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Episode 75
The
Presidents Song
The
third DVD volume of this series closes with an episode all about America. This isn’t the first time the show has had an
episode with such a theme, but it’s got very significant ways of showing the
spirit of the land of the free. It all
kicks off with a song right up there with the show’s best educational standards.
Like most of them, it conveys a lot of
information of a given subject to a lively cover of a public domain
instrumental. Filled with a grand
patriotic spirit, the Warners sing their hearts out about the US Presidents
there had been at the time of episode release to the William Tell Overture. The
high energy of both the music and the performances is absolutely unquestionable
and the perfect way to learn information you’d otherwise be bored with.
It’s not just basic song composition that
makes what we get so great though. With
three exceptions, there’s a creative change of pace with the visuals. Rather than putting everything in the show’s
standard animation style, many of the presidents are shown in cut-out
form. That is to say, they’re actual
real life pictures of the presidents who animate by simply moving certain
joints around surrounded by the Warners and drawn out settings. Not only is it a fresh break from the norm
towards something out of shows like Monty
Python but it helps tie the information to reality.
Also, the song does more than just say
presidents’ names. While that is the
case with most of the mentioned presidents, a good number of verses include
interesting factoids about them. Some
point out odd features like big noses, being really fat, and apparently no
chins. Then you have more substantial
information that not many people bring up.
There’s talk of John Quincy Adams beating Andrew Jackson in one election
with Jackson winning the following election.
War accomplishments of James Madison, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson,
and Franklin Roosevelt are also of major mention. The song also doesn’t hold back with less
than desirable qualities of the presidents.
It talks of the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, Herbert Hoover being
blamed for the Great Depression, and Richard Nixon getting caught at
Watergate. Some lyrics like this are
also playful jabs at some presidents’ more unusual quirks be it Zachary Taylor
smoking a lot, Gerald Ford falling down a lot, and Ronald Reagan quoting films.
As you can see, the song packs in a lot of
information about these many presidents in such a fast tune. It’s one of the biggest testaments to the
show’s songwriting talents. Now, in
accordance with the time the song came out, it only goes up to Bill
Clinton. With how well it’s covered so
many presidents, you can’t help but wonder how the song could highlight the
three presidents who were elected years later.
I’d especially love to hear what the show would have to say about the
man currently running America.
It may be
inevitably dated, but that doesn’t stop this song from being a classic example
of an Animaniacs song that’s just as
entertaining as it is educational.
A+
Don’t Tread
On Us
With
Pinky and the Brain starring in their spinoff at this point, it’s no surprise
that their appearances on this show would be incredibly scarce. That doesn’t mean we’re going to stop seeing
cartoons featuring them here all together.
This episode in particular features one of those cartoons, and fitting
the American theme, it places the mice in two key moments of American history. In doing so though, it may turn out good on
the whole, but also kind of lacking compared to other cartoons featuring these
characters.
First, they come to America
on the eve of the Boston Tea Party in 1775.
This little scene, while providing decent physical comedy from falling
tea crates, only exists to serve as a backdrop for the drive for independence
at the time. We then cut to one year
later which Pinky and the Brain have apparently spent watching Thomas Jefferson
writing the Declaration of Independence in a distant mouse hole. I understand it’s for historical purposes,
but it’s hard to believe that they’d just stand where they are for a year
without doing anything. It probably
would have been much more practical for them to act fast with a plan after
spying on him for a time.
As for the
actual plan, it’s simply swapping the Declaration of Independence out for
Brain’s one that’s designed to make him the American populace obey him and name
him emperor. It’s all very fitting for
Brain’s character and all, but surely the Founding Fathers would realize that
what they’re signing isn’t what they’re supposed to be following. Also, what exactly is stopping the mice from
swapping the documents well in advanced?
I know Brain has a plan to just launch it during the signing with a
thorough trajectory, but it could easily be avoided.
Also, the failure of the trajectory is very
hollow. There’s nothing that really
disrupts it. Pinky launches the document
like he’s supposed to, and it lands towards Ben Franklin instead of Brain. In other words, Brain’s launching plan fails
simply because his calculations turn out wrong.
