Reviewing Cartoons Again-y | Animaniacs (2020) Reboot Review

Well guys, I’m going to do something that I haven’t done in a long time.

I’m going to review… a cartoon!

Now, I have a slight confession to make, I… never really watched the original Animaniacs prior to the reboot coming out. And that is really just for one reason… the show ended in 1998, I was born in 2001, so obviously I didn’t really have the chance to “grow up” with this show or anything. The most I could’ve really been exposed to the show by was through DVD releases of the episodes, but my parents didn’t own any and frankly I didn’t even really know the show even was to buy it on DVD as a kid. And I don’t really remember any major channels showing reruns or anything so I just ended up missing out on it. Even when I got really into 90’s stuff in 2011 I didn’t even know anything about this show and I mostly just stuck to 90’s Nick shows so this one just sort of fell off my radar.

And admittedly when I first did hear about it (around 2012 or 2013) my opinions of it were somewhat spoiled by some guy on another forum I went on who would constantly make posts about how Animaniacs was better than MLP:FiM and wouldn’t shut up about it, but at this point I’m over that. I think I might have watched a couple episodes between then and now but don’t remember much about them, but I decided to watch the reboot to get a taste of what the show was like.

Now, I feel like reboots in general have become a trend in the past decade or so. I am not really just talking about cartoons but really TV shows in general. In fact, the first episode of the show actually has an entire song about this, but anyway, I feel like reboots have tended to be a mixed bag. We’ve gotten some good ones, mainly DuckTales (2017) - which admittedly I didn’t really keep up with but did really enjoy what I saw, but on the other side of the coin there’s been Teen Titans Go and Powerpuff Girls (2016) which, well, were not so good to say the least. I’m actually pretty sure Powerpuff Girls (2016) was the last cartoon review I did, although I posted that on a now-defunct forum and since I can’t find it on my computer or anywhere else I’m pretty sure that review’s been lost to time. Either way my take on it was that the show really lacked any sort of identity for itself and in general just felt like a show Cartoon Network just made in order to appeal to the whole “nostalgia” audience. And that’s sort of the issue with reboots - a lot of them fail to really understand what made the original shows so good in the first place and often just feel made to pander to an older audience.

To be honest, I… actually don’t really remember hearing much about the Animaniacs reboot during it’s development. To an extent I kind of feel like I didn’t even know about it until it actually released - when advertisements came out for the show and people were discussing it. I mean, I might have seen a news article or two announcing that there was going to be a reboot, but that was about it.

But as far as rebooting old shows go, I think Animaniacs is actually one that… makes sense to reboot. Granted, I just mentioned I haven’t really seen much of the show before (although after finishing the first season of the 2020 series I have decided to go back and watch the older ones), but from the bits and pieces I have seen a lot of the show’s humor held a lot of social commentary elements, often poking fun at events and celebrities from around the time the show was airing. There are some shows that have been rebooted that I feel really didn’t need to for one reason or another (Powerpuff Girls, again, being one of those), but considering the sort of humor that was present in the original show I feel like a more modern take on it that pokes fun at more current events isn’t necessarily a very far out concept.

But of course, concept or not, we can only see how it turns by watching the show and… honestly, as someone who never really watched the original show, I gotta say I really enjoyed the first season of the 2020 reboot. So much so that I honestly decided to go back and watch the old series after finishing the first season. And as someone who never really watched the original, I can say that the 2020 reboot did make me understand the appeal of the series and why it’s looked back on so fondly by many.

I will say first of all that being a reboot, there are more modernized elements of the show. Whereas the original used cel animation, Animaniacs uses digital animation, giving the show a more high-def “cleaner” look compared to the original. And admittedly I have made statements on my Twitter page about how I kind of prefer the older cel-animation look of cartoons - I feel like with the more messy look of the hand-drawn style there was a degree of fluidity that I just don’t find in a lot of animated shows today. There are definitely examples of modern shows with moments of fluid animation, but I feel like in general these are fewer and farther in between with the digital age.

And watching the original show, I can safely say this is the case compared to it’s modern counterpart, but for what it is, I don’t necessarily think the new show does a bad job of incorporating the classic elements of Animaniacs’ animation within the style of the new show. In general, I kind of just feel the style of the new show more or less feels like a more modern take on the older show’s style. And while, again, I do prefer the look of the original show, I do think that considering the animation industry standard of the 2010’s (and now 2020’s), it does feel like a good modernization of that original style. I have seen some people criticize the animation of the Animaniacs reboot and… I dunno, I don’t think it looks bad, just… different. If you’re used to the original, the reboot will definitely feel different in this regard but I don’t think it’s necessarily bad.

