#the later is Mindy from Animaniacs

[splungecoyote]

TMI Tuesday: Favorite catchphrase, or do you have one that you use?

“Okie Dokie Artchokey!”

I’m a cashier and I say this a lot to customers. (I thought it was a Pinkie Pie thing but she actually says “okie dokie loki” so I dunno where I picked it up from XD )

Also,

But I’m not brave enough to say that to strangers. ;)

[cannibalistic-cucumber]

Okay so

For various reasons, Sonic Adventure (SA1) is among my dead favorite games. The two relevant to this rant are the characters and the gorgeous soundtrack (in fact, I might go on a tangent about individual songs at the end of this).

My favorite character in the game is E-102 “Gamma” (btw if you derail this post about Omega, you die), a robot built by Eggman, who runs on animal power, as Eggman’s robots usually do. However, Gamma contains a very special animal - it’s a surprise tool the will help us later. Five minutes into being born (and after training, ofc), he is forced to shoot his brother, E-101 “Beta”. Following this, he board’s Eggman’s ship (the Egg Carrier) and is tasked with catching the tailed frog. Upon collecting the frog, he is transported to the past, where he experiences childlike wonder at the chao. Back on the Egg Carrier, the rest of his siblings are cast out because of their failure to get the frog. After that, Gamma is sent to execute a prisoner. On the way, he makes a wrong turn and ends up in the machining room, where he experiences eldritch horror at the sight of his brother being disassembled and reassembled. In the prison, he finds Amy Rose, who has a blue bird flying around with her looking for its parents. She convinces him not to kill her a la Mindy Animaniacs, and protects Sonic out on the deck of the ship, further confusing Gamma. He leaves the crashing ship, now convinced to “rescue” his disowned brothers. After successfully disposing of them, he is ambushed on the Egg Carrier by Beta Mk II, who feigns death in order to shoot Gamma in the back, and they both die as a result. Lo and behold, Gamma and Beta contained the parents of the bird. Reunited, they fly off into the sunset.

TLDR: Gamma is Eggman robot who experiences eldritch horror and compassion and forsakes his master as a result. He “rescues” his siblings before dying himself, and the animal inside him reunites with its family.

Now, a little more background before we get to the main point. SEGA Sound Team popped off for this game. Each character has a theme song that plays during their respective recaps and end credits (each one has an entire storyline with slight variations on who does what (it’s all happening at once)). Side note: I’m like 70% sure SA1 is the origin of Knuckles jazz. It should also be noted that I have a youtube playlist of songs on queue for downloading, and when I run out of ideas I scroll through the recommended additions section.

E-102’s theme is in my top three favorite songs from SA1. You’ll never guess what it’s called! Theme of E-102γ. And that’s my first talking point. I was reading the comments on one of the music videos, and one of them made a connection that his theme doesn’t get a proper name because he’s just another cog in the machine. Even Big the Cat has a greater role in the main story than him. And yet, doomed by the narrative as he is, he gets his own story. As another comment pointed out, each story has its own (literary) theme: Sonic is Adventure, Tails is Independence, Knuckles is Recollection (I’m kinda iffy on that one), Amy is Protection, Big is Friendship, and Gamma? Gamma is heart and soul. Compassion. Morality, something that shouldn’t be possible, and definitely isn’t comprehensible for a robot, especially one of Eggman’s creation.

As a side tangent here, I’ve been putting rescued in quotes when it comes to Gamma and his brothers, but I realized something between the time I started writing this and now. The animals that drop from the E-series robots are birds. They’re all his brothers, inside and out. I had always assumed that Gamma had meant rescue only in the liberation sense. I never realized that he meant it both ways. I just… I’m need a moment.

As a side side tangent, I think this is one of the biggest differences between E-100 ZERO and the rest. To my knowledge, he didn’t have any animals, much less another bird, and that was what led him to the brutish oafishness that we see displayed by him.

Back to the main points, I think that all of this is reflected in the song. It starts out with all of the synth, vague vocals, electro, etc. that would be expected from the theme of a robot, and then you’ve got… PIANO. Oh my god the piano. Piano Man has its harmonica, and this song has its piano. In the midst of the circuits, the wires, the computers, there’s life, a heartbeat, a soul. And with the soul comes that twinge of sadness. Sure he freed the animals, but to do so, he had to kill his brothers with his own two (?)(does the gun count?) hands. Due to this and the cumulation of everything else, hearing the song (or the variation of it) during his final cutscene hits and hits hard.

THE REPRISE OF THE MAIN THEME PIANO AS HE DIES IN OBSCURITY. THE OTHER BIRDS ARE LIKELY THE ONLY ONES THAT END UP KNOWING ABOUT HIS DEATH

It’s okay I’m okay I’m so normal about this

Now that the main rant is over, it’s time for me to hoot about the other songs

Be Cool, Be Wild, Be Groovy …for Ice Cap

I get that it’s a snowboarding section, but still. THEY BOTHERED TO USE GUITAR IN A SNOW LEVEL. NAME ONE OTHER INSTANCE OF THAT THAT ISN’T LITTLE BIG PLANET’S THE WILDERNESS’S SITAR.

Limestone Cave …for Ice Cap

Ambience plain and simple. Good for falling asleep to

Snowy Mountain …for Ice Cap

Another ambience piece, this time with another guitar (no this doesn’t count for the challenge I posed above). Love the mix of electric and acoustic

Welcome To Station Square

“The train headed for the Mystic Ruins will be departing soon.” Came for the guitar, stayed for the trumpet.

Red Barrage Area …for Hot Shelter

SAX (shout outs to the rest of Hot Shelter’s music btw)

Militant Missionary … Boss Egg Walker & Egg Viper

Hopelessness, despair, DRAMA. Things may not have gone to plan, but Eggman is surely still the one in control.

And finally, shoutouts to Bad Taste Aquarium, Pleasure Castle, and Dilapidated Way for going full throttle right out the gate.

@green-mountain-goose @greetings-inferiors @cue-jay @kimu-dem

[theonethatyaks93]

Quick Animaniacs Review: Episode 84 (Original Show)

Hello Animaniacs community! To honor this amazing episode's 27th anniversary, I've decided to make a quick review showcasing my opinions on these segments from episode 84 of the OG show. I plan on doing this for more episodes in the future, so if you want to see more, let me know. Alright, let's get into the review.

What's In This Episode?: Episode 84 of Animaniacs was released on September 7th, 1996. It contained four segments featuring the Warners and Chicken Boo: "Cutie and the Beast", "Boo Happens", "Noel", and a cold ending, which is technically not a segment, but it's close enough. In my opinion, this episode is one of the last great hurrahs of this show, containing amazing animation by TMS, hilarious segments (some of the funniest in the show), and a consistent level of quality. Each segment brings something new to the table; the Warners bringing comedy, Chicken Boo offering some of his best work, the song portion being iconic, and the ending bit being laugh-out-loud funny. Overall, this is a very great episode that I'd recommend.

"Cutie and the Beast":

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Ms. Banana Folana!" This segment has some of the best moments of the season, and some of my favorite gags in the entire show. The opening bit with Dot messing up her lines is hysterical, with great voice acting. The fact that they repeat it so many times also makes it more funny. There are a ton of little jabs, innuendos, and meta jokes in these first few minutes alone. Dot swearing and it being bleeped out? Hilarious! It really just feels like the writers, animators, and voice actors were having a blast. The rest of this episode is solid as well. The fact that the beast is in fact the Tasmanian Devil makes for a great cameo from a Looney Tunes star. The jokes surrounding Taz from the Warners are funny and the songs are super catchy despite being short. The twist at the end where instead of Taz becoming a prince, he becomes a prince before Dot changes him back, is a nice subversion of the Disney story. I really enjoyed this segment, and when I first watching the opening, I laughed so hard I think my parents though something was wrong with me. Just a fantastic watch.

"Boo Happens":

I'll be honest, when I first watched the Chicken Boo segments back in 2020, they were my least favorite segments of all. I hated how repetitive they were, and I disliked the titular character especially. Now, a few years later, I don't hate these segments as much as others (i.e. Buttons and Mindy, Katie-Ka Boom, The Hip-Hippos), but they can still be bland. Luckily, this segment is one of the better Chicken Boo sketches. The setup is interesting, being a Forrest Gump parody and all, and the plot at least has a purpose. I like the narration and the allusions to the titular movie were amusing I can't praise it too much since it is a Chicken Boo segment and all, but out of the entire lot, this is one of the better segments featuring this giant chicken.

"Noel":

This is one of the musical highlights for the show in my opinion. It's an amazing piece that contains funny moments, great rhymes, and it definitely puts you in the holiday mood, though this was released many months before Christmas. The cleverness of the different rhymes and the substitutions for the word noel are so well done that it's shocking. The fact that the whole song just stems from a decent pun is frankly hilarious. I love how it's not only Yakko doing the song, as Wakko and Dot also join in. The animation is so charming and simple, but it works. It makes it feel like a Christmas song, while subverting expectations in that traditional Animaniacs way. This song definitely puts me in a good mood while also being really funny. It's not as good as songs like Yakko's World and There's Only One of You, but it stands on its own as a classic. If you want a Christmas melody from this show that will make you smile, or laugh, I recommend this 100%.

Cold Ending:

If there's a great beginning, a great ending will follow. And in terms of Animaniacs, this is by far the best ending to an episode in the franchise's history. Just an ending bit where the Warners wish us farewell, only for the cameras to keep rolling with the siblings making random remarks about different things, including the cast and crew. It seems simple, but it's so well done. This is where the voice acting and writing really stand out. I mean, you couldn't get a more perfect situation; Yakko, Wakko, and Dot picking on the crew who made the show, and even referencing their own voice actors is so hysterical, I was wheezing after first seeing this. The delivery of the lines is great, with the timing landing so well. They even still make pop culture references; can you get any better than this? It's a very meta portion of the episode, but that's the fun of it. These writers were paid to make the Warners talk about the people who worked on the show, and it, of course, went incredibly well. When the siblings finally realize the camera is still rolling and that their mics are still on, it's so humorous. This is a very tounge-and-cheek way of referencing the amazing talent behind Animaniacs and I couldn't be more happier this was how this episode and TMS's animation contributions ended. What a perfect way to wrap up one of this show's last great stands.

Conclusion:

While this episode was made in the Kids WB era of Animaniacs, it still managed to make an impact. Noel is still fondly remembered, "Cutie and the Beast" is named a highlight, and the cold ending is also acknowledged by many a fan. Though I never say Animaniacs got outright terrible, it did suffer from some failings in the writing department while other shows, mainly its spin-off series Pinky and The Brain flourished. This episode still proves that there were some decent writers working on the show, and I consider it to be one of the last outstanding things this show ever did. Not everything here is amazing, but there is enough great things here to justify my opinion on it. The team did an amazing job and the voice actors brought their a-game once again. I love this episode and I recommend it very highly. Well done Animaniacs team. Happy 27th Anniversary to these fantastic segments!

