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Animaniacs
American animated television series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Animaniacs is an American animated comedy television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Warner Bros. Television Animation. It originally aired on Fox's Fox Kids block in 1993, before moving to The WB in 1995, as part of its Kids' WB afternoon programming block, until the series ended on November 14, 1998.[1] Animaniacs is the second animated series by Warner Bros. Television Animation to be produced in association with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment after Tiny Toon Adventures. It initially ran a total of 99 episodes, along with a direct to video film, Wakko's Wish.
 | It has been suggested that Yakko, Wakko, and Dot be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since July 2025. |
Animaniacs is styled as a variety show, with short skits featuring a large cast of characters focusing on the Warner Brothers and their sister as main characters. The Warner siblings were in part inspired by the real life Warner Bros. Water Tower on the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. While the show had no set format, most episodes were composed of three short mini-episodes, each starring a different set of characters, and bridging segments. Elements of the series included frequent musical numbers, satire, character catch phrases, and references to historical events and figures.
The series won multiple awards, including eight Daytime Emmy awards and a Peabody award. Animaniacs, continued to rerun in syndication through the 1990s into the early-2000s after production of new episodes ceased. The series then became available on several streaming services. A revival of the series, consisting of two seasons aired on Hulu between 2020 and 2023. Additionally, nine video games based on the series were produced.[2]
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Plot
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The premise of the series is that the Warner siblings, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot, are three cartoon stars during the black and white golden era of cartoons that were locked away in the WB Tower because they were seen as too zany. In the present day, when the three siblings escape and with the various characters in the show.[3]
Each Animaniacs episode usually consisted of two or three cartoon shorts.[4] Animaniacs had a format similar to sketch comedy series with segments focusing on different characters and having bridging segments linking each short.[5] Animaniacs had a large cast of characters, separated into individual segments, with each pair or set of characters acting in its own plot.
After their escape, they often interacted with other Warner Bros. studio workers, including Ralph the Security Guard.[5] Dr. Otto Scratchansniff is an arch rival of the Warner siblings, while the boys lust after his assistant Hello Nurse.[6] Additional characters were not Warner Bros. studio employees, and consisted mostly of various animals with their own self-contained storylines. Rita and Runt are a cat and dog duo, and "The Goodfeathers" are three pigeons.[7] Pinky and the Brain are two genetically altered anthropomorphic laboratory mice who continuously plot and attempt to take over the world.[8] Pinky and the Brain segments would begin with Brain asking "Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" before Pinky would respond with a non-sequitur.[6] Slappy Squirrel is an octogenarian squirrel cartoon star and is paired with her nephew Skippy.[7][6] Another character is Chicken Boo, who is a giant chicken who wishes to live among humans.[9] Additional side characters include The Hip Hippos.[3]
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Production
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Conception
Before Animaniacs, Warner Bros. had been working to get Steven Spielberg to make an animated film for the studio. To help court Spielberg's favor, the head of Warner Bros. Animation Jean MacCurdy brought director Tom Ruegger, who had successfully led A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, to help develop the concept with Spielberg. Ruegger pitched the idea to Spielberg of using younger versions of the Looney Tunes characters while capturing the same wackiness of those cartoons, eventually leading into Tiny Toon Adventures.[10] Tiny Toon Adventures was considered a success, winning a number of Daytime Emmy awards and a Primetime Emmy award and revived the Warner Bros. Animation department.[10]
