Noveltoons

Noveltoons is a series of animated cartoon short films produced by Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios from 1943 to the end of the studio during 1967. The series originated characters such as Casper the Friendly Ghost, Herman and Katnip, Little Audrey, and Baby Huey, all of whom later became stars of Harvey Comics, which purchased the characters in 1959. All shorts from Baby Huey and Little Audrey are included. It was the successor to the series Color Classics produced by Famous’ predecessor Fleischer Studios. Several Noveltoons feature characters which originated in Color Classics, like Spunky or Raggedy Ann. This series was also similar to the two series from Warner Bros., Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, in that it features several recurring characters with one general title.

In 1956, Paramount sold all of the pre-October 1950 Noveltoons (ending with Saved by the Bell) to television distributor U.M. & M. TV Corporation. Shortly afterward, U.M. & M.'s assets were acquired by National Telefilm Associates. In the 1980s, NTA changed its name to Republic Pictures, and after a brief period of ownership by Spelling Entertainment in 1994, was acquired by Paramount's parent company Viacom, which placed the cartoons back in Paramount's control (Republic Pictures has been renamed to Melange Pictures since 2006, which in turn was placed in the revived Republic Pictures subsidiary).

Later in 1962, Paramount sold the post-October 1950 to pre-March 1962 Noveltoons (beginning with The Voice of the Turkey and ending with T.V. or No T.V.) to Harvey Films, which in turn was purchased by Classic Media in 2001. Classic Media was purchased by DreamWorks Animation in 2012 (and briefly renamed it DreamWorks Classics), which was purchased by Comcast's NBCUniversal in 2016 and currently distributed by Universal Pictures.

Paramount continues to own the post-March 1962 Noveltoons (beginning with Yule Laff).

Most of the pre-October 1950 cartoons are currently under public domain (with some few post-1950 exceptions as well).

In January 2012, Thunderbean Animation released a restored collection of public domain Noveltoons on DVD entitled Noveltoons Original Classics with the following cartoons:

In October 2019, Thunderbean Animation re-released Noveltoons Original Classics on Blu-ray. It included the following cartoons:

Paramount Home Entertainment released a restored print of Space Kid on the "Paramount Presents" Blu-ray re-release of the 1982 film 48 Hrs. in July 2021, making it the first Paramount cartoon from the 1960s decade to be restored on any form of home media.