Cartoon Network "Web Premiere Toons" Promotional Messenger Bag w/ Keychains (1999)
Cartoon Network "Web Premiere Toons" Promotional Messenger Bag w/ Keychains (1999)
Cartoon Network
Web Premiere Toons Cartoonnetwork.com
Web Premiere Toons (WPT) represented Cartoon Network's ambitious leap into the digital age, launching in February 1999 as a series of "cartoons you can click on." While the network had already seen massive success with its televised World Premiere Toons (which birthed hits like Dexter's Laboratory), WPT was designed specifically for the burgeoning internet, utilizing Adobe Flash and Shockwave technology to create interactive experiences. The series kicked off with Gary Panter's "Pink Donkey and the Fly" and served as a high-tech laboratory where the network could test new characters and art styles at a fraction of the cost of a television pilot. Sam Register, then-head of the site, famously described the platform as "Nielsen on steroids" because it allowed the network to track exactly how users interacted with the content in real-time.
Over its three-year run, the project expanded from experimental originals like Germtown and The Marshmallow Money Show to include interactive shorts featuring legacy icons and current "Cartoon Cartoons" like The Powerpuff Girls. The platform even featured exclusive work from animation legend John Kricfalusi, who directed several shorts for the site in 2001. Although production on new WPT content halted in 2002 as the network shifted its web strategy toward more traditional gaming, the franchise remains a pioneering example of early web animation. It proved that the internet could be a viable secondary home for major media brands, laying the groundwork for the interactive digital shorts and "webisodes" that are standard in the industry today.
Promotional Messenger Bag
This Promotional messenger bag was released in 1999, and given exclusively to internal executives, marketing partners, and top-tier media press to promote the launch of Web Premiere Toons. The three keychains attached are Snorky the Elephant, The Pink Donkey (the first Web Premiere Toon released), and Scooby-Doo.
