“Initially the mandate from Steven was, 'I want 'Animaniacs' to be quoted in the Huffington Post for its political outrageousness.' Knowing that it was 2018 and we were writing episodes that weren’t going to air until 2020, it was really hard to be that topical politically,” says Wild. The original audience for the show was 75% kids and 25% adults, and although they’re aiming for the same ratio, the current news climate makes the political jokes feel much more barbed. In the '90s, that meant skewering Bill Clinton’s sax solos and gags about the deficit that I still don’t really understand, but 2020 offers a unique challenge.

Then to remind you that this is indeed a cartoon, Dot smashes her brothers with an oversized mallet.Īnother element that played to both kids and adults was the show’s sly political references. “But not so modern that you alienate the dads, because they’re still a key part of our demographic,” says Yakko. “But modern, to show that we’re not your dad’s ‘Animaniacs,’” says Wakko. “Maybe something reminiscent of the first season?” says Yakko. That tradition continues in the first scene of the new season, in which the Warner bros and sister Dot (get it?) discuss how much pressure they’re under to deliver killer first lines after 20 years off the air. It may have been the first instance I saw of a show breaking the fourth wall, speaking directly to the audience to acknowledge that this is indeed a TV show, with gags about their contracts and the Fox network executives. Part of what sets “Animaniacs” apart from other kids shows was its self-awareness. RELATED: 'Teenage Bounty Hunters' on Netflix is the wokest comedy of the summer Just the subtlest things, so many things that the audience isn’t thinking about, but he’s thinking about,” says Wild, speaking of cinematic language like “blocking,” referring to how characters enter a scene. “He just has an eye that no one else sees. The film director polish is part of what makes it one of the densest kids shows ever made, with nearly every sentence of dialogue including a pun and each frame featuring a visual gag. “He’s our North Star,” adds Gabe Swarr, co-executive producer. He’s the steadiest leveler of our tone, he determines our tone,” says Wellesley Wild, showrunner and executive producer. “He read every single outline, script, he looked at the storyboards, everything. Now rebooted by Hulu, Spielberg still has his name over the logo and just as much influence.

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