The Western animation industry is pretty much in trouble right now. I often see people of all kinds struggling to find work because, despite animation being more successful than ever, there are so few jobs available. I’ve been feeling particularly sad about this lately because I’ve been revisiting Infinity Traina special little show that only aired for four seasons, really felt like the beginning of the end for Warner Bros. Animation.
Now, don’t get me wrong, these signs were there years ago. Steven Universe Often snubbed by Cartoon Network, mostly due to its explicit LGBTQ themes, despite being a good OK KO! Let’s be heroes The animated film was canceled before it could tell all the stories it wanted to tell. The end is obvious, and only the most successful animated films will survive in the modern era. However, I think what happened to Infinity Train really highlights how Warner Bros. will treat animation.
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First, there’s the way the show was released. The first few seasons aired on Cartoon Network in August 2019 and January 2020. But then, in May 2020, Warner Bros. finally launched its streaming service, then called HBO Max. In August 2020, Infinity Train Season 3 was released, and it has now moved to HBO Max, probably because its tone might be a little too mature for Cartoon Network’s slightly younger audience (even though shows like Adventure Time have plenty of adult themes).
They were clearly all hurt by the fact that season 4 also dropped on the streaming service in 2021. A severe lack of advertising on and off HBO Max meant the show didn’t get the ratings it deserved, at least by Warner Bros. standards, and ultimately there was no season 5, despite it having a fairly active fanbase. Unfortunately, things have only gotten worse since then.
In 2022, the show was completely removed from Max, where seasons 3 and 4 were broadcast. But it gets worse! Because in 2023, the show was also removed from digital platforms, unable to be purchased and therefore basically impossible to watch legally (since then, the show seems to be available to watch again, but the removal is still a strange and unnerving thing).
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Now, Warner Bros. is abandoning the live-action animated hybrid Coyote vs. Acme, which did extremely well at the box office, simply because it felt it could save more money doing so than it would have made had it actually been released. Yes, we’ll get a new Adventure Time show, a new movie, and a second season of its spinoff Finn & Cake, but this is just leveraging existing intellectual property, which is a popular approach for most Hollywood studios these days.
Infinity Train could easily have been a show that could have run for several seasons, and its anthology structure was perfect for that, but because some bigwigs decided that streaming was the future, and ruined it for it — though Warner Bros. is now abandoning the Max Originals brand, and its two upcoming hits, Penguins and Dune: The Prophecy, will now air on HBO before coming to Max. Not even the absolutely amazing animation Scavengers rule Able to survive on Max, the show is now looking to air a second season on Netflix.
I really enjoyed the little bits of Infinity Train that were there, and if you have the time, I think you should check it out. Each season built the show’s bizarre world in such an interesting, thoughtful, and interconnected way, and this treatment will forever be a stain on Warner Bros.’ record (as if that weren’t enough). I just hope that at some point we get to at least see some sort of animated revival, because there are things that live action can’t capture in the same magical way.