And that's it. I hope you guys enjoyed this new idea I had about reviewing Animaniacs segments. I plan on making two very big posts in the upcoming weeks, so I'm very excited about that. Stay tuned! Thank you everyone for reading and have a great day! Stay zany to the max!!!

[nastya-sokolova-2002]

In this post I will show you five characters from the Pinky and the Brain family in the mouse version, so that later I can take a break from this and think about what Diego, Jasper, Linda and others (exactly from the family of Pinky and the Brain) will look like in the mouse version, and besides, the second chapter of fanfiction is still in progress, but I promise that it will be. So, let's start with Suleiman. Here is his mouse version.

As you know that in the mouse version and that in version 035, Pinky inherited exactly the appearance from his grandfather Suleiman. Suleiman, Pinky's only maternal ancestor (because Suleiman is Vanessa's father), who is not very stupid compared to his daughter and grandson. Polly is of course a bit stupid only 50/50, and so she, too, like her husband, the only ancestor who does not behave so stupidly. Pinky also inherited from his grandfather that Suleiman himself, like his grandson, has a pure and kind heart and is always ready to help everyone. Another interesting fact about him is that when he met Polly, he fell in love with her not only because she is a beautiful woman, but also because she herself is also kind, but sometimes very naive, like her grandson.

Okay, now let's move on to Julia Scott in the mouse version.

At first I wanted Julia Scott in the mouse version to be very similar to Julia Brain, but then I changed my mind because some people might get confused between Pinky's wife and Brain's daughter. And so I decided that Julia Scott in the mouse version should be very similar to Billie (if Billie was in "Animaniacs 2020"), who is the former love of Brain. And what, since Julia Scott married Pinky, she has the right to live with him. She doesn't want to be a widow after Larry dies, does she? Despite the fact that she stayed with Pinky immediately after Larry's death (in the second chapter, she will tell Mindy and Rory that she told her foster father that she and her children will stay with Pinky and Brain because she doesn't want to go anywhere. But Pinky, hearing these words, decides to help Julia, until the horror begins at the end of the second chapter. And you will read the second chapter about this soon) she later fell in love with Pinky in return when he began to entertain and care for her to feel good, she thinks at the moment that she will not be left alone a second time. And as for Pinky, for those who watched all episodes of "Animaniacs 1993", "Pinky and the Brain", "Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain" and "Animaniacs 2020", they will understand that before Julia Scott, Pinky lost several of his lovers, but eventually, after Larry's death and while he was courting Julia Scott, he gradually fell in love with her and eventually married her and has a son named Kolin with her.

Okay, guys, now let's move on to Mindy in the mouse version.

Actually, she is very similar to her native version in the form of 035. Currently, like her mother Julia Scott, she lives with Pinky and the Brain. She has a very good relationship with her new father, Pinky, and loves him like her biological father.

So, now let's see what Kolin looks like in the mouse version.

Well, you see that he is a copy of his father Pinky, but inherited the color of the eyes from his mother Julia, and the hair color of one of the ancestors of Julia Scott. We can say that in character he is half like his father and half like his mother. How is it, you ask? Very simple. He is 50% stupid like Pinky and 50% smart like Julia Scott. He loves to annoy Gadget, like Pinky annoys Brain. Pinky and Kolin are both masochists when Brain and Gadget hurt them when they annoy them or talk nonsense (just like in the original "Pinky and the Brain"). Kolin treats Porcelain Sage very well. He loves him like his native grandfather Roger (Pinky's father). Kolin, like his siblings, mother and uncle Brain, has a bad relationship with Michael, because Pinky and Brain and their ancestors told him from early childhood what his mother Julia experienced and told him never to approach him. Kolin is also not friends with Michael's and his sister's children, like how Mindy and Rory, who stopped being friends with them after Larry's death.

And the last one for today is Rory in the mouse version.

Rory in the mouse version looks exactly the same color as in his native version, except for the color of the eyes. And yes, an interesting fact about him is that if Rory, in his native version, would also take off his mask like Julia Scott's ancestors, he would have yellow eyes. You know that Rory in his native version his mouth is always open, but does only either a smile or sadness, but in the mouse version, his mouth opens and closes like everyone else. Oh yeah, he, like his sister Mindy and mom Julia, he currently lives with Pinky and the Brain, but he and his sister don't forget Porcelain Sage and visit him often. Rory also has a very good relationship with new father, Pinky, as does his sister Mindy. There is also the fact that after Larry's death, Rory not only wanted revenge on Michael, but he also had depression until he did sex with Gadget and became a father after the birth of Amelia. When Rory fell in love with Gadget, but at that time did not understand that Gadget was in love with him long ago when Larry was alive, he dreamed of winning her heart. Gadget herself understood this, but she played along a little like she said, “Well, what do you need from me? Dating? Well, I don’t even know. I have so many things to do. I need to help my dad take over the world. What? And your father too? Wow!". In short, Rory and Gadget had a very long relationship since 2040 to their wedding in 10053. Oh, shit, I forgot one more thing. As for Rory's eyes in the mouse version, everything is the same as in version 035. In case someone forgot what Rory's emotions look like, then here is an image for you.

And the last fact for today. At first, I wanted the mouse version of Rory to look like B.R.A.I.N. from episode of "Animaniacs 2020" called "Ex-Mousina". And the "prototype" Rory looks like this.

But then I thought that Rory would not look very perfect in this form and decided to make Rory look a little like his new father Pinky.

I hope you enjoyed the mouse versions of these characters. ^^

[kornwarner]

My Most Favorite Animaniacs Episodes (also including songs) by Animation Studio

Original series (1993 - 1998)

TMS: Hello Nice Warners, Yakko’s World, Ups and Downs, Potty Emergency, The Brave Little Trailer, Roll Over Beethoven, Temporary Insanity, Noel, The Great Wakkorotti: The Master and His Music, Drive-Insane, Little Drummer Warners, LA LA Law, The Monkey Song, Hooked on a Ceiling, Pavlov’s Mice, the Wheel of Morality segments, The Senses Song, Piano Rag, Turkey Jerky, The Three Muska-Warners, No Place Like Homeless, The Flame, Clown and Out; the Tower Escapes, Chases, and Returns segments, A Christmas Plotz, Fair Game, Newsreel of the Stars, I’m Cute, Babblin’ Bijou, The Great Wakkorotti: The Summer Concert, Taming of the Screwy, Garage Sale of the Century, H.M.S. Yakko, Cutie and the Beast, the Mime Time segments, Cookies for Einstein, The Warners’ 65th Anniversary Special; Hot, Bothered, and Bedeviled

Startoons: Wakko’s America, Chairman of the Bored, Ragamuffins, Bully for Skippy, Dot - the Macadamia Nut, Wally Llama, Meet Minerva, Magic Time, Cartoons in Wakko’s Body, Slappy Goes Walnuts, There’s Only One of You, It, Plane Pals, …And Justice for Slappy, Critical Condition, Guardin’ the Garden, Windsor Hassle, Be Careful What You Eat, What Are We?, The Big Candy Store, Testimonials, the Randy Beaman segments, Meet John Brain, Meatballs or Consequences, Bumbie’s Mom, Karaoke-Dokie

Wang: Space-Probed, Go Fish, Soda Jerk, The Return of the Great Wakkorotti, Win Big, A Hard Day’s Warners, Battle for the Planet, Three Tenors and You’re Out, Mobster Mash, Dot’s Quiet Time, Hiccup, Gold Rush, The Sound of Warners, Yes, Always; With Three You Get Eggroll, Lookit the Fuzzy Heads, Super Strong Warners, The Party, Message in a Bottle, Take My Siblings Please, King Yakko, From Burbank With Love, the Good Idea, Bad Idea segments; Night of the Living Buttons, Fake, I’m Mad, Bones in the Body; No Pain, No Painting

Freelance: Chalkboard Bungle, Nighty-Night Toon, Moby or Not Moby, Survey Ladies, Of Nice and Men, Les Boutons et le Ballon, When Rita Met Runt, The Cat and the Fiddle, Katie Ka-Boom: The Blemish, General Boo-Regard, The Mindy 500, Animator’s Alley, Katie Ka-Boom: The Broken Date, Up a Tree, the Dot’s Poetry Corner segments

AKOM: Hurray for Slappy, Bingo, Raging Bird, Astro-Buttons, Multiplication, Noah’s Lark, This Pun For Hire, Dough Dough Boys, I Got Yer Can, Hello Nurse, Goodfeathers: The Beginning, Opportunity Knox, Boot Camping, White Gloves, The Girl with the Googily Goop, Mesozoic Mindy, Star Truck, Moon Over Minerva, Anchors A-Warners, Bad Mood Bobby, Back in Style, Dot’s Entertainment, No Time for Love, Jokahontas, Ten Short Films About Wakko Warner, You Risk Your Life, A Very Very Very Very Special Show, We’re No Pigeons, Kiki’s Kitten, Four Score and Seven Migraines Ago

Koko: Boo Wonder, The Carpool, Birds on a Wire, Cute First (Ask Questions Later), Here Comes Attila, The Sunshine Squirrels

Revival series (2020 - present)

Titmouse: WhoDonut, Math-Terpiece Theater: Apples, The Cutening, Hindenburg Cola, Manny Manspreader, Rome Sweet Rome, No Brainer, Bun Control, Mousechurian Candidate, Warner She Wrote, Teeniacs, Please Submit, Yakko’s Big Idea, Wakkiver Twist Parts One and Two, Talladega Mice: The Ballad of Pinky Brainy, Rug of War, How To: Brain Takes Over the World, Rejected Animaniacs Characters, Warner’s Ark, Equal Time, The Warners Are Present

Snipple: Gold Meddlers, Gift Rapper, Jurassic Lark, Fear and Laughter in Burbank, Good Warner Hunting, Suspended Animation: Part 1 and 2, Of Mice and Memes, Warners Unbound, Ex Mousina, Ralph Cam, Close Encounters of the Worst Kind

Digital eMation: Yakko Amakko, All About the Benjamin, Slappy’s Return, The Warner’s Vault, Mouse Madness, The Pinktator, My Super Sour 16, The Flawed Couple

Saerom: The Apology, WARnerGAMES: Parts 1 and 2, Christopher Columbusted, Wakko’s Short Shorts: Now Loading, Know Your Scroll, Santamaniacs, The Longest Word, The Hamburg Tickler

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

Animaniacs Sims 4 Builds!