With Tiny Toon Adventures's success, Spielberg and MacCurdy pushed on Ruegger for the next idea for a series, with Spielberg emphasizing the need for something with a marquee name.[10] Ruegger had already envisioned pulling three characters that he had created for his student film The Premiere of Platypus Duck while attending Dartmouth College, a trio of platypuses for this new series, and made a connection to Warner Bros. after walking around the studio lot and seeing its signature Warner Bros. Water Tower.[11] The trio then became the Warner Brothers and their sister Dot (the latter representing the period in the "Warner Bros." name).[12] This tied the characters directly to the Warner Brothers production studio which the company then approved.[11]
Along with reviving the character designs, Ruegger drew characterization for the Warner siblings from his three sons who could be troublemakers at the time.[10][13] Because the Warners were portrayed as cartoon stars from the early 1930s, Ruegger and other artists for Animaniacs made the images of the Warners similar to cartoon characters from that era.[13] Specific characters that served as inspirations included Felix the Cat, Bosko and Foxy.[11] Rather than being modeled on any kind of real world animal, the three siblings are of an indeterminite species.[11]
Spielberg was involved in approving or rejecting concepts produced by Ruegger and his team, who pitched characters and concepts to Spielberg in his home often with the assistance of his children.[11]
Both Tiny Toons and Animaniacs were part of a larger drive by Warner Brothers studios to revitalize their Loony Tunes brand by creating new series and new characters for a new generation of viewers. Additional series included Taz-Mania, The Sylvester &Tweety Mysteries.[14]
Writing
Spielberg served as executive producer, under his Amblin Entertainment production company. Ruegger led the show's production as its showrunner and senior producer. He initially brought in Sherri Stoner, who had also contributed to Tiny Toons Adventures, to help expand the series' concept. Along with Stoner, fellow producers Peter Hastings, Rusty Mills, and Rich Arons scripted many of the episodes and had an active role during group discussions in the writer's room as well. Stoner helped to recruit most of the remaining writing staff, which included Liz Holzman, Paul Rugg, Deanna Oliver, John McCann, Nicholas Hollander, Charlie Howell, Gordon Bressack, Jeff Kwitny, Earl Kress, Tom Minton, and Randy Rogel.[10]
The writers and animators of Animaniacs used the experience gained from the previous series to create new characters cast in the mold of Chuck Jones and Tex Avery's creations, following on the back-and-forth of many of the pairings from their classic shorts.[15] The Marx Brothers, particularly with their breaking of the fourth wall, also played heavily into the comic styling they wanted for the show.[10]
While the Warner siblings served as the central point of the show, the writing staff worked out developing other pairings or trios so as to make the cartoon more like a variety show with sketch comedy. Spielberg said that the irreverence in Looney Tunes cartoons inspired the Animaniacs cast.[15] Just as Ruegger wrote the Warner siblings based on his own sons, other pairings or trios were based on similar personal relations the writing staff had. Ruegger created Pinky and the Brain after being inspired by the personalities of two of his Tiny Toon Adventures colleagues, Eddie Fitzgerald and Tom Minton, who worked in the same office. Ruegger thought of the premise for Pinky and the Brain when wondering what would happen if Minton and Fitzgerald tried to take over the world, and cemented the idea after he modified a caricature of the pair drawn by animator Bruce Timm by adding mice ears and noses.[10][16]
