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Post by Incandescence 112 on Oct 13, 2020 22:11:11 GMT -8
This is amazing. Same voice cast, same designs, same multi-layered meta-humor (referencing a film that today's adults will remember from their childhoods). This is clearly hewing much closer to the original series than a reboot like, say, DuckTales, so presumably it will be judged at a higher standard. But that Jurassic clip looks promising. Also, apparently one of the early Pinky and the Brain shorts will be called "Of Mice and Memes." Good to see we're updating with the times. The Duck Tales reboot is shockingly really good, somehow. Let's just cross our fingers on this. The original is still an absolute classic. We know how reboots go.
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 14, 2020 10:19:21 GMT -8
I think Animaniacs lends itself to a 2020s reboot better than many other '90s cartoons, given how influential its been to the rise of surreal animated comedy in recent years. Many of the show's hallmarks - under-the-radar adult humor, film parodies, non-sequiturs - were novelties to kids' animation at the time, but would feel much more at home on today's Cartoon Network.
I will try to curb my expectations until I see the actual show. So far all we have is that preview clip - and honestly, it's not even the best Jurassic Park parody the original franchise did. Pinky and the Brain had a great one in the underrated episode "Gee, Your Hair Spells Terrific," which spoofed both the T-rex intro scene and the raptors in the kitchen.
Sorry, I'm rambling. Need to go rewatch some old episodes.
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Quiara
Grade School
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Post by Quiara on Oct 14, 2020 10:51:54 GMT -8
I think Animaniacs lends itself to a 2020s reboot better than many other '90s cartoons, given how influential its been to the rise of surreal animated comedy in recent years. Many of the show's hallmarks - under-the-radar adult humor, film parodies, non-sequiturs - were novelties to kids' animation at the time, but would feel much more at home on today's Cartoon Network. Doesn't this make Animaniacs even more likely to date poorly given that 1) the novelty of what it did so well has worn off 2) its target audience is probably nostalgic adults rather than kids so the adult humor isn't "under-the-radar" anymore 3) you know what other show does pop-culture parodies and non-sequiturs? Family Guy!
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Post by Jay on Oct 14, 2020 12:59:28 GMT -8
I have to admit, I cringed pretty hard when Wacko made a reference to checking if a Hootie and the Blowfish album had downloaded off of Napster.
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 14, 2020 16:45:47 GMT -8
Doesn't this make Animaniacs even more likely to date poorly given that 1) the novelty of what it did so well has worn off 2) its target audience is probably nostalgic adults rather than kids so the adult humor isn't "under-the-radar" anymore 3) you know what other show does pop-culture parodies and non-sequiturs? Family Guy! 1) Fair point. It won't be as unique anymore, though that doesn't necessarily mean it will feel dated. (I do hope that Napster reference is an anomaly.) 2) Hulu is marketing it as a family show, so it's being written with kids in mind. Lots of nostalgic adults will certainly tune in, but it's also targeting the new generation (much like how the original series clicked by having cross-generational appeal) 3) The Family Guy comparisons are inevitable, especially since the showrunner is FG writer Wellesley Wild. I've long believed that the Warner Brothers (and the Warner Sister!) helped lay the groundwork for Seth MacFarlane - check out this Animaniacs clip and this Family Guy clip for a particularly blatant example. So if the new series feels like it's taking a little inspiration from the Griffins, no harm.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Oct 14, 2020 17:10:14 GMT -8
Oh, I suspect the Napster jokes are deliberate, and quite welcome with me - are you sure you want Pinky and the Brain shorts with the 2020 equivalents of jokes about Rush Limbaugh and the Clintons?
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 14, 2020 17:45:21 GMT -8
Hey, some of those old jokes are still pretty funny! I still laugh at the Newt Gingrich scratching post gifted to Bill Clinton's cat.
But that does bring up another question - this show has been in production for the past two years, but it's premiering in late November. I'm curious to see how much the series makes use of political humor - especially since, depending on how the Upcoming Event turns out, the jokes could either look really current or abruptly dated.
(Of course, the original series had its own issues with political humor - which is why the "Bill Clinton plays the sax" line was eventually dropped from the opening credits - so maybe the new series opts to avoid those landmines?)
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Post by Jay on Oct 31, 2020 12:50:57 GMT -8
Animaniacs isn't the only one cashing in, or selling out, on nostalgia.... I'm... not really as into seeing how this one turns out. I know that a lot of people who worked on the original went on to do influential things in the world of animation and I think that's the best I can hope for out of this. I found the humor and references in Tiny Toons to be more groundbreaking, but I think Animaniacs really improved the basic formula and its material seems less dated now (hahaha remember when Rosanne Barr sucked at doing the national anthem, well, the How I Spent My Vacation special certainly does). However, a lot of the Warner Bros. properties have remained stagnant for a while and this makes about as much sense as anything, I mean, what else are they going to do? Space Jam 2? Oh.... I see, very well. Anyway, I've found myself more interested in thinking about what lesser bits from Animaniacs have the potential to reappear. How does Hello Nurse fit into the age of #MeToo? Will Chicken Boo run afoul (a-fowl?) of cancel culture?
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 31, 2020 20:53:22 GMT -8
I'm of the mentality that "Tiny Toons walked so Animaniacs could run." Which is to say, despite its affinity with clever humor, Tiny Toons hasn't aged especially well - the jokes were generally aimed at kids, the animation looks a little too rubbery (the show tried to emulate the feel of the original Looney Tunes but didn't imbue enough solidity in its slapstick), and the characters archetypes have been utilized much better elsewhere. Plus, as you point out, some of the jokes are a lot more dated than the ones in Animaniacs - feels like Tiny Toons played its pop-culture references more broadly and to the hilt.
