Which WB/Spielberg Cartoon Would You Most Like on DVD? (1 Viewer)

[Ocean Phoenix]

I love Animaniacs. Unlike Batman: The Animated Series, which I've watched many times over the past few years after downloading episodes off the internet, I haven't seen Animaniacs since it was on TV. I don't remember much of it, but I do remember that it was a really special cartoon, wildly clever, imaginative, and creative. Seeing the recent TV movie "Wakko's Wish" brought back some fond memories and made me really want to watch the show again.

Since I haven't seen it in so long, seeing Animaniacs on DVD would be like reliving the experience of seeing it for the first time. I've been wondering over the last few years about why Animaniacs hasn't been put on DVD, and I thought it might be because of all the shots it took at celebrities, and all of the movies/TV shows it referenced in sight gags.

As a child, I never appreciated those jokes much, but now that I'm older I would love to see them again and am sure I would appreciate them like I never have before. I can still remember some of them, like hilarious caricatures of celebrities like Barbara Walters and Oprah Winfrey, science fiction characters like Captain Picard and Darth Vader in the background when the warner kids are on an alien spaceship, and one of the greatest sight gags of all time- Michael Richards from "Seinfeld" sitting at a table with Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman, constantly switching from a looking at one to looking at the other, with a confused look on his face. Does anyone think such funny and (mostly) innocent teasing of celebrities could prevent the show from getting released on DVD?

 

[Marcee]

I certainly hope that wouldn't be the case. There are so many shows out that do that, albeit sometimes not as well. SNL, In Living Color and other shows poke fun at just about everyone and everything in the show-biz "biz." You have to have a tough skin to survive.
I guess it is probably some sort of agreement, rights, clearance, money, red tape, or priority issue (take your pick).
Hopefully, whatever the reason for the delay - it will be taken cae of and SOOOOOOON.

 

[John Kilduff]

All 4 of the Spielberg cartoons...And I want the works when it comes to special features.

I'd buy them in a heartbeat.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

I wonder what Sherri Stoner looks like now.

 

[Nate Anderson]

I'd buy Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain in a heartbeat. I loved those shows.

[Brain has created mutant killer vegatables, and they've gone on a rampage.]
"Pinky! My vegatables are revolting!"
"Oh, they're not so bad if you add a little butter."
-Brain and Pinky.

 

[John Kilduff]

"'The Player' is a movie about finding fresh new scripts...
Like 'Rambo 3' and 'Rocky 5' and 'Star Trek' Number 6"

"What do you get when you combine a duck, a pig and a rabbit?"
"A quacking strip of bacon that brings you good luck."

"We've been replaced by Bo and Luke?"

"HUGGBEES!"

The big 4 are so damn quotable...

I'd love to hear the commentaries on the shorts.

(Commentary on the "Animaniacs" cartoon "No Pain, No Painting")

Tress MacNeille: Here's how you can tell this is a 90s cartoon!

"Dot": "What's Christie Brinkley got that I haven't got?"

"Yakko" and "Wakko": "Billy Joel!"

Rob Paulsen: Yes...Now she has a facelift...

Jess Harnell: And he has a warrant out for his arrest on Long Island!

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

Well, with the "Miami Vice" announcement, it looks like I have 4 new shows to hope for.

 

[Sean Moon]

Some of my favorite Animaniacs moments:

The Coutries of the World song. CLASSIC!

The Potty Emergency Episode, where Wacko needs to use a toilet and kind find a working one.

Slappy the Squirrel with WOODSTOCK in her backyard. A great homage to the WHOS ON FIRST gag.
"Who's on stage?"
"yes"
"No, that is what I wanna know!"
"What?"
"Who is on stage"
"Yes they are"

The one time they changed the cartoons around, where instead of Mindy and Buttons it was Mindy and the Brain.

 

[Lynda-Marie]

Bubba Bo Bob Brain - a Pinky and the Brain ep that I had on VHS at one time. The country music fan/Southerner cliches had me howling like an idiot [namely because my mother WAS a Southern country music fan] because so many of those cliches hit the target directly.

So, for me, I think Animaniacs AND Pinky and the Brain would work, since I want ALL of the Pinky and the Brain eps, shorts and 1/2 hour.

 

[Jason Borchers]

.

 

[Valerie G.]

When I first came into this thread I thought for sure I'd be putting Pinky & the Brain down for my answer, but after reading through some of these posts, it's kinda of been like a trip through the past.

I'd have to say that it's a tie for me, between Pinky & the Brain and Animaniacs. I'd also like to see the Pinky & the Brain Christmas Special come to DVD, too.

By the way, I never really realized that "Pinky, Elmira, & the Brain" was actually it's own cartoon. I never even saw one episode of it, I wonder why? All this time I just thought that it was from one of those weird Animaniacs where they switched the characters around. Hmmmm..... Odd.

