diff --git a/doc/api/animation_api.rst b/doc/api/animation_api.rst
index fd2a1d3c2630..dd4bad8f0518 100644
--- a/doc/api/animation_api.rst
+++ b/doc/api/animation_api.rst
@@ -168,6 +168,14 @@ all data in memory.
 
    PillowWriter
 
+The HTML writer generates JavaScript-based animations.
+
+.. autosummary::
+   :toctree: _as_gen
+   :nosignatures:
+
+   HTMLWriter
+
 The pipe-based writers stream the captured frames over a pipe to an external
 process.  The pipe-based variants tend to be more performant, but may not work
 on all systems.
diff --git a/doc/missing-references.json b/doc/missing-references.json
index ce538374afc3..29dd9a62affe 100644
--- a/doc/missing-references.json
+++ b/doc/missing-references.json
@@ -752,7 +752,7 @@
       "doc/api/prev_api_changes/api_changes_1.5.0.rst:119"
     ],
     "MovieWriter.saving": [
-      "doc/api/animation_api.rst:213"
+      "doc/api/animation_api.rst:221"
     ],
     "MovieWriterBase": [
       "lib/matplotlib/animation.py:docstring of matplotlib.animation.AVConvBase:4",
@@ -972,6 +972,9 @@
     "cbook.warn_deprecated()": [
       "doc/devel/contributing.rst:309"
     ],
+    "cleanup": [
+      "lib/matplotlib/animation.py:docstring of matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter.setup:19"
+    ],
     "collections.LineCollection.get_segements()": [
       "doc/api/prev_api_changes/api_changes_3.1.0.rst:280"
     ],
@@ -1316,9 +1319,26 @@
     "matplotlib.animation.FuncAnimation.to_jshtml": [
       "lib/matplotlib/animation.py:docstring of matplotlib.animation.FuncAnimation.new_frame_seq:1:<autosummary>:1"
     ],
-    "matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter": [
-      "doc/users/prev_whats_new/whats_new_2.1.0.rst:40",
-      "doc/users/prev_whats_new/whats_new_2.1.0.rst:51"
+    "matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter.args_key": [
+      "lib/matplotlib/animation.py:docstring of matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter.finish:1:<autosummary>:1"
+    ],
+    "matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter.bin_path": [
+      "doc/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter.rst:28:<autosummary>:1"
+    ],
+    "matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter.cleanup": [
+      "doc/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter.rst:28:<autosummary>:1"
+    ],
+    "matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter.exec_key": [
+      "lib/matplotlib/animation.py:docstring of matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter.finish:1:<autosummary>:1"
+    ],
+    "matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter.frame_format": [
+      "lib/matplotlib/animation.py:docstring of matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter.finish:1:<autosummary>:1"
+    ],
+    "matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter.frame_size": [
+      "lib/matplotlib/animation.py:docstring of matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter.finish:1:<autosummary>:1"
+    ],
+    "matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter.saving": [
+      "doc/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.animation.HTMLWriter.rst:28:<autosummary>:1"
     ],
     "matplotlib.animation.ImageMagickFileWriter.args_key": [
       "lib/matplotlib/animation.py:docstring of matplotlib.animation.ImageMagickFileWriter.supported_formats:1:<autosummary>:1"
@@ -1669,4 +1689,4 @@
       "lib/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/axes3d.py:docstring of mpl_toolkits.mplot3d.axes3d.Axes3D.get_ylim3d:24"
     ]
   }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/animation.py b/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
index e6063a8d8350..36fb68df82df 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
@@ -777,6 +777,8 @@ def _embedded_frames(frame_list, frame_format):
 
 @writers.register('html')
 class HTMLWriter(FileMovieWriter):
+    """Writer for JavaScript-based HTML movies."""
+
     supported_formats = ['png', 'jpeg', 'tiff', 'svg']
     _args_key = 'animation.html_args'