Over 30 animated series, including OKKO, Summer Camp Island, and The Fungies, were removed from HBO Max this past Wednesday as the streaming service moves closer to merging with Discovery+, drawing the ire of fans and artists alike. Infinity Train, a critically regarded cartoon series that premiered on YouTube as a pilot in 2016 and will broadcast its first season on Cartoon Network in 2019, was among the programmes deleted from the collection.
On Saturday, series creator Owen Dennis posted a lengthy entry to his blog, titled “Owen Dennis’s Infinite Train of Thought,” in which he discussed everything he knows about the situation so far, including the reason his show was taken down, the show’s future, what we as viewers can do, and how the “slimy” situation is affecting him personally. The post begins by saying that the decision to remove these titles from HBO Max was a “direct order from Discovery, and it’s about saving money somehow,” and that the cancellation was not communicated to the creators of the shows, making the whole ordeal as shocking to the creators and artists of these projects as it was to the fans.
He went on to name every service where Infinity Train or everything associated with it has been removed, including HBO Max’s Twitter and YouTube page, Cartoon Network’s Twitter and YouTube page, and every music streaming service. Dennis has “no clue” why the decision was taken to remove the series from all social media and hence is unable to speak on the matter. Dennis did add that he was “assured by Warner that it will not be pulled down from any pay-per-season/episode services” at least as of the time of writing.
According to Dennis’s account of the events, this deletion was originally scheduled for next week, giving the authors enough warning this time around. Of course not, and look where all that chaos has led us. He adds that Cartoon Network informed Discovery that their choice would damage their standing with the show’s producers and talent, but that Discovery “does not care what any of this looks like publicly, much less how we feel about it.” Additionally, Dennis clarifies that, at least at the time of writing, these cuts were unrelated to the tax write-off loophole that has been linked to the unexpected cancellations of Batgirl and ScoobHoliday !’s Haunt.
Dennis, on the other hand, thinks that “the widespread view is that it has something to do with paying animators and artists their residuals that they are entitled to their work.” He also explains how residuals are calculated, saying: “The residuals are an integral part of our compensation package. In lieu of paying artists directly, our union uses the money from our residuals to cover medical costs for all of our members. They are indirectly defunding our healthcare system by not paying artists residuals on their work. This also spells the end of residual payments for artists and actors. I voiced One-One and received $388.45 in residuals in the first quarter of this year. This is not a huge sum of money; it’s approximately the same as if the studio had bought an additional office chair by mistake.”
In reference to CNBC’s story that Discovery will save millions of dollars by dropping certain titles, he said, “this is a very minor drop in the bucket of the $3 billion that David Zaslov has indicated he intends to save by 2023.” It was “infrequently watched,” according to CNBC’s report on the purge. While many in the field have tried to get in touch with someone “acquainted with the topic” since the news was made, they have been unsuccessful. This is a point on which he and others in the industry disagree. Dennis notes that Discovery did not specify how often people saw anything when they said it was “infrequently watched.” He goes on to add that Infinity Train “was in the 91st percentile in children’s media” and that, as late as yesterday, the series was placed in the top five on iTunes for Kids and Family and in the top 20 overall.
According to Dennis, the approach used by Discovery was “extremely unprofessional, disrespectful, and just straight up slime,” an opinion shared not only by those directly impacted but by the whole industry. “That’s how I imagine the majority of creators feel. Talent, agents, attorneys, managers, and even executives at these firms are all fuming. There isn’t a single person I know who works in the animation and entertainment industry who, when you bring this topic, doesn’t exclaim, “What the f—k are they doing? How can they expect anyone to want to collaborate with them ever again? Since there’s no need for it, of course. So why bother spending years building something if it’s simply going to be stolen and shot in some random backyard? They won’t receive anyone’s best effort if they stay, and it’s terribly disheartening for everyone involved. We’re in an industry that straddles the divide between the creative and the commercial, yet our superiors seem to have forgotten that the latter wouldn’t exist without the former.”
Dennis gives some cause for optimism by stating that he does not believe the series to be permanently cancelled and that, in addition to the previously indicated alternate sites to watch it on, he is now discussing the next steps surrounding the series’ existence with his management team. Furthermore, he claims that each viewer must make their own decision on the moral implications of pirating the show. “Currently… about five enormous, international businesses possess the vast majority of the world’s renowned artworks. This also implies they have control over our cultural practices. You can’t claim ownership over our past or our right to access it until you control our culture. Should a small group of corporations have such a stranglehold on the market? In my opinion, that is not the case.” Theft of labour describes piracy committed out of a lack of willingness to pay for the good or service in question, but artificial scarcity is a different matter. Finally, Dennis expresses his gratitude to Infinity Train’s devoted audience and creative team, promising to “continue to try and get more done somehow.” Visit our site often for additional information about the situation at HBO Max and Warner Bros.