seven Arts original creations....

THEY. DON'T. LOOK. LIKE. LOONEY. TUNES.

I can totally see these concepts passing for Hanna-Barbera or Jay Ward, but these designs are far too simplistic for WB, a studio whom audiences would expect beyond the bare minimum effort for TV at the time.

 

[wiley207]

The designs look nice, but they have the same general problem with the Seven Arts original creations....

THEY. DON'T. LOOK. LIKE. LOONEY. TUNES.

I can totally see these concepts passing for Hanna-Barbera or Jay Ward, but these designs are far too simplistic for WB, a studio whom audiences would expect beyond the bare minimum effort for TV at the time.

I know, right? It didn't help that the actual cartoons themselves tended to feel more like Filmation cartoons, but with a lot more movement. Or like "Linus the Lionhearted" ("Chimp and Zee" feels in particular like a "Linus the Lionhearted" segment, even with the Jay Ward-ish character designs.)

 

[Asa]

Much of the projects you listed have been barely heard of in public.

The designs look nice, but they have the same general problem with the Seven Arts original creations....

THEY. DON'T. LOOK. LIKE. LOONEY. TUNES!

I can totally see these concepts passing for Hanna-Barbera or Jay Ward, but these designs are far too simplistic for WB, a studio whom audiences would expect beyond the bare minimum effort for TV at the time.

I know, right?

 

[Pooky]

Thanks for posting this, I really enjoyed reading it.