animaniacs

Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs was a popular American animated television series, distributed by Warner Bros., and produced by Amblin Entertainment. The cartoon, usually referred to by the shorter title Animaniacs, first aired on FOX from 1993 until 1995; the show appeared on The WB as part of its "Kids' WB!" afternoon programming block from 1995 to 1998. Like many other animated series, it has continued to appear on television through syndication long after its original airdate.

Animaniacs was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros. Animation during the animation renaissance of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The studio's first series, Tiny Toon Adventures, had proved to be a big hit among younger viewing audiences, and it had attracted a sizable number of adult viewers as well. Tiny Toon Adventures had drawn heavily from the classic Termite Terrace cartoons of old for inspiration, as well as plots and characterization. The modern Warner Bros. writers and animators, led by senior producer and show-runner Tom Ruegger, used the experience gained from the previous series to create brand new animated characters that were cast in the mold of Tex Avery's and Bob Clampett's creations, but were not slavish imitations.

The show itself was a variety show, with many short skits featuring a large cast of unique characters. Each episode was traditionally composed of three short mini-episodes, each starring a different set of characters.

The Warner Brothers (and the Warner Sister)

This show focused on the adventures, or more accurately, the misadventures, of the Warner Brothers (Yakko and Wakko Warner) and the Warner Sister (Dot Warner), who claim to be the stars of some of the early Warner Bros. animated cartoons, which were so insane that the studio execs locked them away in the water tower at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. This description of the Warners is a tongue-in-cheek homage to Bosko, Warner Bros.' first cartoon character.

The red-nosed Warner siblings bear a striking resemblance to the portrayals of Bosko and his girlfriend Honey (who look remarkably like Dot and Yakko) in a 1990 episode of Tiny Toon Adventures entitled Fields of Honey, also produced by Steven Spielberg. Afraid that the portrayals of Bosko and Honey might be deemed controversial, they were changed to anthropomorphic dog-like characters, and that episode served as the "bridge" between Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs.

Originally, the Warners were intended to be ducks, but producer Tom Ruegger realized they'd been done enough by Disney (see DuckTales), so he made them indeterminate "cartoon character" children. Although they looked somewhat like dogs, their specific "species" remained a mystery and was made fun of in most episodes. Ruegger also modeled their personalities a bit after his three sons (who all did voices on the series at one time or another).

The characters also bear a notable resemblance to animated characters from the 1920s and 1930s from other studios, including Felix the Cat and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Bimbo, and the original, early Mickey Mouse, as well as Bosko. Simple black drawings with white faces were very common in cartoons of the 1920s and 1930s, and it is these sorts of characters that the Warners are meant to pay homage to.

Animaniacs characters

Animaniacs introduced a number of recurring characters, including:

