HBO Max Subscribers Notice Glaring Blunder After Cartoon Network Show's Removal

By Michael Hein

While HBO Max has been removing content from its service lately, it has left behind some odds and ends that have fans surprised. The Cartoon Network series Victor and Valentino was removed from HBO Max on Wednesday, Aug. 17. Surprisingly, the user profile icons for the two titular characters are still available even at the time of this writing.

HBO Max has been canceling its own original content and removing other Warner Bros. content from its catalog in preparation for its consolidation with Discovery+ sometime next year. That included a lot of animation and children's cartoons – such as Victor and Valentino. However, while many shows took with them the user icons associated with their titles, Victor and Valentino somehow escaped this fate. You can sign onto HBO Max right now and select one of these two characters to represent your profile, even though HBO Max doesn't want to host the series itself.

Victor and Valentino is about two young half-brothers who live in the small town of Monte Macabre, where it turns out lots of supernatural occurrences are waiting around every corner. The show was created and produced by Diego Molano, who provides the voice for Vic Calavera. His older brother Val is voiced by Rico Rodriguez in the pilot episode and then by Sean-Ryan Petersen in the subsequent episodes.

The pilot episode aired once in 2016 in Mexico before the show premiered more widely in 2019. The series managed to get 119 episodes, ending on Friday, Aug. 26 2022. Its removal from HBO Max left many fans devastated.

The removals are tied to the corporate restructuring in preparation for the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, but the strategies at work here have many fans genuinely baffled. The company has removed much of its most beloved animated content, and subscribers have noted that animation is a staple in any household with children, where it can be played again and again. New and upcoming animation projects have been canceled – including some with strong legacy characters like the Looney Tunes or Batman.

So far, there's no word on where fans will be able to watch these defunct Cartoon Network shows in the future – if at all. Hopefully there is some kind of streaming option or hard-copy release coming, or else shows like Victor and Valentino may simply be impossible for fans to find at all.

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