6
7
7
(worth seeing multiple times)
(sultry characters, potty jokes)
(Baby Jesus makes an appearance, Noah is parodied)
"Animaniacs" may be the single funniest bit of filmmaking a film maker has ever filmed for film. Okay, maybe that's overstating it some, but it is unquestionably a tickler of funny bones far beyond most. I think volume 2 has more of my favorite moments than any other season. (I say that now, but we'll have to wait for Vol.3 to see if I change my tune). Want to know the details of Animaniacs? You should read my season 1 review. There's really no sense in going over all of that stuff again, and there are no noticeable changes in the episodes, I can't tell a volume 1 episode from a volume 2. Maybe that’s because, according to IMDB, both volumes actually make up the first season of the series. Wow! A season with 50 episodes? Huge, but reportedly true. He-Man used to do it so why not the Warners?
We get the same variety of stories: comedy comprised of slapstick, witty banter, toilet humor, caricatures of famous names and events, parodies, etc, as well as emotionally based stories with less funny business. We get plenty of goofy songs along with some a little more serious, and a variety of charming characters including a few new introductions. As a whole, though, there seems to be fewer stories about the Warners shaping world history (such as writing Beethoven's 5th Symphony and President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in Vol.1) although they do suggest Thanksgiving as the name of the November holiday. There's more seasonal material such as the Thanksgiving moment I already mentioned, some Halloween material, and some Christmas episodes with seasonal openings and closings.
Perhaps the best element of this run of episodes is the tendency for the show parody itself. The Warners face off against a villain that turns out to be Pinky and the Brain in one episode, and, one of my favorite episodes, "Animaniacs Stew" has Dot and Slappy swap places, Flavio playing Skippy, Pesto teaming up with Runt, Rita replacing Brain in the lab, and Brain being charged with watching over Mindy - his new partner in another bid to take over the world.
The Rita & Runt shorts seem slightly better to me than the previous ones. Though I don't care for the sweet singing very much the element I really dislike is the Rain Man personality for Runt. It might have been funny when that was the big thing, but it gets old quickly especially since this personality is done so many times. Still, there are a few stories involving them on this volume I like. Conversely the Buttons and Mindy shorts here are my least favorites of the ones they've done.
The first volume had a few parodies of musicals, this time, except for Rita of course, there is comparatively very little singing. The most notable exceptions are a Christmas carol short and the wonderfully hysterical "O Silly Mio" which makes use of the opera “Carmen.” However, unlike the musicals from before "O Silly Mio" is not all an opera, it just contains one.
We get more and better caricatures including the return of Einstein, Satan, Dracula, Sodarn Insane (Saddam), and even Ross Perot (although they never say his name). Minerva Mink gets her first full-length short (there's an oxymoron for you) and Mr. Skullhead gets his only one. Colin gets the chance to tell his wild stories about Randy Beamon, and favorites like the Mime come back for more punishment.
Morality
There's some surprising questionable content considering this is a kids' show. Mostly it's sexual references like when Yakko tells the showgirls to let him know "when those costumes get heavy." Minerva Mink is pretty sultry (though not as much so as the later seasons), and Brain tells the top-heavy Dolly Parton that “puberty was inordinately kind” to her as she leans over revealing her ample cleavage.
There's some violent content though it's in the tradition of Looney Tunes type violence not the gruesome anime style or anything like that. By and large it's a tame show, but there may be some moments that sensitive parents won't like for their younger tykes.
Spirituality
"Animaniacs" is not at all a religious show, but it actually does have a couple of moments of biblical influence. The most profound is during the Christimas episode when the Warners meet baby Jesus. It's not often you see a nativity story outside of something specifically aimed at Christians. I mean I've seen Christmas stories with more Buddhism than Christianity even when targeted at a market that predominantly relates itself more to Christianity than anything else. “Little Drummer Warners” has a touch of the fun and funny but shows reverence to Jesus.
The show occasionally parodies Bible stories. In this volume in particular we get the story of Noah's Ark. It's off the wall silly but obviously so. Noah claiming to be a hologram cracks me up, and the various Animaniacs characters on the Ark is amusing. Some Christians don't like anything that makes light of Bible stories and so some may actually be offended by this presentation. I think it depends on the spirit of the thing. I don't think this was meant to be offensive or to ridicule those of us who believe in the truth of the Bible, I think it was just meant to be a funny parody of a well known story much in the same way that other historical figures are handled in the show.
