The limited animation technique posed threat to the success of the company later in the 1970's. With the earning of $60million a year Hanna Barbera now failed to produce new characters and shows. Hence in 1987 the Great American Communications Group acquired the company. Further in the year 1991, Turner Broadcasting System was purchased by Hanna Barbera. In 1992, the Cartoon Network was aired by Turner Broadcasting and this set the need for library of cartoons. So the Hanna Barbera buy provided them with 3000 half-hours cartoons. The marketing strategy of Hanna Barbera was now changed with the help of Fred Siebert, the company's president. More importance was given to the international market as a result of shift in its production to Asia. The extension gave birth to new characters and a CD ROM Voiced by Fred Flintstone was produced about the dinosaurs. Later Turner's got merged with Time-Warner Inc. And posed a threat to the future existence of company. (History of Hanna Barbera Cartoons Inc.) What cartoons they created:

The Hanna and Barbera union earned fame much before they started their own productions. The journey began when they both came together to direct cartoons for MGM. Puss gets the Boots in 1940; their first collaborative work starred the famous cat and mouse pair called Jasper and Jinx. This pair was later renamed as Tom and Jerry, which was a huge success and became the first work to be nominated for Oscar as the best cartoon for short subject. They worked together at MGM till 1957. Meanwhile they created lot of minor characters and more than 100 shorts of Tom and Jerry were directed, out of which seven shorts won the Academy Awards. With the closure of MGM studio Hanna and Barbera came up with their own production company 'The Hanna Barbera Studio'. They began their work with Ruff & Reddy, which was an animated short series for television much like the cartoons for old theatres. This show was only a half-hour show with live action. (Hanna-Barbera Studio)

Actors like Don Messick and Daws Butler voiced Ruff & Reddy shows. The series continued until 1964 with 100 episodes to its history. Their second home production and character was HuckleBerry Hound. This was the first show in which Hanna Barbera controlled the whole content of the show. The other cartoon segments in HuckleBerry Hound were Yogi Bear and Pixie & Dixie that featured Huck as host. Later in 1961 a new character called Hokey Wolf was introduced in the place Yogi Bear. Hanna Barbera came up with the world's favorite cartoon in 1960 'The Flintstones' that was based on ancient show 'The Honeymooners' and the 'Stone Age Cartoons'. 'The Flintstones' was first primetime television cartoon show that set way for the most popular show 'The Simpsons'. For another two years 'The Flintstones' was able to stick to its place on the television. Later the characters were featured in the films called the Man Called Flintstones, Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm, and of course in Rubbles' babies. 'The Flintstones' lasted long even after the Jetsons and Top Cat. (Hanna-Barbera Studio)

The cartoons show 'The Jetsons' was similar to the 'The Flintstones' to some extent. One it was because it both the prime time television shows and both shows were based on 'Stone age cartoons' with change only in the settings. Later in 1964, Hanna Barbera started film production with films such as 'Hey There, its Yogi Bear' and 'A Man Called Flintstone' following by the Jetsons Meet the Flintstones, Yogi's First Christmas and other films. This was the year when animation was leading to a new direction that showed up in their adventure cartoon like Jonny Quest. After the success of the Flintstones, Jonny Quest was the first adventure animated story show that set a trend for adventure cartoons in the animation industry. Hanna Barbera after earning additional income with famous prime time cartoons showed the company to head to license the properties to comic books. The publishing of cartoon characters in comics was started with Dell Comics, and followed by Charlton Comics, Marvel, Harvey and the DC Comics. (Hanna-Barbera Studio)

Process of animation they used:

Hanna Barbera was famous for the process of animation they used called as Limited or planned animation. This process was found in 1960 to manage the costs of cartoons. In this process or technique, each character parts like head, arm or legs were designed by using multiple cells. Here the body of the character remained unmoved or static and only the other parts moved. Hence for applying these techniques, Hanna Barbera...