• Yakko, Wakko, and Dot - the "Warner Brothers" (and the Warner Sister), voiced by Rob Paulsen, Jess Harnell, and Tress MacNeille. Yakko (the oldest) is a fast-talking smart aleck, reminiscent at times of Groucho Marx. Wakko (the middle child) has a huge appetite and a gag bag filled with tricks (and a scouse accent modeled by Harnell after a younger Ringo Starr), and Dot (the youngest) is cute and sassy, and uses her apparent innocence to manipulate and torment those who stand in her way. The Warners are some of the few characters that actually appear in all the short skits, usually being chased by Ralph; most other characters are confined to their own segments.
• Dr. Otto Scratchansniff - the Austrian-accented studio psychiatrist, voiced by Rob Paulsen, who attempts to force the Warners to be less "zany".
• Thaddeus Plotz - the height-impaired CEO of the Warner Bros. Studios cartoon enterprise, voiced by Frank Welker.
• Hello Nurse - the buxom studio nurse, voiced by Tress MacNeille, over whom Yakko and Wakko continually fawn. She is always introduced with several male characters (and sometimes even Dot) saying "Helloooooooo, Nurse!"
• Ralph - a dim-witted Warners Studio security guard charged with recapturing the Warners and confining them to the water tower. His voice and vocal mannerisms are reminiscent of early Warner Brothers cartoon secondary characters intended to parody the character of Lennie from the film adaptations of Of Mice and Men.
• Pinky and the Brain - an imbecilic white mouse and his genius companion, voiced by Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche. Despite the name of the pair placing Pinky first, the Brain is clearly the leader; he continuously launches attempts to take over the world, accompanied by Pinky, but something always goes wrong with their plans (usually, it is at least partially Pinky's fault). The Brain and his environment evoke Orson Welles and Citizen Kane. The series is quite famous for Brain's line "Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" and Pinky's non sequitur replies. They were so popular that they ended up getting their own series.
• Slappy Squirrel - an aging, curmudgeonly cartoon star voiced by Sherri Stoner, who seems to enjoy whacking people with her purse and using high explosives, the more the better. Her catchphase is "Now that's comedy!"
• Skippy Squirrel - Slappy's young nephew, voiced by Nathan Ruegger, whose chipper personality is the polar opposite of his aunt's.
• Goodfeathers - a trio of cartoon pigeons— Bobby, Squit and Pesto, voiced by Maurice LaMarche, John Mariano and Chick Vennera — spoofing the characters played by Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, and Joe Pesci in the movie Goodfellas. These pigeons can always be seen arguing with each other, which always culminates in them beating each other up (usually with Pesto beating up Squit). This gag in itself grew from Goodfellas; it was based on the film's famous exchange between Pesci and Liotta: "How am I funny? Like a clown? I amuse you?"
• Rita and Runt - a singing cat (voiced by Bernadette Peters) and a loyal but stupid dog (voiced by Frank Welker) who thinks Rita is a dog, who travel together looking for a place to call home.
• Buttons and Mindy - a heroic Lassie-like dog (voiced by Frank Welker) and the accident-prone baby (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) he is sworn to protect.
• Minerva Mink - an incredibly sexy mink, voiced by Julie Brown, who inspires lustful fits in every male creature around her.
• Katie Ka-Boom - a girl, voiced by Laura Mooney, who has comically violent overreactions to trivially "embarrassing" situations in a parody of stereotypical teenage behavior, obviously modeled on the Incredible Hulk.
• Flavio and Marita - also known as "the Hip Hippos", a wealthy hippo couple (voiced by Frank Welker and Tress MacNeille) obsessed with being trendy.
• Chicken Boo - a six-foot-tall chicken who is curiously successful at imitating humans despite minimal efforts at disguise.
• Mr. Director - a caricature of Jerry Lewis (voiced by Paul Rugg) who first appears in Hello Nice Warners; in later episodes he parodies Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now and appears as a clown who scares Mr. Plotz and Wakko in the episode, Clown and Out. He is often heard uttering nonsensical words such as "freunlaven!", "flamiel!", and "hoyl!".
• The Flame - a childlike candle flame (voiced by Luke Ruegger) who is present at important historical events such as Jefferson's authoring of The Declaration of Independence and Longfellow's writing of The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.
• Charlton Chipmunk - an aspiring actor/director and generally neurotic chipmunk; when people annoy him, he asks them to write their names down in a book and promises that when he becomes famous, he will remember not to like them .
• Mr. Skullhead - a mute skeleton, seen in the short series Good Idea/Bad Idea and featured in a parody of Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands. These clips were narrated by humorist and Motel 6 spokesman Tom Bodett. Mr. Skullhead first appeared on Tiny Toon Adventures as an ornament on Elmyra's bow.
• The Mime - a nameless mime who mainly appeared in brief clips titled "Mime Time"; the mime would usually begin a demonstration of some miming technique (e.g. "walking against the wind" or "trapped in a box"), only to be inexplicably maimed. His exploits are also narrated by Tom Bodett.
• Colin, also known as Randy Beaman's Pal - a wide-eyed boy who relates improbable stories that allegedly happened to his (never-seen) friend Randy Beaman.
• Ms. Flamiel - the Warners' prim and easily frustated teacher.
• Francis Pumphandle (also known as "Pip.") - generally a foil and annoyance to the Warners, endlessly shaking hands and rambling nonsensically with an iron grip. The Warners could never seem to get their hand detached from the grip of Pip, despite employing a great number of sight gags. Voiced by Ben Stein.