Likewise the portrayal of the Devil is not at all biblical but more of a parody of the pop-cultural view of him with perhaps the smallest bit of Dante creeping in. Even though this is not truly Satan I can't help but enjoy seeing him get tormented relentlessly by the Warners. It's an extremely funny episode with a fantastic guest appearance by Ron Perlman. So you may at some point want to talk to your kids about what the Bible says about Satan compared to this portrayal.
Final Thoughts
"Animaniacs" is exceptionally funny. I'm often impressed with the writing as well as the comedy. While I might not like every one of the segments many of them rank among some of the best I've ever seen on TV. If you like Looney Tunes or other classic cartoon comedies this is well worth checking out.
Buying Guide
My "Animaniacs" vol.2 guide can almost just ditto everything I said about the first volume. Except for a couple of obvious differences they are almost the same.
Once again, there is exactly 1 TVD set to choose from. There is no series box set.
Final Recommendation:
While the series itself is fantastic DVD extras are very few. Surely there’s more Animaniacs material out there that could be a part of these TVD sets. I’m thoroughly excited to be able to get all of the episodes, but it sure would be nice to get some material geared towards the Animaniacs collector.
Volume 2 is once again a 5 disc DVD set.
Video
1.33:
This is TV standard ratio. It looks quite good considering this is a slightly older kids' cartoon series.
Audio
5.1 Dolby:
Surround sound is surprising; well, not so much since the first season had it, it's just unusual that a kid's cartoon would have this when many prime time shows don't, even some produced more recently. It really makes the orchestra sound fantastic and is quite a different experience from seeing it on broadcast TV.
Packaging
The box and folder use the same design and layout as vol. 1, just different images. Unfortunately this means that the stacked DVD trays are also the same. I really hate that design.
The folder flaps contain an episode list with the major segments from each episode listed. While this is certainly better than nothing, a book with original air dates and episode information like guest stars would have been really great, and a detailed chapter list would be handy.
The interface features the theme song and is colorful but is otherwise not particularly noteworthy. You can play all the episodes or go to another menu to select specific ones. The chapters list doesn't actually have all of the chapters listed, just the major segments. The chapters selection menu doesn’t always agree with the one printed on the box, but the former is the right one.
Extras
-The Writers Flipped They Have No Script (29:05) The big deal of this set is a writers' panel similar to the cast feature on the last set. Unfortunately it’s not as good as the previous feature. Not that the writers aren’t good, as a matter of fact, my problem with the thing is that there isn’t enough of the writers. The editor (or whoever makes such decisions for something like this) inserts clips from the show to illustrate and add to the comments, but there are so many clips that it becomes more about them than the interviews. I can watch the cartoon all I want, I have the episodes on the same DVD set that is providing me with the interviews, what I want now is behind the scenes information, and a minute of interviews followed by two or three minutes of cartoon clips just really isn’t that entertaining or interesting. The feature isn’t terrible, but it is disappointing in its informative content.
-Trailer (1:44) The trailer included is interesting because it is specifically for the volume 2 TVD release yet the vast majority of the clips are not from vol. 2. If you were to watch it elsewhere to see what you're would get in vol. 2 you' would be mislead.
-Previews: There are a few preview trailers provided in a menu with a play all option.
-Web Links: Want to know where to go on the web? This page will tell you.
Episodes
Like the last volume you'll get 25 episodes at about 22 minutes each. There's a play all option so you can watch 5 episodes at a time as 1 presentation.
Chapter divisions are important to me with something like this. Why? Each episode is comprised of many segments (skits, songs, short jokes, etc.), and while I will sometimes watch everything other times I want to jump right to my favorite moments. The ability to get to those favorite moments quickly and easily is part of the charm of owning something like this on DVD. I want to see the Good Idea Bad Idea segment without watching "White Gloves" (not one of my favorite skits). With a chapter stop I can skip right to the one I want to see, without one I have to manually scan as with a VHS tape.
This set has better chapter placement than most similar TV shows I've seen, but what’s annoying is that they are inconsistent. Sometimes the chapters follow the show divisions, and then sometimes there will be multiple segments on a single chapter. Without typing up a reference list or having a really good memory you don’t really have a way of knowing if jumping to the next chapter will skip past something you actually wanted to see. If they had done all of these chapter divisions right I would have been really impressed.