 

[Ocean Phoenix]

It's so cool that somebody else remembers the "video review" movies song that was sung on Animaniacs. As a kid I thought it was fun, but now that I can get all the references, I'd enjoy it even more. One line that I find especially memorable is:

"Amadeus was a genius, Beethoven was a dog...The Muppet Family Christmas was about a pig and frog!"

 

[Sean Moon]

I dont remember that song about movies. Damn! Sounds awesome.

I am hating this thread right now, because it is making me want to see more episodes of these shows NOW!

And as Lynda-Marie said, the Bubba Bo Bob Brain episode is classic. Probably my favorite Pinky and Brain episode. It was one of the few episodes, if not the only(please correct me), where Brain actually took over the world. He had the world in his grasp, then in a fit of rage with Pinky, accidentally screwed it up. And the Willy Ray Cypress song "Dont tell my head, my empty hollow head" instead of Achy Breaky Heart

The Christmas special was great too. With Pinky always wanting his letter given to santa, and Brain succeeds in getting his plan to work, and just as he is about to finally triumph, he reads Pinky's letter to santa and screams "GOD BLESS US EVERYONE!" The whole episode Brain was always making fun of Pinky and ridiculing him for the letter, then at the end he read it and it said something like this:
"Dear Santa, I dont want much for christmas, I dont want anything for myself. But my good friend brain works hard. He tries and tries to succeed, but never gets it. All I want is for him to be happy this christmas. So Santa, in your sack, you wouldnt happen to have the world would you? Love, Pinky"

As Brain read it, he broke down crying. Sounds silly, but it touched me how sweet Pinky really was towards Brain in spite of the abuse he endures.

 

[florence franks]

Loved Invasion America!

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

Invasion America and Toonsylvania were produced by Spielberg's own Dreamworks, not Warner Brothers. Neither of them were hits, but neither were the comedy cartoons WB did without Spielberg (remember Histeria, the educational cartoon with the ugliest character designs in TV history?) so it suggests that the success of the cartoons was sort of jointly attributable to the teamwork of WB and Amblin. They clicked.

Freakazoid has an interesting development story; Paul Dini and Bruce Timm pitched it as a serious show, but late in the production process Spielberg decided to turn it into a wacky comedy; Timm quit, Dini freelanced a few episodes, but obviously it wound up very different from what it was supposed to be. Personally, I loved it, but I sort of understand why it didn't last.

 

[Jon Mercer]

I would love to get the Animaniacs, P&B and Tiny Toons, but REALLY REALLY want the TINY TOONS - HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION movie on dvd.

 

[david_slater]

there is no good Animated shows in the u.s. today.
all the good Animated shows are from japan.

like...

InuYasha
Yu Yu Hakusho
RANMA 1/2
Robotech
Ai Yori Aoshi
Slayers
Maison Ikkoku
Love Hina

and so on...

the only good Animated shows in the u.s. was long ago.
like...

JONNY QUEST
Fantastic Four
Dungeons And Dragons
TRANSFORMERS
ThunderCats
Pirates of Darkwater
Thundarr the Barbarian
REN & STIMPY
BEAVIS & BUTTHEAD
Disney shows as well
so on...

i would not give you the time of day for todays Animated shows in the u.s. ... (barf!)

 

[Thomas Newton]

Within the last several years, we have seen Batman:TAS, Batman Beyond, Superman: TAS, Animaniacs, and Pinky and the Brain. Static Shock also seemed fairly decent.

That was just the Saturday morning shows. Throw in prime time and cable shows, and the list included The Simpsons, Futurama, Justice League, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast. There was a genuine "Silver Age" of high-quality Saturday morning and prime time animation for a while.

I admit that the current lineup is pretty dismal, but you don't have to go all the way back to Jonny Quest (1960s) to find good stuff.

 

[Ocean Phoenix]

I'm amused by how a guy claims that today's American cartoons suck and then says that all the best ones come from Japan, when I thought that part of why modern American cartoons are so bad is because a lot of them are crap from Japan like "Pokemon" and "Digimon".

 

[Chris Bardon]

I'd be all over an Animaniacs release, but it's a show that really works best in full episodes (like Monty Python's Flying Circus). Unfortunately, there's a good chance that it'd be cut up into "themed" collections. I'd probably buy these as well, but full episodes would probably be better.

 

[LorenzoL]

When I first saw this segment, I couldn't stop laughing. This was pure genius. This is the conversation with Slappy and her nephew Skippy.

I will most definitely buy Animaniacs before anything else.

 

[LorenzoL]

Can't help myself singing this after reading this thread...

Pinky and the Brain,
Pinky and the Brain,
One is a genius, the other is insane,
they are laboratory mice,
Their genes have been spliced,
The're Pinky, the're Pinky and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain.

I think their theme song changed through different episodes and in between Animaniacs and their own show.

Feel free to correct if I'm wrong.