'Toon Reviews 14: Animaniacs Vol 1 Part 25: Disasterpiece Theater/Hercule Yakko/Home on De-Nile/A Midsummer Night's Dream + Final Thoughts

Episode 25

Disasterpiece Theater

The style for this parody intro, this time on Masterpiece Theater, is successfully funny for the same reasons as the Hitchcock parody from Episode 20. 

It first drags you in with a high class setting and tone, ala the material it’s modeled after.  We have an elegant library with an assortment of books, and Yakko is present looking nicely dressed and restraining himself as he welcomes us.  Even the background music is the same as the material parodied, which is totally fine since the theme itself is a classical piece in the public domain, the Fanfare-Rondeau. 

The elegance is so investing that it’s easy to be caught off guard when the tone suddenly shifts to wild and comedic as disasters happen simultaneously with a wrecking ball, a bomb, and a fire-breathing dragon destroying the library.  It’s such a ridiculous change of tone that just happens you can’t help but laugh at it.  Even funnier is that after it happens, Yakko remains calm and sophisticated as he officially brings on the rest of the episode, a further intriguing approach to a serious and destructive situation to add to his appeal as a character. 

Overall, we kick off the episode very nicely with a humorous mix of sophistication and off-the-wall comedy. 10/10

Hercule Yakko

While the characters of this show typically stick to their own universes, they sometimes get together for one whole cartoon.  That alone makes this particular cartoon special.  It features different cast members making for many interactions that make the comedy and entertainment stand out more than if the featured characters were on their own. 

The plot is mainly about Yakko as a detective who’s assigned to track down a thief who stole a priceless diamond.  While it’s Marita of the Hip Hippos who lost the diamond, her and Flavio’s role actually doesn’t hurt the cartoon at all.  They don’t have many interesting traits on their own, but they work better when they have someone to interact with.  A lot of time is devoted to how these average normal-thinking characters deal with such an eccentric , and Yakko’s hilarious ways get a lot out of their mundane personas. 

Whenever they try to explain the situation, Yakko takes what they say and makes a joke out of it from hammering in how the scream that occurred after Marita’s diamond was stolen went, to deducing how she was “rob-ed.”  He also continues to delight through going through the investigation without taking things too seriously, hitting bullseye after bullseye with his jokes. 

Among these jokes is a particular risqué one where he asks Dot to look for fingerprints, and she ends up finding a caricature of Prince, the singer, about to finger her, but she throws him out the window before that can happen.  While that joke is easily the most memorable one, others like Yakko working in requesting music while asking if the hippos have any enemies, Chicken Boo as a pizza guy showing up when everyone suspects a knock on the door to be from the thief, and the Warners following a scent in various fashions around the ship are also worth noting. 

Then after a clever scene transition of Wakko putting the whole scene in his bag before cutting to a knock on a door, we get investigation scenes that give us more great interactions from other characters.  We have Yakko trying to interview Slappy Squirrel who just wants to go back to bed, and Pinky and the Brain randomly appearing as Swiss climbers.  Probably the biggest character inclusion of the cartoon is Minerva Mink in her official first appearance.  Right from her first moment with the Warners we get the appeal of her character where she’s so beautiful and knows it, she makes all males go nuts over her, with Yakko and Wakko doing so more than they usually do around women, but she's still human since she acts the same way over a good-looking guy with rich parents.  That to me is somewhat interesting for her character, but we’ll get into that in her own cartoons available on other DVD sets for this show. 

As for the resolution to the mystery, it first comes when Yakko says he knows where the diamond is out of nowhere, and in one final scene that brings all present characters together in one room, he reveals the punchline to him getting to the bottom of the matter.  The diamond is revealed to have been on Marita’s backside the whole time after he literally turns the room upside down.  It’s a funny payoff to make sense of what went on, and further proves that for their zany ways, the Warners do know what they’re doing most of the time. 

We’re left with another rapid-fire winning cartoon for the series made especially great by its distinct cast livening things up in their own way, attributing to this show’s talents for characterization. 10/10

Home on De-Nile

This cartoon starring Rita and Runt takes place in ancient Egypt during the reign of the queen Cleopatra, but to hear Rita talk, you’d think it’s Palm Springs close to the home of Sonny Bono.  In fact, this mindset is in place throughout the entire cartoon, and at times it can get distracting that neither of them, not even Rita, figures out where they really are. 

At least the main plot that ultimately unfolds is fine and interesting enough.  The backdrop to it is that Cleopatra is looking for a cat to bring as a guest of honor to a major Egyptian ritual.  Through it all, we get an enjoyably flamboyant character out of her as she rejects many suggested cats while her advisor, Marc Antony, begrudgingly putting up with her.  It’s some of the more comedic material in this cartoon. 