I’ve been messing around with Sims 4 for a while and figured I might as well post some of what I’ve got done! Water Tower built in collab with @birdsareblooming​!

*I know it’s incorrect because it happens to anything I save that’s above-ground; only a basement I’ve made has not been flagged. I tested it with an empty lot and sure enough, flagged. Sims is nuts.

Gallery ID: blackwoodsis all builds tagged under #animaniacs

Names, extra pics, and more info under the cut!

Warner Siblings - “Warner Bros. Water Tower”

The Warner Bros. Studio Lot includes Scratchansniff’s office, a house beside for Hello Nurse, and the Water Bros. Water Tower!

Scratchansniff’s interior is based all on the first episode-- specifically “The Monkey Song” segment.

The kitchen from “The Monkey Song” was moved to Nurse’s house, and her bedroom is designed after the one we got in her song.

Interior of the Water Tower is based entirely on the reboot. The flags on the wall are CC so they will not appear in the gallery download.

Warner Siblings - “Ralph T Guard’s Trailer”

The interior of Ralph’s trailer was based on “A Christmas Plotz,” with a bed added for Ralph Jr and a little kitchen put into the corner.

The top floor is based on “Ralph’s Wedding.”

Warner Siblings - “Flora Dora Norita”

The Norita Family House is based entirely on “23 and WB” in the reboot; a few extra rooms were added to fill it out. Also includes the swimming pool and shed.

Pinky and the Brain - “Acme Labs”

This lab is based specifically on the reboot intro!

I don’t have a lot of pics of it, mainly because I don’t have anything to base the top floors on. On the bottom floor, there’s a front receptionist room based on the reboot intro, with the room from “Roadent Trip” behind it; right in front of the bathrooms is Pinky and the Brain’s lab.

Slappy Squirrel - “Slappy Squirrel’s Tree”

Slappy’s segments are among the more consistent, so her first floor is her simple TV/Kitchen area.

Her bedroom is based on “The Christmas Tree.”

Skippy’s room is from “Twas the Day Before Christmas” and the bathroom from “Smell Ya Later.”

Randy Beaman - “Randy Beaman Kid’s House”

Interior is empty and free to mess around with!

Katie Ka-Boom / Buttons and Mindy - “Katie KaBoom”

Two-for-one deal with this one: Katie Ka-Boom’s house with Buttons and Mindy’s backyard! The kitchen and living room are based on “Call Waiting.”

Katie’s Bedroom is based on the intro.

And here’s the Buttons and Mindy backyard!

Minerva Mink - “Minerva Mink’s Log”

Minerva’s log from her two shorts; also includes her bathroom and bedroom.

Starbox and Cindy - “Starbox and Cindy”

Based on the current Starbox and Cindy shorts; we’ve only seen the front room, Cindy’s bedroom, and the bathroom, so I made sure to include those, and improvised the rest.

[theriverdraws]

And now, some of my animaniacs headcanons

The studio only managed to capture the Warners by kidnapping one as a bait, and catch the others with a trap. It surprisingly worked really well.

Even if they did escape when the tower needed cleaning, the studio just ended up using the same tactic, and it worked everytime. The Warners just can’t leave each other behind so they always came back. Eventually they just stopped trying to escape.

The Warners didn’t age because toons only age when they’re forgotten, and even if they were just a few people that remembered them, they remembered them very clearly and were deeply scared of them nedjmsinjm.

Toons can only flee from prisons or handcuffs and stuff like that if it’s funny, and not many people found them leaving the tower very funny, they were mostly scared, and so the Warners couldn’t find a situation were they could escape, that is until Spielberg and his crew found their tapes and thought it was hilarious, giving the kids a chance of escaping.

They weren’t captured right away because they were having a new show, but they knew that they were going to try and capture them anyway so they’re were always very careful. They had a looong time to prepare.

Their time on the water tower made them get even closer than they already were. They fought many times but they always made up in the end, so they’re really close now that they’re out.

The Warners didn’t age, so obviously they’re still kids and consider themselves that way (i’m looking at you guys that lust over them, I SEE YOU >:c). But they use their “mysterious” age to annoy people most of the time. “YOU KIDS STOP! NOW!”  “Uuuuh, excuse me we’re older than you, so have a little respect geez”. And then they start acting immature again and they’re like “Ohoho I see, I thought you guys ‘were older than me’ or something, what’s up with that?”  “Excuse me we are just kids??? How dare you use this lame excuse you manipulative prick”  “but--”  “pahpahpah, no buts, I am disgusted >:c” 

On Animaniacs, the scenes that happens in Burbank are the scenes that actually happened in the real world, while the songs, the scenes were they’re in the past, or on a fictional world, are part of the Warner’s new show. (an exception would be if they’re the only ones singing just to annoy people lol). I also believe that the episodes where they meet the Grim reaper and the one where they meet the devil actually happened.

The Warners’ skits are heavily improvised, just like the theme says (”..we had no script, why bother to rehearse?”). I’m gonna take the candy store skit as an example: The actor that played the candy seller had on his script - “don’t let the Warners get the candy”. While the Warners had “get the candy” written on theirs. They would create chaos and havoc to get the candy, and just be themselves, and the actor has to deal with it and stay in character at all times (the actors got paid a lot to do this btw mjewdijm). 

Sometimes the Warners broke the script a little bit, or just decided to stop with the recording and go home because they weren’t feeling like recording today, without the approval of the studio of course. Like when Dot was feeling unwell and they just decided to rest and skip the cartoon, or when Wakko got tired of having a camera filming him and he just broke the camera and went home. 

And sometimes the actors or the people on the town get really fed up with the Warners, like in the song “Schnitzelbank” where the guy got really mad, or they just lose it and the studio has to pay for another therapy again - Like on “Fair game” where I believe the guy just lost it.

The Warners don’t really get any money, and when they do it’s not much, that’s because the studio just uses it to pay for everything they break, or someone’s therapy.

The Warners do consider Scratchy as a father figure in a way, though Scratchy thinks they’re just joking. They also consider Bugs Bunny “a cool uncle”, they like each other a lot.

Yakko is actually scared of thunderstorms, and so gets a bit spooked of fireworks in the middle of nowhere, but he knows they’re not thunders so he’s good most of the time.

Pinky and the Brain were atually trying to take over the world, but no one actually believed them and just thought they loved acting so much that they acted all the time, even if there weren’t any cameras.

Rita and Runt were homeless before joining the crew, now they got a home :) (And are still really close). Their skits are somewhat based on what they actually went trough.

Slappy and Skippy were just recorded all the time because everything they did was gold honestly (still salty they aren’t on the reboot)

Goodfeathers skits are also based on what they actually went trough, they live on the studio but they’re still part of the pidgeon mafia.

Chicken boo is just a weird talented chicken, all the skits are scripted but his ability of disguising as a human is real.

Mindy and Buttons also had scripted skits, but Mindy’s parents still suck and get all the money. Oh well, she has Buttons anyway :).

The Hippos, Minerva mink, and Katie Kaboom also had scripted skits.

Going back to the Warners now, they were the ones that wrote their movie, they were really proud of it but later they thought it was too melodramatic.

After the cancellation of their show, the Warners were afraid that they would try and lock them in the tower again, so they went on the run and were laying low all of those years, the studio were indeed searching for them and trying to put them on the tower. They didn’t really have time to get acostumed, or to even notice with how things changed since the 90s because they were just on the streets. (made this headcanon because they apparently weren’t locked away again, and I don’t think the reboot will explain were the hell they were).

They appeared again when Spielberg said that he wanted to reboot the series, they were very happy. 

Hello Nurse got a better job after the cancelation so she wasn’t bothered at all that the studio didn’t want her on the show anymore

All of the characters got great lives after the show to be honest. Except Pinky and the Brain I guess, who were still on the laboratory and failing to take over the world. They gladly accepted to go back to the show.

The Warners learned that reboots have a tendency of not being so good, but they didn’t really care to be honest, they could stop running away now and that’s what really matters.

Aaaand I think that’s it for now ewmisam. I will probably have more in the future and some will probably change because of the reboot too.

[pines-troz]

Animaniacs & Willy Wonka AU

So I made up this AU back in January, but because the Twisted Toons VA reading at IndyPop Con, where Maurice read the part of Willy Wonka as the Brain reignited my passion for this silly little AU!

Major Players

Wakko Warner - Charlie Bucket

Wakko Warner is a kid with a special interest in candy who works as a shoeshine to support his family and his dreams come true when he comes across the fifth and final golden ticket. He is excited to meet his heroes, Pinky and Brain, and eagerly listens to them during the tour, especially when Brain tells him and the others to keep the Everlasting Glarb-stopper safe from others. After going through the tour of the factory, Wakko is tested for his morality when he takes responsibility for his actions of testing the Fizzy Lifting drinks by apologizing to the mice and retuning the everlasting Glarb-stopper back, and he is rewarded for his good deed. Brain and Pinky show Wakko and Dr. Scratchinsniff the glass elevator and they fly around town. When Wakko spots his house, they descend there, where they reunite with the rest of his family. Brain and Pinky then tell Wakko that in addition to the lifetime supply of chocolate, he will inherit the chocolate factory and his family will move in there the following day. 

Pinky and Brain - Willy Wonka

The mice own a chocolate factory, originally used as a plan to take over the world, and they succeeded in that regard. Their chocolates and confectionaries are beloved by people all over the globe. After learning that Snowball stole some of his recipes, Brain fired his workers and shut the factory down for three years, until he and Pinky made an entire workforce out of genetically-altered carrots named Maurice. Their candies became best-sellers again, but the factory gates remained closed to the outside world. While Brain was initially happy that he and Pinky are the kings of the candy-making world, he has grown old and wants to retire. So he and Pinky devise a contest where they send out five golden tickets to find a child worthy to inherit their confectionary empire. They send out their son, Romy, to pose as their business rival Snowball as part of the morality test to see which contestant will refuse his offer of stealing the Everlasting Glarb-stopper in exchange for ten million dollars. Once they declare Wakko the winner of the contest, they give him the factory and allow and his family to move in.  Pinky represents Wonka’s eccentricity and sense of wonderment while Brain harbors Wonka’s sardonic brilliance. 

Dr. Otto Scratchinsniff - Grandpa Joe

Dr. Scratchinsniff once worked in Pinky and Brain’s chocolate factory as their personal therapist, but after Brain experienced a horrible betrayal by some of his workers, who were spies sent by his business rival Snowball, he was fired from his job. Tragedy struck when his good friends, William and Angelina, tragically passed on, leaving behind their three children; Yakko, Wakko, and Dot. Scratchy and his friend Hello Nurse stepped up to the plate and raised the three children while having to work many odd jobs to put food on the table and pay the bills. Despite being overworked, Scratchy still has time to indulge Wakko’s interest by telling him stories about his old job at the chocolate factory. When Wakko brought home the fifth and final golden ticket, he chooses Scratchy to accompany him during the tour of the factory. Additionally, Scratchy is far different from Grandpa Joe as he works his butt off to support his family and doesn’t lay in bed for twenty years and finally gets up when he gets to go to the chocolate factory. 

