Customer Reviews

Animaniacs, Vol. 1

5 star:		(98)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A lot of people remember "Animaniacs," but not many people remember how popular it once was. In 1993, the year these episodes appeared on the Fox network, "Animaniacs" was the most popular cartoon on that network, and one of the most-watched cartoons on TV. It had a cult following like few other shows of its time; alt.tv.animaniacs was one of the most densely-populated groups on usenet. Adult and college-age viewers loved "Animaniacs" as much as, if not more than, the little kids; the obscure cultural references, double entendres, and good solid cartoon violence made it even more fun for an older audience.

Well, that was 1993, and over a decade later, how does this show hold up? Very, very well. All the things that made it so popular in 1993 -- the great lines, the imaginative visuals, the music (with the late Richard Stone leading a full orchestra, no computer-generated music allowed), the voices, the cultural references, the violence -- still work today. The anthology format, with each episode consisting of a mix of different characters and segments, gives the show a richness and variety that most cartoon shows don't have. And the characters are still as funny as they were in 1993: the Marx-Brothers-inspired Yakko, Wakko and Dot; elderly, amoral cartoon star Slappy Squirrel; Chicken Boo, the giant chicken forever passing for a human; and world-domination-seeking lab mice Pinky and the Brain (whose spinoff series is also available on DVD, separately).

The first DVD set contains the first 25 episodes of the series, out of a total of 99; if it sells well, three more volumes will be released. It includes some of the show's very best segments, like the encounters with Paul Rugg's Jerry Lewis parody "Mr. Director"; or Slappy trying to prove to her nephew that "nobody ever dies in cartoons" in the short "Bumbie's Mom"; or the elaborate mini-musical "Les Miseranimals"; or the Warner Brothers (and the Warner sister) helping Michelangelo "paint naked people all over a church." Plus the famous song sequence with all (or most) of the nations of the world set to the "Mexican Hat Dance."

Yeah, it's a not really a full first season, but the first 25 half-hour shows is still a big number for a 5-disc set! I just can't wait to buy this for my siblings, because I loved the show as a kid, and nowadays, I still appreciate the zany Looney Tunes-esque slapstick antics, solid art style, and great voice-acting.

As listed on tvshowsondvd.com, the first 25 episodes are:

1. De-Zanitized, The Monkey Song, Nighty Night Toon
2. Yakko's World, Cookies For Einstein, Win Big
3. HMS Yakko, Slappy Goes Walnuts, Yakko's Universe Song
4. Hooked on a Ceiling, Good Feathers (pilot episode)
5. Taming of the Screwy
6. Flipper Parody, Temporary Insanity, Operation Lollipop, What are We?
7. Piano Rag, When Rita Met Runt
8. The Warner's Lot Song, The Big Candy Store, Bumbie's Mom
9. Wally Llama, Where Rodents Dare
10. King Yakko
11. No Pain, No Painting, Les Miseranimals
12. Garage Sale of the Century, West Side Pigeons
13. Hello Nice Warners, La Behemoth, Little Old Slappy From Pasadena
14. La La Law, Cat On a Hot Steel Beam
15. Space Probed, Battle For the Planet
16. Chalkboard Bungle, Hooray for Slappy, The Great Wakkoroti: The Master & His Music
17. Roll over Beethoven, The Cat and the Fiddle
18. Pavlov's Mice, Chicken Boo-Rhyshnikov, Nothing But the Tooth
19. Meatballs or Consequences, A Moving Experience
20. Hitchcock Opening, Hearts of Twilight; The Boids
21. The Flame, Wakko's America Song, Davey Omelette, Four Score and Seven Migraines Ago
22. Guardin' the Garden, Plane Pals
23. Be Careful What You Eat, Up the Crazy River, Ta Da Dump
24. Yakko's World of Baldness, Oppurtunity Knox, Wings Take Heart
25. Disasterpiece Theatre, Hercule Yakko, Home On The Nile, A Midsummer Night's Dream

In addition, you'll also get the extra: "Animaniacs Live!" where Maurice LaMarche, voice of Brain, along with Animaniac friends comment on the facts of Steven Spielberg's show. The audio, too, is presented in Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound--can't wait to hear the theme song blasting through my Kenwood reciever system!

