Not quite the Animaniacs of the 90s, but the writing is sharper than most new adult animation

tdlmailacct

With so many golden age cartoons being rebooted, it's surprising that it took until 2020 for Animaniacs to make its return. I didn't watch the show when it originally aired in the 1990s, but I have fond memories of watching reruns and DVDs of the show throughout the 2000s. The combination of slapstick, popular culture spoofs, and educational segments made the original series a hit for multiple generations. Does this reboot have the same appeal?

The premise of the show is largely unchanged, although this reboot drops many of the side characters in favor of more stories featuring the Warners and Pinky and the Brain. I've read multiple complaints about the lack of side characters, but I honestly don't think it is as much of a flaw as it sounds. The Warner segments are just as chaotic and surreal as they were in the 1990s while Pinky and the Brain waste no time trying to take over the world. Both segments are entertaining enough on their own to create a hilarious first season, although I hope that we see a few more familiar faces next year.

The main difference that I noticed is that this reboot feels a lot more cynical than the original series. The original series was no stranger to satire and adult humor, but it was filled to the brim with a carefree 90s attitude. Rather than trying to paint the current decade as optimistic, the reboot presents the 21st century as an ugly mess of recycled trends, brain-dead humans, and Internet obsession.

That cynicism, mixed in with some more classic Animaniacs moments, is absolutely hilarious. The writing is incredibly sharp and doesn't back down from mocking everything that has made the last few years such a mess. In fact, I'd go as far as saying the political and cultural satire surpasses that of animated comedies intended for adult audiences (looking at you, 2020 Family Guy).

If I have to say what my biggest complaint about this new reboot is, I'd say that it lacks the entertainment industry satire that made the original so hilarious. There are some great reboot jokes in the initial episode and a few scattered pop culture references throughout, but the focus is more on current politics than all of the Disney movie and television parodies in the 1990s. While I do find the political satire hilarious, it needs to be moderated more because the frequency of it is a bit overwhelming.

Overall, this is a great reboot even if it doesn't quite match the tone of the original show. It's not the lazy cash-grab that I feared it would be and almost every episode has had me laughing like crazy. You really can't get better than a show like this right now.

score 9/10

tdlmailacct 22 November 2020

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6297411/