Taz - Augustus Gloop

A glutton who loves to eat candy. He is accompanied by his father, Hugh, who is rather supportive of his hobby. However, he falls into the chocolate river and goes up the tube and experiences, in Pinky’s words, “the joy of the suck”. 

Elmyra - Violet Beauregard

An annoying little girl who loves to chew gum and hug animals to the point of hurting them. She is also very loud and rude. When she goes to chew a piece of gum that is not finished, Brain makes no effort to stop her and he watches her inflate to a giant blueberry with a smugly satisfied smile. 

Thaddeus Plotz - Veruca Salt

A greedy CEO that is spoiled beyond belief. He is surrounded by a group of yes-men, including his security guard Ralph, who tries hard to satisfy his boss’s every need, and his co-worker, Nora Rita Norita, who nonchalantly watches her boss’s antics without much care. He paid several studio workers to open up thousands of chocolate bars and letting them go to waste until one of them found the golden ticket. Plot brings Ralph with him to the factory with the intention of stealing the everlasting Glarb-stopper and bringing it to a white mouse with buck-teeth who goes by Snowball in exchange for ten million dollars. When they go to the golden goose room, Plotz sings about how much he wants everything and stands on the weight, which declares him a bad egg and is sent down the garbage chute. 

Mindy - Mike Teevee

Mindy is a curious toddler who finds herself in trouble. Her neglectful mother does not help this case. When they arrive at the TV room, Mindy toddles over to the platform. When her mother recognizes that her daughter is in danger, it is too late as Mindy is shrunk to the size of two inches. 

Hello Nurse - Mrs. Bucket

A kind and supportive maternal figure for the Warners. When Wakko is feeling down that he may not get a golden ticket, she reminds him that he is special just the way he is. 

Yakko, Dot, Rita and Runt - The Rest of the Bucket Family

Yakko and Dot also work part-time jobs to support the family, with Yakko working as a babysitter and Dot owning her own lemonade stand. Rita and Runt were adopted by Scratchy and they have a particular fondness for the Warners. They are very supportive of Wakko’s interest and are elated when he gets the golden ticket. 

Romy - Mr. Wilkenson/Slugworth

Romy is the cloned son of Pinky and Brain. Even though Brain wanted Romy to inherit the factory, Romy decided to follow his dream of becoming a ventriloquist. Years later, Romy received a phone call from his dads about assisting them in their contest to find a rightful heir to the factory by posing as their business rival Snowball and tempting the contestants with the offer of ten million dollars in exchange for the Everlasting Glarb-stopper. When the contest is over, Romy reveals to Wakko that he posed as Snowball to help his dads find the right person to own the factory. 

Snowball - Slugworth

Snowball was once Brain’s closest friend before turning on him. When he heard that the mice own their own successful chocolate factory, Snowball decided to make his own confectionary factory and became their biggest competitor. However, the mice proved that their candies outsold Snowball’s. He got desperate and hired a group of spies (Billie, Julia, Egwind, and Larry) to infiltrate the factory as workers and steal Brain’s recipes. When the mice learned that Snowball’s latest best-selling candies were eerily similar to their own, Brain confronted the hamster and learned that the four workers he liked actually worked for Snowball. This caused Brain to fire his workers and shut the factory down until he found another way to stat up the factory without hiring new workers. 

[randowolfwriter]

So I’ve been thinking up some more headcanons, or at least compiled a general list of what role the Animaniacs characters play in the Kipo au.  

This is kinda long, and spoiler-ish, so I’m putting another ‘read more’. 

Here’s the first post for more context. 

So far: 

The Warner Brothers are kids that have been underground for most of their lives. The mutes refer to them as the Burrow Brothers because Yakko’s a big mouth and might have said too much in front of Jamack. 

Dot is raised by a family of wolf mutes and has basically lived on the surface all of her life. She goes by the name Wolf when the boys first meet her, but then confesses that her real name is “Dot” later on. (Call her Dottie and you die.) 

Pinky and the Brain are mice mutes. Both of them are descended from intelligent lab mice, which is why Brain is so hellbent on conquering the world. Pinky on the other hand worked in Ratland along with Brad and Amy until he meets Brain. 

The Goodfeathers are definitely in this au, mafia pigeon mutes just scream Kipo material. I like to think they’d have a long time rivalry with the Mod Frogs. 

Slappy is a squirrel mute who takes in Dot after her wolf family tries to kill her and acts as her mentor figure. Though Dot eventually heads off on her own, she visits Slappy from time-to-time just to make sure she’s doing okay and to let her know what gossip she hears about the other mutes. 

Also, would it be awful if I had Skippy die in this au? Like that’s the reason why Slappy is so adamant about helping Dot and training her how to survive on the surface, because she doesn’t want to see another child like her nephew get killed?  

Buttons and Mindy live in the same burrow as Yakko and Wakko. Poor dog can never catch a break, especially when Mindy one day escapes to the surface and has to chase after her. 

I’d say Rita and Runt could be the same as usual, but also Runt being a megamute dog sounds like a lot of fun. He just thinks Rita’s a really small dog. Same as the show, the two look for a home and a family to call their own despite Runt’s gigantic size. 

The humans in the show all live in the same burrow as Yakko and Wakko (Dr. Scratchansniff, Nurse, Plotz, Ralph, etc.) 

Doctor Scratchansniff works as the burrow’s p-psychiatrist. He becomes a father figure to both Yakko and Wakko after their parents leave them in his care. Not only that, but with Wakko as a child with megamute DNA flowing through his veins (well maybe ink) Scratchy does everything he can to nail it on the head for Yakko to keep Wakko calm whenever they’re around other people. (Luckily Wakko’s megamute powers doesn’t start emerging until the boys are on the surface.) Despite that the boys are chaotic and pull many pranks on him and the other people in the burrow, Scratchy holds a special place in his heart for them both, which is why he leaves behind clues so they’ll be able to find the new burrow. 

Heloise Nerz (Hello Nurse) is Scratchy’s assistant like in the show, and a giant advocator in the burrow. She tends to the sick and runs the small hospital. Not only that, but she also helps run the school due to being one of the more educated people in the burrow. 

Plotz is the burrow’s leader, and a rather selfish one at that. He usually has Ralph deal with the other denizens rather than himself. As always, Plotz hates the Warner Brothers and would rather cast them out on the surface than continually deal with their daily shenanigans. Lucky for him, his wish comes true when the two are nowhere to be seen after the megamute attack. 

Ralph acts as Plotz’s bodyguard. Anyone that wants to get to Plotz has to get through him. 

The Hip Hippos are hippo mutes. That’s it. I doubt a lot of you will be sad if I don’t have them super involved in the au. 

Chicken Boo also lives in the burrow. He’s a chicken mute that’s convinced all the burrow people that he’s a person like them, and luckily no one has caught on yet. Well except Ralph, but nobody pays any mind to him. 

I’ve already mentioned a little about Angelina and William in the last post, but they’re the Warner siblings scientist parents who worked among Salazar’s Science Guild. Both end up having to leave Yakko and Wakko behind when Salazar pursues them. 

Angelina was originally from the burrow that they bring the boys to. She grew up alongside Heloise and was mentored by Scratchy, which is why she goes to them to take care of the boys while her and William dealt with Salazar. It’s also her who figures out the cure for the mutes; yet after seeing how Hugo improved intellectually during their tests, she feels like there could be another way for humans and toons to live back on the surface without taking away the mutes’ intelligence.  

William grew up in the same burrow as Salazar, and is aware of what a nasty person he is. He’s quite fond of the scientist from another burrow, and starts a family with Angelina. (Also I’m a terrible person and have him get killed while trying to protect Dot.) 

As mentioned, Salazar is the head of their Science Guild, whose mission it is to find a cure that will revert the mutes back to their small unintelligible, animal selves. What he doesn’t know is that someone has already figured out a solution, and instead was using it to raise a toon/mute hybrid. Once he discovers Wakko’s existence, he’s relentless to get his hands on him and destroy the child once and for all. 

[michellespenscratchz]

Tagged by @frankenjoly. Don't mind if I do. ;)

what's your all-time favourite ship?

I guess at this point Rhysha is the one I've made the most content for, but I also used to ship Jesse/Jane (Breaking Bad) and Iorveth/Saskia (Witcher). I guess the more, um, incomplete a ship feels in canon, the more I feel the need to fill in the gaps myself.

how many works do you have on ao3?

66. To be fair most of them are short drabbles from when I would do Ask Prompts here on Tumblr.

what's your total ao3 word count?

90,157.

what are your top five fics by kudos?

Mostly Borderlands, but it seems whenever I do dip my toes in Legend of Zelda it goes over pretty well.

I Thought We Were Friends, Borderlands

Silent and Still, Legend of Zelda

The Tale of the Risky Venture Launch, Borderlands

Target Audience, Borderlands

A Father's Love Never Dies, Legend of Zelda (Huh, really? Wasn't expecting that.)

do you reply to comments, why or why not?

Oh absolutely. When someone doesn't reply to my comments, I assume I'm annoying them and I usually quit reading the fic. 😬 I want to be sure to communicate that will never be the case with me.

fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

That'd have to be a tie between Apology Girl's Dues (Breaking Bad) and Carried Home To You (Game of Thrones). Both are about a dude mourning his dead lover, imagining she's there, and then realizing she isn't.

fic you've written with the happiest ending?

I'd have to go with I Thought We Were Friends, because it's about a moment in Borderlands 3 that made me especially happy. (The footer notes of the fic elaborate on this.)

do you write crossovers?

In the "Handsome Jack goes through a time warp and meets Robert Edwin House" way, no. In the "Cast of this franchise re-enacts Charles Dickens' Christmas Story" way, yes.

have you ever received hate on a fic?

A fic, no. Rhysha art on Instagram, yes.

do you write smut? if so what kind?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Mine tends to stay pretty vanilla. It's an escapist thing for me as an Ace.

have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of, but then I used to be on DeviantArt, so anything's possible. Haven't checked in on the ones I orphaned on AO3, either.

have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope. Wonder if I should?

have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not unless you count the Zelda RP I was in on GaiaOnline for most of college. But I would be open to a collab. :)

what’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Oh, so many. Every time I get a sweet message on Saovine Convoy I feel a pang of guilt for abandoning it and tell myself I'll come back to it. Then I just, y'know, don't.

what are your writing strengths?

