From Batman to He-Man: Why Classic Animated Favorites Return to TV 

The calendar may say 2024, but popular animated characters of a certain age keep popping up in new series and reboots. Batman, Yogi Bear, He-Man, Beavis and Butt-Head, Dora the Explorer, the X-Men, the Fairly OddParents and Ariel the singing mermaid are a few of the familiar faces now entertaining a new generation of fans.

One new show in the works at Warner Bros. Animation is Bat-Family, a spinoff of the well-received Merry Little Batman movie that debuted last December on Prime Video. The project, executive-produced by Jase Ricci, Mike Roth and Sam Register, follows the new adventures of the Caped Crusader, trusty butler Alfred and young Damian Wayne (Batman's son). Warner Bros. Animation also is home to Batman: Caped Crusader (executive-produced by Bruce Timm, J. J. Abrams, Matt Reeves and Ed Brubaker) on Prime Video.

"Bat-Family gives us the chance to spend more time in the really unique world of Merry Little Batman," says Sammy Perlmutter, vice president of long form and specials at Warner Bros. Animation. "Executive producers Mike Roth and Jase Ricci have done a great job of expanding this world and balancing the superhero parts of the characters' lives with these wonderful character-based comedic moments."

Warner Bros. Animation's Jellystone!, now in its third season on Max, continues to showcase modern versions of Hanna-Barbera's Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Magilla Gorilla and others. "Audiences around the world are looking for a bit of nostalgia and comfort," Perlmutter says. "Our creative teams are very reverent and respectful toward the source material, yet they are also able to deliver a fresh spin on these characters. I don't think we're ever making fun of those characters or throwing things out the window. We love to bring in talented veterans or cool next-generation creators and provide them with the opportunity to do something fresh with these beloved characters that resonates with today's audiences."

In April, Nickelodeon and Paramount+ reintroduced another popular animated star in a reboot titled Dora. The CG-animated preschool show features Dora the Explorer, the pint-sized Latina character created by Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh Valdes and Eric Weiner. Dora debuted on Nickelodeon in 2000.

Claudia Spinelli, Nickelodeon's vice president of franchise animation development, notes, "We're seeing a lot of these characters that started out in the late 1990s and early 2000s coming back because many of the kids who were their first audiences are now parents themselves. Dora was a groundbreaking character, as she was a bilingual little girl who went on these high-stakes adventures, but she was also very caring and inclusive of all her friends. There are lots of shows that offer interactivity with viewers as Doradoes, but with her, you fall in love with her first, and then you play along with her in her adventures."

Spinelli is also optimistic about another spinoff of a Nickelodeon show, The Fairly OddParents!: A New Wish, premiering in the spring. Based on Butch Hartman's original toon, which ran from 2001 to 2017, the show introduces a spunky new protagonist named Hazel Wells, voiced by Ashleigh Crystal Hairston.

"We're telling the story of a new modern kid whose adventures have prompted the OddParents to come out of retirement, because they see that she desperately needs some magic in her life," Spinelli says. "The show offers the same kind of fast-paced and art-layered comedy that Butch and his writers crafted the first time around, but now we're leaning into new kinds of situations and characterizations. We would never betray the spirit of the original show, but we look at it as an exciting continuation in that same universe.

"Animation is not a static and frozen art form," she concludes. "It's constantly evolving and done by creative artists who are informed by the world. That's why we go deep into the DNA of the shows and determine which core tenets we must honor and respect. Then we add the elements that kids today are longing for and fuse those with the classic parts. The goal is to come up with something that feels timeless but can also speak effectively to today's audiences." 

This article originally appeared in emmy Magazine, issue #8, 2024, under the title "Drawing on the Past."