Characters with collars allowed separation of the character's body from the other parts; the collar would thereby act as a curtain between the body and head cells and also covered the neck seam. This technique enabled the character's speech with the movement of the head and actual body remained stationery, thereby providing limited as well as recurring use of animation. (Limited Animation) for example 'Scooby-Doo, Where are you!' is an animation that was designed using the Limited animation process. The advantage of this process is that it allowed only partial drawing, in other words the each frame in the film didn't need the whole new drawing. In this process the figures were painted and photographed by dividing the cells of characters on the acetate sheet or the celluloid. The character's body was placed in the bottom cell and rest of the parts that required motion like head, arm and legs were placed on different cells. This was the reason that most of the Hanna Barbera characters specially wore the neckties and the collars. Therefore, drawing part for the body would save time and money. (How 'Scooby-Doo' Works)
Special effects, techniques, lighting, & sound effects that were used:

The introduction of 'Planned animation' by Hanna Barbera involved several techniques to keep the labor cost low. Then the studio came up with innovative sound effects that were used for every cartoon. In late 1960's as competition was at its peak, the other companies adopted new sound effects. The Hanna Barbera studio also developed a library for sound effects for every cartoon they used. Excellent songs of theme for the shows, which were catchy, were introduced. Hence the shows would feature one or two musical songs that remained unchanged during the sequential presentation of weekly show. Usually the second song was played at the time of chase scene for example in the show called 'The Monkees'. This technique also became quite familiar in the industry. (Austen, 127)

The position of the company today:

The position of the company was under threat when Time-Warner acquired it. In 1996 the Time-Warner closed down the studio of Hanna Barbera that was built in 1960s. The company was then renamed Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Inc., which was to share few services with the Warner Brothers. (History of Hanna Barbera Cartoons Inc.) Then in March 2001 William Hanna died at 90. The collaboration of Hanna and Barbera lasted for sixty years that produced the unforgettable cartoon characters in the television history. After Hanna's death, Joseph Barbera died on December 19, 2006. The duo was entitled to star for the Hollywood walk of fame, followed by Television hall of fame in 1993. (Tom and Jerry Directed by William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, produced by Fred Quimby) in 1996, When Time Warner bought the 'Turner Broadcasting' it also purchased the cartoon network with it. Now the cartoon library of Warner Brothers (initially Hanna Barbera's) was available to the cartoon network. The Hanna Barbera direction studio was also changed to Cartoon Network Studio. The focus of the cartoon network was only to produce new material or shows. The present day productions are Johnny Bravo, Dexter's Laboratory, the Powerpuff Girls, and so on. (History of Cartoon Network)

References

Austen, Jake. TV a-Go-Go: Rock on TV from American Bandstand to American Idol. Chicago Review Press, 2005.

Gerber, Louis. Tom and Jerry Directed by William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, produced by Fred

Quimby. http://www.cosmopolis.ch/english/cosmo15/tomandjerry.htm

Inkblot Communications. History of Cartoon Network. 2007. http://www.historyofbranding.com/cartoonnetwork.html

Limited Animation. 21 January 2008. http://everything2.com/index.pl-node+Linted%20Animation

Mallory, Michael. How 'Scooby-Doo' Works. http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/how-scooby-works3.htm

Mittell, Jason. Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture.

Routledge, 2004.

N.A. Hanna-Barbera Studio. http://www.toonopedia.com/hannabar.htm

N.A. History of Hanna Barbera Cartoons Inc. http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/6/Hanna-Barbera-Cartoons-Inc.html

N.A. Joseph Roland Barbera (1911-2006). www.tomandjerryonline.com/barbera.cfm http://www.tomandjerryonline.com/barbera.cfm

N.A. The Founders: The Story of Hanna. Sample chapter from Hanna-Barbera Cartoons.

1998. http://www.hlla.com/reference/hanna-chapter.html

N.A. William Denby Hanna (1910-2001). http://www.tomandjerryonline.com/hanna.cfm

N.A. William HANNA and Joseph Barbera. 2007. http://www.filmreference.com/Writers-and-Production-Artists-Gi-Ha/Hanna-William-and-Joseph-Barbera.html