Character authenticity. YMMV on how well I pull it off, and some characters are trickier for me than others, but I always make a real effort to make sure all canon characters sound as in-character as possible. Having someone tell me "I actually heard that in their voice" is my favorite compliment to get. <3

Also, Canon Compliant fics. I will sift through tons and tons of lore to find the tiniest, most obscure, forgotten details to build on before I go completely off script.

what are your writing weaknesses?

Staying on task. And also, I'm trying very hard to break myself of editing while I write. I need to just be okay with the first draft sounding like a ten year old wrote it.

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I had Felix speaking Pig Latin in The Stars Align And Stuff. So, there's that.

what was the first fandom you wrote for?

I got in trouble in fourth grade for submitting a "Buttons and Mindy" fanfic as a class assignment, because the teacher thought I was plagiarizing the actual cartoon. Funnily enough, it was a fic of them as mermaids, and then later on there really was an actual Animaniacs episode where they were mermaids. Oops. :P

As for the first fandom I actually submitted fic online for, that would be Invader Zim. (I had a bit of a goth phase.)

what's your favourite fic you've written?

I have very fond memories of Deja Vu (BrBa) and Saovine Convoy (Witcher). It was a different time in the early 2010s. Readers would have whole-ass discussions about the fics and about the fandom in general right there in the comments, and I was living for it. :D

Tags: @laianely If you feel up to it.

[fandomlurker]

A Ponderous Rewatch: In the Garden of Mindy

So today’s episode is neither a regular Pinky and the Brain skit nor a mere cameo. Today’s episode is…different, as the opening that spoofs the 1980s CBS Special Presentations pops up.

Perhaps the Warner Siblings can shed some light on this?

“Hi. We’re the Warner Brothers.”

“…And the Warner Sister.”

Look at these smug little gremlin children. You just know something is wrong when they make faces like that.

“And we’d like to invite you and all the members of your household…”

“…to gather around the TV set and join us now…”

“…for a very special episode of Animaniacs.”

“And what’s so special about it?”

“I’m not wearing any pants!”

…Wakko, you’re never wearing any pants.

Okay, okay, so we have the usual opening song and then the real explanation comes along.

“Welcome to the Animaniacs test kitchen!”

Oh no…

“We’re cookin’ up something really different for today’s show. All we need are our ingredients!”

Oh, kids, no!

“A dash of Pinky and the Brain!~”

WARNERS, PLEASE!!!

Man, the mice look so worn out. Did they…try to escape the Warner Siblings to avoid this whole thing? Like, that’s the only reason I can think of for why they look so tired as opposed to surprised or nonchalant like the other characters: They’re exhausted from attempting to run away. And for Pinky to be tired out is very, very telling.

“A cup of Slappy Squirrel!~”

Slappy is resigned to her fate.

“A tablespoon of Goodfeathers~”

I’m sorry about the smear face I managed to capture on you, Yakko.

I love how Bobby’s smirking a little, Squit is grinning like usual, and Pesto is looking at both of them like “If this is in any way you guys’ fault, I swear to the Godpigeon you’re all in for a beaking.”

“Add Rita, Runt, then swirl!~”

Meanwhile, Rita and Runt are just baffled.

“We add a pinch of Hippos~”

Why do you only have one of them?

…Wait, this is a fat joke, isn’t it? Goddammit.

“Buttons and Mindy, too~”

“Now top it off with Skippy Squirrel~”

Buttons and Flavio right now:

“What’s that make?

Animaniacs Stew!~”

Well, okay. We can at least call everything that results from this by a catchy name: The Stew AU.

“What’d we come up with?”

“Just watch…”

Oooh, children. You’ve committed a culinary evil this day.

“They’re Mindy and the Brain~”

So we’re mixing up the Animaniacs cast of characters and shows today.

[sighs]

Okay, so I guess it’s time to explain the basic premise of the Buttons and Mindy shorts and why they’re not fondly remembered, huh?

Well, the whole thing with Buttons and Mindy is a variation on the Baby’s Day Out type of scenario. Buttons the family dog is put in charge of guarding and babysitting Mindy, a friendly and curious toddler, by the mother of the family. The mother leaves to go…somewhere, and Mindy inevitably wanders off to chase after a bug or something new and interesting that she sees. Buttons goes after her because he loves Mindy very much and wants to keep her safe and be a Good Dog, and Mindy naively and unknowingly wanders into increasingly dangerous and life-threatening situations that Buttons must save her from, all the while getting beaten and bruised by the situations that were threatening Mindy.

The shorts usually end with Mindy and Buttons somehow ending up back home with Buttons ragged from the abuse he’s endured and Mindy perfectly fine except for maybe not being tied to her tether or in her playpen or whatever. The mother comes home and sees that Mindy is not quite where she was when she left her, or the surrounding area is a mess or something equally not that terrible, and berates Buttons for not taking better care of Mindy and calling him a Bad Dog.

And that’s where it ends.

If you’re not busting a gut at that description, congratulations, you are just like 90% of the Animaniacs audience.

The reason these shorts just don’t work for a lot of viewers, myself included, is that this kind of scenario is only funny once or maybe twice. After that, you just end up feeling bad for Buttons and don’t want to see a cartoon dog go through a conga line of pain that he doesn’t deserve. Not to mention that the whole premise can be boiled down to “Severe Parental Anxiety: The Show”, and not a lot of people like feeling that way for ten minutes or so per cartoon episode.

The reason the scenario works for a comedy movie like the aforementioned Baby’s Day Out is because the people going after the baby in that movie are kidnappers and obviously terrible people who only look out for the child’s safety so they can hold the kid for ransom, thus the pain they go through while the child remains okay is funny. Trying to do the same thing with an innocent family dog that just wants to keep a toddler safe? Not very funny at all. It’s just sad.

“Mindy and the Brain!

One’s a small child,

And the other’s…the Brain!~”

So now we have a Buttons and Mindy episode with Brain filling in for Buttons. Already this is…not great, but I suppose it’s the only suitable fit for Brain because he’d have it so, so much worse if he was put in the cast of the other skits.

I like the Goodfeathers skits, but I feel like Bobby and Pesto wouldn’t put up with his world domination shtick and end up berating him and/or beating him up. And Squit? Squit’s a do-gooder but he definitely doesn’t have Pinky’s level of passive subordination. Brain would be completely out of his league.

This isn’t to say that I wouldn’t want to see Brain interacting with the Goodfeathers, because holy shit yes PLEASE I would love the chaos that would ensue. I just think Brain wouldn’t last on his own with them.

Brain would, again, be completely out of his element in a Slappy Squirrel cartoon. Slappy’s skits hinge on her being a senior Looney Toon-type who knows just how to handle absurd scenarios and villains. Brain gets lost and confused incredibly quickly when unexpected situations pop up. He’s not a quick thinker in general. He’d be toast.

Being inserted into a Rita and Runt skit… Well, Rita wouldn’t be a good partner for obvious reasons that will become even more apparent later. And Runt is kind and a bit dimwitted but he’s no Pinky. Runt isn’t the type to be interested in helping to take over the world. He just doesn’t have the skills to do…almost anything that Pinky can, and he doesn’t have the drive to do it. Runt just wants a home and that’s it.

As for the Hip Hippos, there’s a skit of theirs down the line where Brain is involved and it honestly turns out about as well as it does for Brain in this episode.

So, let’s see how Brain fares in a world without Pinky.

“He uses his lobe

To overthrow the globe!~”

Also, we’re again treated to TMS doing the animation, which certainly elevates this skit quite a bit.

“She’s whimsy,”

I love how Brain goes from shock and surprise to absolute petulant grumpiness after seeing that Mindy put him in a jar.

“They’re Mindy and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain!~”

If only this was the extent of your humiliation today, Brain. If only.

[Various raspberry and baby babbling noises]

“Hi, Lady!”

“It’s ‘Mom’.”

This is honestly the only joke I ever liked in the Buttons and Mindy shorts. Apparently it was based on something a real child of a friend of an Animaniacs creator would say to their mom.

“Now listen, honey, mommy has to go to a better parenting conference. You stay right here and play.”

A “better parenting conference”, huh? Lady, you need it more than you know. For many reasons.

“Okay Lady, I love you, buh-bye!~”

Is anyone else getting a horrid sense of foreboding and dread from Mindy’s doll looking like a simplified Elmyra?

“Now, Brain, you keep an eye on Mindy while I’m gone.”

Nothing like leaving a mouse in a cage in charge of a toddler, huh?

Gosh, brain’s so adorably chubby in this episode. Look at him. Look at that grumpy face and that pudgy belly.

“I always get an attitude from him…”

Yeah, he’s… Yeah. That’s Brain, all right.

“At last, that meddler is gone! I’m free to begin my plan to…conquer the world!”

I love that back shot of Brain so much. It’s perfect. That’s the perfect Brain proportions and I can only dream of being able to draw cartoons that well.

“First, I’ll use telepathy to open the cage.”

C-come again? “Telepathy”?

Brain, honey… You’re looking for the word “telekinesis”. You should know this.

Also I guess Pinky’s not the only one with telekinesis capabilities.

The fact that he cocks his head to the side when he turns the trowel with his mind is a nice little detail.

“Now to get Mindy…”

That strut, though. He’s a mouse on a mission.

“Come, Mindy, it’s time for us to conquer the world!”

...Okay, I’ll say it: Mindy is very cute in this shot.

Meanwhile Brain...looks like a gremlin.

“Why?”

“By right of superior intelligence, I am best suited to guide the destiny of this planet.”

Careful, Brain. You’re getting dangerously close to--

“Why?”

“My empirical powers give me the mandate.”

BRAIN, this is starting to sound like eugenics...!

“Why?”

“Because it’s something I want to do!”

Oh lord, without Pinky to reel him in and remind him of all the real reasons he wants to conquer the world, the Brain of this universe has devolved into a mouse driven purely by ego and spite.

His little tantrum is adorable, though.

“Okay, I love you! [MWAH~]”

“I am uncomfortable with that.”

The Brain be like: What is this...”affection” you speak of? This is new and scary to me.

“Now listen closely, Mindy: Using the gardener’s weed killer, manure, and a little zoysia grass,--”

Zoysia grass is an actual thing, by the way. It’s the kind of grass you see mostly on golf courses.

“--I will construct a powerful stink bomb!” 

GAH! No need to punctuate the term by making your eyes bulge, Brain.

“We’ll use the lawn mower engine to construct a rocket and fill it with the gas. When precisely launched, the prevailing winds will spread the gas across the world’s capitals.”

