Animaniacs producer Steven Spielberg told animators that he wanted the character designs to remain as close to the original series’ as possible. Hulu’s reboot of the animated comedy that ran from 1993-1998 is a co-production between Warner Bros. Animation and Spielberg’s own Amblin Entertainment. The Looney Tunes-esque homage to the golden age of cartoons followed the slapstick daily lives of Warner brothers Yakko and Wakko, their sister Dot, and a colorful cast, including the conniving lab rats Pinky and the Brain. The wacky characters will return on November 20th, over two decades after they last graced television screens.
Behind the scenes, much remains the same in the reboot. Spielberg returns as executive producer after taking quite a long break from television animation. Randy Rogel, who composed many iconic songs from the original series, returns with the promise of more eternally memorable tunes. And much of the voice cast reprise their roles, including Rob Paulsen as Yakko and Pinky, Jess Harnell as Wakko, Tress MacNeille as Dot, and Maurice LaMarche as the Brain. Though the Warner Siblings are making a major leap from network television to streaming, it seems they’ll still be recognizable to fans of the original series.
Speaking on a virtual panel as part of New York Comic-Con, co-executive producer Gabe Swarr revealed that Steven Spielberg wanted the Animaniacs to look as similar to their original designs as possible. Swarr said that they consulted with numerous artists, fielding diverse looks and ideas for the updated designs. Spielberg rejected all of them and told the team to “make it more like the original.” Swarr said the team went back and carefully analyzed every episode and consulted with Japanese animation studio TMS, which worked on the original series following Spielberg’s edict. They focused all of their efforts on isolating what made the original designs work and incorporated that into their own.
There’s no denying the resemblance. The new Warner Siblings, revealed in the first look trailer released in September, do indeed look strikingly similar to their original designs, with Fleischer-esque proportions and style that have only minimally been smoothed out to fit modern taste. It suits the spirit of the series – even the 90s original was fondly reminiscent of a bygone animation era. In 2020, Animaniacs hearkens back to a nearly three-decade-old property that hoped to evoke cartoons that came around six decades before it.
It’s a wonder how much the new series’ content will diverge from the original with so much the same. The 90s Animaniacs filled its own unique niche, lampooning everything from Hollywood stars to then-President Bill Clinton. Crossing witty, topical humor with slapstick gags for kids was rather cutting edge in an age when The Simpsons, which was slightly more adult, was its only cohort. The first clip released of the show recalls the original by parodying 90s icon Jurassic Park. In 2020, the Animaniacs formula has stiff competition with a whole world of witty adult animated series and a glut of highly produced and widely popular young adult series available online. Old fans will likely be happy to see the Warner Siblings back in action no matter what they’re doing. Still, to capture new fans, Animaniacs will have to cleverly and uniquely satirize a much crazier, more media-savvy world.
