Boomerang: It's (Probably) All Coming Back to You on MAX

I guess the vineyards heard the news that the Boomerang streaming platform is shutting down on September 30 with many of the shows on the site migrating over to MAX, and everybody is being completely rational and acting mature and cordial about this latest news from Warner Bros Discovery.

I'm lying, of course. They're panicking, freaking out, and being pessimistic about the fate of everything around them. In other words, it's another day that ends in "Y" to my English-speaking friends. 

Look, I completely empathize with those worried about the future of the shows on the Boomerang app. Warner Bros Discovery hasn't exactly been the best steward of animation in recent years. 

Granted, they're still putting animated titles on physical home media including high-quality restorations of shows, shorts, and movies, putting more of the library on many streaming platforms including Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, and Freevee (which exclusively houses WB TV's Cartoon Rewind FAST channel), airing library content on in-house outlets like Cartoon Network, the Boomerang linear channel, and Discovery Family Channel and over-the-air on MeTV and MeTV Toons (the latter of which they're a minor partner in and currently restoring a bulk of its library for), but again, according to the internet, this company HATES animation.

Though to be honest, I think a lot of the bluster is coming from folks who really don't have the app because they're thinking a huge library of shows is going away when it's only a small library. 

Here's what's currently (at the time of this writing, August 2024) on the Boomerang app:

• Looney Tunes (including Taz-Mania, The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, Baby Looney Tunes, Duck Dodgers, The Looney Tunes Show, and Wabbit/New Looney Tunes)
• Jonny Quest (the original and 1980s series)
• The Flintstones (including The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, The New Fred and Barney Show, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, Flintstone Frolics, The Flintstone Kids, and Cave Kids)
• The Jetsons
• Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? (And all of the spinoffs including Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics, but not Velma) 
• Wacky Races (both series plus Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines and The Perils of Penelope Pitstop)
• Top Cat
• Tom and Jerry (including Tom and Jerry Kids, Tom and Jerry Tales, Droopy Master Detective, and the 2010s The Tom and Jerry Show and the MGM shorts)
• Yogi Bear (not The Yogi Bear Show with Snagglepuss and Yakky Doodle, just the shorts from that series and the earlier shorts from The Huckleberry Hound Show as well as those from the 1980s series, and also including Yogi's Gang, Yogi's Space Race, Yogi's Galaxy Goof-Ups, Yogi's Treasure Hunt, and Yo Yogi!)
• Huckleberry Hound (not the whole Huckleberry Hound Show, just the shorts featuring Huck)
• Magilla Gorilla
• Atom Ant
• The Smurfs
• Popeye
• Courage the Cowardly Dog
• Codename: Kids Next Door
• Camp Lazlo
• The Life and Times of Juniper Lee
• My Gym Partner is a Monkey
• Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz
• Monchhichis (the original series)
• Richie Rich
• Care Bears: Unleash the Magic

A pretty sizable collection of shows, and yet, it's mostly the usual suspects that you'd expect to see across WBD-owned media with a few exceptions. As you can see, it's not EVERYTHING in the WBD classic animation library. Jonny Quest is the only action series on the Boomerang app. Very obscure shows, especially one-season wonders such as the Scooby clones of the 1970s and random 1980s shows (especially the Ruby-Spears library), also aren't there. 

And a bulk of what's on Boomerang is already found at MAX and other places. 

Here's what aren't seen on linear cable or broadcast television in the US (including on-demand), slated to air on another channel in the immediate future, or currently streaming anywhere (and by streaming, I'm not talking about shows you could buy because you can at least buy digital copies of nearly all of these shows):

• My Gym Partner is a Monkey
• The Life and Times of Juniper Lee
• Codename: Kids Next Door

It's a pretty short list. And yet, considering all the blather about what is and isn't migrating to MAX when Boomerang shuts down at the end of September, there's a lot of panic and unnecessary cynicism. 

Okay, maybe not unnecessary cynicism. WBD hasn't exactly given anyone a reason to trust them with classic animation, original animation, library animation, Cartoon Network originals, preschool animation, and even adult animation on MAX since August 2022. Even someone like me who is reluctantly giving this company the reason of a doubt is still looking side-eyed at what's really going to happen with Boomerang library on MAX.

