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Animaniacs: Volume 2 (TV)
R1 - America - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (1st January 2001). |
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The Film
 Shortly after having the chance to review one of my cartoon favorites, "Adventures Of The Gummi Bears" (1985-1991) I am faced with another cartoon favorite from my past, "Animaniacs", I must admit these last few days has left me a little cartoon crazy and have an urge to watch something with real people in it. "Animaniacs" was on every weekday afternoon, I would get home after school and "Animaniacs" would be on, it caught on rather quickly and become a regular favorite along with other classic shows such as "The Simpsons" (1989-Present), "Ren and Stimpy" (1991-1996) and "Rocco's Modern Life" (1993-1996), even though I was a teenager at the time, these shows represented a sort of graduation from the kiddie fare I grew up on to the much edgier shows of the early 90's. They appealed to kids but older kids could also find something in them to warrant giving their precious 30 minutes to. "Animaniacs" was developed by Steven Spielberg who had some previous success with another animated TV show "Tiny Toon Adventures" (1990-1992), the series was developed through his Amblin Entertainment Division, the show featured the Warner's, represented here as Yakko (Rob Paulsen), Wakko (Jess Harnell) and their sister Dot (Tress MacNeille), animated characters that were so crazy and zany that they were locked in the Warner Brothers water tower. The series also featured other memorable characters such as Katie Kaboom (Laura Mooney), Slappy the Squirrel (Sherri Stoner), the Good Feathers a trio of gangster pigeons made up of Bobby (John Mariano), Squit (Maurice LeMarche) and Pesto (Chick Vennera) among others but none as popular as the mice duo Pinky (Rob Paulsen) and the Brain (Maurice LeMarche), one is a genius the other insane and every night they try to take over the world. The episodes played out like a combination of vaudeville acts meets sketch comedy segments that were performed by different characters as well as other humorous segments such as a personal favorite "Good Idea, Bad Idea" featuring Mr. Skullhead. The show's style is very frantic, almost taking the format of the classic Warner animated shorts and pumping it with adrenalin, especially the episodes featuring Yakko, Wakko and Dot, the comedy and pacing is quick fire and set on such a hyper level that it almost makes you tired after watching it. It's perfect fodder for kids as it provides a sort of artificial sugar high just by watching these episodes, but I must warn you they can get repetitive, occasionally monotonous and I wouldn't recommend watching the entire box set's contents all in one day, you may in fact go crazy. Carrying on the tradition of Warner's cartoon are the references to popular films, here there are plenty to be found, in fact many of which I never got as a kid that make a whole lot of sense now, I'm sure there will be plenty of moments like these for those that watched the show when they were younger. What also makes this show so much fun is the opening theme song, a must for any animated show is that it must possess a catchy theme song, and "Animaniacs" possessed such a song. It's so catchy that before I revisited these episodes I instantly remembered the song, in fact the music played a great part in the show and was awarded a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Music Direction and Composition. There are also many sight gags, slapstick gags and anvil-related funnies to be had with this collection, while some of the content is hit and miss, a lot of it is actually delightfully manic, "Animaniacs" is at times a clever series but can also verge on the annoying, it's good in short bursts but overexposure will probably drive you mad.
Video
Presented in the show's original broadcast ratio of 1.33:1 these full screen transfers are generally very good, some problems that I noticed include occasional white speckles appearing as well as some moire effect developing against line patterns, otherwise the transfers for these episodes were for the most part sharp, colors are vivid and bold, with blacks deep and I could not spot any compression problems. Overall I'd say the presentation here is far better than broadcast quality.
Audio
Two audio tracks are included on this DVD release, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as the original broadcast soundtrack in English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. For the purposes of this review I chose to view these episodes with the 5.1 surround track. I found dialogue crisp and clear without distortion, this show has a lot of music moments as well as sound effects and activity and this track presents them all very well throughout the sound space. I was rather impressed with the range of this track, something that is rarely seen on other animated show DVDs. Warner Brothers have clearly spent time creating a rich 5.1 mix for this show. Optional subtitles are included in French and Spanish
Extras
Warner Brothers have released this Volume 2 DVD set with a featurette plus a collection of bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements. All of the extras are featured on the fifth disc, this includes "The Writers Flipped, There Is No Script" a featurette that runs for 29 minutes 4 seconds, and takes a look at the writing process for the show, the clip features the voice of The Brain, Maurice LaMarche as he interviews Paul Rugg, Sherri Stoner, John McCann, Peter Hastings, Charles Howell, Gordon Bressack, Earl Kress, Tom Minton, Randy Rogel, Nicholas Hollander, Deanna Oliver and executive producer Tom Ruegger. The participants discuss how they came up with the characters, their favorite episodes, as well as divulge some fun behind-the-scenes information such as the basis for many of the shorts, they talk about their personal background and the freedom they were given to create on this show as well as the music which was conducted with the 40 piece Warner Brothers orchestra among other things. This is a great little featurette that sheds light on many of the characters and episodes developed for this series. Rounding the extras are a collection of bonus trailers, these can be viewed individually or with the option of a 'play all' function, the previews included are for: - "Animaniacs: Volume 2 and Pinky and the Brain: Volume 2" which runs for 1 minute 44 seconds. - "Looney Toons: Golden Collection Volume 4" which runs for 1 minute 20 seconds. - "Thundercats Season 2 Volume 2" which runs for 1 minute 8 seconds. - "Justice League Unlimited: Season 1 and Batman Beyond: Season 2" which runs for 1 minute 25 seconds.
Packaging
This 5-disc DVD set includes 25 episodes from the 1993 season and is packaged in a digi-pack case that is housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Overall
I have to applaud Warner Brothers for continuing to put out quality box sets of classic TV shows on a consistent basis, they have proven over the course of the last several years that they listen to fans and deliver the shows they want on DVD, however they still need to work on the bonus features front. While delivering these shows on DVD is welcomed it would be even better had Warner opened up their vaults and added some additional content to these sets, audio commentaries would be a start as well as original art work and character designs would be nice to see in these box sets and I'm sure there are plenty of unanimated deleted scenes that could have also been included. Maybe in the future Warner's can start releasing season box sets with much more in terms of additional content.
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