Want to stream cartoons on a Saturday morning like the old days (but via modern technology)? Maybe don’t turn to Apple TV+.
The core Apple SVOD service has all but abandoned developing animated shows at a clip that would make Netflix blush, a new study from Luminate Intelligence has found.
In (late) 2019, when Apple TV+ launched, the service ordered all of one animated series — it was very early days. Three animated shows were ordered in 2020 and eight greenlights came in 2021, more than Peacock, Prime Video and Paramount+ (but less than Max and Hulu, and significantly less than Disney+ and Netflix). It was the pandemic, and turning to animation simply made sense; Frog and Toad did not need to quarantine.
As things returned to normal in 2022, everyone but Apple TV+ (and Netflix, which was basically flat) began to shrink their animated development slates. Apple’s 15 series orders, meanwhile, nearly doubled its animation ambitions from the prior year. Even with a relatively small sample size, the anomaly stuck out like a giant, red, throbbing sore thumb — a favorite gag in animation.
For 24 months, Apple TV+ gave animation a real go. In 2023, it again ordered 15 animated series, marking back-to-back years in which it ordered more animated series than even Disney+ did.(!) It didn’t last. In 2024, Apple waived the white flag, ordering just six animated series, or 60 percent fewer than each of the prior two years. (Netflix’s league-leading animation slate decreased by one-quarter that year.)
Reps for Apple TV+ did not immediately respond to The Hollywood Reporter’s request for comment on the Luminate findings.
It’s a huge reversal for a rich company that in 2018 made a rich investment to carry and create new Peanuts programming. This May, Charlie Brown’s gang released their first original musical in 35 years, but that’s about as one-off as it gets. Apple and WildBrain, the Peanuts owner, are currently working on a Peanuts feature film.
One thing not helping the curve here is Apple’s general preference for children’s animation at a time when adult-animated shows have the greater momentum within the broader industry. While the company may prefer the kids stuff, it is no longer investing in it — not on the series side, at least. (Perhaps if it added commercials…)
Evidence of that can be found beyond series orders. In early 2024, Apple TV+ laid off (a bit) more than a handful staffers at its Kids team, and the streamer has canceled animated series Central Park, Doug Unplugs, Duck and Goose, Harriet the Spy, Interrupting Chicken, Little Angel, Pinecone & Pony, Pretzel and the Puppies, Puffins Impossible, Slumberkins and The Snoopy Show.
A few animated shows have continued, notably Eva the Owlet, WondLa and Stillwater; Frog and Toad, Sago Mini Friends, and Curses! ran two seasons through 2024 and have all not had a third. Be@rbrick, Not a Box, and Goldie are new in 2025 — not that they’re bumping up the bar graph.