Eventually, they do find the perfect cat which, wouldn’t you know it, happens to be Rita, and they proceed to give her the royal treatment, while Runt is put to work building Cleopatra’s many pyramids.  From there, we don’t get that many amazingly noteworthy moments to help the cartoon stand out as something special.  That said, it is pleasing to watch Rita and Runt at peace in their desired environments.  Through being treated as a goddess, Rita is given the royal treatment she wouldn’t normally get given her status as a scrappy stray, and one established to have complicated feelings for humans at that.  Plus, with Cleopatra’s apparent desire to get the best looking cat, the genuineness of her treatment is totally real.  For that, it’s very pleasing to see her happy in an environment she can call home, especially since we get a smooth, laid-back song about Rita enjoying her Egyptian accommodations and dancing about her throne, even when she still sees where she’s at as Palm Springs. 

As for Runt, as a simple-minded dog with little to no negativity to what he goes through in life, it’s fun and cute to watch him go through hard manual work like carrying heavy rocks for pyramids as if it’s a dog game.  It’s certainly the less interesting of the moments with the main team, but they’re charming nonetheless. 

However, while what Rita and Runt do have their enjoyable qualities and demonstrate their appeal as characters, it’s just them in hanging out an Egyptian environment with nothing major to do.  I have mentioned before that this show has proven that animated works can succeed in entertainment with a lack of plot, but even then a lot of interesting stuff tended to happen, and at the very least featured one great joke or animated moment after another.  Honestly, nothing here is all that great or amounts to anything significant, so the experience ends up lacking a bit.  It's still fine and good, but a little short of great. 

When the ceremony happens, we do get something substantial when it turns out that Rita’s special treatment was leading to Cleopatra and her followers sacrificing the cat by having her jump in a pit of fire.  The great thing about this moment is that even someone as simple-minded as Runt notices that Rita’s in trouble, and he’s quick to save her and get them both out of trouble.  It’s some great and eventful stuff the cartoon’s been asking for, but by then, it’s nearly over, so that’s still not enough to make an impact. 

Still, the display of the strays’ appeal as characters, in spite of some dense moments that overstay their welcome, make this a charming cartoon with an Egyptian flare. 8/10

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

This is certainly an interesting sketch to close this episode.  It’s designed to teach the meanings of the writing styles of the great playwright William Shakespeare, and completely succeeds in working in comedy without drifting too far from the lines’ true meaning. 

It features Yakko as a character from A Midsummer Night’s Dream reciting the original Shakespeare-written text, which happens to be the ending monologue.  As he acts out his part, Dot appears in a small circle at the lower left corner of the screen giving a modern translation to everything Yakko says, which is especially good since he allegedly has “no idea what he’s saying.” 

The impressive thing about this is that while Dot’s translations are incredibly silly through working in things like watching Oprah, buying the audience foot-long hotdogs, or referring to Robin as the Boy Wonder from Batman, the actual meaning of the original lines isn’t disregarded.  They basically amount to a unique interpretation of the monologue equivalent to the use of slang to say certain thoughts.  That way, the piece succeeds as an informative translation, while also allowing the sketch to stick to this show’s comedic roots. 


The original piece is presented as a closing speech apologizing if the audience didn’t like the show, but urging them to be kind to the actors in case the next show will be better, and that’s the same thing you get out of the translation.  It may be big on comedy, but it’s great that it gets the true point of Shakespeare’s work across.  It’s also incredibly fitting that this translation is the last part of the episode and, by coincidence, this DVD set, which in a way, gets you excited to buy the next one to see if the show will mend as long as you pardon (even though what’s present in this episode is mostly great). 


There’s also some minor comedy in the background of the translation as Wakko messes around with little pixies and later chasing after a much larger and attractive pixie, ignoring what his siblings are up to until they all drive away to get away from her flyswatter.  They too sell this comedic take
and can even serve as an interpretation of one’s attention drifting to something in the background if watching a Shakespeare were to get boring. 


So, closing off the episode is a surprisingly accurate take on a classic play with little moments making a particular impact.  The show would return to these Shakespeare translations a few times later on, but for its craftsmanship as a show closer, this one stands out the most. 10/10

