Recap / Animaniacs Episode 54

Airdate: February 15, 1994

Randy Beamin Sketch: Colin tells how Randy Beamin's brother exploded from Coke and Pop Rocks

OPENING LINE: "Where's Lon Chaney?"- Wakko

Brain Meets Brawn: Brain decides to use Dr. Jekyll's potion to turn into a monster and stop Big Ben at 4:00 PM, suspending tea-time indefinitely.

Meet Minerva: Minerva Mink is pestered by Newt the hunting dog, who can't control himself in her presence.

Brain Meets Brawn has examples of:

• Animation Bump: This is one of the few Pinky and the Brain segments to be animated by TMS Entertainment, and thus this trope comes into play; worth of note is the animations of The Brain's transformations.
• Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: "I think so, Brain, but if they called them 'Sad Meals,' kids wouldn't buy them."
• Brick Joke: When preparing to stop Big Ben, Pinky asks to play "Chopsticks" on the chimes. When the plan goes awry, guess what tune is played?
• The Cameo: The Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde in the opening scene is the same one from the Looney Tunes cartoons "Hyde and Hare" (with Bugs Bunny) and "Hyde and Go Tweet" (with Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird), both directed by Friz Freleng.
• Hulking Out: After Brain takes Dr. Jekyll's potion, he transforms into a huge, hulking green version of himself.
• Mid-Battle Tea Break: The cops and Mr. Hyde stop fighting to briefly have tea together, because 4:00 PM tea time is Serious Business. Seeing this inspires Brain's plan to stop the Big Ben.
• Shout-Out: The episode is a Whole-Plot Reference to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with Brain stealing Dr. Jekyll's strength-enhancing formula and transforming into a Hyde monster when he gets angry.
• Transformation Discretion Shot: When Brain first transforms, it's partially concealed via a Shadow Discretion Shot as we cut to Pinky cowering as we see Brain's shadow warp into his larger, monstrous form.
• Your Mom: Pinky tries to invokes this to make Brain angry, but he's too nice and only ends up making a Captain Obvious remark instead.
  Pinky: Your mother, she's, uh, older than you!

Meet Minerva has examples of:

