Animaniacs

Just saw the Julia Brain episode. And yes, I absolutely hope she'll be a recurring character and the new arch-nemesis of the Brain.

Well, I just watched episode 2, and the Leeroy Jenkins joke meant I got to explain an Animaniacs reference to my dad, after 20 years of the other way round.

I think after the Warners and Pinky and the Brain, Slappy was the best segment, I think they could have brought her back. I liked the Good Feathers, but they are pretty dated. Also I liked Good Idea Bad Idea. But the other characters were not very good.

Though Slappy was voiced by original series writer Sherri Stoner, and none of the original writers were contacted for this series. I doubt Slappy could've had a prominent role in the 2020 series.

They could just recast Slappy.

There'd inevitably be complaints of the new voice being too different.

Slappy was more than just a character Stoner voiced. She was basically Sherri Stoner's baby, built with anecdotes of her life, bits of her personality, and essentially a entire segment built around her sense of humor.

It's entirely possible that they just didn't want to do the character without her. Kinda like how nobody but Bob McKimson ever touched Foghorn Leghorn until after he died.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Dec 8th 2020 at 4:48:09 AM

Is there a reason Spielberg didn't contact her? It's known that he was the one who chose all the people who worked on the reboot, but there has to be a reason he refused to contact her (or any of the other original writers, for that matter? Note that the creator of the series only found out about the reboot because Maurice Lamarche told him about it.)

Edited by Smasher on Dec 8th 2020 at 8:25:51 AM

I know you don't really like it, but Duck Tales 2017 introduced a lot of actually important new characters, to the point many fans complain of them stealing development time from the older ones.

For the most part... it's a combination of writers being aware that if the character sticks, they probably will be gypped on future regalias for their creative efforts for the most part (Warner does that a lot now) on one hand, and in the other hand, writers knowing that, mostly, their new characters are going to be discarded by the next writers taking over the franchise.

I've talked before about how each Looney Tunes redo forgets all new characters brought in by prior updates (like those from Taz-Mania, the Duck Dodgers show, The Looney Tunes Show and Wabbit), Lola being a major rare exception (and even she's already like 25 years old now), only to go back over and over to the same Golden Age cast.

Scooby Doo is guilty of that too. The Hex Girls and Vincent van Ghoul will get winks here and there, but for the most part the franchise doesn't bother keeping new additions from newer writers.

That can't be exactly encouraging for creators to come up with new stuff that won't be acknowledged or, if it is, won't be recognized as "their" babies and will be treated any way the corporations want.

Edited by AmazingSpiderHam on Dec 8th 2020 at 5:13:44 AM

Fair enough, I just think after the Warners and Pinky and the Brain, Slappy was the next best character.

I watched Hulu's season, and it's pretty funny, but something doesn't feel quite right to me. I can't put my finger on what. I wasn't a zealous viewer of the original series, but I watched it enough to be used to certain elements that are absent from the revival. I can't say I miss every character and yet I think losing so many leaves a bit of a hollow feeling.

Were the Warner siblings playing on the defensive as often in the original show? It feels like it happened more often in the new episodes, but I might be mistaken.

It's an alternating thing.

They weren't always reactive to an antagonist.

They were more often than not the cause of trouble for someone else.

Edited by randomness4 on Dec 8th 2020 at 8:33:42 AM

So I found a theme song parody that's also a review of the SNES game.

Edited by Smasher on Dec 9th 2020 at 12:48:12 PM

That's the most Animaniacs way to do it, I guess.

Am I the only one who wants to see updated versions of "Nations of the World" and the Presidents Song?

Yes and there's only been 3 new presidents since the show ended.

If they update the theme song according to the original lyrics after January 20, 2021, that one bit with Bill Clinton would be replaced with something like:

Wakko packs away the snacks
While Joe Biden runs the tracks
We're Animaniacs!

Edited by superboy313 on Dec 31st 2020 at 12:58:55 AM

Well, the reboot gave us the First Ladies song...

Ya know what, I take back what I said.

Yakko actually does go "uhhhhh" quite a bit in the reboot, in the 2nd half.

I just realized that if Slappy was included in the reboot, her "you remind me of [insert obscure old pop culture reference]" Mad Libs Catchphrase could now reference stuff from the 70s and 80s...

Anyone else hear about that gritty reboot idea that had Yakko addicted to drugs, Wakko a crazy shooter, and Dot a prostitute? It was mentioned in an interview. Tress, Jess, and Rob all immediately said no to doing it without even contacting each other.

It'd only work as a parody.

Dot is not a prostitute, but a pimp. Not a madam, a pimp complete with the suit and everything. Always looking for an excuse to give anyone the old pimp slap.

Wakko is a paintball shooter, ranting on how great the nineties were and shooting everyone with paintballs nineties-style since he can't move on from the decade. Serious Business.

Yakko is addicted to... something G-Rated Drug silly, I don't know.

Edited by AmazingSpiderHam on Dec 14th 2020 at 5:34:08 AM

From what I remember from an interview with Jess Harnell, it wasn't even a reboot but a segment on some other show, most likely Robot Chicken or Family Guy.

Yes, the premise sounds very much like a Robot Chicken sketch.

That lines up. Robot Chicken had a Where Are They Now? skit they did a couple times.

Edited by Zeromaeus on Dec 15th 2020 at 7:17:15 AM