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Even if you don't get half the political satires, movie spoofs/references, Animaniacs is still a wonderful, brilliantly written, and entertaining romp through pretty much every episode.
Each show had something different to offer, seeing that this show was bringing back the variety show format in cartoon form. And with Steven Spielburg on board for this show, it's no wonder the show turned out as good as it did. You have the Warner Bros and their Warner Sister Dot of course, and were always the highlight of the show. And as the show explains, they hold up to their "zany to the max" personalities, providing a lot of classic Looney Toons/Tom and Jerry slapstick and likability for the children, while appealing to older audiences who catch the surprisingly adult innuendos/in jokes and references/satires about movies and such.
Then there's probably the next most popular, Pinky and the Brain, who would later get so popular they'd get their own show, so I won't talk about them too much here. But they did deserve their own show with such a creative and hilarious premise of two lab mice trying to take over the world.
Also Slappy Squirrel and her nephew Skippy. Slappy is a laid back, normally grumpy squirrel who is retired from her days of filming Bugs Bunny-like cartoons, except she had a wolf, octopus, and a bison on her tail instead of Elmer Fudd or Yosemite Sam. Her "do my own thing, don't care" attitude made for a lot of good moments, especially when she pointed out how stupid and predictable her rivals were. Her nephew Skippy is great to have along for the ride, providing a lot of entertaining conversations with Slappy, particularly the Woodstock episode which spoofed the "Who's on first" routine.
Then you've got the Goodfeathers, which is obviously parodying Goodfellas. This part of the show seemed somewhat repetitive, especially how each episode ended with beating one another up, but it still provided some very funny moments with the Godpidgeon and Martin Scorcese as their perch.
And then there's Rita and Runt. I personally would have like to see some of this part of the show more simply because of the musical bits. The music in Animaniacs as a whole is fantastic, but the Broadway singer (whose name escapes me right now) that sings and voices Rita is just flat out beautiful, and the first show that showed how Rita and Runt met really showed her talent, as did her "This is our Home" song. Runt is along for the ride too, who falls into the complete idiot category, as he always thinks Rita is a dog, while he completely dislikes cats.
There are other enjoyable shorts here too, like lovable Mindy and Buttons, Chicken Boo, and a few others that really never got too much time on the show, and each one has something good about them. I would like to sum up the musical score for this show in one word: Amazing. From catchy tunes, unforgettable lyrics, and simply perfectly done. "Yakkos World" is among one of the most amazing things I've ever heard, as well as "Wakkos Nation". Another honorable mention is the "Great Wakkoritie" bit, in which Wakko literally burps classic symphonies, and I find simply this bit funnier and more entertaining than any of the "Chowder" or "Spongebob" crap we have nowadays.
I could go on for a while about this show, but there is a 1000 word limit. So to sum it up, 9/10 for Animaniacs: Intelligent and hilarious writing, great animation, hilarious in-jokes and satires, wonderful musical score... just all around one of the best cartoons to come out of the 90's. Also Yakko and Wakko are among my favorite cartoons characters ever, simply because of their irreverent wit, charm, and making me laugh so hard I'd get a headache at times.
9/10
score 9/10
sonicfan5715 15 March 2013
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2767558/ |
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29-4-2020 02:58:10