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Trudy's cousin has the steryotipical bad guy look with his black leather jacket, pompadour hair and douche attitude. She still goes gaga over him.
  Trudy's cousin: I hope you got cash ‘cause I’m not paying.
• All Men Are Perverts: All of the males in the episode are affected by Minerva's charms, even the ones who are seemingly in a committed relationship. The only one unaffected is Trudy's bad-boy cousin.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Minerva and Trudy's cousin are the only Talking Animal in the episode who wear clothing, yet both still always go barefoot.
• Bag of Holding: After she knocks them out, Dot manages to fit both of her brothers inside a single suitcase.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Minerva constantly turns to the camera to make remarks to the audience.
  • In the first scene she makes remarks to the audience about each message from her answering machine, mostly disparaging the men trying to ask her out.
  • Before Minerva takes off her Modesty Towel to bathe, she accusingly speaks to the audience about her lack of privacy and then pulls down a screen so that all the viewer can see is her Sexy Silhouette.
  • Whenever Newt falls for her Femme Fatale charms, Minerva looks to the camera and makes a disparaging comment about him to the audience. At the end of the episode, Trudy's Cousin does the same thing.
• Brick Joke: The start of the episode has Minerva despondently listening to many suitors trying to ask her out in her answering machine, to her annoyance, including her Best Friend Trudy trying to set her up with a Blind Date with her cousin, which Minerva is not looking forward to. But then said cousin shows up at the end of the episode and Minerva is head-over-heels for him.
• The Cameo:
  • Fowlmouth from Tiny Toon Adventures leaves a message on Minerva's answering machine.
  • Yakko and Wakko also appear to say, "Hello Nurse!" to Minerva while she's trying to bathe. Dot then packs them both in a briefcase and remarks, "Boys..." to Minerva.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: The female squirrel is very jealous that her male partner forgets all about her when Minerva walks by them. Even when she smashes a nut on his head, he still doesn't stop ogling Minerva.
• Civilized Animal: Even though Minerva is a full-on Funny Animal complete with a human frame, she's the only animal in the forest that is seemingly civilized, wearing all kinds of clothes and having furniture in her house.
• Comical Overreacting: A Running Gag throughout the episode is how everyone has a comical absurd reaction to being aroused, mostly via Wild Take.
• Digging to China: Newt digs a hole to China, all because Minerva asked him for Chinese food.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Trudy trying to set Minerva up with her cousin is apparently more than enough reason for Minerva to declare their friendship over.
• Eyelash Fluttering: Minerva is often fluttering her eyelashes in a coy manner, either when trying to seduce Newt or when giving an Aside Glance to the audience.
• Eye Pop: Several of the background animals' eyes pop out of their sockets when they ogle Minerva.
  • The male squirrel's eyes expand hugely, then stretch out as he turns his tail like a crank.
  • The racoon's eyes spring out, sending his eyes marking flying off his face, then expand again to reunite with the markings.
  • The frog's eyes leap off his head and spin around.
• The Faceless: The face of Newt's owner is never seen, always being just out-of-frame.
• Femme Fatale: Minerva uses her sex appeal to prevent Newt from catching her.
• Hair Flip: Minerva flips her long hair right at Newt's face during his second attempt to capture her, which causes him to get Distracted by the Sexy.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Minerva is gorgeous and tends to cause everyone to turn and stare at her with Wild Take reactions whenever she walks by them, best seen in the scene where she walks to the lake in only a Modesty Towel.
• High-Pressure Emotion:
  • Newt blows steam out of his ears at one point upon being distracted by Minerva's leg.
  • During her Wild Take over Trudy's cousin, Minerva turns into an old-fashioned work whistle and expels a massive amount of steam.
• Humanoid Female Animal: Female mink Minerva seems to be the only anthropomorphic animal in the forest, with Newt and all of the background animals just being animals (the sole exception being Trudy's cousin at the end). This is likely done so the artists could better sell the idea of Minerva being a Ms. Fanservice.
• Hypocritical Humor: Minerva spends the whole episode claiming men are pathetic for the pathetic Wild Take reactions they have to her beauty. But then at the end, she reacts in the same manner when she sees a hot guy, recreating every Wild Take aimed at her previously, showing that she's just as shallow as the people who gawk at her.
• Ignore the Fanservice: Newt tries and fails to do this constantly when dealing with Minerva. He manages to keep his cool until the moment she does something flirtatious, then he becomes Distracted by the Sexy just like every other male in her presence.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Newt is the antagonist who is trying to capture Minerva for the sake of his owner, but his attempts are so ineffective he's played as comedic and sympathetic instead.
• Jaw Drop: The male squirrel's jaw drops down onto the branch he and his mate are perched on when he looks at Minerva.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After Minerva spends the entire episode toying with men who have the hots for her, the episode ends with her getting toyed by a guy who she has the hots for.
• Lazy Bum: Newt's owner is portrayed as a lazy hunter, who leaves his dog to do all the work while he's relaxing and drinking beer, all while complaining that "hunting is exhausting".
• Leg Focus: Minerva first seduces Newt when she extends her bare leg in front of him, under the pretense of blowing her toenails.
