Through its history, Hanna-Barbera has operated theme park attractions, mostly as a section in Kings Island, Carowinds, California's Great America, Kings Dominion, Canada's Wonderland, and, recently, Six Flags Great America.

Outside North America, the theme parks were also available in several countries, notably in the United Kingdom, China, India, and Australia, which was part of Australia's Wonderland

History of involvement in theme parks Taft Broadcasting purchased Hanna-Barbera Productions, a television animation studio, in 1967. Two years later, it purchased Cincinnati's Coney Island amusement park, moving it and expanding it on a larger allotment of land, reopening it in 1972 as Kings Island. The company partnered with Top Value Enterprises to create Family Leisure Centers in 1973, opening Virginia's Kings Dominion in 1975; the company purchased Carowinds the same year. In 1979, Taft purchased 20% of the new Canada's Wonderland theme park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which opened in 1981. The year prior, Family Entertainment Centers was dissolved, making Taft the sole owner of Kings Dominion.

By 1984, a grouping of senior executives from Taft's Amusement Park Group and some park managers purchased Taft's theme park division. The group named the resulting company Kings Entertainment Company (KECO). Taft gave KECO a perpetual license to use Hanna-Barbera characters at all of their current parks. Australia's Wonderland, which opened in 1985, also licensed the characters, but 1989 KECO purchaser Great America did not opt to receive the license, or opt to separately license. In their first year of incorporation, KECO opened a short-lived Hanna-Barbera Land in Houston, Texas.

The Kings Entertainment Company theme parks all had Hanna-Barbera sections, some having The Flintstones sections, and Smurf sections, after the popularity of the 1980s television series The Smurfs. Through the years, these parks have largely removed or re-branded the areas into other children's sections (under the Nickelodeon brand and the Paramount Parks-created name "KidZVille"). Any of the still operating parks are part of Cedar Fair; Australia's Wonderland and the stand-alone Hanna-Barbera Land parks are both defunct.

Big hopes for motion-controlled attraction

In October 1989, animated film producer David Kirschner became Hanna-Barbera's president and CEO; Hanna-Barbera was part of the publicly traded Great American Broadcasting Company. He set out to make the company an entertainment conglomerate to rival Disney, by utilizing its existing core characters. Recognizing the Hanna-Barbera parks needed rejuvenation, he had the company create The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera, a motion simulation-ride.

Created to be one of Universal Studios Florida's original attractions, The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera cost between $13 and $14 million, and opened June 7, 1990. They also opened a concept store at the exit to the attraction, for a chain of Hanna-Barbera stores they hoped to open. The attraction operated for 12 years, until it was closed October 20, 2002, to make room for Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast (now Despicable Me Minion Mayhem)

Hanna-Barbera Land

Hanna-Barbera Land was a theme park based on the cartoons of the Hanna-Barbera animation studio. It was located in Spring, Texas, United States, north of Houston. It was opened in the 1984 and 1985 seasons. The park was built under the purview of Taft Broadcasting, which became the Kings Entertainment Company as of the opening. Kings also owned the Australia's Wonderland, Canada's Wonderland, Carowinds, Kings Dominion, and Kings Island theme parks. Despite increased attendance in 1985, a bad regional economy and minimal spending in the park on concessions, gift shop purchases and souvenirs meant a death knell for the attraction.

Hanna-Barbera Land was sold to private investors and SplashTown USA was built in its place, then again to Bryant Morris, then to Six Flags, who purchased the park in 1999. After initially not wanting to brand the park and calling it "a member of the Six Flags family", Six Flags eventually decided to re-brand the park as Six Flags SplashTown. In 2007, the park was sold to PARC Management, which branded it as Wet 'N Wild SplashTown, until 2019, when it returned to Six Flags management as part of an operating agreement with PARC Management. Six Flags changed the name to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor SplashTown.

Hanna-Barbera's Marineland

As sections of larger parks Canada's Wonderland Hanna-Barbera Land opened in 1981 with three sections. The first section was Yogi's Woods, based on The Yogi Bear Show, which featured the attractions Balloon Race, Yogi's Cave, Boo Boo's Buggies and the Woodland Theatre (now the Playhouse Theatre). Scoobyville was the central town site, where a carousel and other attractions were included. On the opposite end of Scoobyville from Yogi's Woods was Bedrock, based on The Flintstones. Saltwater Circus was also in the section.

In 1984, Smurf Village replaced Yogi's Woods; the section featured the newly-popular Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Smurfs. A walk-through attraction, Smurf Village closed at the end of the 1992 season.

For the 1993 season, the Smurf Village section of the park became Kids Kingdom. In 1998, KidZVille replaced the Kids Kingdom and its two rides, the "Kid's Castle Playland" and the "Jumbo Bumps" were renamed "The Candy Factory" and the "Twizzler Twist" (and renamed again the next year to "Sour Cherry Blaster Twist"). Along with five new rides for KidZVille, "The Busy Little Town" was launched and it included the characters from Nickelodeon's Rugrats series. The Playhouse Theatre still had a Hanna-Barbera themed show, Scooby Doo's Scary School Daze. On slower days, the Scooby-Doo walkaround character may venture through this section of the park.

The Bedrock section of the park met its end soon after, being replaced by Nickelodeon Central in 2003. Only the bumper cars were kept, turned into the Rugrats Toonpike. The restaurant was de-themed and turned into a Pizza Pizza.

In 2010, Hanna-Barbera Land was replaced with Planet Snoopy.

Carowinds Happy Land of Hanna-Barbera (1975-?)