Celebrity appearances and parodies in "Animaniacs" include:

• Steven Spielberg - Spielberg voices himself, always referred to in hushed tones as simply "Steven", making short cameo appearances in a few episodes.
• Kirk Douglas (not mentioned by name) - Caricatured in the role of Michaelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling, reminiscent of Charlton Heston in The Agony and the Ecstasy. Meets Steven Spielberg, who is referred to as "His Eminence".
• Howard Stern - In one episode, radio "Shock Jock" Howie Tern and his sidekick Robin engage in (and lose) a battle of wits against the Warners.
• Richard Harris - A parody of his portrayal of King Arthur in Camelot is voiced by SCTV alumnus Dave Thomas, who used his Harris voice on many episodes of that series as well.
• Jerry Lewis - Parodied as Mr. Director, mentioned above.
• Richard Lewis - Parodied as a kvetching, arachnophobic Noah in "Noah's Lark."
• Runt's voice is a parody of Dustin Hoffman's character Raymond from Rain Man.
• Al Gore - Is seen as pessimistic and mumbling Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh.
• Jimi Hendrix - White Fender Stratocaster is taken by Slappy and smashed into the big amps.
• The Who - Slappy asks Skippy who's on stage, Skippy says "Who" but Slappy doesn't know that "The Who" is the name of the band, resulting in a "Who's on First?"-style argument that also involves Yes and The Band.
• Joe Cocker - Sings "With a Little Help from My Friends" in the original line before being changed, "What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you throw a tomato at me?", which happened to be the original lyric by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
• Barney the Dinosaur from Barney & Friends - Parodied as Baloney.
• Bob Dylan - Addressed as a singer of "whiny protest songs from the 60's" by Satan in the episode "Hot, Bothered, And Bedeviled". The lyrics to the song he sings are: "I hate the government, more than you and me, the government stole my goldfish and unplugged my TV."
• William Shatner - Portrayed as a karaoke singer who fills up the singer list and always says "My little friends, my small friends. It's still my turn." in a slow, dramatic "Shatner-type" voice. The songs are also done in classic Shatner spoken-word style, eventually driving Wakko, Yakko and Dot crazy with the bad singing.
• Christopher Walken - Was the creepy parody of Cristoper Robin in the Pinky and the Brain Winnie the Pooh parody. He was also a guest at the Warners house party and complained that no one wanted to talk to him.

Reputation and Legacy

Series history

Animaniacs premiered on September 13, 1993. New episodes of the show were aired during the 1993 through 1998 seasons, and episodes were rerun in syndication for several years after production of new episodes ceased. One feature-length direct-to-video Animaniacs movie, Wakko's Wish, was released on VHS only (there was no DVD release) in 1999. The series was popular enough for Warner Bros. Animation to invest in additional episodes of the show past the traditional 65-episode marker for syndication; a total of 99 episodes were finally produced. One theatrical cartoon short film starring the Warner siblings, "I'm Mad," was produced and released to theaters in 1994 with the feature Thumbelina.

The show introduced the popular cartoon characters Pinky and the Brain, who were subsequently spun-off into their own TV series in 1995.

Animation fans consider Animaniacs the high point of the Warner Bros. revival of the 1990s that was inspired by the original Termite Terrace. After Animaniacs, Spielberg collaborated with Warner Bros. Animation for a third time to produce the short-lived series Freakazoid, along with the Animaniacs spin-off series Pinky and the Brain. Warner Bros. also produced two additional "zany" and "madcap" series in the later half of the decade entitled Histeria! (much like Animaniacs, but focusing on American and World history, and designed to satisfy US government requirements for educational programming) and Detention (an animated sitcom of several quirky junior high kids trying to get out of after-school detention), but neither of these series found a sizable audience, and they were both swiftly cancelled. At that time, Animaniacs shorts were being shown as part of The Cat&Birdy Warneroonie PinkyBrainy Big Cartoonie Show.

Warner Bros. cut back the size of its animation studio (the high cost and relatively low profit of its animated feature films of the period also had an effect on the studio), and production on further Warner Bros. animated comedy series ceased. Animaniacs and Tiny Toon Adventures continued to rerun in syndication through the 1990s into the early 2000s. In 2005, it was removed from the NickToons network, and is not currently airing on TV in the U.S. – In the United Kingdom, however, it currently airs on Boomerang.

