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The NEW ANIMANIACS CULTURAL REFERENCES GUIDE (NACRG)
Version 6.0 as of January 8, 2000, covers Shows #70 - #99 & Wakko's Wish
Edited by Suzanne Smiley aka: Wakkanne Warner --wakkanne@hotmail.com--
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***DISCLAIMERS***
The information presented in this document is in good faith, believed to be
correct. Be advised, however, that the editor has not necessarily verified
the accuracy of all appearing information. Use the info in this document at
your own risk!
Animaniacs, characters, names, and all related indica are trademarks of
Warner Bros. (and their sister), copyright 1993-1998. No challenge to
ownership is intended or implied.
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***THE INTRO***
For some time, I've wanted to maintain an a.t.a. document, and I've been
dying to make a more updated version of the CRGA. Well, why not? I don't
mind taking the baton. It's set up very similarly to the original CRGA, but
I'm calling it the "New Animaniacs Cultural References Guide" (NACRG). It
covers the episodes airing on the WB network from show #70 to the present.
Updates are always being made.
As in the original CRGA, started by Will Bell, this document will be a
compilation of all those obscure jokes, mentionable sight gags, and more
that the terrific program, "Animaniacs", continues to throw our way.
Please don't be offended if you find any references which seem TOO OBVIOUS.
After all, the definition of "obvious" varies from one person to the next.
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***SYMBOL GUIDE*** (Ya oughta know the drill by now)
+ I'm 100% sure of the it's origin.
0 I believe it to be correct, although it hasn't been confirmed
? I'm not sure about this and would like some confirmation.
- Simply some random thought.
= There are direct associations between two things.
DYN "Did You Notice". Usually referring to some obscure sight gag
Nit If there's something to nit-pick about, it'll be here.
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***CONTRIBUTERS***
All contributors have their initials after each of their submissions.
Credit is given to the first person who has me realize the reference. A
list of contributors' full names along with their email addresses (if
available) can be found at the end of this document. (SS) means that I
"discovered" it. Numerous initials signify a collaborated effort or an
additional comment to an existing one. Nothing means that either it's been
mentioned by many or I have felt it so obvious, I didn't want to claim it
myself.
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***BACKGROUND***
- The three Warner Brothers who would have been alive after 1927 were
Jack (chief of production) Harry (president of the studio) and
Albert (treasurer). There was a fourth brother, Sam, who died in
1927. (EOC)
- "Bill Clinton" no longer "plays the sax" (though he still might)
and they no longer have "wisecracks by the stacks" (though they
certainly do.) In the new version of the theme song, the lyric
after "Wakko packs away the snacks" is "We pay tons of income tax".
+ Nathan Ruegger is still doing Skippy Squirrel, Slappy's young
nephew...but his voice has been pitched upward 5%. (He's getting
older, and his voice is changing...) The intent is to have the
voice be closer to the one in "Slappy Goes Walnuts". (JM)
+ [Katharine Page is] still at WBA, just in a slightly different
place. She's now Jean MacCurdy's assistant while not busy guarding
WBA from hordes of invading a.t.aers. (BD)
- About the episode number now included in the credits: "I'd off-
handedly commented at Animania IV that some sort of identification
should be put in the episodes. I have no idea if that comment was
even heard, or had anything to do with this. Makes me wonder,
though..." (BD)
- The truth behind "Helloooo, Nurse!": Years ago, Tom Ruegger was
asked by Steven Spielberg to come up with new Warner Brothers
cartoons. Ruegger invented "Tiny Toons," and the first character
he came up with was Buster Bunny, who was to be the new Bugs. He
wanted to come up with a new version of Bugs Bunny's famous catch
phrase "What's up, Doc?" but all he could come up with was "Hello
Nurse!" It just didn't make any sense for Buster to say "Hello
Nurse," so the whole idea was dropped. Years later, Ruegger was
once again asked by Spielberg to come up with new Warner Brothers
cartoons, only this time completely original. Ruegger invented
"Animaniacs," and finally found a use for "Hello Nurse." (MD)
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And Now, Without Further Ado, The NACRG!!!!
***Show #70***
"Super Strong Warner Siblings" ---
+ Wonderful parody of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. A very nice
parody on that show's stilted dialogue. The oddly rushed speech
patterns of the villains come from the MMPR practice of taking footage
originally shot in Japanese and dubbing American voices. (MB, JW)
+ Bogus rock music. Obvious parody of not only the Rock Vibe that
The Mighty RAW got started on MMPR, but a general satire of other
shows doing that. The falling/rising chords is a big show of this.
Funny lyrics too, "Hey, Hey, Super Sibs," in ref to the MMPR theme.
(DL)
+ Nerdy Grey Warriors. These specs wearing long-john'ed folk are the
highlight of this bit with their off-the-wall zany Karate moves.
Listen for the over-emphasized karate-chop "swoosh"ing sound
effects. Also... notice their zombie-eyes are red; a direct pull
from the Putty's red eyes in MMPR. (DL)
- They manage to get away from "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" mild
racism. MMPR put the African-American in black, the valley girl
in pink, and the Asian in yellow. SSWS has Yakko in blue, Wakko is
red, and Dot in yellow... A very nice comment on MMPR, if it was
done on purpose. (JW)
+ Witch in mountain on moon with terrible voice is Rita Repulsa. The
big pig with the husky-voice was a cross between Mordant (who's
only in the movie...he's the body) and Goldar (attitude and voice).
