Cartoon Network Wants to Help Modern Animation Be Its Best Self

On some level, we’re already seeing this plan play out, as current hits Craig of the Creek and We Bare Bears have or will soon be receiving their own animated features, and Amazing World of Gumball is getting both a film and follow-up series for Cartoon Network and HBO Max. Though the network’s had no trouble with legacy IP in recent years like Teen Titans Go! and Jellystone, it’s been the original series that have helped it stand out over the last decade. Register openly admitted at having a “great reverence” for WB’s old animated slate, but emphasized his responsibility to “the creators of the future.” To that end, among CN’s upcoming animated slate is Driftwood, a movie-length adventure about a mouse traveling through space from Victor Courtwright (Aquaman: King of Atlantis); and Juston Godron-Montgomery’s (DC Super Hero Girls) half-hour series Invincible Fight Girl, about a young girl who decides to become a wrestler on her home island where everyone is an accountant. And that isn’t taking into account other shows like Genndy Tartakovsky’s Unicorn: Warriors Eternal due later this year.

Both Driftwood and Fight Girl are just pieces of a larger game that Register’s playing, a game that includes the upcoming reboot of the Cartoon Cartoons anthology series, which to the eventual birth of hit 90s shows like Powerpuff and Courage the Cowardly Dog. His hope for Cartoons is that it’ll “celebrate animation by opening the aperture as much as we can,” along with the broader goal of partnerships and celebrating diverse talent such as Black Women Animate. The new tagline for Cartoon Network is “Everything Original,” and if Register has his way, everything he has planned will ensure the network’s success for audiences and creators in the years to come.

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