In 1984, Carowinds added Smurf Island, which was a children's play area located on the 1.3-acre (5,300 m2) island surrounded by the Carolina Sternwheeler. Access to Smurf Island was gained in one of two ways – across the Carolina Sternwheeler and a ramp built on the island side of the boat, or on diesel-powered "Smurf Boats" launched from the area beside Harmony Hall. Children could enjoy two ball crawls and a climbing area complete with ropes, cargo nets, wood platforms, a rope tunnel and a 60-foot (18 m) tubular slide. Smurf characters roamed the island and led guests to the hidden Smurf village with four Smurf houses that children could enter. Smurf Island was eventually closed and later demolished to make space for the BORG Assimilator, a Star Trek-themed flying roller coaster. The Borg coaster is no longer operating today, but the theming was removed in 2008 and the name was changed to Nighthawk.

California's Great America Opening in 1987, Smurf Woods featured a pint-sized steel coaster, the Blue Streak (now called Woodstock Express), as well as a Smurf village with mushroom houses. Smurf Woods was closed in 1995 and replaced with Nickelodeon Splat City. One Smurf house survived and can be seen in the Picnic Grove area. The area was renamed Planet Snoopy in 2010.

Six Flags Great America Also, an area known as Camp Cartoon Network opened in 1998. It was a sub-section of the park's Yukon Territory. The rides were themed to Hanna-Barbera properties that aired in reruns on Cartoon Network at the time rather than original Cartoon Network programming (despite characters such as Johnny Bravo, Cow & Chicken, and Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory, appearing on the sign). In 2008, the area was renamed to simply Camp Cartoon, and the original CN characters were removed from the sign. Starting in 2018, the area was gradually re-themed to remove all Hanna-Barbera intellectual properties.

Kings Dominion The Happy Land of Hanna-Barbera (1975–1997)

The earlier Land of the Dooz Mine Train attraction became Smurf Mountain. It was eventually closed to make room for the defunct Volcano: The Blast Coaster in 1998.

Kings Island

When Kings Island opened in 1972, one of its original themed areas was The Happy Land of Hanna Barbera. Original attractions included: Scooby-Doo, a wooden roller coaster; it was renamed the Beastie in 1980 and Fairly Odd Coaster in 2006. It is now known as the Woodstock Express. Enchanted Voyage (1972-1983) Winnie Witch's Cauldrons (1972–1991) Gulliver's Rub-A-Dub (1972–1982) Boo-Boo's Buggies (1972–1991) Boo-Boo's Baggage Claim (1972–2005) Jetson's Jet Orbiters (1972–2005) Baba Looey's Buggies (1972–2005)

Additionally, the parking lot featured a combination of a Hanna-Barbera character and a number to help guests remember their location at the end of the day.

Flintstone's Boulder Bumpers was added to the park in 1977. The 1977 park season wrapped with the Peanut Olympics, between teams led by Billy Carter, United States President Carter's younger brother, and Yogi Bear. The two-day event was won by Carter.

For the park's 10th anniversary in 1982, it expanded Hanna-Barbera Land, spending $2.1 million on the new attractions. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera attended the media preview on Monday, April 9 at 10 am. The new attractions were: Yogi's Picnic, a live show the Woodland Theatre, with a puppet show Gumball Alley Hanna-Barbera Character Carousel a Hanna-Barbera Character Fountain climbing structures Shaggy's Silly Sticks and McScrappy's Farm Fool House Scooby Choo Jelly Bean Bowl

The Enchanted Voyage ride was closed in 1983, to be retrofitted to the upcoming Smurfs television series. "The Smurfs' Enchanted Voyage" debuted in 1984, while the television series was popular. People would ride in a boat around the world of the Smurfs celebrating the seasons of winter, fall, summer and spring.

The Flying Carpet slide was moved to Hanna-Barbera Land in 1986, becoming Scrappy's Slide.

Five rides were added to Hanna-Barbera Land in 1992. In 1994, Sunshine Turnpike was closed, to give more room for a new children's area. The Hanna-Barbera attraction received competition in 1995, from a "Nickelodeon Splat City" section. The park was purchased by Paramount Parks in 1992 and a $750,000 upgrade was made to the section; new attractions were the Enchanted Theatre, Scooby Zoom, Pixie and Dixie's Swingset and Dick Dastardly's Biplanes. Additionally, the Smurfs Enchanted Voyage was retrofitted for $3.5 million, into the Phantom Theatre. In 1998, Scooby's Ghoster Coaster (their second Scooby-Doo-themed coaster), Yogi's Skytours and Atom Ant's Airways were added to the park; Scooby Zoom was renamed Top Cat's Taxi Jam and Flintstone Flybots turned into Jetson's Jet Orbiters.

Nickelodeon Central was added to the park in 2001, taking over parts of Parts of Rivertown and Hanna-Barbera Land. For seven years in a row, 2001–2008, the collective kids area at the park has received Amusement Today magazine's "Golden Ticket for Best Kids' Area in the World in 2007".

The area was removed at the end of the 2005 season, to make way for Nickelodeon Universe, featuring 18 "new" rides. Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle was the only ride to remain as-is, having been created in 2003 as a complete overhaul of the existing Phantom Theater ride. The attraction was the park's first interactive ride.

The replacement section had SpongeBob SquarePants- and Dora the Explorer-themed neighbourhoods and 18 attractions. The Nickelodeon theming remained until 2010, when the area was rethemed to Planet Snoopy. Atom Ant's Airways is now Sally's Sea Plane Yogi's Sky Tours is now Woodstock Whirlybirds Top Cat's Taxi Jam is now The Great Pumpkin Coaster Pixie and Dixie's Swingset is now Charlie Browns Wind-Up