I blame the death of Saturday morning cartoons. The foundation block of my classical education (and classic movie education) is an animated rabbit. I don’t think anybody is doing that kind of thing anymore, Speilberg did a pretty good job of rebirthing it with Animaniacs, but I think their primary audience was adults looking for another lap in the WB animation pool. And Animaniacs ended 20 years ago. Want to get kids interested in the great movies again, stick a Peter Lorre imitation in a popular cartoon.
Do kids today even know the classic Warner Brothers animation? They probably know the Disney classics (Snow White, Pinocchio, Bambi, Dumbo) a lot better.