His stunt goes entirely unnoticed and doesn’t even lead to
anything. In addition, there’s an excuse
to get the mice electrocuted when Ben Franklin uses Brain’s declaration as a
kite for his famous electricity experiment.
I’m sure you don’t even need to do research to get that this experiment
has nothing to do with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. They’re both completely different
moments in history. I know this is just
a cartoon, but this show has commonly been accurate when it comes to historical
references. At least the gags from the
electrocution and listening to the ringing of a liberty bell at the signing are
funny enough. The same can be said for a decision for the mice to go to France since
people there are revolting at this time.
That’s really the biggest saving grace of this cartoon.
There are several drawbacks with the logics
behind the plan and not being as immersive as other historical cartoons. With great chemistry from the featured
characters and solid gags though, the entertainment factor is very much intact.
B+
The Flame
Returns
As
great as it is to watch this show for comedy it’s just as great to know that it
can be serious and respectful when it needs to be. The principals of freedom America was founded
on are honestly some of the most inspiring things ever. Material making a joke of it wouldn’t really
feel right at all. That’s thankfully not
the case here as it pulls off a respectful moving piece of true American spirit.
As the title says, it brings the return of a
former one off character simply known as the Flame, who oddly enough has made cameos in all the other segments of this episode. This time he shows up on the candle that
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is using to write a poem that will become “Paul
Revere’s Ride.” Apart from a few gags
similar to his previous cartoon like when he’s freaking out over being on fire
despite being fire, the Flame isn’t around to crack many jokes. He’s here to read what Longfellow writes,
amounting to a child narration of the famous patriotic poem.
All throughout, no punches are pulled and no
jokes are told. Despite coming from a
child, the Flame’s narration perfectly sells the tone of the event the poem is describing. His foreboding voice brings to life a dark
night of the preparation of an oncoming invasion. The dark descriptions of things like a ship
carrying the British enemy and the climb up to a church tower which is to hold
the warning lights have an eerie tone.
With the nation’s freedom of oppression at stake, a lot is riding on the
success of this ride, so of course there’d be a lot of fear of failure.
Then
once those lights light up the tower and Paul Revere sees them, the narration
and the following scenes become very exciting as he warns that the British are
coming. You just feel the urgency of
Paul Revere riding with all his might driving men to arms with so much of the
Middlesex village seen in a short time showcasing the speed of his steed. It’s like you’re really witnessing the cry
for defense against the enemy and how all Americans needed to be ready. There aren’t even any hold-backs on the part
of the poem where someone lying in bed is the first to fall dead. We literally see someone asleep in bed lying
transition to him lying lifeless on the battlefield in a future event. Moments like this are very telling of respect
paid with absolutely no sugarcoating.
Now while they are small, there are still a few ties to this show’s
comedic roots which help tie this Flame cartoon to the series much better than
the other one did. There are mostly
character cameos from the likes of the Warners and Slappy watching Paul Revere
from corresponding places in the poem. Dog characters like Buttons and Runt
also show up when the poem mentions dogs.
While mostly dramatic, the Flame also shows his youthful spirit mostly
through showing excitement at the mention of flames and light. The impressive thing is how subdued these little
funny bits are. They never overpower the
respect to history or overstay their welcome.
The cameos are even enhanced by normally funny characters holding arms
and at times worked into actual patriotic artwork of people fighting in the
war.
This direction is the cartoon at
its most successful at paying tribute to our nation’s roots but also tying
itself to the show it comes from. Maybe
it’s not an accurate representation of what the show is all about, but if you
want a reason to be proud of being an American, it’s nice that it’s managed to
craft a great one.