Animaniacs was developed following the passage of the Children's Television Act in 1990 that required programming aimed at children to include educational content. The writers worked this into the show in part by featuring segments involving the characters interacting with historical figures, and creating songs like "Yakko's World", which listed out all the countries of the world at the time, to serve as educational content.[12] Historical figures that the show features include Michelangelo and Beethoven, William Shakespeare, Jimmy Stewart, and Albert Einstein.[17][18]
Homages
"We don't just write for kids[...] We fill the stories with cultural references that people our age — for the most part, we're baby boomers — will understand, as well as [references for] younger people." - Tom Ruegger in 1997 in an interview with TV Guide[19]
Animaniacs parodied popular TV shows and movies and caricatured celebrities. In one such example, the pigeon characters from "The Goodfeathers" segments are a direct homage to the 1990 film Goodfellas, with characters directly derived from the characters played by Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, and Ray Liottta.[17] One segment of Goodfeathers even has a plot reminiscent of the play and film West Side Story.[6] Additionally, the character "The Godpigeon", is a homage to Vito Corleone played by Marlon Brando in the film The Godfather.[20]
This included political figures such as Al Gore or Newt Gingrigh.[8] Film parodies included the film A Hard Day's Night and the Three Tenors, which are references meant to appeal to older audiences.[21] The comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan Pirates of Penzance and H.M.S. Pinafore were parodied in episode 3, "HMS Yakko".[22] Jokes involving such innuendo would often end with Yakko telling "Goodnight, everybody!" as a punchline.[23] Clint Eastwood, Michael Keaton, Michelle Pheifer, were celebrity guest cameos in a parody of Robert Altman's 1992 film The Player.[8] There was also a parody of the show Power Rangers.[24]
On the 25th anniversary of Woodstock music festival, an episode where Slappy Squirrel goes to relax on vacation at Max Yasgur's farm, but is instead inundated by hippies.[25]
In an interview, Spielberg defended the "irreverence" of Animaniacs, saying that the Animaniacs crew has "a point of view" and does not "sit back passively and play both sides equally".[24] Spielberg also said that Animaniacs' humor of social commentary and irreverence were inspired by the Marx Brothers[24] and Looney Tunes cartoons.[15] Animaniacs, among other Spielberg-produced series, had a large amount of cartoon violence. Spielberg defended the violence in Animaniacs by saying that the series had a balance of both violent humor and educational segments, so the series would never become either too violent or "benign".[24]
One segment is a musical short version of Les Miserables, called “Les Miseranimals.”[26]
Cast
Animaniacs featured the voice acting talents of Rob Paulsen as the characters Yakko and Pinky, Jess Harnell as Wakko, and Tress MacNeille as Dot.[27] Paulsen said that Steven Spielberg gave input and direction to the voice actors.[28] Paulsen was initially given directions to have Yakko sound like comedian Groucho Marx.[29] For the voice of the character of Pinky, Paulsen took inspiration from British comedy such as Monty Python's Flying Circus.[10] Voice director Andrea Romano praised Paulsen's ability to ad-lib.[29]
MacNeille had already been part of Tiny Toons Adventures as Babs Bunny, a role "custom made" for her, and Spielberg encouraged her to audition for the role of Dot in Animaniacs.[27]
According to Harnell, Romano suggested that he do an impression of John Lennon for the voice of Wakko.[27]
For the character of Brain, Maurice LaMarche had been a long-time aficionado of Orson Welles, including the infamous Frozen Peas outtake, and when he auditioned for various characters in the show, immediately saw the Brain as having a Welles-like character, adapting his voice for the role.[27]
Animation
Animation work on Animaniacs was done in several different studios, both American and international, over the course of the show's production. The animation companies included Tokyo Movie Shinsha of Japan,[citation needed] StarToons of Chicago,[30] Wang Film Productions of Taiwan,[citation needed] Freelance Animators New Zealand of New Zealand,[citation needed] Seoul Movie (a subsidiary of TMS) and AKOM of South Korea,[31] and most Animaniacs episodes frequently had animation from different companies in each episode's respective segments.