As impressed as I would be with you being able to make a rocket from a lawn mower engine, Brain, it’s kind of overshadowed by you doing that thing again where you make a drawing animate like a video. Another strange power to add to the list, I suppose.

“As the stench drives the government officials out into the streets, we will rush in and seize power!”

Good lord, Brain, calm down. You’re gonna break that pointing stick!

“You understand?”

“Mousey!~”

You’re...not very good with kids, are you, Brain?

“Pretty Brain mousey…!”

“I am mortified.”

I don’t see why, you look positively precious.

“Little mousey big head!”

Mindy, dear, I too wish to squish this cute little megalomaniacal mouse sometimes but you’re doing it way too hard.

“Put me down, Mindy, or I shall have to hurt you.”

“Okay, I love you, buh-bye!”

The Brain: [is a mouse with genius intellect and gadgetry know-how with the drive to take over the world]

Also The Brain: [gets dunked on by a toddler merely dropping him on the ground]

“I sense I’ve completed the first step of my plan: Finding manure.”

That’s one way to look on the bright side, I suppose.

Sweetie, you’ve got something stuck on your head still.

“Pungent aroma, if I do say so.”

“Now to construct the rocket…”

...Why would you take the mask off now? You’re still right over top of the stink bomb! Brain, have the fumes messed with your thinking abilities already?

I do like the animation of him tearing the mask off, though.

“Buggy! Buggy!”

“All right, Mindy: Bring me the mower!”

If you ever need a pose that sums up Brain perfectly, it’s this one right here. This is him distilled down to his purest form. God bless TMS for this.

“Soon the world will be mine!”

Uh, yeah, about that...

“Woooow! Buggy go fast! Wheeeeeee!~”

“Whoooooaaaa! GAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

“Beh, peh, EUGH!”

Brain’s plans go to shit really fast without Pinky around. Sometimes quite literally, it seems.

“Buggy go ‘round!”

[Running in the 90s starts playing]

“Ahahaha!”

Don’t worry folks. As always, Mindy is okay. Brain, however...

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

Something I missed on my first viewing of this episode: the grass around Brain’s feet as he walks around covered in his stinkbomb juice dies near instantly.

“Wahahahaha! Silly Brain!”

“This is most unexpected.”

Is it, though? Is it really, Brain?

So, uh, something that caught me off-guard while watching this for the first time is what happens next.

Pinky and the Brain is, obviously, a Warner Brothers cartoon with some Looney Toon sensibilities. Despite that, though, while there is the occasional being-flattened-like-a-pancake or being-covered-in-soot-after-an-explosion types of cartoon slapstick and such, it doesn’t really go much beyond that when it comes to cartoonish injuries and such. The worst I’d ever seen it get in this show is at the end of Opportunity Knox when Pinky and Brain are all wrapped up in bandages and some of their fur has been scraped off raw. Even then, that was surprisingly “graphic” for the show.

But this upcoming bit?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! D8

--was my reaction the first time. It’s not bloody and gory, but seeing Brain being sliced into sections by a lawn mower is just...startling, to put it mildly. To my knowledge (and well, it has been decades since I regularly watched the show, so take this with a grain of salt), the Pinky and the Brain Animaniacs sketches and the spinoff never does something this Looney Toons to them.

And what really gets me is that he’s not just cut into sections with his eyeballs popped out, it’s that there’s an obvious hole in the middle of each section??? For some reason??? What that to imply space for his skeleton?!? A creamy center filling?!?

TMS, you could have just animated him in sections like some kind of mousey marshmallow, why did you include the holes?!?

[Press F to Pay Respects]

“Bleh! Brain smell like poo-poo!”

“I must re-think my present career…”

Honestly, Brain? Without Pinky to help you, I’d say it’s a good idea to just try and escape this family first and then maybe try on your own to take over the world. You might have a slightly better chance then.

“What’s that horrible smell?! Is that you, Brain?! Have you been allowing Mindy to feed you old cheese again? Bad mouse! Bad, bad mouse!”

Wait, “again”?

“…I hate being chided.”

You know, it’s interesting how he says that about this human woman chiding him, but in the regular Pinky and the Brain universe Pinky will sometimes chide Brain for doing something dubiously immoral, and while he may hate it there too...he more often than not backs down and admits to his faults when it’s Pinky doing it.

“But she’ll be gone soon, then I can begin my plans for tomorrow: Another plot to take over the world!”

“But first: A bath.”

I mean, yeah. Priorities.

“He’s stinky,

They’re Mindy and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain!~”

Well, I never thought we’d get a Brain bath scene until the comics but here we are.

I wonder if Pinky would find it equally as appealing to watch as that one...

Okay, that sure was...an episode. Let’s see how the other half of the equation is doing.

“They’re Pinky and the Cat!

Yes, Pinky and the Cat!

Her name is Rita,~”

Oh NO... 

I love the contrast of these two shots. It’s as if Pinky’s self preservation instinct kicks in only long enough for him to be vaguely worried about having a cat in his cage...and his lack of attention span overtakes it and he does whatever the hell this is.

“He’s a lab rat!~”

“A mouse!”

At least he still has it in him to be offended enough to correct the Warners about his actual species.

“They live inside a cage,

Making less than minimum wage.~

Aww...

Oh, Pinky, sweetie... I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry for what’s about to happen.

“It’s dinky,~”

“They’re Pinky and the Cat, Cat, Cat, Cat, Cat!~”

Pinky making faces in the reflection of the water bowl is another bit of animation that’s used in the spin-off’s opening theme. It’s kind of weird to pull something from this particular segment, but whatever.

“What do you want to do tonight, Rita?”

It was so difficult to get a shot of Pinky’s cute little coy stance here, but it was worth it. Look at this cute, naive little mouse. He just wants to be friends, Rita!

“I dunno, eat you for supper?”

[GULP]

[Press F to Pay Respects...Again]

“So far, this is my favourite episode.”

“Narf! Oh, roomy accommodations, Rita!”

Don’t worry, folks, he’s fine! Yup. He’s okay somehow.

Lord, I hope this didn’t awaken a vore fetish in anyone.

“She ate the rat

‘cause Rita is a cat, cat, cat, cat, cat!~”

So yeah, that’s the end of this little experiment by the Warner Siblings. Well, the end of what’s relevant to this blog series, anyway. There’s also a skit with Pesto and Runt trying to find a home, which is honestly the best one out of this whole bunch of AU one-shots.

Then there’s a Katie Ka-Boom and Chicken Boo crossover, which is as underwhelming as you can imagine.

There’s a short where Dot takes the place of Slappy Squirrel, which goes about as well as it can after the theme song repeatedly calls her “Dottie the Squirrel”.

Lastly, Slappy takes the place of Dot in a Warner Siblings skit (with a cameo with Flavio as Skippy) where the Warners barge in on a very thinly veiled parody of Saddam Hussein and, uh... Well, it’s about as awkward to watch as it sounds. Props to Slappy for not really being interested in any part of that skit, though.

Man, after this utterly bizarre set of skits, I think we really need that full episode length Pinky and the Brain episode, don’t we?

Soon, folks. Soon.

See you then!

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff: The New Animaniacs

The Trio are Backy, Shamelessly Wacky

Let it be said that a cartoon can’t not get back a pep in their step after being gone for so long. Mickey Mouse got his revival series, Ducktales reworked its old hat anew, Cuphead brought the more vintage style of hand drawn animation back, and now both Looney Tunes and Animaniacs have refurbished their looks when nobody was looking. Then again, after so long, Animaniacs can’t do the same song and dance nor just be Looney Tunes #2. So with its gaze on getting unique relevance, does this hold up? Well it has a soul, but one of very different breath.

I know this’ll be cheeky, coming from somebody that grew up with the original during Middle and High School, it’s made clear that while the charm is still there, I feel like it’s deep down ashamed of itself for existing. It’s in part by the uhhhhhh clear fact they cut out most of the original skits.

I love the Warners, Pinky, and the Brain much as the next guy but I always found joy in Animaniacs being more than them. It wasn’t all memorable, I fucking hate Mindy, but the variety was still welcome and unpredictably fun. The Warners were still the main act, but the show didn’t revolve around them. It’s kinda like the one Looney Tunes reboot where it was only Bugs Bunny for a season until they decided, “Shit, there are more characters aren’t there?” They acknowledge this change in one episode but that’s it. Outside Scratchansniff and Ralph, nobody else is allowed to truly come back. The show while still enjoyable feels incomplete. Maybe season 2 will introduce more, it’s up in the air. Otherwise, have too much and the welcome will wear. As for it being more topical and meta with these current times, I don’t have much to say beyond the winds are kinda taken out the sails when it’s lucky this is a years later reboot. Just saying, it could’ve gotten rebooted over and over, go the Scooby-Doo route of airing continuous specials or interpreted series, go the Spongebob route of staying longer than desired, or worse above all, suffer the same fate as the Simpsons.

You think it’s something after being gone for 22 years? Imagine being forced to live over 22 years. Doing the same thing, for a company that clearly says death was never an option.

I think my personal takeaway is that while I enjoy it, it isn’t the same after seeing so many other cartoons. I’ve gotten good chaos, good commentary, irreverent fun, good characters elsewhere and where this Animaniacs certainly knows what it’s doing, I’ve seen the original and this is original, but again pretty incomplete with not as many hooks as before outside “They’re Back”. I’m really grateful the show is how it is now, but I’m not rabid with joy over this as I hoped. Maybe I’m the exhausted fool.

But in spite of my hangups, it all is a quality return to form. New look, but doesn’t feel like such a shell of its former self or an attempt to be so modern that it immediately dates itself. It’s still musical, chaotic, energetic, a pretty dignified nostalgia comeback. It’s not outbeating the OG, but that is okay.

3 out of 5, Glad to have it back.

[popculturebuffet]

Animaniacs: King Yakko Review (Comission by BlahDiddy)

Hello my beautiful technicolor rainbow! It’s time for Animaniacs, and while there is no balonga in my slacks there is one last christmas review for my friend to finish up, and after two visits to Acme Lab for the spinoff we’re finishing up with a look at Animaniacs proper.  Suprisingly for a show that stands so easily on it’s own it’s existance is entirely thanks to another show: Tiny Toon Adventures, which had largely the same staff, including ep and co-creator stephen speilberg and Todd Ruegger, who was brought aboard from A Pup Named Scooby Doo. Since TIny Toon was a colossal hit with tons of awards and merch, including some very good video games I wish Warner would find a way to re-release, I mean.. come on if disney can rerelease the disney afternoon games (If...not..for..switch), and LIon King and Aladdin games (If somehow FOR switch), then Warner, which has it’s own game stuido no less, can put together a collection of the good Tiny Toons games when the new show comes out soon. 