A
Cartoon Ranking
1. The
Warners’ 65th Anniversary Special
2. Super
Strong Warner Siblings
3. Baloney and
Kids
4. Ragamuffins
5. Frontier
Slappy
6. Woodstock
Slappy
7. Deduces
Wild
8. Wakko’s
Gizmo
9. The Warners
and the Beanstalk
10. Brain Meets
Brawn
11. The Kid in
the Lid
12. Morning
Malaise
13. Meet John
Brain
14. Yes, Always
15. Drive
Insane
16. Lookit the
Fuzzy Heads
17. Take My
Siblings Please
18. A Hard
Day’s Warners
19. Wakko’s New
Gookie
20. Karaoke
Dokie
21. Nutcracker
Slappy
22. Witch One
23. The Flame
Returns
24. Of Course,
You Know This Means Warners
25. No Face
Like Home
26. Meet
Minerva
27. The Chicken
Who Loved Me
28. Scare Happy
Slappy
29. Bingo
30. Smell Ya
Later
31. A Gift of
Gold
32. Ups and
Downs
33. Rest in
Pieces
34. The
Helpinki Formula
35. The Mindy
500
36. Les Boutons
et le Ballon
37. Bad Mood
Bobby
38. Whistle
Stop Mindy
39. Don’t Tread
On Us
40. Gimme a
Break
41. Three
Tenors and You’re Out
42. Gold Rush
43. Method to
Her Madness
44. Up a Tree
45. Cranial
Crusader
46. Mermaid
Mindy
47. Katie
Ka-Boom: The Driving Lesson
48. With Three
You Get Eggroll
49. Kung Boo
50. Pigeon on
the Roof
51. The Brave
Little Trailer
52. Girlfeathers
53. Super
Buttons
54. We’re No
Pigeons
55. Miami-Mama
Mia
56. Fake
57. Katie
Ka-Boom: Call Waiting
58. Katie
Ka-Boon: The Blemish
59. Katie
Ka-Boom: The Broken Date
Song Ranking
1. A Quake! A
Quake!
2. Variety
Speak
3. The
Presidents Song
4. Schnitzelbank
5. I’m Mad
6. I’m Cute
7. U.N. Me
8. All the
Words in the English Language
9. Dot’s Quiet
Time
10. Coo
Miscellaneous Ranking
1. Please,
Please, Please Get a Life Foundation
2. The Tiger
Prince
3. Branimaniacs
4. Previously
on Animaniacs
5. Macbeth
6. Oh, Oh,
Ethel
7. Spike
Final Thoughts
At
this point, we’re three quarters through the entirety of Animaniacs, and it still manages to pull off one impressive
animated moment after another. The
ability to pull off such high quality material even this late in the series
simply further convinces me to continue seeing it as the best of all animated
series. It does have a few more weak
moments than the last two sets of episodes, but for the most part, they
continue to be worth sitting through to get to the really great stuff.
To
discuss exactly what makes the show as great as it is would be somewhat
redundant to what I’ve said about it in the past. When something like a cartoon, song, or
parody segment turns out great, it basically plays to those very
strengths. The dialog is smart and
filled with genius jokes of wordplay and high-spirited wit even in the tensest
situations. The music is very lively
while matching even the slightest movements, keeping up with the fun and
successfully investing the audience in anything that happens. The energy is high all throughout suiting how
exciting cartoons can be when allowed to explore the endless possibilities of
how even the simplest actions can be expressed.
It’s just a general expectation when it comes to a show like this, and I
personally would never have it any other way.
One
thing I can say about this particular run of episodes is that there’s a catch
to the show’s highest potential. How great
a segment of this show turns out kind of depends on exactly what it’s all
about. After 50 episodes, it’s no
surprise that there’d be certain things the crew of this show would have more
fun putting together than others. With
cartoons, the ones that tend to regularly stand as animated experiences star
the likes of the Warners, Slappy Squirrel and Pinky and the Brain. With the Warners, they breathe smart top
notch hilarity into things like fairy tale parodies, dates, war propaganda films, and just a few minutes of an elaborate Rube Goldberg device. Their established history even proves so
interesting, it turns out to be a strong center for a documentary on their 65th anniversary. Slappy is just as hilarious
through adding her brand of cartoon comedy a fresh variety of settings of a
frontier backed by a smart-allack chorus and Woodstock in her own backyard. It goes without saying you can never go wrong
with the dynamic of Pinky and the Brain whose cartoons bring creative world
domination attempts leading to their spinoff.