An Animaniacs comic book, published by DC Comics, ran from 1995 to 2000 (59 regular monthly issues, plus two specials). Animaniacs, the video game based on the series was also made for the Super NES and Sega Genesis. Two Animaniacs video games have been released recently on the Nintendo GameCube (Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt) and Nintendo DS (Animaniacs: Lights, Camera, Action).

The series will re-run on Warner Bros. and AOL's new broadband internet channel Toontopia TV.

Popularity of Animaniacs

The comedy of Animaniacs was a broad mix of old-fashioned wit, slapstick, pop culture references, and cartoon wackiness. The show also featured a number of educational segments that covered subjects from history to math to geography to science to social studies. These educational segments, while simplistic in nature, were at a considerably more advanced level than in such children's shows as Sesame Street; in fact, most adults could probably learn something from the show's explanations of world geography, the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan, or the Panama Canal.

While some segments proved less popular than others, a number of popular cartoons were aired during the series, as the new Warner Bros. animators poked fun at everything and everyone, including their own fans ("The Please Please Please Get A Life Foundation", which took some of its material directly from the alt.tv.animaniacs FAQ).

While the show was popular among younger viewers (the target demographic for Warner Bros.' TV cartoons), a great deal of the show's subversive humor was aimed at an adult audience. This was not the only show in the 90s to have many jokes that went over kids' heads; The Tick, which ran during the same time period, did the same. One example is the Wheel of Morality that appears at the end of some episodes. If you look closely, one of the spots on the wheel is "Bankrupt". Not only is this a parody of Wheel of Fortune, which kids might understand, but it is also a play on the phrase "morally bankrupt". (While the wheel never landed on "Bankrupt" on the show, it did once in the comic book.) In fact, one character, Minerva Mink, was soon de-emphasized as a feature character because her featured episodes were considered too sexually suggestive for the show's intended timeslot. (Many adult jokes, such as a warning to not play with Dr. Scratchansniff's "bust"--a sculpture on his desk--are signified by Yakko blowing a kiss and shouting "Good night, everybody!")

Adults responded in droves, giving the show cult-hit status and leading to one of the first Internet-based fandom cultures. During the show's prime, the Internet newsgroup alt.tv.animaniacs was an active gathering place for fans of the show (most of whom were adults) to discuss the latest antics of the Warner Brothers and the Warner Sister. The online popularity of the show did not go unnoticed by the show's producers, and several of the most active participants on the newsgroup were invited to the Warner Bros. Animation studios for a gathering in August 1995 called Animania IV (gatherings of Animaniacs fans from the net were dubbed Animanias; most of them were simply groups of friends getting together to talk and watch videotaped episodes).

Parodies

Animaniacs often parodied popular TV shows and movies.