I know what I want to see them do. I want MAX to add everything from the Warner Bros, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, Ruby-Spears, and Turner animated libraries to MAX. If every bloated reality project from Discovery can end up there, why not add something people would actually want to watch? 

I know that'll never bloody happen. I have a better chance to be elected President of the United States before WBD even thinks of putting the entire animation library on MAX. 

Heh. President Harris does sound pretty nice though, but I digress.

What I feel is going to happen is this:

• The Looney Tunes section is going to be expanded with more shorts and the spinoffs that are currently only on Boomerang. The franchise has revealed a new rebrand, and they would be fools not to capitalize on that on MAX.
• The Flintstones and The Smurfs will have their full runs on MAX. The recent announcement of The Flintstones and The Jetsons leaving MeTV in September and the recent removal of The Jetsons and The Smurfs on Tubi but all remaining on MeTV Toons and the linear Boomerang channel (The Smurfs is also a part of Discovery Family Channel's daily lineup and a part of the upcoming DFC rebranding) means that MAX could end up becoming a premium home for those shows. 
• I honestly think they're going to bring the Cartoon Network stuff to MAX. If MAX is really serious about bringing kids and families back to the site, they need all the Cartoon Network library content they have, including the ones that were primarily on the Boomerang app and the ones they dropped. The Cartoon Network brand hasn't been treated kindly by the company in recent years, and it's time to see them reverse course on that, especially given the Boomerang app shutdown is one day before Cartoon Network's 32nd anniversary, which would be a great occasion to do so.
• MAX finally creates a Hanna-Barbera section on the site. Jellystone has really given the Hanna-Barbera library a higher profile, especially with characters like Yogi Bear, Jabberjaw, and Top Cat getting higher profile slots on the Boomerang linear channel lately. And yes, the HB library is a prominent part of the MeTV Toons broadcast channel. While a bulk of the library is being remastered thanks to THAT channel, it would not be that crazy to think some of those remastered shows and shorts would end up on a more premium streamer like MAX in addition to whatever MeTV Toons is planning when it enters the AVOD/FAST arena in the future.  

I'm not saying this is what will actually happen. This is what I WANT to see happen with the Boomerang library. I would love to see MAX be this big-brained, but that's a lot to ask with this company.

I don't expect to see something like Richie Rich or Monchhichis on MAX (plus, they're already on Cartoon Rewind along with other shows like Silverhawks, Beetlejuice, Centurions, Mister T, Pirates of Dark Water, Pac-Man, Police Academy, and Challenge of the Go-Bots). I don't see any of the Flintstone spinoffs on MAX either. (though they will eventually end up on MeTV Toons in the future). I do think Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz will be there too (I could imagine MAX wanting to remind folks that they have their own version of The Wizard of Oz when Wicked opens around Thanksgiving). I think that's why I feel the Beetlejuice cartoon, which isn't on Boomerang, will end up on MAX by September as well. I also feel Wacky Races will have a spot on the site since that franchise is oddly popular in a lot of locales.  

There's still a lot of library shows that MAX won't add, but, as I'm reminding you, a lot of library shows weren't on Boomerang to begin with. Many of the folks actually complaining about the app's imminent shutdown don't actually subscribe to it. Trust me, if everybody complaining about the Boomerang app shutting down actually had the Boomerang app, it wouldn't be shutting down. 

Period.

I don't know what MAX's plans are with the Boomerang app's library or WBD's plans with the Boomerang brand in general. I doubt the linear channel will completely turn into Cartoonito as it has done in many global markets. I know it's not shutting down when the app does either, but I'm curious what's the plan going forward with the brand in the US. There have been significant changes programming-wise there over the past two years That said, with linear cable becoming unimportant in the eyes of the big media companies, it's no wonder folks have been fearful of that channel's fate. Perhaps refocusing on Boomerang, the network after concentrating on Boomerang, the App is what the brand desperately needs now. Figuring out what kind of channel they want it to be will save it. 

In the meantime, we all need to keep an eye on what MAX is going to do with the classic animation titles they're migrating from Boomerang and if they're going to do right by them and maybe finally realizing what treasures they actually have access to. Now's not the time to be pessimistic about those shows. Maybe this will be the start of a great correction at Warner Bros Discovery, and the spirit that launched Boomerang in the first place will all be coming back to us.