The guy in the professor's outfit with the green glasses was a
Finster ripoff. (DL, JS)
Nit Rita doesn't make monsters from preexisting creatures. Finster was
her monster maker (which he sorta did here). Lord Zedd is the one
who would zap something to make it a monster. (JS)
0 "Rita's" scepter looks just like the wand Sailor Moon uses... a
crescent moon shape with a crystal (Red in Super Sibs, white for
Sailor Moon) on it. This might be a coincidence, but then again...
(KJT Dot, SC)
0 Flying WB Shield. This is an entirely unrelated reference to the
original 1960's Batman series. (DL)
0 Center For Advanced Mathematics. Anyone who's taken the time to
notice will find that the Rangers happen to be the most brilliant
in the city (also, the most physically agile). So, accordingly, the
Warners are teaching advanced mathematics to college professors; how
quaint. (DL)
- The equation they solve is X^2 + 2X - 15, natural root being 3 & -5.
Does this hold any meaning to anyone else? (BJ)
+ Beeping WB wrist-watch pagers have "WB" written in lightening
letters on their pagers just like how "Power Rangers" is written
on MMPR's wrist communicators. (DL)
+ Dr. Otto Van "Zordon" Scratchansniff. This was a great opportunity
to play upon the funny stuff that would be Zordon's head-tube. (DL, JW)
+ "What's wrong with your mouth?" This is a ref to the fact that on
MMPR, there's only a tiny amount of actual Zordon footage. The reason
Zordon's (and, by parodial extension, Scratchy's) mouth is fuzzy is
because they have to use that tiny bit of footage for everything Zordon
ever says. (BL)
+ When the large bug first falls backward and trashes a building, the
building is the headquarters for Saban Entertainment (The company
that does MMPR) This building, while not on the WB lot, is just a
few blocks away. (RW)
+ On the super sibs' exaggerated gestures: The costumes aren't made
for talking, so when someone is talking or something, s/he makes
really exaggerated movements to show who s/he is. (JEO)
? The Warners shout 'Tower of Power' right before they jump into the
tower-zord. Tower of Power is a legendary jazz/pop band, dating
back at least to the early 70's, and still going strong today.
(The Rizz)
+ The WaterTowerMegaZord. That was the most excellent idea. :) This
also looks a lot like the movie. (DL, JW, LC)
- The funniest part of this episode (when I and the Animania IV gang
viewed it) was when the conference table was taken away... because
we were sitting at that table at the time (or at least a table just
like it, since we were at WBA in Sherman Oaks, rather than at Warner
Bros. in Burbank. But hey, they can fudge; it's a cartoon!) (RO)
+ Glass-jar sound when they take off their helmets; the trend of the
2nd season is found out fast. (DL)
- Finally, the issue of all that property damage in MMPR is addressed!
(JS)
"Nutcracker Slappy" ---
+ The music is the well known Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker
Suite". (DG, MB)
- Pieces of the ballet that were used include a snippet of "The
March" (from the first act) played over the title card, a good chunk
of "Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy", then all of "Dance of the
Flutes", "Chinese Dance", and "Trepak". (RD)
+ This short is directed by Charlton "Baynarts" Woodchuck, who first
appeared on "Hollywoodchuck". (DG, RW)
0 "I Can't Dance, Don't Ask Me" is a song from the 30s or 40s. Not
sure whether it's by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, or George and Ira
Gershwin. (MB)
0 Charlton mentions, "It's in my contract that when I got old enough,
I could direct" I think it refers to Ron Howard, former child star
and director extrordinaire...and Slappy does look suspiciously like
Steven Spielberg... (BC, DG)
+ When Slappy attacks the walnut with the knife, it's straight out of
the Hitchcock movie Psycho, complete with screaming violins. (JM)
0 The quick bit where Slappy is behind the tree and peeking out at the
frog owes an awful lot to Fantasia. (Jon)
- The vehicles used to try and run over the nut: skateboard, tricycle,
(Skippy runs over the walnut with a Marx Big Wheel, a staple of any
kid who grew up in the '70's.), bicycle, Model T or A Ford (those
old cars always throw me), Jeep, Cadilac convertible, Acme Van,
"Express" Bus, Steam roller, Tank, (The plane Slappy uses looks
suprisingly like the "Yellow Peril", which was a W.W.II trainer.
The thing that has me puzzled is that Skippy was in back, and if my
memory serves me, the rear seat on most biplanes was were the pilot
sat.) (BJ)
+ The "Walnut Cluster Bomb" that Slappy drops combines "Walnut
Cluster", a type of candy, with "Cluster Bomb", a type of weapon.