Point is it was a mass sucess and Warner Bros likes money, so they had Speilberg try to get Rutger to come up with another show for the two of them to do, something with name value. Rutger found his inpsiration when seeing the iconic warner water tower and taking some platypus characters, came up with our heroes and the rest is history.. well okay he retooled them from plataups’ to early looney tunes and other toons style characters minus the racisim of say bosko the tall ink kid but still, the rest after that is history. And the rest of this review is after the cut

The show was, and KINDA still is, a variety show: taking a page from looney tunes, as well as tex avery’s other work, the crew decided rather than just focus on the warners, to instead create a whole cast with various ensembles to work with so we got Pinky and the Brain, The Goodfeathers, Rita and Runt,  the Hip HIppos, Katie Kaboom, Chicken Boo, and my personal faviorite Slappy Squirrel.. and the bane of my existance, Buttons and Mindy.. or rather Mindy’s Mom. The kid did nothing wrong.  So naturally the first thing Animaniacs related I cover.. is an episode entirely breaking from format for one 20 something minute Warners cartoon. I do intend to do more animanics stuff in the future, so i’ll hopefully get a chance to talk about everyone, I just feel unlike with say house of mouse most people reading this probably know who they all are, and I can save any deep dives for if I cover the characters specifically. Spoilers: there’s probably never going to be a buttons and mindy deep dive unless someone tourtues me by paying for it. 

So with that out of the way, we can dive into the episode.. which I won’t be covering in my usual recap it point by point because the writers have freely admitted that’s not what Animaniacs is about. While some of i’ts SEGMENTS are more story based like Pinky and the Brain, Goodfeathers and Rita and Runt, most are just based on simple set ups to reams and reams of gags. And I love it. I grew up with this stuff not just Tiny Tunes and Animaniacs but the classic Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry and Droopy shorts. 

Their well timed, well executed feats of comedy and most have aged pretty well.. emphasis on MOST. I’m keenly aware why there are several gaps in the shorts for both Tom and Jerry and The Looney Tunes on HBO Max, including all of the Pepe LePew and Speedy Gonzalez shorts. Also all of Droopy is missing. 

My grumblin aside though, it is VERY NICE to have all the classic Warner and Tom and Jerry shorts at my fingertips and it was one of the biggest selling points of Max for me. Last year I gained an intrest in the old disney theatrical shorts, hence my various birthday specials, so I BADLY wanted to revisit the theatrical shorts I grew up with. And honestly.. Max is the best way to do that: their in crisp hd, in neat season collections (Though the Looney Tunes one is better sorted, tom and jerry’s seasons are just.. random smatterings of shorts across various eras), and most importantly EVERY SHORT they felt comfortable with putting up there is on there. Every. Single. One.  I make a big deal about this because Disney.. has only maybe 30-40 of their hundreds of shorts on there. Now lucky for me the vast majority are still on youtube and I get why some really arne’t suitable.. we probably don’t need the donald duck short where he prepares to shoot a penguin in the face or the Goofy short where his own reflection, the goofy equilvent of tyler durden I guess?, keeps saying “Hey Fat” to him. And yes BOTH of these actually happened. But.. there’s MANY shorts with no clear excuse why their absent like the triplets first apperance, gus’ only apperance, and one a friend told me about.. that time mickey built a robot to box a gorillia. Again not making this up, just wondering why you can’t restore the rest of these for plus. They’ve ADDED shorts ocasionally, but it still dosen’t make a whole lot of sense to just.. not have them all up there. and to not put them in some sorta collection for easier consumption but hey it’s Disney. They either full ass things or half ass it. There is no middle ground.  Point is Warner.. actually cares about their heritage in shorts and honors it and thus has everything avaliable in the best quality, so tha’ts nice.

My point after that detour is I really love this kind of humor, and now as an adult I can see the effort the timing, pacing and character chemistry these shorts had takes. And Rugger and co.. they got it. They got it down perfect. And this episode is a great show of that and just how they barely updated this format for the 90′s. But as I said it’s more about the jokes and basic setup, our heroes are slotted into x scenario and just left to run wild. It’s been the basic seutp for looney tunes, tom and jerry and all the gag based greats, and it works perfectly here. Sure there’s some setting and continuity with the warner lot, scratch n sniff, ralph, plotz and in the reboot Rita, but it’s mostly just our heroes go up against “X asshole” and it just works. 

And that’s.. entirley what this episode is. The short is an homage to the graucho marx film Duck Soup, which given the warners were based on the marx brothers that isn’t a huge suprise, a film like brian’s song I have not seen, but genuinely want to. The basic setup is the same: An underqualified womanizer, though since htis is Yakko it dosen’t get past hitting on his chancelor, played by hello nurse, constantly, which is still.. ewwwww... but clearly not the same thing, becomes king of a small nation and ends up at war with another country. There were spies and other stuff in the original short but that was left out to streamline things.  But this homage stands on it’s own fine: The basic plot is this: Yakko, due to being a distant relative and the last one alive, becomes king of the small happy and very musical, as the wonderful opening number shows, country of Anvilania, which makes anvils and why yes there is one MASSIVE anvil gag as a result at the end. Yakko says he’ll try his best and geninely tries to with the shenanigans you’d expect, including Dot not gettnig Polka Dot’s are a thing and instead taknig any mention of it as a sign to polka, Yakko again hitting on his colleague and wanting ot get a new anthem because the current one by “Perry Coma’ puts people to sleep. Honeslty that gag didn’t do it for me: Partly because I genuinely know next to nothing about Como and he’s far past my generation.. and because despite this, SCTV did a MUCH better Perry Como gag over a decade before this episode that while still left me baffled as to why anyone cared about mocking him, was 80 times funnier and felt far less like you needed to know who he was to be funny. 

That being said it’s one of only three running gags, and jokes period that didn’t land for me. The other ones being the hello nurse bits, because it’s aged really badly to have Yakko harass one of his employees and his age is hte only thing that keeps it from scuttling the episode as he’s just 13 or 14. Maybe 15. 

So SO glad I now have that on hand whenever i need it. The other being the “Your highness” joke as it just.. dosen’t make much sense and isn’t very funny. But that’s it: a refrence i specfically don’t get and I doubt most of you will, and if you do fine we all have our frames of refrences, a joke that’s dated very poorly, and one that just.. didn’t land. And even then the Perry Coma thing’s third use to knock out the opposing army DID work for me as did the VERY clever joke of “Sire” “Maybe later”, so even the weaker bits still had some legs.  But getting back to what little plot there is the king of the rival country, upon hearing this, assumes he can easily intimidate a child into giving him the throne and goes to a royal reception. Instead, as you’d expect, the Warners mistake him for a party clown, show him no respect and fail to take his delcration of war seriously, and while in a REALLY great gag, and the reason i’m not doing a strict summary is 90% of the review would be me saying something to that effect, Yakkos’ call to action for his troops ends up having them all run off in fear, the Warners take out the army as noted above and then in one of the most GLORIOUS climaxes in the series history...

 In which the Warners give the bad guy “all the anvils” as he requested. I sadly coulnd’t find a clip of it but seek it out if you got hulu, my words can’t do it justice as they hit him with anvil after anvil in increasingly clever and insane ways till the guy finally gives up and it .. is glorious.  Other highlights not already mentioned include: The opening song, the bad guy dictator from the other nation not being able to hear because of his helmet and his attendee having to lift it, leading to Yakko taking off his helmet just to end the “what’ running gag, Yakko’s bit explaning his distant relation and more.  So yeah not a ton to say on this one. It’s a very good, very funny episode but also very typical of a warner cartoon in structure, just stretched over 22 or so minutes. As I said with few exceptions the jokes work, the anmation is crisp as always, and the climax is one of the series best. A crisp, quick watch and a nice quick review after a week of with some really tough ones behind me and ahead of me and a month of rather large ones a few weeks out. So yeah if you like animaniacs, even ifyou’ve seen this one worth a watch, if you have any more animaniacs you’d like me to take a look at feel free to comment or comission and until the next rainbow..

[imbeccable-writes]

GASP! How about P, S, V! About animaniacs and/or the hero academia :D

I'll do both because I am extra!!!

P. Are you what George R. R. Martin calls an "architect" or a "gardener"? (How much do you plan your story in advance or how much do you let the story unfold as you go?)

I'm much more of a gardener than an architect, but in the way a gardener may plan where the seeds are planted and then let the flowers grow as they need with the necessary care and love. And by that I mean, I have a basic, basic plan usually when I go into fics - like, a specific idea I want to get across, or a specific scene.

For instance, Separated was born purely on the "what if the kids were split up when Salazar invaded" idea that I had had swimming in my head around the new year. I dunno what EXACTLY put the idea in my head, but it was a combination of Once Upon a December and multiple, multiple instances of people being like "don't ever, ever, ever separate the Warners" (where I was like, "but - but what if we DID?")

I don't outline or anything, because most of my fics are oneshots based on prompts. Separated is the first multi-chapter fic in a long while that I fully believe I'll be able to finish because I'm just so excited for it. Back when I published the first chapter is when I started thinking about what exactly I wanted to do with the kids. I knew I wanted Wakko to have a great time and Dot to have a bad time and Yakko to be in the middle. Like I've said before, Mai was supposed to die in the chapter she was introduced in, about a week after Yakko was dropped off there. It was supposed to be a kind of "wake up call", if you will, for him, as a kinda "don't you dare get comfortable here", but of course it didn't end up that way. It just became a way for him to basically relive the worst thing that had ever happened to him, except this time, he's not going to let anyone else in and comfort him again. He already made that mistake and he's learned his lesson.

ANYWAY. Most of the specifics developed during writing, like the food trauma in chapter three and the drawing in chapter 5. By the time I'm writing the next chapter, I usually have a solid idea of what I want to happen, but it's never written out in a clear concise manner - it's all just scenes in my head waiting to come to fruition.

Like, the thing where Wakko tries to shape his body into looking like his sibs? At first, I just had the vague idea of him talking to himself in the mirror, all happy that he had found a way to reconnect with his "siblings". Or with Mai's death, all I had really was just the image of Yakko on his knees, several dozen feet away from a stage, looking absolutely devastated, and also the whole "he snuck out using his toon powers to try and save her" thing. (God i wish I could draw so so much, because I have a VIVID image of that scene in my head and I WISH I could draw it for you all to see and break your hearts like it breaks mine every time it pops into my head 😭)

Anyway, all this to say is that I don't plan a thing, I am flying by the seat of my pants and have a fic held together with duct tape, angst, and The Reunion Scene That Plagues Me Every Time I Close My Eyes. :)

S. Any Fandom tropes you can't resist?

THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED. WHATEVER WILL WE DO.

Fake Dating. I eat that shit up.