Episodes reportedly cost between $500,000 and $750,000 to produce, a significant sum for an animated television series of that era.[32]
Music
Animaniacs used a heavy musical score for an animated program, with every episode featuring at least one original score. The idea for an original musical score in every episode came from Steven Spielberg.[33] Animaniacs used an orchestra ranging from 25 to 40 players.[11]
In an interview for The Cartoon Music Book, Animaniacs composer Richard Stone said that the number of musicians in the orchestra varied, depending on the episode and the type of music needed, but said that "I don't think we ever had more than thirty-two [pieces]".[34]
Besides Stone, other composers were contracted to write original underscore for the series' run including the married couple of Steve and Julie Bernstein.[35] The use of the large orchestra in modern Warner Bros. animation began with Animaniacs predecessor, Tiny Toon Adventures, and they remained the only animated television series at the time to use a full live orchestra.[36] Although the outcome was a very expensive show to produce, executive in charge of production Jean MacCurdy said "the sound sets us apart from everyone else in animation".[33] The music was recorded at the Eastwood Scoring Stage, which was used by Carl Stalling for his work on the Looney Tunes shorts.[37]
Songs
Animaniacs featured a lot of musical numbers, mini-musicals, alongside other shorts.[8] These include Yakko's World and the Nations of the World updated in which Yakko sings the names of all countries at the time to the tune of the "Mexican Hat Dance"; various mistakes are present, with various disputed territories included and some countries missing or erroneously named. "Wakko's America" listed all the United States and their capitals to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw".[38] Another song, titled "The Presidents", named every U.S. president at the time to the tune of the "William Tell Overture" (with brief snippets of the tunes "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" and "Dixie").[39][40] The song "A Quake, a quake" covered the 1994 Northridge earthquake.[9] Non-educational song parodies were also used, such as "Slippin' on the Ice," a parody of "Singin' in the Rain".[41] Most of the groups of characters had their own theme songs for their segments on the show.[42]
The Animaniacs theme song composed by Richard Stone as the music for the title sequence won an Emmy Award for best song in 1994.[43] Several Animaniacs albums and sing-along VHS tapes were released, including the CDs Animaniacs, Yakko's World, and Animaniacs Variety Pack, and the tapes Animaniacs Sing-Along: Yakko's World and Animaniacs Sing-Along: Mostly in Toon.[44]
Songs by Rita the cat were sung by broadway actress Bernadette Peters.[9]
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Broadcast history
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Fox Kids era: Episodes 1–69
Animaniacs premiered on September 13, 1993,[45] on the Fox Kids programming block of the Fox network, and ran there until September 8, 1995;[4] new episodes aired from the 1993 through 1994 seasons. Animaniacs aired with 50 episodes in the fall of 1993, and an additional 15 episodes in the spring of 1994 making a total of 65 initial episodes.[3] While on Fox Kids, Animaniacs gained fame for its name and became the second-most popular show among children ages 2–11 and children ages 6–11, second only to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (which began that same year).[46] On March 30, 1994, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot first theatrically appeared in the animated short, "I'm Mad", which opened nationwide alongside the full-length animated feature, Thumbelina.[47] The musical short featured Yakko, Wakko, and Dot bickering during a car trip. Producers Steven Spielberg, Tom Ruegger, and Jean MacCurdy wanted "I'm Mad" to be the first of a series of shorts to bring Animaniacs to a wider audience. However, because of Thumbelina's box office failure, "I'm Mad" was the only Animaniacs theatrical short produced.[47] The short was later incorporated into Animaniacs episode 69. Following the 65th episode of the series, Animaniacs continued to air in reruns on Fox Kids. The only new episodes during this time included a short, four-episode second season quickly assembled from unused scripts. After Fox Kids aired Animaniacs reruns for a year, the series switched to the new Warner Bros. children's programming block, Kids' WB.[citation needed]
Kids' WB era: Episodes 70–99
The series was popular enough for Warner Bros. Animation to invest in additional episodes of Animaniacs past the traditional 65-episode marker for syndication.[48] Animaniacs premiered on the new Kids' WB line-up on September 9, 1995,[4] with a new season of 13 episodes.[citation needed] At this time, the show's popular cartoon characters, Pinky and the Brain, were spun off from Animaniacs into their own half-hour TV series.[49]
Despite the series' success on Fox Kids, Animaniacs on Kids' WB was successful only in an unintended way, bringing in adult viewers and viewers outside the Kids' WB target demographic of young children.[citation needed] This unintended result of adult viewers and not enough young viewers put pressure on the WB network from advertisers and caused dissatisfaction from the WB network towards Animaniacs.[citation needed] Slowly, orders from the WB for more Animaniacs episodes dwindled and Animaniacs had a couple more short seasons, relying on leftover scripts and storyboards.[citation needed] The fourth season had eight episodes, which was reduced from 18 because of Warner Bros.' dissatisfaction with the series.[citation needed] The 99th and final Animaniacs episode aired on November 14, 1998.