I'm sure I'll check out the new series, but I'm curbing my expectations till then.
As for the secondary characters from Animaniacs, I hope the Goodfellas reappear - are Sopranos references dated at this point? - and I wouldn't mind seeing more of the Good Idea/Bad Idea segments. I think Hello Nurse can survive the post-MeToo world, although Minerva Mink is probably a goner. (Though I'm not complaining, as she was a terrible character to begin with.)
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Post by Jay on Oct 31, 2020 21:27:26 GMT -8
I expected you to be on this before I was, but I read the wiki page for the characters and, without knowing exactly where they're getting this from, read where eight characters will not be returning: Hello Nurse, Slappy and Skippy Squirrel, Rita and Runt (again, obvious since they were only a S1 fixture, even if I oddly enjoyed them), Minerva Mink, and Buttons + Mindy. The only surprise really for me is Slappy and Skippy, and maybe the fact that this means that The Hip Hippos could be returning. Buttons and Mindy always felt like a worse version of Mr. Magoo
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Post by Jeremy on Nov 1, 2020 7:30:48 GMT -8
I actually did not know that! It makes sense that some of those characters would not be returning. I never cared for Rita and Runt (outside of Bernadette Peters' solos) and while I did kind of like Buttons and Mindy, theirs was a one-joke premise that had been worn out even when the show first aired (Popeye and Swee'Pea, Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman, etc).
Honestly, I didn't hate the Hip Hippos. They're not very interesting characters, but I did enjoy watching the Jane Goodall-type woman who was always after them. Good in small doses. But the one major loss is Slappy Squirrel, responsible for some of the show's best episodes ("Bumbie's Mom" and "Woodstock Slappy" are bona fide classics). Maybe Sherri Stoner was unavailable? Hard to recreate the character without her.
(Side note, did you know that before creating/voicing Slappy Squirrel, Stoner was a Disney animation model? They used her as a template for Ariel and Belle. Who could've guessed that she'd go on to be one of the best animation writers of the '90s?)
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Post by Jay on Nov 1, 2020 12:59:16 GMT -8
I'm with you on the loss of Skippy and Slappy as being the only big one (also "Woodstock Slappy" is their main skit I remember, even if it was a recycled "Who's on first?"). I had no idea that Sherri Stoner herself was a model in addition to being an animator, but I guess she can do it all. Her IMDB page suggests that she isn't working as consistently as she used to, though she had a good forty-year career in it.
Thinking about the Steven Spielberg animated shows, a lot of them tried to model themselves after variety shows of old and not consistently with success. I think that with Tiny Toons, the cast worked it out, but it never had a chance to cohere in Animaniacs and you weren't sure, even with the Warners introducing each new segment, why some of them fit into this space. Probably the most glaring instance of this in my viewing was going back and trying to view season one of Freakazoid! with some friends a few years back and finding skits like "The Huntsman," which had been completely shed from my memories of the series.
BTW, Elmyra is also not coming back to Tiny Toons. I get it, in the she was a cringey character then and probably more so now.
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Post by Jeremy on Nov 1, 2020 19:31:42 GMT -8
Elmyra was a cloying character, made more so when they tried to pair her with Pinky and the Brain. Some formulas should be left alone.
The variety-show aspect of Animaniacs was hit-and-miss, although I've come to appreciate the grab-bag aspect of the series the older I get. Freakazoid! is an unusual example of the variety-sketch series because the first season features a lot of secondary sketches (Huntsman, Lord Bravery, etc.) that were clearly meant to emulate Animaniacs but were mostly excuses for the writers to throw a lot of wild ideas at the wall and see which of them stuck. And then the second season cut all the excess characters and became a more standard half-hour superhero comedy, presumably as an attempt to boost the low ratings. (It didn't work.) Freakazoid! was most certainly a commercial failure at the time it aired, but in retrospect I see it as rather ahead of its time.
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Post by Jeremy on Nov 21, 2020 15:58:22 GMT -8
Currently in middle of the new Animaniacs series, and I'm getting a real Teen Titans Go! vibe. Lots of over-the-top visual comedy, little of it distinctive, with a surprising reliance on crude and mean-spirited humor. Some of the meta-humor is amusing, but a lot of it feels like the writers covering themselves by acknowledging that reboots are rarely as good as the original.
The political humor is also more front-and-center than it was in the original series, which wouldn't be such a problem except that most of it isn't funny; jokes built around the basic premise of "Lol, Trump is bad" grew stale years ago, and there's hardly an original political jab in sight. (Hahaha, did you know that Iowa is a state we pretend to care about once every four years? Did you know that Putin is spying on us and doesn't always wear a shirt?)
The original Animaniacs holds up very well nowadays; the new series already feels dated.
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Post by Jay on Nov 22, 2020 12:39:10 GMT -8
I've yet to see unqualified positive remarks on the series revival. The general theme seems to be that the animation is crisp and so is the voice acting, but the writing leaves much to be desired.
I've also never thought of the series as being especially political (Freakazoid! was perhaps more political?) and always regarded the "while Bill Clinton plays the sax" bit from the opening theme as being a novelty thing rather than being a celebration. Which is not to say at all that people have not made the series political in various ways:
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