Warner Brothers began creating cartoons in the early 1930's beginning after buying the rights to Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising's character Bosko. Bosko was a character created by the pair whilst at Disney and became the star of the first ever Looney Tunes cartoon. A few years after the release of this cartoon series, Warner Bros. hired Friz, Freleng, Tex Avery, Robert Clampett and Chuck Jones. With this new team came new characters - beginning with Porky Pig. Similar to Disney's Peter Pig (which failed to become popular), Porky became the studios first star. Shortly after his cameo came the creation of my personal favourite tune, Daffy Duck and the most famous of the Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny. These rising stars made Warner Bros. the most successful studio to make animated shorts - surpassing rivals Disney creating some of the best cartoons in what was called the 'golden age of US animation' (from 1928 to the early 60's) [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_American_animation]
In the late 80's, Warner Bros. Animation began focusing on their television cartoons. Continuing with their popular Looney Tunes franchise, the studio also began expanding to other cartoons including 'Tiny Toon Adventures', 'Animaniacs' and it's spin off show 'Pinky and the brain', 'Freakazoid' and the revival of the 'Scooby-Doo' and 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons. The company have also produced several Looney Tune's spin offs including 'Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries', 'Duck Dodger' and 'Baby Looney Tunes'.
Alongside their televisual success, the studio also made a few feature films which merged live action with traditional animation techniques. 'Space Jam' (1996) and 'Looney Tunes: Back In Action' (2003) were the studios only 2 feature films, both of which featured the ever popular Looney Tunes.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_American_animation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Brothers#1930:_Birth_of_Warner.27s_cartoons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_American_animation#Warner_Bros.
http://artbyblas.com/writing/abriefhistoryofwarnerbroscartoons.html
http://toonopedia.com/warner.htm
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