It was such an odd thing to see that I couldn’t resist making the scene just a tiny bit more odd by adding a duck.
Originally posted to social media accounts on July 14th, 2014.
It was such an odd thing to see that I couldn’t resist making the scene just a tiny bit more odd by adding a duck.
Originally posted to social media accounts on July 14th, 2014.
The heyday of the television variety show was already long past when an animation studio decided to try their hand at it in the mid 1990s. Thank goodness they did, though.
Animaniacs is a Saturday-morning-type cartoon series which ran for not quite 100 episodes, and then a movie.
It isn’t. It really, really isn’t. This is straight-up sketch comedy, marrying classic variety-show stylings to something not entirely unlike Monty Python’s Flying Circus, but entirely in animated form. We meet a dizzying (and sometimes ditzy) array of characters and laugh at them. Sometimes with them as well, but mostly at them.
Animaniacs tried to have something for everyone: Slapstick cartoon violence, high-level wordplay, musical numbers, surrealistic romps, and so forth. Not all of it worked but much of it worked superbly well.
It was also a masterclass in making kids’ cartoons work for the adults in the room. It got away with the “fingerprints” gag, for Pete’s sake! Obviously, the creators were a subversive force to be reckoned with.
Many, many, many ideas made their way into the show. Not all of them work… characters like the Hip Hippos, among others.
The variety show template has the potential for misfires baked right into the concept. Also, it’s still a kids show. Your tolerance for such things is a factor I cannot judge on your behalf.
Yes! So many! Such as!
I could go on, but won’t. I could, though.
As of this writing Animaniacs is available on Netflix. Barring that, you can pay to stream it on Amazon, or buy the DVD boxed sets.