The
rest of the characters bring pretty mixed results. Mindy and Buttons remain highly formulaic
despite sometimes getting some joy out of where the chase takes place. Rita and Runt only have two cartoons where
one is plain and unspectacular while the other is a strong performance. At least that strong performance makes for a
grand sendoff for them since they don’t star in anymore cartoons after that. The Goodfeathers however are a very sorry
sight. It’s not that they get unjustly
hurt a lot that makes a lot of their work here lacking. A lot of the time they’re all frustratingly
dense which just doesn’t feel right in a smartly written series like this. To say nothing about Katie Ka-Boom, the
explosive teenager emotionally abusing her family who express realistic fear
around her which is the show at its least pleasant. These problems can become especially
noticeable with the amount of episodes in a row that feature cartoons of
certain characters. Not only does it lessen
the variety of the series, but when the cartoons star characters without enough care put
in, you can’t help but feel that what we have isn’t as strong as before. At least all the cartoons are watchable on
the whole even if they’re not all the best. Getting through the weak ones turns
out to be worth it for the characters who do have a lot of care behind them.
The same can apply to the respectable parodies and especially fun musical
segments that frequently show up. The
show may be playing favorites with characters and segment types, but it can be
overlooked thanks to how entertaining the final product turns out.
With
this in mind, I’d like to point out specific details that make the show as
entertaining as it is. One of them is
the actual subjects of a lot of the cartoons.
Now it isn’t exactly new that cartoons revolve around pop culture
references or little known historical facts.
With the cartoons on this Volume 3 DVD though, subjects like that seem
to be much more prominent than before.
It may seem like a cheap and dated move to build material out of
pre-existing events and pop culture icons, but this show smartly incorporates them its
own brand of comedy. This way, the
references stand as their own thing, and you don’t even have to know them to
enjoy them. The references aren’t even
always of the era of original release, so the cartoons feel much more universal
and genuine cartoon efforts as opposed to products of a time. We have Pinky and the Brain basically
reciting an actual voice recording or Orson Welles arguing with his
director. The whole thing comes off as a
tribute to one of Brain’s biggest influences.
Historic moments like domestic life during World War II and Woodstock are
immersed in fitting atmospheres while standing out with the comedy styles of
featured characters. The Golden Age of
Animation is given the best tribute possible. Highlights of these episodes
include an authentic period piece Warners cartoon and looks at their cartoon
career in an anniversary retrospective.
Even hot topics of the 90s feel fresh and timeless when combined with
the tone of the cartoons. Pop culture
events like Howie Stern’s jerky radio broadcasts and a tenor concert at
Dodger’s Stadium make for a clever basis for stories. Corny shows of the time like Barney and Power Rangers are given stellar jabs at their genuine impurities
that only this series can deliver. An
entire natural disaster like the Northbridge Earthquake is explained in an
unbelievably catchy song. These are all
amazing ways to display the show being able to make something fun out of
anything and be capable of being whatever it wants to be. If that’s not worthy of being considered the
best of the best, I don’t know what is, unless of course one’s tastes are
different from mine.
There
are two runs of episodes that stand out from what’s on the third DVD
volume. You see, Episodes 51 to 65 are
part of the first season at a time when that was the standard length for debut
seasons of animated series. Those
episodes are much more in line with the styles and quality of the episodes seen
on the previous two DVD volumes combining in a strong effort to fit the show
for syndication. The grand bravado of
the 65th anniversary special proves how grand-scale it was. Afterwards though, the tone of the show would
greatly change. Apparently, the show’s
original network, Fox Kids, demanded the show to create four more half
hours. The result is a bunch of episodes
made from previously discarded material that was economical enough for the work
of the crew and fitting the demands of the network. Unfortunately, many of these episodes are
very weak mostly due to the material featured.
Not everything was bad though with strong Warners cartoons including a
song segment originally released to theaters and some of the better Mindy and Buttons cartoons. However, the majority
of these episodes consist of some of the worst Goodfeathers cartoons and short
yet grueling escapades of Katie Ka-Boom.