I had waited a long time for this. What's really good to see is how well the material holds up over time. Just like the classic Bugs Bunny cartoons from the 40's, these work on so many levels. The innuendo, the cultural references, the style...it's all timeless. I've made it my mission to introduce my wife to the series and this was the perfect way (replacing the VHS copies I made from the shows original airing). This series was the perfect example of what to do "right" with an animated series. It's true not all the characters worked well (the one joke Katie Ka-Boom, Favio and Marita) but the show had enough variety to make it interesting. You never knew what you were going to see from show to show. One one episode you may see the Warners at the height of zany, and the next you'd be touched on your heartstrings by the tale of some wrapping paper and it's journey through the world. It's was completely unpredictable and that was refreshing. Most cartoons today are predictable and bland. The unique factor that made Animaniacs work so well was it's ability to take us on strange and wonderful trips. The non-sequiter facet of the humor provided a great springboard for satire and parody. Characters like Chicken Boo are a perfect example of this. I actually owned a rat (white of course) and everyday it tried to escape from its cage, just like Pinky and the Brain. Basically we all wish we had a bit of the Warners in us. This collection, I hope, will be the first in a complete treasury that will continue to bring us to stranger places and beyond.

"Spartan" is the word that comes to mind when I think of this release. While the 5-disc set faithfully captures many of the first episodes of Animaniacs, it is lacking in many (or any) of the features that consumers have come to expect with DVD releases of TV shows. When you buy this set, you get the TV show, and that's all. No audio commentary. No musical features. No unreleased material. No outtakes. The only treat is a 30 minute interview with the major voice actors, and that segment feels awkward and poorly produced.

I was very excited to learn of this DVD, and I'm not sad that I bought it. However, it is evident that WB released this DVD just to see if there was a market for it. I hope that future Animaniacs releases are forthcoming, and that they reward fans with those goodies that we have come to expect from TV-to-DVD releases.

I was older when this show came out (I was a junior in High School), but I absolutely loved it! I remember hurrying home so I could watch it before I went to work, and have many episodes on grainy VHS tapes from the many times I had to work early and was forced to miss it!

That being said, I found my VHS tapes a little less than a year ago and decided to watch them. Was the show as awesome as I remembered or had I been all nostalgic about a show that, as a 28 year old, I would think was lame?

Not in the slightest! While there are definitely some characters that are irritating, they are the same ones that were irritating to me when the show was new. (The Hip Hippos and Katie KaBoom being foremost in my mind)

Animaniacs is witty and cutting, fun and completely crazy. The song bits are wonderful and the Wakko's America song is still the only reason I know that Columbus is the capital of Ohio! ;) They poke fun at a broad range of people, movies, TV shows....well, they really poke fun of everything! From the hilarious "Potty Emergency" episode (who can't relate to Wakko's plight in that one?) to the painting of the Sistine Chapel, Yakko Wakko and Dot were consistantly funny, occasionally raunchy (but in only the most subtle of ways). Many of the jokes go completely over the heads of small children, but there is enough slapstick to keep them entertained.

13 years later the show is FINALLY being released on DVD and it is about time! Now, if Tiny Toons could just get the same treatment!

Quality Cartoons are sadly a thing of the past. Today's youth suffer the misfortune of cartoons that are sarcastic, ugly, and "supposedly hip".
Animaniacs was one of the last of the "classic" cartoons which carried on in the tradition of looney tunes, disney and a dash of The Simpsons (without overdoing it). The actual animation is round and curvy, as compared to the jagged straight style of today, and the characters are classically insane. The ensemble cast gives a great format to the show, mixing it up enough to keep your interest no matter which cartoon team is the focus of each episode (although the Warners appear in every episode, but that is a good thing!).