• An early episode featured a lengthy parody of the classic Francis Ford Coppola film Apocalypse Now.
• Super Strong Warner Siblings lampooned the 90's TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, featuring replicas of the "real" show's costumes and "Megazord".
• Another parody, albeit a cold opening rather than a full "segment", depicted the Animaniacs characters as babies in a parody of the title sequence to Rugrats.
• Popular kids' character Barney was also represented as "Baloney", a goofy character whose upbeat personality remained unaffected by the massive amounts of abuse to which the Warners subjected him, in the style of Anti-Barney humor.
• Friends was parodied as "Acquaintances", where the character Chandler had his sarcastic putdowns horrifically enacted upon him.
• A long segment called Star Warners, which appeared on the Animaniacs Super Special, parodied the Star Wars films.
• The end credits of episode 84, entitled "Cold Closing #1," features Yakko, Wakko, and Dot, following their closing sign-off, mocking the people listed in the closing credits of the show without realizing that their microphones are still on. This is a parody of the famed "that ought to hold those little bastards" urban legend. [1]
• The Circle of Life intro to The Lion King was parodied, with Yakko taking on the role of Rafiki.
• Late into the series run, the parody "Macadamia Nut" aired, a spoof of the infamous music video/song "Macarena" by Los Del Rio. The song was mainly performed by the Warners, but the music video featured almost every major character to ever appear on Animaniacs (all doing The Macarena dance), the only time this occurred outside of the opening sequence.
• An entire Rita and Runt segment was devoted to parodying the hit musical Les Misérables (musical); a number of the songs were parodied, and Runt was referred to as "Runt Valrunt".
• A long segment parodied "Star Trek" with "Star Truck" where the Warners are beamed aboard the Enterprise. Spoofed characters include "Squatty" instead of "Scotty" and "Spork" instead of "Spock." Also, when the Warners are all hugging the crew, Wakko quips, "We're cling-ons, get it?"
• The Goodfeathers had three notable musical parodies. Their "West Side Story" parody involved Squit falling in love with a female sparrow, which caused unrest between the two bird gangs because the Sparrows wanted to perch on the head of the statue of Martin Scorcese, which was Goodfeather territory. The second musical parody was of "Fiddler on the Roof" where the Goodfeathers try to work out their relationships with their female companions. The cartoon ends with the statue of Martin Scorcese being replaced with a statue of Regis Philbin. When faced with the prospect of perching on the head of Regis, the Goodfeathers each decide that they would rather be a "Pigeon on the Roof." Amusingly, this cartoon is followed by a short segment in which Pesto rants and raves to Bobby that the cartoon story was stupid, and Bobby launches into a parody of a "West Side Story" song, encouraging Pesto to "stay cool, bird! Beak it, buzz it, easy does is...stay cool, bird. Real cool." The third parody is of "Rocky," where Bobby has to train to box another bird. Bobby is trained by a bird similar to Burgess Meredith, who constantly calls Bobby a bum. When Bobby asks him, "Why do you keep calling me a bum all the time?" his trainer responds, "Because you're a bum, you bum!"

The Animaniacs comic series carried on this tradition, spoofing Pulp Fiction, The X-Files, and many other TV and comics standards. Through all this parody, Animaniacs was able to appeal to adults, as well as to children.

Animaniacs also mocked an abundance of celebrities, including the likes of David Hasselhoff, Whoopi Goldberg, Howard Stern, Jerry Seinfeld, Jaleel White, and Regis Philbin. They have also paid tributes to now-dead celebrities, such as Christa McAuliffe, who was supposed to be the first teacher in space (before she was killed in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster).

They even made spoofs of various other disasters, such as the sinking of the Titanic and a full-length song about the 1994 Northridge Earthquake in where they proclaimed that "L.A. Town Is Falling Down!".

In reverse parody nature, the three actors who lent voices to Yakko, Wakko and Dot did an episode of Duck Dodgers as cousins to Porky Pig (all sounding the same as their Animaniac characters) but instead were named Puerco, Porko and Sow.

Animaniacs on DVD

Volume Releases

Volume 1 of Animaniacs was released on DVD on July 25, 2006, containing the first 25 episodes on five discs. The extra material consists of Animaniacs Live!, in which Maurice LaMarche (the voice of The Brain) hosts a satellite interview with various Animaniacs cast and crew as they comment on the show. The video is presented in its original television aspect ratio, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio in English, with French, Portuguese, and Spanish subtitles.

Volume 2 of Animaniacs will be released on DVD on December 5, 2006. [2]

If this pattern continues, volume 3 will contain the next 25 episodes, which will include the final 15 episodes of the first season, all four episodes of the second season, and the first six episodes of the third season.

Music

Animaniacs was a very musical cartoon, with every episode featuring an original score (and in many cases, several original songs). Each group of characters had its own sub-theme in the score, and the Hip Hippos, Pinky and the Brain, Chicken Boo, and Katie Ka-Boom even had their own full theme songs. The Slappy Squirrel and Rita & Runt themes, as well as one of the two versions of the Pinky and the Brain theme, were sung by the Warners. The Animaniacs series theme song (music composed by Richard Stone, lyrics by Tom Ruegger), which has a variety of alternate endings and was primarily sung by the Warners, won an Emmy Award for best song in the series' first season.

