Animaniacs, Vol. 1
by Rusty Mills
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DVD details
Actor: Frank Welker, Jess Harnell, Nancy Cartwright, Rob Paulsen, Tress Mac NeilleDirector: Rusty Mills
Brand: Warner Brothers
Producer: Sherri Stoner
Producer: Steven Spielberg
Producer: Tom Ruegger
Producer: Rich Arons
Producer: Peter Hastings
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Portuguese (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 550 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-07-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 4049
Studio: Fox Kids Network
Product features:
- Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs! The adventures or misadventures of the Warner Brothers, Yakko and Wakko, and the Warner Sister, Dot, who were so crazy that the studio execs locked them away in the water town at the Studio. The witty, slapstick humor with pop culture parodies and cartoon wackiness is on DVD for the first time ever with 25 fantastic Animaniacs episodes.Running Time: 550 min.
DVD Reviews of Animaniacs, Vol. 1
DVD Review: It's time for animaniacs!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
Animaniacs was Steven Speilburg's last attempt to ressurect the glory days of the old comedy cartoons like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and aside from those classic cartoons I just mentioned, and maybe the Fairly Oddparents, it was possibly the funniest animated show ever made. Like Looney Tunes, however, it was divided into many different segments, with many different kinds of characters who each did their own style of humor in their own time. All of them had a few things in common, however. They all seem able to survive terrible, crushing punishments except when the plot demands otherwise and all regularly travel to other time periods for sketches involving historical figures like Cleopatra, Pavlov and Beethoven.
To start with, the stars of the show were the Warner Brothers and the Warner Sister (Yakko, Wakko and Dot.) Like the Marx brothers, each of the warners seems assigned a specific style of humor to milk as the cartoon progresses. Yakko is in charge of most of the verbal humor, Wakko the most intense physical humor and Dot pretty much everything else, but especially jokes involving feminine things like outfits, makeup and pets. Together, they traveled all over the world and all throughout history, making appearances in the lives of some of humanity's most snotty historical figures, and attempting, seemingly, to add some fun to their lives. The warners have all the insane, zany, superhuman powers we've come to expect from Bugs Bunny himself, ressurecting such classic cartoon cliches as the anvil, the mallet, the piano, and the painted doorway. They seem to endear themselves to all the stiffest, most deplorable individuals in all of fiction (such as the pirate captain Mel, the accountant Blowski and the grim reaper) and use their ridiculous sense of humor and vast superhuman powers to make their lives miserable by pretending to be their friends. The warners seem not to understand that they're making these poor dopes miserable, or if they do, as I suspect, they hide it well, because their main focus always seems to be on having fun and helping others to have fun, while zipping around with enough energy to power a hundred city blocks. Of course, that's funny enough by itself, but the warners also seem to have an easy time giving viewers the fastest, funniest, wildest mixture of jokes, puns and visual gags and just letting everyone else hang on as best they can. Undoubtedly, they were the backbone of Animaniacs.
Pinky and the Brain was both risky and brilliant simply because nothing like it had ever been tried before. It was a show about two gene-spliced mice who try and fail to take over the world in each episode. When phrased like that, it doesn't sound so great, but not only is physical and nonsense humor implemented better into this show than in an episode of the three stooges, but in the best episodes of the show, (like "Where Rodents Dare,") their failure only occurs because of some X-factor that the Brain couldn't have predicted, in which case the show becomes not merely a joke at the expense of the two mice, but also a joke on the world. A lab mouse with vast intelligence could almost take over our planet if not for our good luck. What a joke on us!
Rita and Runt is a segment that's something of an aquired taste. Strictly speaking, their style of humor is the song parody, and they make their song parodies frequently and well. The problem is that since most of the songs they parody are from classy plays or old musicals, most kids won't have heard them before, and won't get the joke. For example, in "Les Miseranimals," Rita and Runt did an absolutely brilliant parody of "Les Miserables," but when I first saw the episode, I didn't think it was all that funny, because I wasn't cultured enough to appreciate the jokes. Likewise, many of the people who are probably wouldn't watch the cartoon show, or might take offense even if they did. A shame, really.
