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Episode 38
Spell-bound
Many people know that Pinky and the Brain have their own
spinoff. Having seen that show before
getting into Animaniacs, I agree that
they work well as series headliners.
Their formula is winning enough to work in any scenario. It appears that the Animaniacs crew felt the same way. This episode is a full-length Pinky and the
Brain segment seemingly testing if they really could work in a spinoff. The final result is fun and entertaining with
the mice and their winning chemistry, but it’s not their best performance.
The setting is Camelot, centuries ago. Pinky and the Brain are pets of Merlin who
has a book of spells including one for world domination. Right away, the setup defines itself with a
comedic edge. The spells are just names of pop culture figures and Merlin uses
them to make pies of all things.
Brain seizes opportunity and goes for the apparent Take Over the World
spell. Among all the humorously
convenient ingredients, a red dragon’s toenail is missing so the mice have to
face an actual red dragon to get one.
The journey has a lot of laughs, though their appeal mostly lie in cameos from most of the core cast members. More clever cameos are of obscure Warner Bros. characters outside this show like Witch Hazel and
Hansel and Gretel from 1954 Looney Tunes short, “Bewitched Bunny.” It’s at least fitting for the setting. Even if the gags are mostly cameos, they work
through Pinky and the Brain’s approach to them.
Sometimes there’s clever banter through the interactions. Others build up Brain’s ego as some cameos
are outwitted by his own shrinking spell, until one comically crushes him.
Humor aside, the climax when the mice face
the red dragon is a noteworthy highlight.
There’s a lot of silence as they try to lull the dragon to sleep as they
clip his toenail. When the dragon’s
woken up, it’s nonstop action as he chases them through the way they came. It’s epically staged and scored, and also
funny that it’s over a toenail. Back at
the castle, the dragon flying around as Brain performs the spell spices things
up by making the scene feel more intense.
With all this said, you might be wondering why I don’t consider this one
of Pinky and the Brain’s best works.
It’s because of how it perceives Pinky and the Brain’s personal dynamic. They usually subvert expectations with Pinky having
common sense despite being simple-minded, and Brain’s genius being their true
undoing. Here, it plays out just as
you’d expect. Throughout the segment,
Brain does all the competent work while Pinky messes around, offering very
little good. He’s constantly playing his
own version of “Greensleeves” and getting stuck for a rhyme, which gets old
fast. His fumbling is also why he and
Brain need to get the toenail in the first place.
The worst of it is during the actual
scheme. When Brain is about to say the
spell, he specifically tells Pinky he needs absolute silence. Despite always respecting his friend’s
wishes, Pinky plays his song again anyway. This distracts Brain as he finishes the rhyme,
and instead of taking over the world, his head becomes a “Big Cheese.” In other words, this is one of those times
where the world domination truly fails because of Pinky’s unintelligence. It’s disappointing considering how often
these cartoons avoid the obvious cause for failure. At least Brain as a Big Cheese is a memorably
funny image and him smashing Pinky’s loot in the end feels appropriate.
Even if their dynamic is not at their
strongest here, Pinky and the Brain still work off each other and face their
quest well enough to prove their worth as stars.
A-
Cartoon Ranking
- Chairman of the Bored
- Hot Bothered and Bedeviled
- Bubba Bo Bob Brain
- Baghdad Café
- In the Garden of Mindy
- Critical Condition
- O Silly Mio
- Phranken-Runt
- The Three Muska-Warners
- Clown and Out
- Jockey For Position
- Sir Yaksalot
- Potty Emergency
- General Boo-Regard
- Puttin’ on the Blitz
- Dough Dough Boys
- The Big Kiss
- Draculee Draculaa
- Babblin’ Bijou
- No Place Like Homeless
- I Got Yer Can
- Spell-bound
- Astro-Buttons
- Boot Camping
- Moby or Not Moby
- Noah’s Lark
- Skullhead Boneyhands
- The Good, the Boo, and the Ugly
- Hiccup
- Moon Over Minerva
- Katie Ka-Boo
- Mesozoic Mindy
Miscellaneous Ranking
- Animaniacs Stew
- Testimonials
- Cartoons in Wakko’s Body
- You Risk Your Life
- The Great Wakkorotti: The Summer Concert
Song Ranking
- The Planets
The next Animaniacs review puts Rita at a conflict when kittens claim her as their Mama, the Warners do Shakespeare again, and Wakko's gloves come alive.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Steven Universe episode "Steven Floats."
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