The three Warner siblings often performed songs, including parodies of classical and folk music, often with an educational twist, listing, for example, U.S. states or American presidents. Pinky and the Brain occasionally got songs to sing as well, and the most complicated songs in the series usually went to Rita, voiced by singer Bernadette Peters (poking fun at Broadway shows in general, and Stephen Sondheim's works in particular). Rita and Runt even took on Broadway directly with a parody of Les Misérables called Les Miseranimals, which aired early in the first season.

Three albums of music from the series were released: Animaniacs, Yakko’s World, and Variety Pack, and the sing-along videos, especially "Yakko's World", remained some of the best selling skit compilation VHS tapes.

The final bars of the Animaniacs theme (as well as Bugs Bunny and the WB shield) were commonly used by Warner Bros. to begin various animated series until 2005, when Warner adopted a snippet of the song "As Time Goes By" for its logo sequence.

The song "Yakko's World," with lyrics by Randy Rogel, is perhaps their most famous. Other well-known songs include "Wakko's America", "Yakko's Planets", "The Warners' Presidents", and "Yakko's Universe".

Lines in the "rotating lyric" (second-to-last line), of the theme song with the singer(s), include:

• "Here's the show's namey" (Dot) (This was the first line used, appearing in the premiere episode)
• "Pinky and the Brainy" (Yakko, Wakko and Dot)
• "Cockamamie!" (Yakko, Wakko and Dot)
• "The rain in Spainy" (Dot)
• "Eisenhower, Mamie" (Yakko)
• "Wes Lon Chaney" (Wakko)
• "Andromeda Strainy" (Yakko)
• "Chicken chow meiny" (Wakko)
• "Dana Delaney" (Yakko)
• "Hydroplaney" (Yakko, Wakko, and Dot)
• "Shirley MacLainey" (Dot)
• "Come Back Shaney" (Dot)
• "Citizen Kaney" (Yakko)
• "Uhhhhh...(Yakko)
• "Nickalaney" (Dot) (Nickelodeon only)

In the original lyrics for the theme song, a line referenced former President of the United States Bill Clinton's saxophone-playing appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show during his initial presidential campaign ("While Bill Clinton plays the sax"), and Pinky and the Brain were the first cast members introduced by the Warners in the second-to-last verse ("Meet Pinky and the Brain, who want to rule the universe"). By the start of season 3, Bill Clinton had become embroiled in a sex scandal, while Pinky & The Brain had been spun off from Animaniacs into their own show, causing two alterations to the lyrics: the Bill Clinton line reference was replaced with "We pay tons of income tax" (early on, the line was "we've got wisecracks by the stacks"), and the Pinky and the Brain line with an introduction to three other cast members, becoming "Meet Ralph & Doctor Scratchnsniff, say hi to Hello Nurse".

Television History

Games

• Animaniacs for Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy
• Animaniacs Ten Pin Alley for PlayStation and N64 (cancelled)
• Animaniacs Ten Pin Alley 2 for PlayStation
• Animaniacs Game Pack for PC.
• Animaniacs: A Gigantic Adventure for PC.
• Animaniacs: Splat Ball! for PC.
• Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt for GameCube, PS2, and Xbox
• Pinky and the Brain: The Master Plan for GBA (Europe only.)
• Animaniacs: Lights, Camera, Action! for Nintendo DS and GBA.
• Pinky and the Brain: World Conquest for PC
• Animaniacs for GBA (cancelled), (it has nothing to do with the Super Nintendo's, Sega Genesis', or Game Boy's: Animaniacs)

External links

• Animaniacs at the Internet Movie Database
• Animaniacs pointers
• Animaniacs at TV.com
• Animaniacs: In the Beginning
• The Animaniacs Information Page
• Animaniacs Mega Lyrics File
• NARF - the Nifty Animaniacs Reference File
• Animaniacs Handy Episode Manual
• Animaniacs Scripts by Michael Dare
• Tiny Toon Adventures references in Animaniacs
• Jaime J. Weinman's short article on the history of Animaniacs
• Jaime J. Weinman's longer articles on Animaniacs: 1, 2
• Cultural References Guide for Animaniacs
• New Cultural References Guide for Animaniacs