Along with that, the cast has been cut down. While the original was essentially an animated sketch show featuring a bunch of different characters - like Slappy the Squirrel, the Goodfeathers and Rita and Runt, the reboot cuts it down to just the Warner Brothers (and Sister) and Pinky and the Brain. I know there were some people who were disappointed by this - considering the big cast of characters, and I’m not sure why they decided to cut down on the characters - probably just to streamline the cast (although they do establish an in-universe reason in one of the episodes), but after watching a few episodes of the original show I do hope we get to see more variety in the next season. Should also mention there were a few sketches with some original characters but I’m not necessarily sure if they’re intended to be recurring or anything. I guess it does make sense to cut down on the characters and have more focus on the more prominent/popular ones of the show if that was the intention, but if you did like the expanded cast of the 90’s series you’ll probably be disappointed by the more streamlined and cut down cast.

That said, I do think what was there was entertaining enough. Unlike a lot of other reboots, I do feel like this is a case where the creators understood what made the original so great and essentially just made a more modernized take on that. I have heard there is a bit of controversy regarding the original creator, Tom Ruegger, being left out of this reboot entirely, which is kind of shitty admittedly, but I can at least tell the creators at least watched the original show and understood what it made good in the first place. I can’t really tell how much of the original crew aside for the voices and Steven Spielberg himself came back for the reboot, so I can’t really say much about that, but considering some of the other reboots I’ve seen they aren’t doing a bad job.

Like I said, Animaniacs is a show that I feel actually makes some sense to reboot - considering a lot of the “social” commentary elements of the original, I do think that bringing it back makes sense in order to give the show a more relevant feel. I’ve seen people criticize the show for being too political, but at the same, again, based on the episodes and other snippets of the original I watched - I didn’t really find it any more political than the original show. The original always had a lot of jokes that made reference to political figures and events and frankly, it just felt like the newer show was just doing more of that. There were a few episodes where admittedly it did get a bit on the nose but overall I didn’t feel the political jokes felt too overwhelming. I kind of just feel like a lot of the people who grew up with the original show watching this now have, obviously, grown up and are probably just more tired of seeing politics everywhere especially considering the prevalence of social media nowadays, but that’s not really an issue with the show. Even with some of the “on the nose” episodes it did lead to some good meta-humor about certain topics feeling hamfisted - like, for example, the Russian episode. There were some jokes about Trump here and there which, I mean, admittedly is sort of low-hanging fruit, but I feel like they actually did a lot of them were cleverly written and in some cases subtle.

In general, when looking at the humor of this show and what it’s going for, it really does feel like an extension of the original show - full of self-aware, slapstick and meta humor, and I mean, I did laugh a lot watching the first season. I mean, it is more of a general audience show, but there were definitely times where being an adult and having an understanding of what’s going in the world allowed me to understand some inside jokes the show was going for. The show even uses certain jokes to experiment with different art styles - like the “anime” style and “cute” style used in a couple episodes. And being a reboot, there are a lot of jokes that reference to events in the digital age but they did mostly make me laugh. I guess there was one joke that didn’t sit well with me - in one episode of Pinky and the Brain, Pinky makes a “Leeroy Jenkins” reference, which is kind of an old meme at this point, but overall the references to the digital age and internet culture generally felt well written with the context of the episodes when they were there.

And on the subject of Pinky and the Brain, I think it especially works with being more modernized. Considering the emphasis of technology in the original, it is interesting to see the different ways that the writers incorporated 21st century technologies within the show - the first episode was more or less about the internet and meme culture and the last featuring self-driving cars. In addition, there was also an episode about Edward Snowden, which I really enjoyed - considering what he is known for, he actually is a figure that makes sense to pair with Pinky and the Brain, and the episode in general was just really entertaining. There are also some episodes that are more historical-based that I think worked really well too, my favorite being “Pinko and the Brain,” taking place in the 1950’s America and pretty much being a satirization of the red scare.

As far as the main “Warner” cast goes though, I’d probably say my favorite episode starring them was “Bun Control” - an episode that tackles the subject of gun violence yet does so in a way that doesn’t feel preachy and honestly really entertaining. Admittedly I can see it being a bit on-the-nose for some, but I feel like the whole allegory they were going for was just really unique and fit within the context of the show. I mean, it was pretty nonsensical but I mean… it’s the Animaniacs, so I expect nonsensical humor and allegories. It’s an episode that really emphasizes the social commentary aspect of Animaniacs and handles it in a really unique, entertaining way. It’s so subtle too that I don’t think many people will even get the whole joke the first time watching, but I think that just makes it more entertaining to those who get what it’s going for.

Overall, I think the reboot does a good job of continuing where the original left off - as far as the characters go their personalities still feel intact from the original, and in general this show I think just succeeds at what it’s doing - being a continuation or modern take on the original series. The first season was very entertaining to me, and as I said, made me want to go watch the original just to see what I missed. I do hope that we see some of the other characters appear in later seasons, but what’s there already makes for a really fun, entertaining cartoon.