Like so many things, it goes back to Ronald Reagan.
Reagan loosened up the rules on children’s TV. That let the networks/advertisers run half hour long commercials with names like “GI Joe” and “Masters Of The Universe.” Back in the day, the folks writing Bugs Bunny could put anyone in a cartoon, but the new guys were being pushed to create characters that could be sold as toys. The same applies to movies. The studios would rather finance a science fiction movie with a dozen tie-in products than a historical picture that has a bunch of public domain characters.
Like so many things, it goes back to Ronald Reagan.
Reagan loosened up the rules on children’s TV. That let the networks/advertisers run half hour long commercials with names like “GI Joe” and “Masters Of The Universe.” Back in the day, the folks writing Bugs Bunny could put anyone in a cartoon, but the new guys were being pushed to create characters that could be sold as toys. The same applies to movies. The studios would rather finance a science fiction movie with a dozen tie-in products than a historical picture that has a bunch of public domain characters.
As always, look for the money trail.
Yeah, the G.I. Joe and Transformer cartoons (and a lot more, I’m sure) were basically created to be commercials for the toys from the get go.