In 1999 production of new Animaniacs episodes ceased and the direct-to-video feature film Animaniacs: Wakko's Wish was to act as a closer to the series.[50] Animation World Network reported that Warner Bros. laid off over 100 artists, contributing to the reduced production of the original series.[51] Producer Tom Ruegger explained that rather than produce new episodes, Warner Bros. instead decided to use the back-catalog of Animaniacs episodes until "someone clamors for more."[50] Animaniacs segments were shown along with segments from other cartoons as part of The Cat&Birdy Warneroonie PinkyBrainy Big Cartoonie Show.[51] Following the end of the series, the Animaniacs team developed Animaniacs: Wakko's Wish in 1999.[50] In 2016, Ruegger said on his Reddit AMA that the decline of Animaniacs and other series was the result of Warner Bros.' investment in the much cheaper anime series Pokémon. After Warner Bros. gained distribution rights to the cheaper and successful anime, the network chose to invest less in original programming like Animaniacs.[52]
Wakko's Wish
The series was followed up by the feature-length direct-to-video movie Animaniacs: Wakko's Wish. The movie takes place in the fictional town of Acme Falls, in which the Warners and the rest of the Animaniacs cast are under the rule of a greedy king who conquered their home country from a neighboring country. When the Warners find out about a star that will grant a wish to the first person that touches it, the Warners, the villagers (the Animaniacs cast), and the king race to get to it first.[53] Warner Bros. released the movie on VHS on December 21, 1999; the film was then released on DVD much later on October 7, 2014.
Syndication
After new episodes were no longer produced, Animaniacs aired in syndication on the WB’s sister network, Cartoon Network. In 2000, Nickelodeon bought the rights to air the series (as well as Tiny Toons and Pinky and the Brain) for 20 million dollars with the first episodes airing in Spring 2001.[54] Nickelodeon aired the episodes until 2005, and with additional re-runs being shown on Nicktoons from 2002 to 2005, and Discovery Family (known as The Hub Network at the time) from 2012 to 2014.[55] The streaming service Netflix picked up the series in 2016.[56] It also became available on Hulu.[6]
Aftermath
After Animaniacs, Spielberg collaborated with Warner Bros. Animation again to produce the short-lived series Steven Spielberg Presents Freakazoid, along with the Animaniacs spin-off series Pinky and the Brain, from which Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain was later spun off. Warner Bros. also produced two other comedy animated series in the later half of the decade titled Histeria! and Detention, which were short-lived and unsuccessful compared to the earlier series. Later, Warner Bros. cut back the size of its animation studio because the show Histeria! went over its budget, and most production on further Warner Bros. animated comedy series ended.[51]
Since 2016, Paulsen, Harnell, and MacNeille have toured as Animaniacs Live!, performing songs from Animaniacs along with a full orchestra.[57] Among the songs are an updated version of "Yakko's World" by Randy Rogel that includes a new verse to include nations that have been formed since the song's original airing, such as those from the break-up of the Soviet Union.[40]
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Reception
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Ratings and popularity
During its run, Animaniacs became the second-most popular children's show among both ages 2–11 and ages 6–11 (behind Mighty Morphin Power Rangers).[18][46] Animaniacs, along with other animated series, helped to bring "Fox Kids" ratings much larger than those of the channel's competitors.[58] In November 1993, Animaniacs and Tiny Toon Adventures almost doubled the ratings of rivals Darkwing Duck and Goof Troop among ages 2–11 and 6–11, which are both very important demographics to children's networks.[18]
While Animaniacs was popular among younger viewers (the target demographic for Warner Bros.' TV cartoons), adults also responded positively to the show; in 1995, more than one-fifth of the weekday (4 p.m., Monday through Friday) and Saturday morning (8 a.m.) audience viewers were 25 years or older.[41] The large adult fanbase even led to one of the first Internet-based fandom cultures.[59] During the show's prime, the usenet newsgroup alt.tv.animaniacs was an active gathering place for fans of the show (most of whom were adults) to post reference guides, fan fiction, and fan-made artwork about Animaniacs.[60] One episode of Animaniacs even featured a caricature of show's own Internet fans.[8]
Critical reception
Critical reception was largely positive. The critics praised the show show's inclusion of various historical figures.[17] Writing a retrospective review in Entertainment Weekly in 2011, praised the humor and musical numbers, including references that he was unable to understand at the time.[9] In 2021, the Chicago Tribune, named it the 66th best television series of the 1990s.[61]
Nominations and awards
Animaniacs won eight Daytime Emmy Awards.
