Animaniacs

Family Guy is one of the only American TV animated shows that still uses a live orchestra. That's also telling.

As far as the art/animation style for the reboot goes, all I can hope for is that it will do the original justice and won't wind up looking like The Magic School Bus Rides Again or some other el cheapo-looking toon or something.

Steven Spielberg is producing it. I don't think he'll ask for anything but the best.

I'm just sort of throwing ideas out there, but since the Warners are already 1920/30s style Rubber Hose/Ink Blot characters, it might be cool to go a bit retro in the animation style. Maybe not as much as the Mickey Mouse shorts, but same sort of concept.

Does anyone here have any other ideas for what art style they would like to see?

Also, does anyone have any ideas for possible new sketch segments, since I don't think anyone would miss the Goodfeathers or the Hip Hippos and company? The best segments were always the Warners, Slappy the Squirrel and Pinky and the Brain.

edited 25th Jan '18 1:59:08 PM by megaeliz

The Mickey-Mouse-style animation could work! Or maybe like a more limited, frame-by-frame animation like the Ducktales reboot. Either way, people would complain about how they didn't make it look and move EXACTLY like the original.

I hope they include a new character for the weeaboo anime fan crowd, someone who like just spoofs anime. Or maybe a mobile game mascot.

edited 25th Jan '18 4:43:06 PM by kyun

I think something more like the Mickey Mouse-style animation would work better for this than something a bit more limited, if you wanted to go retro. It's a bit more traditionally "toony", and allows for broader and more exaggerated character animation, which works well with Slapstick and physical comedy.

Edited by megaeliz on Oct 8th 2019 at 6:00:25 AM

I think the biggest problem with not bringing the original creators back on, is that the show was not really aimed at anyone but the writers themselves. It's very much a reflection of the writers' sense of humor, and things that appealed to them, with obscure references, jokes that would go right over the kids head, and plain old slapstick.

I mean, who would have got this joke at the time?

edited 2nd Feb '18 7:35:31 PM by megaeliz

Nobody would have gotten it outside of showbiz circles. There's an early 80s episode of SCTV with John Candy playing Orson Welles that parodies the tape. And, of course, it was done on The Critic, with Maurice La Marche again as Welles.

You want to talk obscure? What about the episode of Pinky And The Brain that was an homage to a famous episode of The Honeymooners?

The Flintstones are a wholesale ripoff of The Honeymooners. That's not all that original.

Like half of all sitcoms that exist, both animated and live action, are basically the Honeymooners, and quite a few are even intended to be almost 1-to-1 homages. Honeymooners references aren't so obscure in comparison to some of the other adult-centered references the WB shows used, because most people are aware of those references even if they're not actually aware of where those references come from.

This isn't really related to the discussion at hand, but this is awesome.

It's the Animaniacs theme in Ragtime. He's sight-reading, so this is his first play through. (He didn't bother to rehearse!)

edited 4th Feb '18 8:02:53 PM by megaeliz

I should qualify that the episode of Pinky And The Brain is the very first one, "Win Big." The episode's an homage to one of the more well-known episodes of The Honeymooners, to be sure, but I wonder how many people ever got it.

By the way, here's the official Animaniacs piano roll:

edited 2nd Feb '18 7:59:19 PM by Aldo930

I love some of the crazy arrangements you get with piano rolls.

This is arrangement he was working off. It's sort of cool to see how much he does with it, even on a first play through.

Edited by megaeliz on Oct 8th 2019 at 6:11:45 AM

Jessica Borutski (Bunnicula, The Looney Tunes Show, Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production) will be the director of the new season on Hulu. She even posted a visual poster◊ from Warner Bros HQ on her Instagram (Which also has this neat fanart◊ in her art-style).

A very promising pick for the role, in my opinion.

edited 8th Apr '18 8:00:20 PM by XMenMutant22

If what's on that poster is an indication of what the show's new artstyle is going to be like, then dang, that's pretty much indistinguishable from the 90s series. Not that I have any issue with that, though.

Probably could be a bit more different...

They aren't obligated to look the same...

: Could've sworn I've seen that poster (or at least that shot of the Warners and Pinky and the Brain) previously. But if that is indeed the style they're going for, then I'm not complaining.

Maybe not, but then again, the Internet does have a tendency to go ballistic when a reboot looks different from the thing it's rebooting. Didn't people get cheesed off when they saw the visual aesthetic of the Powerpuff Girls reboot?

edited 8th Apr '18 7:41:41 PM by TargetmasterJoe

Because the new citizen designs clash with existing designs...

I think that was more of a problem...also thin lines because of course.

Excellent choice!

Another Director for the series Katie Rice.

edited 24th Apr '18 9:51:02 PM by Envyus

My confidence in this show is slowly rebuilding again.

So, this is an overdue reaction, but...

Wow.

I was like "isn't she the same lady with that web comic about the abandoned kids?", and it turns out, yes she is.

You know, after that whole thing that happened between her and you-know-who, I like to think of this development in her animation career as the universe giving Katie Rice a win.

I am so, so happy for her right now.

Ironically on a show he hated.

That makes it even better!

Karma's an amazing thing, am I right?

Wait, so is Borutski or Rice directing this season? Or both?

I got to say that poster says good things. No radical redesign to fit in with the kids. No idea what they're going to do about the writing but I didn't watch Animaniacs nearly enough to be picky.

Probably won't even be something I watch, but it's nice to know there's a potentially good cartoon reboot out there somewhere.