The DVD release contains everything I need, being a pristine collection of the first volume of episodes. The special features are limited but really, it's the show you want, so that's what counts.

This is an excellent series and one of the best cartoons ever made in our generation. If you like spoofs, wise-cracking humor, silliness, and cute little furry creatures, you'll love this series.

This is the first volume of a scheduled 4 volume set. The second volume is scheduled to come out sometime between November and January along with the second volume of Pinky & the Brain. I don't know if the volumes will have all the episodes made, but it should make an excellent collection either way.

There really aren't that many bonus features. A little dissapointing, but I didn't buy the collection for bonus features anyway. It's the cartoons that matter, but it would be nice to have more features in future volumes.

The digital transfer of the picture is something I can't quite figure out. When playing on my traditional DVD and TV, the picture quality is excellent. However, when playing the DVD on my computer (which I usually watch movies on my computer), the picture looks horrible, even wavy. I've not experienced this poor quality with any other DVDs or series', so I conclude that it has to do with a certain type of digital transferring technology the studio used with this series. Just thought I'd warn you. For this reason, I give the DVD set 4 stars, but definately 5 stars to the cartoons themselves.

Animaniacs was probably the last kind of cartoon that appealed to all ages without having to resort to being overly stupid with their jokes and writing like other shows (er-hem: Spongebob). And the first season has everything that Animaniacs fans young and old will remember; I'm sure even the casual viewers of the show remember its infamous states and countries soungs.

But, as most other reviewers on this site have mentioned, Animaniacs was often very hit and miss with its writing. The main thing attributing to this problem was that there were just so many chracters with minisodes of their own that were so different (yet, subtley similar) to each other. Then again, with this show finally getting a DVD release, the magic of the "next" button fixes any problems if you just despise some of the show's erm... shows (for me, this would be those two Hippos with the accents; you can only go so far with fat jokes!).

Now, for the actual DVD content. Surprisingly enough, the discs were released in what some may call "fold-out-book" format (like those "Friends" boxed sets), as opposed to the thin discs (which tend to take up more room on your shelf) as most cartoons sets have been released in outside of your superhero cartoon sets. Oddly enough, only WB cartoon shows have been releasing their "old" cartoon shows like this, which is disappointing, since the "FOB" format is way nicer than the thin disc releases. Like other sets, the episodes on each disc are listed on the menu as well as the flaps of the actual set.

Also, outside of the previews in the extras section, there's no other self promotion like slips of ads put in the package or commercials for other sets being inserted right before the DVD menu, which is convenient. Sadly, there's only one real extra-- the interview with the cast of the show, which is as long as an episode of the show (like 25 minutes). Though as short as the collective interviews were, I enjoyed hearing how the cast originally worked on past shows like Tony Toons and Tazmania before working on said show. Strangely, this special is put on the third disc, not the first or last, but whatever.

So to wrap things up, Animaniacs was a hit or miss show, but was a hit for the most part, which is most likely why it was given such a great release, unlike other shows like Inspector Gadget, which can only be found in online stores, and only if you're aware of its release in the first place!

Like most of you I grew up watching the Warners. I came home after school and couldn't be bothered until it was over. I still remember that I watched the first episode and decided it was a hit. Much like the Office now.
I have only watched the first two disks but they are even better than I dreamed. Now that I am older and understand the jokes in even more depth I can't help but smile at the fact that they finally let this DVD happen. Two Thumbs Way Up! Now let's get the rest of the episodes out there.

I am so thrilled that WB has finnally released this hilarious and smart show on DVD. Animaniacs has enough wacky antics to keep younger kids interested, and enough witty dialogue and pop references to keep older kids and adults in stiches. I grew up watching this show (in my late teens) and cant wait to get my hands on this DVD. The shorts between cartoons (like "Good idea, Bad idea") are insanely funny and anytime the characters break into song you are in for a treat! If you have never seen this show, but love cartoons, this is definitly for you. You will wonder how you ever existed w/o the Warner's and company.