Animaniacs: Suspended Animation & Of Mice and Memes

November 21, 2020 9:29 AM - Season 1, Episode 1

They're still zany to the max, and they're back, through the auspices of Hulu. In Suspended Animation, the Warner Brothers + Sister are revived and return to the water tower to catch up on 20+ years of history. In Of Mice and Memes, Brain plots to star in a funny animal video to hypnotize viewers in letting him rule the world.
posted by JHarris (4 comments total)

Going to be adding these as I go through the episodes. So far, I think the animation is different, not better or worse? Original Animaniacs has some really dodgy animation in places, and it's a lot more evened out here. But the show is missing some of the sharpness the animation (at its best) had in the original series. Overall though it's great, and has the advantage of missing some of the less entertaining bits from the old show. Slappy Squirrel could still use a comeback though....

I enjoyed their recap of events since the original show, and that Ralph is back, although Dr. Scratchnsniff so far has only turned up in the opening titles. Studio head Plotz has been replaced it seems. Hello Nurse is also missing, although perhaps that is for the best.

Pinky and the Brain have a new opening! It's not as great as the stand-alone show's opening, and is a lot more abstract than the opening in original Animaniacs, but suits the characters. The story in PatB sounds exactly like the kind of thing the original show would be doing if it had survived to this date. Brain seems slightly more manic, but it's no insult to his character. Pinky is still Pinky.

I found the jokes and story of both main cartoons to be in line with those of the original show, maybe a bit better! What do you think?
posted by JHarris at 9:50 AM on November 21, 2020

You telling me there's really no Buttons and Mindy?

...OK, lady. I guess.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:04 AM on November 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

The lack of other Animaniacs characters gets its own story in a later episode.

Kids are currently enjoying this reboot. After 9 episodes in, tonight we watched the old 1993 S1E1 episode and one said they [old cartoon] looked weird and the other asked why there weren't as many colors. The new one does look more crisp and bright compared to the old cartoons..

And seeing how Warner Brothers reacted to 1993 Hello Nurse elicited feelings of cringe. Reboot surely reflects current times better.
posted by Seboshin at 12:38 AM on November 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

Reboot surely reflects current times better.

Along those lines, I was happy to see that the new opening theme subs in "Dot has wit" instead of "Dot is cute."
posted by thecaddy at 7:13 PM on November 23, 2020 [1 favorite]