Fix-It fics :)

just... the whole, "I realize the author has made a decision (to make all their characters straight and cis), but given it's a stupid as decision, I've elected to ignore it" thing fandom has going for shooting every even barely likeable character with a Gay Beam akdjajd. That's not really a trope as it is people in a group collectively deciding to project onto a bunch of lines and colors, but it never fails to make me laugh.

Explicit Found Family. Give It To Me.

Group chat/social media fics! some people are just so so so creative with both of them, especially the later, and it just tickles me pink every time

I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones off the top of my head!

V. A secondary (or underrated) character you want to see more of in fics?

Okay, for Animaniacs, I dunno what it is, but I really love Rita and Runt, and also Mindy and Buttons. Like, as characters. (Rita and Runt's segments were fun, but Mindy and Buttons' got repetitive and honestly, I didn't like seeing Buttons get beaten around all the time lol) I dunno just!!! I like them!!! I think they're neat!!! They've both got a cute relationship with their show partner and I dunno!!! They deserve more I guess akdjakdjs

For My Hero Academia, it's a little harder, bc I only read fics about Izuku, you know? akdjajs he's my BOY, like my MAIN boy, and if a fic isn't about him or one of his relationships, then I've lost interest akdkakdks. That said, I feel like there are a lot of characters that could vibe well with him that we rarely see! Like, Kirishima and him have very similar Sunshine Energy and they deserve to work together more. And him and Eri are!!! So cute!!!! PEAK found family potential there. And same with Kouta too! The first kid he saved (and adopted)!!!! I miss that little shit head lmaoooo.

Basically just; anyone that could mesh well with Izuku in fics SHOULD, and the fact is, Izuku meshes well with everyone because he's just so incredible, and everyone deserves to have a Life Changing Adventure with Izuku lmaooo.

Thanks so much PB!

Send me in some letters to ask questions about my fics!

[naminethewitch]

Animaniacs: My thoughts

According to this post, it seems that at least one person (hi @pink-aquaqualle) is interested in my ramblings, here are my thoughts on Animaniacs, both the original and the reboot.

But first I feel like I need to explain that I did not grow up watching - what I understand are - ‘classic 90s cartoons’. I was born in 1997, so by the time I consciously watched TV and cartoons, that era was over. Plus, and I don’t know if that’s related, I’m not a big fan of slapstick comedy. I remember watching Tom and Jerry every once in a while but it wasn’t something I would be actively trying to seek out (like looking up it’s runtime and such, you know what I mean). It’s a personal preference  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Now back to the actual topic: Animaniacs.

I had not seen the show before. I’ve heard of the series before the reboot, only tidbits and some scenes (Yakko’s World, for example). Same with Pinky and the Brain. I did not know they came from one and the same show. So when I saw the trailer for the reboot, I thought: Oh cool, they’re rebooting both those shows? Maybe I should watch it and see if I like it and if I do, check out the originals.

So when I had some time this week (*cough* procrastinated *cough*), I sat down to watch the reboot. And wow, did I not expect the format. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the show. Yakko, Wakko and Dot are great characters, they’re funny, self aware and I love their dynamic. Pinky and the Brain however, I didn’t like as much, mainly because it felt like their segment got more screentime than the actual Warner siblings.

But regardless, I enjoyed the show very much. The siblings energy was great, the social commentary was on point and the songs are bobs. Still I knew I was missing quite a few references (e.g. the whole ending to the Chicken Boo sketch) and I got curious about the original series. Then I found out it was only 99 episodes and thought: Why not?

And I must say: I’m glad they made some changes.

First off: I still liked the Warners. At their core they’re still the same (energetic, witty and lovable) but I’m glad they changed a few habits, mainly the whole ‘Hello Nurse’ thing (I get why it’s a catchphrase but they’re kids, c’mon) and the repeated non-consensual kissing (again, they’re kids! They shouldn’t kiss anybody on the mouth!). I’m glad that they get along most of the time but are also shown to fight sometimes, like how siblings actually are.

Second: I appreciate Pinky and the Brain way more now, mainly because I didn’t like most of the other supporting cast.

As I already mentioned, I’m not a big fan of slapstick, at least not in a prolonged format. I don’t mind it as much as a short joke or if the one on the receiving end is an asshole but it made it hard to enjoy segments about Slappy Squirrel for example. I ended up skipping most of the sketches focused on side characters and here’s why:

Slappy Squirrel: Already said it, too much slapstick, it’s basically all she does most of the time. Plus I just didn’t like her as a character much either.

The Goodfeathers: Clichee mafia parody with bad accents, annoying narration and Pesto’s anger issues were stupid, in my opinion.

Rita and Runt: One of the better ones, let them run most of the time because of the songs and because Runt is a sweetheart.

Buttons and Mindy: Again, basically only slapstick and Buttons doesn’t deserve any of it. He’s such a good dog and isn’t even rewarded for his trouble (except for in the movie). Always skipped it.

Katie Ka-Boom: Oh, Teenage girls in puberty are angry all the time without good reason! Isn’t that funny??? Clichee jokes and unnecessary violence, didn’t watch it once.

Chicken Boo: Honestly I didn’t disliked him as much as the fans seem to do (according to the reboot sketch). His segments were at least short and I like his jingle.

Hip Hippos: Annoying rich people are not entertaining to me. Plus that safari lady was just stupid.

Pinky and the Brain were really the most entertaining of the bunch but I still feel like they were too heavily featured in the reboot (the episode where they don’t have a sketch is my favourite).

What I actually kinda missed in the reboot were those little in between scenes from the original like Good Idea Bad Idea or that boy with the stories. There were others that weren’t as great (Dot’s Poetry Corner (though that was mainly because I felt like the intro and outro were too long)) but I don’t know, I just liked them.

Now the ‘story characters’ were better used in the original than in the reboot. Especially since the ‘story’ doesn’t really matter all that much in the 2020 version, the whole escaping and getting caught doesn’t really come up except for maybe one or two moments.

Dr. Otto Scratchansniff is a good character, I think for most of the time. I feel like he should be better at his job, but otherwise entertaining enough that I didn’t mind his return.

Hello Nurse I’m a bit more on the fence about. At the beginning she didn’t really seem to have much character other than being hot and there for men (especially Yakko and Wakko (again they are kids!)) to lust over. And her smart characteristics were tagged on later and inorganically. I mean I liked the song the Wakko sang about her, showing off her intelligence over all, but at the end he basically says some of that stuff isn’t actually true and honestly I doubt a woman with 5 PhDs would work as a nurse for a psychiatrist. Why does he even need a nurse? The psychiatrists I’ve been to didn’t even have receptionists and she hardly does any nursing anyway! The only time I can remember where she actually acts smart is at the end of the movie. That’s it. She just felt unnecessary to me, especially at the beginning and I’m kinda glad she isn’t in the reboot so far.

Ralph is kinda cute. Don’t have much of an opinion on him. He does his job, has a nice family. The token stupid guy but still lovable.

Mr Plotz is meh. I get why he’s like that and what they wanted to achieve with his character but don’t miss him. Mrs Norita is kinda cool but not featured enough for me to really like or dislike her.

The movie I liked quite a lot, actually. I probably won’t ever feel compelled to rewatch the original series except for some segments but I could see myself watching the movie again. The story was nice, the songs were great and I think they used all the characters effectively and in a way that they weren’t annoying to me. I hardly felt compelled to skip scenes focused on characters I usually didn’t enjoy so they did a good job there.

All in all I must say I liked the reboot way more than the original. It might just be that the original is a product of it’s time and a lot of the stuff and running gags haven’t aged well but it does show that the characters themselves still work mostly. I am looking forward to the second season and I probably will rewatch some sketches every once in a while.

Thank you for listening to my ramblings. Feel free to ask for clarification if there’s something I didn’t explain well or left out!

[aion-rsa]

Hulu’s Animaniacs Reboot to Include New Theme Song

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When it comes to Yakko, Wacko, and Dot Warner, the trio is meant to come off as timeless. They’re sentient retcons, created in the early 1990s, but also canonically existing since the 1930s. Much like Bugs Bunny (and unlike Buster Bunny), it doesn’t matter what decade they’re doing their hijinks in.

That’s why it’s so welcome that Animaniacs is making a comeback in November on Hulu. With the same voice actors behind the characters decades later and the Steven Spielberg seal of approval, all signs point to this being a worthwhile revival.

And while that Animaniacs theme song is so damn iconic – including the Freakazoid parody – it MAAAAAAY just need an update. I mean, for one, there’s the line about Bill Clinton playing the sax. It’s been three Presidents since then! If we’re lucky, we’ll be on our way to four by the time the new shows air in November! Jokes about Bill Clinton’s musical hobbies aren’t exactly cutting edge in 2020.

There’s also the way the theme song goes over the massive cast of characters. Recently, I had the opportunity of speaking with voice actor Rob Paulsen (Yakko, Pinky, Dr. Scratchansniff). As I jokingly asked him to spoil stuff that wasn’t going to be happening on the new iteration of Animaniacs, he dropped what I consider something of a bombshell.

I can tell you this, that so far, there don’t appear to be as many of the secondary characters as there were in the original show. The original show is a variety/magazine type show, which is where Pinky and the Brain obviously got their foothold and turned out to be their own franchise. So right now, we don’t have Rita and Runt, Mindy and Buttons, Katie Ka-Boom, all those other secondary characters. But there are new ones and other ones.

Welp. Wouldn’t make sense to mention Rita, Runt, Mindy, and Buttons in that intro song then, right?

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Rob did verify that Animaniacs will have a new intro and it’s going to be pretty nuts.

As soon as you hear the first downbeat, you’ll go, “Oh my God. I’m 11. I’m 15,” whatever you were. And then it morphs into this appropriate acknowledgement of the zeitgeist, that is to say, the lyrics already tell you right off the bat that we’re in a different time. The lyrics… and it will take people a few times to listen to because we blow through them pretty quick. I’m not going to give it away because I want you to be surprised, but the lyrics in the opening title scene, they let you know that they’re self-aware. They get that the time we’re in is now, and the Animaniacs understand that.

So right away, it, in my view, dispels any fears of them not being hip or getting it. Right away. It’s just, “Okay. Here’s where we are. We know this was a while ago, but here’s… this is the time it is now, and off we go.”

Not surprising that they’ll be singing about the ways time has changed. In this preview full of animatics (animatiacs?), Wacko cracks a very cut-to-the-bone joke about Hootie and the Blowfish.

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Well, that makes me feel about as old as Slappy.

Animaniacs will be returning on November 20 courtesy of Hulu.

The post Hulu’s Animaniacs Reboot to Include New Theme Song appeared first on Den of Geek.

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