User Reviews

Expectations were very mixed for this 'Animaniacs' reboot. The original 'Animaniacs' is one of my favourite animated shows and a favourite overall. Likewise with 'Pinky and the Brain' (not the case with its spin off 'Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain'). Part of me was interested to see how they would work in a contemporary setting, but much of me also questioned its point because it didn't sound necessary to me as can be the case with a lot of reboots.

With the exception of the great previous episode, the episodes that came before "The Cutening"/"Close Encounters of the Worst Kind"/"Equal Time" were uneven, each with one great segment (commonly the Pinky and the Brain ones) and the others being a mixed bag of decent to eh. "The Cutening"/"Close Enounters of the Worst Kind"/"Equal Time" is another one of the uneven episodes, a shame because it did feel like the reboot was starting to pick up with the previous episode.

"Close Encounters of the Worst Kind" is by far the best segment. A classic 'Pinky and the Brain' scenario with an unmistakably Brain plan, done justice by the witty, smart scripting and character writing for both characters that showed a love and understanding of the characters (particularly Brain).

"The Cutening" was cute and amusing in places and Dot is true to character (apart from one of her worst ever mistakes with the exploiting of the cute powers, which was silly), if a bit bland and not as full of energy as it could have been. "Equal Time" is the weakest of the three, for my tastes too heavy handed and the Warners are inconsistently characterised, veering on too smug.

A lot of fine individual components can be found. The animation is bright and beautifully detailed with some suitably wild expressions in faces, eyes and body language, despite preferring the bolder and more traditional look. The music fits well and while it may not enhance the action it adds to it in a way that's appealing and accessible. The theme tune is hip and catchy as is "What If". The voice acting, done by some of the best and most prolific voice actors in the business now and ever, is impeccable. It was a masterstroke bringing the voice actors back and the right thing to do. Cannot for instance imagine Brain being voiced by somebody other than Maurice La Marche.

Uneven by thankfully elevated from very average to slightly above average by "Close Encounters of the Worst Kind". 6/10.

This was a very fun episode with one hell of a catchy song in the beginning I was very skeptic about this reboot but every episode so far has had me smiling laughing and having a blast way better then the new duck tales and duck wing duck with better drawn animation

The new ducktales and darkwing Duck are way better with better animation

My overall rating of "Animaniacs (2020)"'s Season 1: 5/10.

There are a few things that have consistently worsened my experience of watching Season 1 of "Animaniacs (2020)". There's the intro with its pussification ("Dot has wit" instead of "Dot is cute"; the new - female - CEO doesn't get hit on the head as the "xylophone" sequence gets cut short; the "gender-balanced, pronoun-neutral and ethnically-diverse" section, while perhaps parodic in character, doesn't feel self-aware enough), not to mention incosistent capitalisation of "Hulu" (truly the worst sin!). Then there is the too-common gross-out humour. Finally, there are a lot of segments that are just too repetitive: jokes at the expense of Trump and US conservatives, jokes about the dreaded "Russian meddling in the US elections" and jokes at the expense of foreign white men with weird accents and bad teeth (a weird one, but the show is legitimately obsessed with that!).

In this episode we have some gross-out bits in all three segments, and a nice dose of "dem Russians are stealing our votes!" conspiracy theory in the end. The show sure gets a lot of mileage out of "Russian spies badly impersonating everyday Americans" gag! I think there is some very of-its-time zeitgeist behind all of that, when it was collectively decided by the US media elites that comedy had to become politically- and progressively-oriented, even if it came at the expense of the actual laughs. I hate it, though.

The plots are all very boring, to add insult to the injury; not to mention the middle segment insulting the audience's intelligence somewhat more than usual this time.