Christmas is around the corner and at WarnerMedia’s HBO Max, which is leaving no stone unturned to showcase its first-ever holiday-themed kids content.
The streaming platform will begin the festive season on 3 December with a new half-hour animated Looney Tunes special entitled Bugs Bunny’s 24-Carrot Holiday Special.
The synopsis of the show follows: Porky the Pig and Daffy Duck traveling to the North Pole to save Christmas, and feuding neighbors Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd going toe-to-tail in an epic snowball fight.
A week later, a pair of new Esme & Roy animated preschool shorts will be available together as one 26-minute special from Sesame Workshop and Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana. In Holiday Spirit, lovable monsters Simon and Snugs learn about the true meaning of the holidays, while Snow Worries finds Fig and the Monster Sitters looking for new ways to play outside when the snow melts.
Holiday at Hooper’s, a 26-minute Sesame Street special programming about Elmo and Baby Bear making their own Christmas Eve and Hanukkah celebration after an unexpected visit to Hooper’s store, will also premiere on 17 December.
HBO Max’s new Sesame content is aligned with WarnerMedia’s strategy to build up its preschool slate under kids head Tom Ascheim through the network’s existing Sesame Street HBO partnership, established in 2015.
Cartoon Network’s Summer Camp Island by Julia Pott will also premiere on HBO Max, with the third season releasing over a three-week period, led by themed episodes focusing on mythical creatures like witches (10 December), aliens (17 December) and yetis (24 December).
HBO Max’s foraying into holiday content follows a major restructure last month that saw Ascheim’s global kids, young adults and classics division take over management of HBO Max’s kids and family programming.
Cartoon Network exec Amy Friedman was also promoted earlier this week to head of kids and family programming at Warner Bros. She will develop and produce kids and family content for HBO Max, along with steering the creative and strategic direction of kids and family programming for Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