The Goodfeathers is possibly the single most skippable of all the animaniacs segments, except maybe Chicken Boo. Essentially, it's three pidgeons named Bobby, Squit and Pesto, who live in some unnamed city and struggle to stay on top. The entire show is one big parody of the Goodfellas, with other parodies inserted every so often for added accessibility, but most of the kids who watched these segments enjoyed them for the slapstick, which is more pronounced in this segment than in any of the others (although the Mindy and Buttons segments make it an awfully close fight.) To be honest, I find the characters of the Goodfeathers to be irritating and grating after a while.
Slappy Squirrel, however, is another story. Like Yakko, Wakko and Dot, she uses mallets, anvils and dynamite, although she doesn't do it with the rapid, youthful energy or childlike innocence that the Warner Brothers have (or at least pretend to have.) In fact, she'd cynical, sarcastic and overall crotchety, which is what makes the cartoon so funny for me. Some of her jokes tend to be pretty esoteric, however, so she also is an aquired taste.
Mindy and Buttons was a segment that was probably intended to be a series of chase scenes like the Road Runner and the Coyote. Now, maybe I'm just too idealistic, but I found myself pitying Buttons too much to really enjoy these shows. Basically, Mindy is a cute kid who runs off after something and winds up in a whole lot of danger. Buttons is a dog who chases her and saves her from harm, though he is frequently pounded in the process. The problem is that there's really no character in this segment who's a bad guy, yet there's plenty of pain and suffering for Buttons, which, to be honest, I don't find funny.
The Hip Hippos are a unique style of humor. Essentially, there are two rare, endangered (allegedly) hippoes called Hippopotamus Trendolious, who go by the names of Flavio and Marita. They're allegedly married, although it's not stated directly, and they're big on fresh trends, so they moved their rich estate to the top of a skyscraper in the city, where they live as best they can in a world too small for them. I find that this cartoon really started to get funny when the character of the nature scientist was introduced. She wants to study the hippos and protect them from danger, but of course, since they're both not only extremely heavy and strong, but also virtually invulnerable, she's probably just wasting her time, and she usually gets a pounding in the process. For some reason, I find this funnier than the Mindy and Buttons sketches, probably because the scientist is so foolish and overworried. Many kids have parents like that, myself included, and wouldn't mind seeing them get a smacking for trying too hard to protect us.
Chicken Boo is probably the least funny cartoon segment I've ever seen outside of action cartoons. Basically, he's a man-sized chicken who puts on a human disguise and impersonates a human in man's world. In each cartoon, he's dressed as a different human, but the same thing happens. He dazzles everyone with amazing feats that most humans are incapable of, then something happens and the disguise falls off, and they're all so mad at him, they usually beat him up. I guess it's just that there's nothing funny about racial prejudice, which is really what this cartoon is about, no matter what disguise it wears.
Aside from these, there are also two cartoons in this collection that don't feature any of these characters. One is about a talking flame on a candle in Thomas Jefferson's study when he drafted the Declaration of Independance, and the other about a lovesick flying bug who has to go through some difficult times to win the butterfly of his dreams. Neither of these cartoons are really all that funny, although the bug cartoon has its own charm and the flame has some adorable responses to its situations. In general, one viewing of each is enough.
In addition to these, this collection also contains super-shorts, such as the Randy Beaman Boy, in which a boy appears and tells a silly story about a kid named Randy Beaman's family, Mime Time, which features a mime practicing his art and being clobbered, usually in a funny way (example; throwing an imaginary football gets him tackled by half a dozen burly football players) and my personal favorite; "Good Idea, Bad Idea," featuring Mr. Skullhead, who first does something smart, then something stupid related to it (Stopping to smell the roses-stopping to feel the roses...) You get the idea.
Overall, the Animaniacs is one of the best, funniest, cheeriest cartoons I've ever seen. It's WAY better than what passes for Kid's shows these days, and it was enough to cheer me up when I was feeling down, even now that I'm an adult. What more could I ask of this kind of cartoon?
Description of Animaniacs, Vol. 1
The slapstick adventures of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot who were so crazy that the studio executives locked them in the water tower on the Warner Brothers studio lot.Genre: Children's Video
Rating: NR
Release Date: 25-JUL-2006
Media Type: DVD
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