Cartoon Ranking

1. King Yakko
2. Hello Nice Warners
3. Meatballs or Consequences
4. Hercule Yakko
5. Plane Pals
6. Slappy Goes Walnuts
7. H.M.S. Yakko
8. Hooked on a Ceiling
9. Temporary Insanity
10. Bumbie’s Mom
11. Les Miseranimals
12. Hearts of Twilight
13. Opportunity Knox
14. Space Probed
15. West Side Pigeons
16. Battle for the Planet
17. Four Score and Seven Migraines Ago
18. When Rita Met Runt
19. De-zanitized
20. Win Big
21. Guardin’ the Garden
22. Taming of the Screwy
23. Chalkboard Bungle
24. La La Law
25. Nothing but the Tooth
26. Piano Rag
27. Pavlov’s Mice
28. Cookies for Einstein
29. The Big Candy Store
30. Ta Da Dump, Ta Da Dump, Ta Da Dump Dump Dump
31. Davy Omelette
32. Garage Sale of the Century
33. Wally Llama
34. Up the Crazy River
35. Where Rodents Dare
36. The Flame
37. Roll Over Beethoven
38. Wings Take Heart
39. Hurray for Slappy
40. Home on De-Nile
41. Cat on a Hot Steel Beam
42. Operation: Lollipop
43. No Pain No Painting
44. Chicken Boo-Ryshnikov
45. Goodfeathers: The Beginning
46. The Cat and the Fiddle
47. La Behemoth
48. A Moving Experience
49. The Boids

Song Ranking

1. Yakko’s Universe
2. Yakko’s World
3. The Monkey Song
4. Wakko’s America
5. What Are We?
6. Be Careful What You Eat
7. Little Old Slappy from Pasadena

Miscellaneous Ranking

1. Yakko’s World of Baldness
2. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
3. Disasterpiece Theater
4. The Great Wakkorotti: The Master and His Music
5. Hitchcock Parody
6. Gilligan’s Island Parody
7. Nighty-Night Toon
8. Flipper Parody
   

Final Thoughts

Well, this was quite a wild ride through animated greatness.  From the first DVD volume alone, any animation fan is sure to get instantly drawn into Animaniacs and its masterful craftsmanship.  It’s a series that fits the spirit of the animation medium the best out of every other one I know, and the crew’s respect for said medium really shows. 

Each episode is very different from each other.  You literally never know what to expect.  Sometimes you could get the standard 2-3 narrative cartoons.  However, other episodes tend to throw in other forms of entertainment such as fake commercials, parodies of theme songs to other shows, short sketches of a particular form of comedy, and especially songs.  It’s a format like this that greatly demonstrates the versatility of animation in how it can bring anything you can imagine to life better than you could with any other medium whether it’s a light-hearted approach to a dire situation, a visual gag in response to what someone says, or a ridiculous occurrence. 


However, it’s even more impressive that the material is successfully entertaining every time.  While most of this show’s material don’t always focus on the story, they prove that in animation, you don’t always need a story to make something great.  Driven by incredibly strong comedy whose execution is near perfection and the strengths of the characters we follow usually paired with equally appealing animation and music, the works for this show amount to a winning recipe for entertainment hard to find anywhere else. 


That said, we do get some weak stuff now and then with overreliances on pain-based humor, especially in the Mindy and Buttons and Goodfeathers cartoons, cartoons starring certain characters being very formulaic, and some characters simply not being interesting enough to carry a cartoon, at least not on their own.  The thing is though, even with these flaws, you’re always able to leave a cartoon feeling entertained and satisfied especially when they’re lightened by some admirable qualities.  While some characters we follow aren’t that interesting or funny, such as the Hip Hippos, they’re all likable enough and their cartoons are at least watchable.  As for the formulaic cartoons which mainly go for characters like Chicken Boo and Mindy and Buttons, it can get monotonous where they do basically the same thing in everything they star in, but there are significant attempts to shake things up a bit in the different scenarios where they do their thing and their mannerisms that spice things up.  So, for its consistency in entertainment, including how it can mine some appeal out of its weakest works, it’s easy to see just how one-of-a-kind this series is.

Speaking of one-of-a-kind, a major element that pushes this show above all others is its use of music.  While most shows simply use music as a backdrop for the tone of certain moments, here, it’s pretty much engrained into the show’s aesthetic.  Instead of just matching the tone of the moments, music is in perfect sync with everything that goes on from the simplest footstep or quick motion of the hand to the most chaotic of chase scenes or physical gags.  After all, I’ve always believed that great animation and great music is the best combination to be utilized.  They both can express a huge variety of ideas and moods, so when you put them together, what happens onscreen is at its most appealing.  It’s the main reason why anything that happens in this show can easily suck you in, even when not much is happening.  In fact, the music for this show is so good, you could probably tell what’s going on without visuals better than you could with any other show or film soundtrack.  


Of course, with the major emphasis on music, there’s a lot of songs that come with this show, and since its use for the general score on the cartoons and parody sketches is so good, when it’s used for a song, the music is at its most spectacular.  The songs in the show are typically standalone shorts, and are among the show’s best material.  Most of them are designed to educate which could potentially cost it some entertainment for covering something you could easily learn in school.  However, the topics covered in the songs are of things that would be quite hard and honestly boring to learn in the manners schools push for.  These songs have a strong emphasis on fun, which makes learning the topics way more enjoyable, especially with the impressive ways they pack in complex factoids like the names of state capitols or the world’s nations while still keeping things lively and catchy selling the musical talents of the characters’ performances.  Other songs impress in ways more suited for entertaining angles such as covers of pre-existing songs or musical looks at one of the mysteries of the series like what type of creature the Warners are. 


