A to Z of Animation Studios: Hanna-Barbera
(Or: The Studio That Made 500 Cartoons With the Same Five Sound Effects and Got Away With It)
Welcome back to Animation Anarchy, where we celebrate animation history while also pointing out how many corners were cut to make it happen. If you haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channel yet, I assume you enjoy watching cheaply-animated running cycles in silence. Fix that before Hanna-Barbera slaps a laugh track onto your existence.
⸻
🔥 H is for Hanna-Barbera
Before Cartoon Network, before Nickelodeon, before animation studios even tried to be subtle about recycling animation, there was Hanna-Barbera—the factory of cartoons that defined generations.
Founded by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, this studio basically invented the Saturday morning cartoon and then proceeded to flood the airwaves with so many cartoons that you could not escape them.
Their business model? Take a few funny voices, animate the absolute minimum possible, slap in a laugh track, and call it a show. And somehow, IT WORKED.
⸻
The Greatest Hits (A.K.A. Cartoons You Definitely Watched Even If You Didn’t Want To)
• Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! – A group of teenagers and a talking Great Dane solve crimes while running past the same background fifty times per episode.
• The Flintstones – A prehistoric sitcom that was basically The Honeymooners with dinosaurs and somehow managed to sell cigarettes to kids.
• The Jetsons – The sci-fi version of The Flintstones, except way more depressing now that we realize we don’t have flying cars in 2025.
• Yogi Bear – A bear who steals picnic baskets and somehow never gets shot by park rangers.
• The Smurfs – A village of tiny blue communists living under the constant threat of Gargamel’s black magic.
• Wacky Races – The greatest example of animated cheating in history.
• Top Cat – A con-artist alley cat who probably inspired half of today’s crypto bros.
• Jonny Quest – The only Hanna-Barbera cartoon that actually tried to have good action animation.
The Hanna-Barbera Formula™
1. The Same Voice Actors In Everything – At one point, Mel Blanc and Don Messick were 80% of the voices in all cartoons.
2. Minimal Animation – Instead of animating characters fully, they animated only the mouths and reused as much footage as possible.
3. Canned Laughter – Because nothing says “comedy” like a laugh track after a joke that wasn’t funny.
4. Characters Running Past the Same Background Forever – If you’ve ever noticed Scooby and the gang passing the same lamp fifteen times while running from a ghost, congratulations—you understand Hanna-Barbera animation.
And yet… Hanna-Barbera was an empire. They were so successful that every single cartoon studio copied them for decades.
⸻
🎖 Honorable Mention: Harman-Ising Productions (Early Looney Tunes Animators)
Before Hanna-Barbera was mass-producing cartoons at light speed, Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising were part of the OG animation pioneers.
What Did They Do?
• Created Bosko – The original Looney Tunes character before Bugs Bunny stole the show.
• Worked on early Merrie Melodies – The forerunner of Looney Tunes-style slapstick madness.
• Pushed early animation forward – Their work in the 1930s helped lay the groundwork for Warner Bros. and MGM’s later domination.
Without Harman-Ising, we wouldn’t have had Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, or any of the golden age of slapstick cartoons. So while Hanna-Barbera was mass-producing cartoons for TV, these guys were setting the stage for everything we love about animation today.
⸻
Final Thoughts (A.K.A. Why You Should Subscribe Before Scooby-Doo Finds You First)
Hanna-Barbera didn’t just make cartoons—they made AN ENTIRE INDUSTRY. And Harman-Ising? They helped birth the very idea of classic animation.
Next up? I for Illumination—The studio that somehow made Minions more profitable than actual gold.
(Spoiler: There will be a lot of banana-related rage.) 🚀