• Lustful Melt: Minerva melts into a puddle as part of her Wild Take while reacting to Trudy'a Cousin's hotness.
• Modesty Towel: When Minerva leaves her house to go bathe at the lake, she only a pink towel wrapped around her, with another wrapped around her head. Her state of undress is partly why she gets so many affectionate reactions from the local animals.
• Ms. Fanservice: The episode is filled with fanservice provided by Minerva, whose entire character resolves around being an oversexualized mink who is a Lust Object to all men and makes use of her feminine wiles to get her way. The entire episode is filled with gratuitous fanservice scenes involving her.
• No Name Given: Trudy's cousin's name is never given, nor is the name of Newt's owner.
• Non-Fatal Explosions: When Newt gets blown up by dynamite, he mostly gets singed.
• Not So Above It All: Minerva seems to think little of the men who go bonkers over her, but when she meets someone she finds attractive, she reacts in the same fashion.
• Oral Fixation: Trudy's Cousin has a lollipop in his mouth in a manner reminiscent of a cigarette.
• Outdoor Bath Peeping: Minerva goes to bathe in a nearby lake, but is distressed when Yakko and Wakko suddenly show up and start ogling her. Her problem is solved when Dot shows up, smashes them both with a mallet then takes them away.
• Overly-Long Tongue:
  • The raccoon's tongue springs out of its mouth, curling up and unfurling repeatedly, in response to seeing Minerva.
  • When Minerva finally meets Trudy's cousin, her tongue drops down to the ground, and keeps dropping, leaving it in coils around Minerva's feet.
• Pervert Revenge Mode: Dot knocks out her brothers with a mallet for trying to peep on Minerva bathing.
• Pink Is Erotic: To illustrate her sex appeal, most of Minerva's clothes are pink, such as her Modesty Towel, her robe, and her workout shirt.
• Poorly Disguised Pilot: Minerva was previously introduced in "Moon Over Minerva", but this was the first produced Minerva episode, and the plot acts as if she's being introduced. Sadly, this would also be the last solo Minerva short.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: After Minerva gives him a peck on the nose to prove he's attracted to her, Newt gets so dizzy he actually passes out, and Minerva has to catch him with her Prehensile Tail.
• Prehensile Tail: Minerva can use her fluffy tail as a third limb, which she makes use of when seducing Newt by tickling his neck with her tail, or catching him when he passes out after a Post-Kiss Catatonia.
• Reverse Psychology: Newt's third attempt to capture Minerva involves him trying this, telling her he's giving up on her because her "fur is not up to my standards". She's a Proud Beauty so this actually annoys her, but she proves him wrong by giving him a "Take That!" Kiss, and his ensuing Post-Kiss Catatonia shows her he was bullshitting her.
• Road Runner vs. Coyote: The premise of the episode is hunting dog Newt's attempts to capture the mink Minerva for his owner, only to fall victim to her Femme Fatale charm.
• Sanity Slippage: After failing to catch Minerva several times, Newt has clearly lost it when he decides to just blow up her house with dynamite.
• Sexy Silhouette: After Dot foils Yakko and Wakko's attempts to peep on Minerva bathing, Minerva laments her lack of privacy to the audience and pulls down a screen before finally taking off her towel to bathe, with only her nude silhouette being visible to the viewer.
• Sexophone: Whenever Minerva is doing something sexy on-screen, it will be accompanied by suggestive saxophone music.
• Shout-Out:
  • A fly that looks like Spike Lee buzzes "Please, baby! Please, baby!" when he sees Minerva.
  • When Newt the Dog sees Minerva for the first time and does a Wild Take, he manifests a '50s suit on himself and exclaims "Ooh, baby, that's what I like!" quoting The Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace" – Minerva does the same thing in the end when Trudy's sexy cousin shows up.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Minerva is introduced singing about the supposed hardships of being a Dude Magnet.
  It's not pretty being me
  Just try it and you'll see
  It's harder than you think
  To be a gorgeous mink!
• Something Else Also Rises: Newt and a raccoon have their tail stand up straight when they're ogling Minerva.
• Supermodel Strut: When Minerva leaves her house to go bathe in a lake, she does so with a sensuous strut that has her swaying her legs. It gets several on-lookers to get stare at her as she walks by.
• Swapped Roles: The entire episode has men having Wild Take and Comical Overreacting to Minerva's hotness, only for her to have the same reaction upon meeting Trudy's Cousin.
• Theiss Titillation Theory: Invoked by Minerva to seduce Newt, when she moves her shoulders in such a way that it makes her robe slip suggestively.
• Toplessness from the Back: When Minerva first lowers her Modesty Towel to bathe in the lake, she has her bare back to the audience. Yakko and Wakko interrupt her before she can fully drop it, and she covers herself back up.
• The Voice: Trudy is unseen, and only heard via Minerva's answering machine.
• Wild Take: The male characters have comical cartoony overreactions to illustrate their attraction to Minerva, like Jaw Drop, Eye Pop, High-Pressure Emotion, etc.
• Wingding Eyes: Minerva gets hearts on her eyes as part of her Wild Take reaction to Trudy's cousin.
• Wolf Whistle: A male squirrel gives Minerva a wolf whistle as she passes by him, earning him the anger of his female companion.
• Workout Fanservice: Newt's third attempt to capture Minerva have him interrupting her workout route, where she's jogging through the forest in revealing and tight workout clothes.
• Would Rather Suffer: The episode starts with Minerva listening to her phone messages, one of which is from a nervous Lawrence, asking, "I was wondering if you'd like to go out with me?" Minerva, Breaking the Fourth Wall, replies, "I'd rather chew aluminum."

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