The standard narrative cartoons also have some enjoyable little song numbers to show off the musical talents.  They could be the lively ways the Warners would introduce themselves, Rita’s passionate ballads supplied by the great Bernadette Peters, and songs used in parodies of popular musicals.  Of all the strengths of this show, the use of music is one that’s sure to impress everyone for how great a fit it is to the animated aesthetic.

The thing that makes the strengths of this series work are the characters we follow.  From what the episodes featured on this particular set provide, there’s something to love about all of them.  Sure, some might not be all that interesting or funny and follow too strictly to a formula, but that doesn’t destroy their appeal.  The Hip Hippos are a likable married couple going about life, even though very little from them makes them laugh, the idea of what Chicken Boo always does is legitimately clever and humorous, and even Mindy and Buttons can come off as cute and even show that they genuinely love each other a couple of times. 


The rest of the characters are the biggest highlights of the series.  The Goodfeathers features a gangster edge to the show in the form of pigeons and their enjoyable chemistry is clear, even if it can sometimes be bogged down by the birds constantly getting hurt. 


Rita and Runt help the show stand as more than just a series of funny stuff with their focus on emotion and showy soulful musical numbers and are characters who are completely different yet thoroughly endearing. 


While they technically are formula-driven characters, Pinky and the Brain tend to be the most successful at mixing things up.  While their cartoons follow similar beats and even feature the same comedic bits, the formula always feel fresh and new enough to follow.  There’s a distinction to how the mice carry out their world domination plans, how close they get to success, and how big a player either of them are in the whole scheme.  It’s no wonder they’d later get their own spinoff. 


Slappy Squirrel is a very interesting scenario of a retired cartoon reliving some good old cartoonish gags in the modern era.  It’s always thrilling to see a grumpy, sarcastic, and basically very old squirrel have the knowledge to one-up her enemies in dynamite or head-whacking-based humor that you barely see in cartoon shows these days.  Plus, her passing down her comedy wisdom to her own nephew in most of her appearances gives her role on the show some heart, which is also great to see from a character like her. 


Last, but certainly not least are the headlining characters of the series, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot, the Warner Brothers and the Warner Sister, or as I like to call them, the greatest cartoon characters ever conceived.  They are the epitome of animation’s appeal and versatility, and literally nothing can stop these characters from showing off how awesome they are.  Their jokes and visual gags always get big laughs.  They own every role they take on from simple scout troops and chimney sweeps to fast-talking salespeople and rulers of kingdoms.  Their outlook on life is very positive.  They never panic about anything, even in serious situations and are justified to be so lax since they always get everything under control.  They succeed in tying the show together right down to running through other characters’ cartoons  They each have comedic styles to call their own instead of being clones of each other.  Above all, there are some fascinating things to them like how they’re typically friendly, albeit crazy, with their zaniness, and use it to fight against people when they’re mean or villainous. Also there’s a genuine sibling bond to them in how they look up to each other and strive to stay together.  So, with all these characters, including possibly the ones who are closest to perfection, the deal of getting amazing entertainment is sealed for this show, brought to you in a variety of ways like the general format.

Just from a portion of episodes, it’s easy to tell that Animaniacs is a powerhouse sure to impress anyone who loves animation with strong entertainment coming from every element of its structure, genuine variety to the episodes, and lovable characters to follow all the way.  For that, this DVD is an absolute must-own for those looking for copies of great shows to keep forever.  Remember though, that this is just the first quarter of episodes, and that the greatness of the series is to continue with looks at even more DVD sets.  However, we’ll look into those at a later date.  For now, the memories of what we’ve covered from Vol 1 are sure to resonate in your mind as marvels from the very greatest models of cartoon individuals.

Highly Recommended

Now that this look at the first quarter of Animaniacs episodes is complete, I'd like to make an important announcement on some changes for this blog.  As MC 'Toon Reviews nears becoming a year old, it has come to my attention that focusing on one review set at a time is making me spend too much time on one show.  Not only does it not meet the variety feel I originally intended for this blog, but fans of certain shows seem to get too anxious for me to get back to talking about them. 

So here's what I'm going to do about it.  From now on, instead of doing one review set at a time, I'm going to post three sets at a time with each day of the week devoted to a different set.  This is the current review schedule:

• Mondays and Thursdays: Steven Universe Season 2
• Wednesdays and Fridays: Hey Arnold Season 3
• Sundays: Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 3

When one review set is complete, another one will take its place.  With all this said, I'll see you next time with my review of the Season 2 premiere of Steven Universe. Until then:

Stay Animated Folks!