'Toon Reviews 14: Animaniacs Vol 1 Part 15: Space Probed/Battle for the Planet

Episode 15

Space Probed

One of the best qualities of the Warners is how calm and level-headed they are even in serious situations.  This time around, they’re abducted by aliens, making for a space-themed cartoon, which is not uncommon to find in many animated series. 

Regarding space cartoons, it makes perfect sense why so many shows resort to them. Space is a setting that fits the animation medium to a tee.  We have no idea what goes on in space, so the best we can do is come up with our own interpretation, and since animation helps visualize people’s imaginations, it’s the best medium to express one’s interpretation.  Through throwing in the ever zany Warners, you can guess that this particular cartoon will turn out enormously entertaining with a particularly strong comedic edge, and that’s just what happens. 

Much of the entertainment comes from my earlier statement on how calm the Warners are despite getting abducted and later slated to be dissected and inspected by the alien leader.  You’d expect most characters in such peril to be scared, mad, serious, or ready to fight the kidnappers, but through following victims who are predominantly goofy and love to joke around, we’re given a unique perspective to the ordeal.  The Warners have no problem using their cartoonish antics to get out of trouble.  They approach the aliens innocently and comment on their features like their many eyes and gold robes, mess around with the aliens’ subtitles to fit their liking resulting in some of the most hilarious jokes, and casually slipping out of their confinements before their bodies are inspected. 

Once the Warners are free, they easily gain the advantage of the encounter by being true to themselves.  Even better about this is that the kids split up which allows them to show off their comedic style which makes them stand as their own characters.  Dot gets caught by a group of aliens who attempt to read her thoughts, and she gets out of the mess by thinking of good-looking men causing her to melt with infatuation, and then casually put the mind-reading helmet on the aliens where their infatuations with another alien end up distracting them long enough for Dot to escape.  Wakko, the most childishly innocent of the trio, misinterprets how the alien leader wants him to run on a treadmill, and when the leader demonstrates how, Wakko unknowingly pulls the lever making it go too fast, capped off by an appropriate Jetsons reference.  Yakko mostly has fun through casually walking around the ship while playing tag with the aliens while stopping to make witty comments on the clever additions to space this cartoon shows.  They include how other alien prisoners are long-missing people like Elvis, Amelia Earhart, Bigfoot, and Jimmy Hoffa, and the alien’s official leader, a big talking toe, whom Yakko gives a makeover as if he were a beautician. 

The Warners simply astound for how they deal with such dangerous extraterrestrial creatures through comedy.  It’s all capped off with them wildly taking control of the ship to get back to Earth while the alien leader is knocked around, and then he flies the ship far away from the planet. 

In addition to an interesting setting and creative intergalactic ideas like that giant toe, this is an out of this world cartoon that stands out for how great the Warners are with comedy together or separate, even at times most people wouldn’t think to be funny.  For how great this cartoon is, you’ll probably be glad to know this wouldn’t be the last time they’d mess around in space. 10/10

Battle for the Planet

This Pinky and the Brain cartoon offers a lot of interesting references to the mice’s usual world domination plans.  It involves pirating the TV airways to convince the world that aliens are taking over the planet, so that they can take over while the planet’s entire population panics. 

The interesting part is the historical context of the bulk of the plan which Brain explains at the start of the cartoon.  It’s on the 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds which also made people believe aliens were invading, and oddly enough, this isn’t the first time a cartoon relating to this media event was reviewed on this blog. 

Anyway, the plan is basically an updated version of the event where Brain not only plans to have the world hear about an alien invasion, but see it through with this generation’s advances of television.  On the surface, it sounds like a well-thought out plan, and it’s especially appealing for not just its historical background, but also through the use of the three-camera shooting technique that’s actually been in place since the earliest TV sitcoms as the cartoon also explains. 

However, there is an ultimate downfall of the plan albeit one that’s fitting for the character and further defines the twist to the nature of Pinky and Brain.  While Brain has the knowledge on how the plan should work as well as actual historical events to back it up, the fatal flaw to any form of success is that he is no director.  The actual alien for the news report is clearly Pinky wearing a rubber glove, and you can clearly see his face in the center which takes away the illusion right then and there and that’s not even counting the clearly fake spaceship and city background.  Not only that, but the acting is laughably lackluster with Brain failing to produce a convincing suspenseful tone when watching the alien wreak havoc and Pinky, despite going appropriately crazy as the alien, frequently misses his cues and further ruins the illusion by messing up the set.  However, Brain doesn’t see anything wrong with the performances and even compliments Pinky’s recklessness showing that he truly does know nothing about what convincing acting is like. 

To be fair, it doesn’t seem to matter at first when certain people watching appear convinced anyway.  Because of that, it's shocking when just as Pinky and Brain leave to start taking over, they find out that the world populace really did come to their senses, saw that what was on screen wasn’t real, and praised it as a comedy smash.  In other words, this is another example where Brain’s intellectual strength becomes the major downfall as opposed to just Pinky’s lack of intelligence, even if that is technically a small part of the failure.  It makes for some fascinating plays on what most people would expect from a team-up like this. 

That along with the strong comedy from the mice’s performance, interesting historical tidbits for the background, and a message fitting for anyone who wants to get into the entertainment business make this one of the strongest Pinky and the Brain offerings. 10/10

Cartoon Ranking

1. King Yakko
2. Hello Nice Warners
3. Slappy Goes Walnuts
4. H.M.S. Yakko
5. Hooked on a Ceiling
6. Temporary Insanity
7. Bumbie’s Mom
8. Les Miseranimals
9. Space Probed
10. West Side Pigeons
11. Battle for the Planet
12. When Rita Met Runt
13. De-zanitized
14. Win Big
15. Taming of the Screwy
16. La La Law
17. Piano Rag
18. Cookies for Einstein
19. The Big Candy Store
20. Garage Sale of the Century
21. Wally Llama
22. Where Rodents Dare
23. Cat on a Hot Steel Beam
24. Operation: Lollipop
25. No Pain No Painting
26. Goodfeathers: The Beginning
27. La Behemoth

Song Ranking

1. Yakko’s Universe
2. Yakko’s World
3. The Monkey Song
4. What Are We?
5. Little Old Slappy from Pasadena

Miscellaneous Ranking

1. Gilligan’s Island Parody
2. Nighty-Night Toon
3. Flipper Parody

We’re now 3/5 done with the Vol. 1 set, and next time we'll continue with the 4^th and penultimate disc starting with the Warners facing off against an unbelievably strict teacher, Slappy Squirrel teaching about the role of cartoon villains, and the first concert starring belching virtuoso, The Great Wakkorotti.

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If you would like to check out other Animaniacs reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.