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Merchandise
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Home media
Episodes of the show have been released on DVD and VHS during and after the series' run.
VHS tapes of Animaniacs were released in the United States and in the United Kingdom. All of these tapes are out of print, but are still available at online sellers. The episodes featured are jumbled at random and are in no particular order with the series. Each video featured four to five episodes each which were accompanied by a handful of shorter skits, with a running time of about 45 minutes.[citation needed]
Beginning on July 25, 2006, Warner Home Video began releasing DVD volume sets of Animaniacs episodes in order of the episodes' original airdates.[citation needed] Volume one of Animaniacs sold very well; over half of the product being sold in the first week made it one of the fastest selling animation DVD sets that Warner Home Video ever put out.[citation needed]
Record labels Rhino Entertainment produced albums featuring songs from the show. These albums include A Hip Hopera Christmas, Yakko's World, and The Animaniacs Faboo! Collection.[37]
An Animaniacs comic book, published by DC Comics, ran from 1995 to 2000 (59 regular monthly issues, plus two Specials). Initially, these featured all the characters except for Pinky and the Brain, who were published in their own comic book series (which ran for a Christmas Special issue and then 27 regular issues from July 1996 to November 1998 before its cancellation), though cameos were possible. The Animaniacs comic book series was later renamed Animaniacs! featuring Pinky and the Brain with issue #43 and ran for another 16 issues before its cancellation.[citation needed] The Animaniacs comic book series, like the TV series, parodied TV, film and comic book standards such as Pulp Fiction and The X-Files, among others.[citation needed]
Video games
Due to the popularity of the show, a total of nine video games were based on the Animaniacs series for various consoles.[2] The list includes titles such as: Animaniacs (1994),[69][70] Animaniacs Game Pack! (1997),[71] Animaniacs: Ten Pin Alley (1998),[72] Animaniacs: A Gigantic Adventure (1999)[73], Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt (2005)[74], Animaniacs: Lights, Camera, Action! (2005).[75][76] An additional game for the GameBoy Advance, titled Animaniacs: Hollywood Hypnotics was produced but cancelled before release.[2]
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Revival
A revival series of Animaniacs was ordered by Hulu in May 2017 for an initial two-season order, following the popularity of the original series after Netflix had added it to their library in 2016.[77] The first season of 13 episodes was released on November 20, 2020, while the second season was released on November 5, 2021[78] and the third and final season was released on February 17, 2023.[citation needed] Wellesley Wild served as the showrunner and as executive producer along with Gabe Swarr.[79] According to Wild, Steven Spielberg was heavily involved with bringing the series back and insisting on many of the original voice cast and elements be used for the revival.[80][81] This includes the return of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot (voiced by Paulsen, Harnell, and MacNeille) and Pinky and the Brain (voiced by Paulsen and LaMarche),[82] and the use of a small orchestra for the musical works composed by Julie and Steven Bernstein, who both composed additional music during the series' original run, as well as other composers trained by Richard Stone and Randy Rogel.[83][84][80]
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Notes
References
External links
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