That’s not even mentioning the high amount of bridging segments that
show up in between cartoons. It may seem
hard to believe since I don’t talk about things like “Good Idea Bad Idea” and
“Mime Time”, but just watch the episodes and you’re instantly in for the show
at its most padded. Not everything in
these episodes are weak but for the most part, these episodes show that the
most of what’s in them probably should have stayed on the wayside. Then again, even the best shows can’t always
avoid executive meddling.
It’s
after these episodes when the tone of the show further changed through changing
networks from Fox Kids to Kids WB. On
the surface, this seems highly fitting with a show devoted to classic Warner
Bros animation airing on a Warner Bros dedicated network. In time, that wouldn’t be so with more behind
the scenes meddling denying the series the support and budget it needed to
continue. However, I’m here to talk
about how the show is for all time and not behind the scenes issues affecting
it at the time. From what’s seen on this
DVD set, the Kids WB era gets off to a very good start. The Warner siblings cartoons are filled with
the smart and clever word play we’ve come to expect from them in both parodies
and interactions with pop culture icons.
There also a big amount of songs in these episodes amounting to even
more than what’s been shown in the tale-end of the Fox Kids era in fact. The great thing about it is that all the
songs are as great musical experiences as always. The quantity does nothing to bring down the
quality with smart lyrics, greatly constructed melodies, and managing to fit
many small tidbits into such fast tunes.
There’s even room for genuine emotion, particularly as we go out on a
respectful and moving recitation of Paul Revere’s Ride. With all this said, this is only a small part
of the new era and not representative of its true quality which will be
explored in the eventual look at the Volume 4 DVD. Even then, this new era still has a slight
downgrade from the show’s first 65 episodes.
For one thing it features the biggest lack of variety of all the content
on this DVD. I mean five episodes in a
row feature a Slappy Squirrel cartoon which makes them far more routine and
monotonous than ever before. What’s
more, most of the Slappy cartoons are a major step down from her usual
standards. She’s either clueless, gets beaten around easily, or doesn’t do more
than commentate on what’s annoying her.
That just doesn’t feel like a proper follow-up to someone so smart and
on top of everything with her use of cartoon violence. Now she’s just nothing more than a put-upon
old squirrel who gets annoyed at the world more than getting through life with
her classic cartoon techniques. This
trend will continue in episodes to come, and the downgrade would even start
getting to the Warners. Once again, all
this will be explored more in the next DVD set, but that doesn’t necessarily
mean the show won’t be good anymore.
With how strong the material is at the start of the Kids WB era, this is
hardly a surprise.
Animaniacs Vol 3 is another collection of animated greatness
that I believe must be seen by anyone who enjoys animation. Even with cracks in the quality showing up
more, the things that work well stand far stronger than what’s problematic. The best characters continuously turn out top
notch entertainment, the songs are fantastic, and the covered topics showcase
its great ability to make anything out of anything. There’s only one more set of episodes and a
movie after this, and while what’s ahead may not be as great as what was in the
beginning, don’t let that worry you.
Even with its weak points, the fact that there’s still plenty to love
with this show is a good sign for what’s to come. For now though, until I cover the last of
this series, goodbye nurse!
Highly Recommended
Now that this review set is completed, I'd like to make an announcement about the future of this blog. As much as I enjoy reviewing cartoons, I've grown to feel that with where I want to go in life, I should be scaling back a bit on it to focus on other things. It turns out to be a lot to do with so many shows to look into at once. So, to make time with other things but not necessarily stop what I'm doing with this blog, I'm going back to old practices of reviewing just one show at a time. There will also be times when I decide to take a break from uploading a new review for a day to make things easier on me. To properly ease into the change though, I'll start with reviewing one show one weekdays and another on weekends. For this time, I'll look into the final season of a show I've talked about for a good while, and another season of a show I've put on the back burner for over a year. Here's what the schedule will look like:
- Weekdays: Hey Arnold Season 5
- Weekends: Xiaolin Showdown Season 2
So I'll see you tomorrow for the next big change in the MC Toon Reviews schedule. Until then:
Stay Animated Folks!
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