Disney Not Only Studio Celebrating 100 Years – A Great Salute to Warner Brothers

 by Chris Lucas

Review

DisneyBizJournal.com

June 7, 2023

 

I recently finished watching the brilliant new documentary on MAX about the 100 year history of Warner Brothers, written and directed by the amazing Leslie Iwerks and narrated by Morgan Freeman. 

 

I’m a Disney guy first, but Warner Brothers holds a special place in my heart.

Mickey and the gang are fun, but the anarchic behavior of Bugs, Daffy and the rest of WB’s Looney Tunes taught generations about comic timing (and was our introduction to opera.) 

 

I grew up in the late 70s/early 80s, when Warner Brothers was cranking out hit after hit. 

 

Christopher Reeve’s Superman really did make us believe he could fly, Clint Eastwood was the ultimate stoic tough guy and Spielberg’s Gremlins and Goonies were the stuff that (kids') dreams were made of.

 

Then... 1989 and Tim Burton’s Batman. The one that changed it all.

This documentary is a great trip down Hollywood’s memory lane.

 

It was also a reminder of how powerful a player Warner Brothers became on television in the 1990s with Friends, ER, The West Wing and others, a streak that continues to this day.

 

I especially loved Baz Luhrmann’s reminder about the collective power of seeing movies in a theater with a crowd. There’s nothing like it, which is why Studios like WB are still around.

One of the other things I enjoyed about this new documentary is how they explained that in the early days of Hollywood, studios like Warner Brothers, Universal, Columbia, and FOX were seen as also-rans compared to Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) which had the biggest stars and the biggest budgets.

 

Disney wasn’t even close to being a power player, and yet they are the only studio that survived without ever being owned by another company.

Ironically, Warner Brothers now owns the classic MGM library of films, after Ted Turner’s Company (now owned by WB) acquired MGM in 1996. Ted Turner sold the famous MGM Culver backlot, where classics like Gone With The Wind, Singin’ In The Rain, and The Wizard of Oz were filmed. It’s now home to Sony/Columbia, but they still have a giant rainbow leading to soundstage 27, the home to Munchkinland.

 

I highly recommend 100 Years of WB on MAX.

 

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Chris Lucas is the author of Top Disney: 100 Top Ten Lists of the Best of Disney, from the Man to the Mouse and Beyond.