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OT: Top Ten Animaniacs Character Segments [top ten]
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09/20/16, 19:47 Edited: 09/20/16, 19:46
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WHAT IT IS: Two middle-aged, yuppie hippopotami relocate from their jungle home to the middle of the city, where they cause chaos with their obliviousness and massive girth. In some cartoons, a Jane Goodall-type attempts to document their progress, only to be met with a variety of painful outcomes. WHY IT'S RANKED HERE: The Hippos only had a few cartoons to their name, and I don't think anyone really minded the small number of 'em. These characters were just tough to root for, coming across as unlikable and somewhat annoying, while seeing the researcher repeatedly injured also got repetitive fast. They did have a couple better cartoons near the end of the series (oddly enough, since most of the other segments got weaker then), but by and large, these two plus-sized lovebirds just didn't bring in the laughs. BEST EPISODE: Amazing Gladiators. Some genuinely fun laughs come with the setting change, and the Hippos are more endearing here when put against a common, obnoxious foe. WORST EPISODE: Can't Buy a Thrill. Got very old very quickly and just felt kinda mean-spirited. Some of Animaniacs' worst moments are when we see someone get tormented that doesn't really deserve it.
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WHAT IT IS: Cute little tyke Mindy escapes the back yard and obliviously finds herself in trouble, so her trusty German Shepherd Buttons inevitably gives chase. Mindy always gets back safe and sound, but poor Buttons tends to find himself scolded by his owner for some minor misdeed. WHY IT'S RANKED HERE: These cartoons frustrate me. On the one hand, it's a throwback to the ol' Looney Tunes "chase" premise, which I can respect. But while it's fun seeing a predator like Wile E. Coyote get his comeuppance, it's often just sad seeing it to a faithful dog that repeatedly saves a child's life. To add insult to injury, Buttons almost always gets scolded by Mindy's negligent mother at the end (usually for something accidental like landing in the flower bed while saving Mindy), which makes me feel even worse for him. Despite this, some creative spins on the premise and a handful of fun gags in most episodes save it from being lower. BEST EPISODE: Night of the Living Buttons. A very fun spin on the formula with enjoyable action, good gags, and a break from all the repetition. WORST EPISODE: Up the Crazy River. Again, can't remember anything about it.
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WHAT IT IS: Two strays--streetwise Rita and dopey, sincere Runt--are on an ongoing search for a home, although the places they end up all seem to put their lives in danger in one way or another. WHY IT'S RANKED HERE: This was kind of an interesting cartoon for Animaniacs, occasionally working in a bit more sweetness and sincerity than the other cartoons. It's also very musical, but while the voice of Bernadette Peters is lovely, the songs often have mixed results compared to the great stuff Yakko, Wakko and Dot were singing. Also, a fair number of episodes kind of meander into dull territory, unfortunately, and the below-average animation hurts it at times. But for doing their own thing, I gotta give the cat and dog their props. BEST EPISODE: Les Miseranimals. A terrific Les Miserables parody full of music and humor and a great little story in its own right. One of the best Animaniacs episodes of all! WORST EPISODE: Kiki's Kitten. Mean-spirited and unpleasant from start to finish.
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The Warner Bros. (and the Warner Sister, Dot) |
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WHAT IT IS: A trio of manic cartoon characters from the 1930's escape their water tower prison and run amok in Burbank, California, annoying rude opponents with their antics and skewering all sorts of celebrities and films in the process. Word is, they've got baloney in their slacks. WHY IT'S RANKED HERE: Could it be anything else? The Warners are the headliners for Animaniacs and the first characters anyone thinks of when the show is mentioned. Individually, they're all funny enough: Yakko with the Bugs Bunny/Groucho Marx type verbal humor, Wakko with the id-fueled visual gags, and Dot with the precocious sarcasm, but as a unified group of irritation, it's almost always enjoyable seeing them team up to take down some sort of obstinate bully. Beyond the full-length cartoons, the kids also star in a massive variety of short cartoons throughout Animaniacs as well. Many of these--like Yakko's World or Wakko's Capitals or A Quake, A Quake--are full-length, ridiculously well-written songs. Some of the others, such as The Great Wakkorotti (where Wakko belches loudly to The Blue Danube) are simply silly, inspired madness. The Warners have by far the largest number of cartoons in the series, and while not every one is a winner, the good certainly outnumber the bad. BEST EPISODE: Overall, The Great Wakkorotti. It's a couple minutes long, but it's silly, diluted fun in its finest form. Couldn't stop laughing the first time I saw it. As for as a longer cartoon, Chairman of the Bored. This was the funniest 7 minutes of the entire show, if you ask me. The Warners' bemused reactions to a completely oblivious, boring foil are hilarious and it's topped off with some of my favorite one-off gags as well. WORST EPISODE: A few late Warners shows are really rough. I'll go with Cutie and the Beast for being a pretty dumb parody and missing on a lot of gags and songs.
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09/20/16, 19:47 Edited: 09/20/16, 19:46 |
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This is my first time to see this article. Well done, T-Bun. I agree pretty much entirely with your list, based on my memories as a kid. I might shuffle the middle of the deck a little - Maybe elevate the ridiculousness of Chicken Boo over the sometimes boring Rita shorts - but I think your rationale is sound. It's a great list.
Mixed feelings about Spielberg bringing the Animaniacs back. On the one hand, it was a quality show that always mixed current pop culture with the Warner Bros legacy, so it could come back easily without missing a beat. Yakko, Wakko and Dot were from the the 30s anyway, so who cares if they break out in the 90s or the 2010's? It's the same premise either way.
Buuuuuuuuut... in a way, every damn cartoon on TV is some version of Animaniacs, now. The anarchic, pop-culture adept, aiming jokes over the toddler's heads, crazed and inspired recklessness of Animaniacs is basically the template for most modern shows. It's a similar problem Mystery Science Theater has: What was once pretty radical is now basically the norm. So how do you justify your existence in that kind of media landscape?
Here are the things I'd want to see:
1) Don't bring everyone back. We don't need to see the Hippos or Katie or maybe even Rita and Runt again.
2) Add some new members to the cast who fit in with today's media landscape. Part of the strength of the show was how experimental it could be. Just bringing back old characters and situations for nostalgia's sake is kind of counter to that spirit.
3) This one's just a personal preference: Maybe cool it a bit with the Hollywood "Inside Baseball" gags. When I watch Animaniacs today, one thing I get a little tired of are all the showbiz jokes. Yeah, yeah, you're being made by a bunch of Hollywood lovies who like to make wry jokes about contracts and stuff. We get it.
I don't personally need more Animaniacs, but I'm not against the idea altogether. They just gotta make sure they don't just make it a mediocre revival aimed to revive the marketing brand. Considering it's Spielberg, I'm not entirely sure that's not what's about to happen. |
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@HinphHah, Big Mouth. I gave up on that show around the second season when I realized I just didn't like it very much. Yeah, even though I felt that Animaniacs' lesser cartoons could be a weakness, it also worked in giving it a good sense of variety. I wouldn't say no to any of the characters getting their own sketches, although they would need to tighten some aspects of a few of them (like Buttons and Mindy would have to be less frustrating to watch). The political stuff is kind of weird; I think some of it is mostly just tongue-in-cheek (like the “pronoun-neutral, and ethically diverse" in the theme song), but their attempts at satire have been uneven to say the least. One other thing I forgot to mention, the songs seem weaker than before. Lyrically, they tend to bounce from subject to subject and lose their flow, and performance-wise, the voice actors (Tress Macneille in particular) appear to struggle staying in the character voice. |
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