WB Animation

Of late, WB Animation has created its share of direct-to-video features with the D.C. characters.

... 2014 will see two releases from WB’s animation studios in the form of Son of Batman and Batman: Arkham Asylum, and while the latter will be a standalone project based on the popular Arkham Asylum video game series, it turns out that Son of Batman will be just the latest chapter in a series of animated films all set within the same DC universe, consciously similar to DC’s “New 52″ reboot of their comic book continuity.

James Tucker, supervising producer for Son of Batman and many other DC animated features, recently spoke to Comic Book Resources about the development of the title, which introduces Bruce Wayne’s biological son Damian, who was raised by his mother Talia al Ghul to be an assassin, and eventually becomes the new Robin. ...

James Tucker was asked about the possibility of heroes like Aquaman getting their own animated feature (there was a rumor that he was left out of War specifically for that reason). And while Tucker wouldn’t name any future characters with a film in the works, he did suggest that plenty of thought has gone into this continuity, saying:

"We have a lot of plans, I can say that. The world’s wide open. We don’t really have a lot of restrictions on that. I mean, I just wish we could do 10 a year because – no, I don’t, because that’s a lot of work. But there are ideas we want to do and characters I want to tap into. It takes time to get to them. We only do two a year that are in continuity, so it takes a while to get around to everyone. So as long as each movie has something or somebody in it that no one’s seen on DVD before, I think we’ll be accomplishing our goals." ...

Warner Bros. Animation turns out a steady stream of direct-to-video features. And it's not just super heroes in capes. There's the usual spate of Scooby Doo long-forms (since you can never have too many Scoobs) and Looney Tunes features. (There's one of those in work now.) And the Tom and Jerry features. (Joe and Bill might have moved on, but their creations still generate cash flow.)

The direct-to-video market keeps shrinking, but there's always streaming and downloads, so there's still money to be made. (Just not as much as ten or fifteen years ago.)