(MB)
Nit The direction of the lettering on the bomb changed between the shot
where Skippy pulls the bomb out of the plane, and the next one,
where he drops it? (ASL)
0 Later, Slappy calls Charlton "Von Stroheim" referring to famed German
director, Eric Von Stroheim. (NV)
- One complaint about this cartoon, too: It assumes people actually
had the stomach to sit through Hollywoodchuck... (JM)
"Wakko's New Gookie" ---
+ Wakko is interviewed by a parody of CNN's Larry King. (DG)
+ The two people who called into the Larry Kling Live show are the
same two people who called Howie Tern in "Morning Malaise." Some
people just have no lives, ya know? (JW)
0 Was it just me, or did one of his new gookies look a lot like Ren
of Ren & Stimpy? (Egg)
- The people Wakko consults include Kirk Douglas (still in costume
and on the set from "Hooked On A Ceiling"), Bob Hope, Katherine
Hepburn, and Larry King. (MB)
+ Charlie Callas (to whom Bob Hope referred) is a comedian (at least
its what some people claim) who has been around for many years,
although not much lately. He had bit parts in at least three Mel
Brooks films ("History Of The World - Part I," "High Anxiety" and
"Silent Movie"). He also had a bit in the film "Amazon Women on the
Moon." (RN)
+ The "Spencer" that [Hepburn] kept referring to was Spencer Tracy,
with whom she starred in many films and with whom she had an off-
screen romance. In fact, Kate has talked about it on several
occasions. Interestingly, she would never marry him since she didn't
think it would be proper for her to marry a divorced man. Go fig.
(RN, NV)
0 The style of the set and the manner of reminiscing in the Hepburn
segment reminded me of the AMC series "Reflections Of The Silver
Screen", where stars from Hollywood's golden era talk about their
careers. The stars sit in nearly identical chairs and in the same
positions as in this short. (BC)
? Did the caller from Detroit really call it a "nookie"? (RD)
- Yakko's new catch phrases (transcribed by Rylan Hilman):
."Yessirreebobbaroonie!"
."Got any ham?"
."I feel so free!"
."Don't laugh, it's paid for."
."My eyes are burning!"
."I always wear cowboy boots."
."Looks like a pump, feels like a sneaker!"
Slogan for Easy Spirit shoes. For some reason, I have
no problem remembering a bunch of women play basketball
in high heels. Hmmmmmm. Is this something I should
worry about? If not, why not? (NV)
."Slap my fanny!" ("Steven won't like that one...")
"A Quake, A Quake" ---
+ According to Rob Paulsen, the lyrics on the CD were changed from
the animated ones to NOT include the specific history and geography.
(The animated lyrics were the original lyrics.) Rob also made some
uncomplimentary comments about the censors and this subject... (RW)
Nit The Northridge event (January 17, 1994 earthquake) was on a blind
thrust fault off the Frew Fault, not the San Andreas, and while
preliminary USGS reports listed it as magnitude 6.8, the human-
reviewed Mw magnitude of 6.7 is the generally accepted figure. The
entirety of Los Angeles rests on the Pacific Plate, which is an
oceanic, not continental plate. (BD, AV)
+ When Yakko says, "This is the city," he's imitating Jack Webb
(Dragnet). (RN)
DYN Mr. Director alarm clock in the watertower. He must make a vicious
alarm clock. (SS, BN)
DYN Wakko sleeping, sucking his thumb: Awwww! How cute! Dr.
Scratchansniff sleeping, sucking his thumb: Ewwwww! How sick!
Freud would have a field day with that one. (SS)
- After the quake begins, the Warners are bouncing throughout the
tower, Yakko on his bottom, Dot on her feet, and Wakko on his head.
(SS)
DYN When the sibs bounce past the fridge, it opens and Wakko grabs a
ham out of it. (SS)
DYN Again, while the Warners are bouncing, they pass two Warner Bros.
posters on the wall. One had a picture of feet the other, a title:
"Oh My Rash". The posters were both supposed to be from cartoons
Yakko, Wakko, & Dot did back in the 30's. First introduced in the
ep. "Temporary Insanity". (SS, JW)
+ Those are ink blot prints (like in the Rorschach tests) on Dr.
Scratchansniff's bedroom wall ... although not very good ones. (SS, JW)
+ This episode, along with #84 is the one that proves that Yakko is
left-handed. Well, at the very least it proves ambidexterity. Who
knows? Maybe -all- 'toons are ambidextrous. (JW)
? Then does this mean that Dot is left-handed too? Dressed as the
scientist, she writes with her left hand. However, in "Temporary
Insanity", she's drawing the pic of her and Mel with her right. Maybe
she's just ambidextrous. (SS)
Nit The plates are on top of, not between, the crustal mantle. (BN)
+ "We won't let it get us down/we're Californians," a very correct
take on the attitude of most native Californians to earthquakes. (JW)
- The original, animated line works so much better, and made me clap
in hysterics. "We won't let it get us down, Get beneath the door
frame" (from the rewritten CD version) doesn't work anywhere near
as well. That line made me laugh almost as much as I did the first
time I read the lyrics to this song, when, the very moment I read
the final word, there was a small earthquake here. Nature has a
great sense of comedic timing! (RO)
- Cameos in this short: Dr. Scratchansniff, Mindy & Buttons,
Pinky & Brain, Slappy, Flavio & Marita. (SS)
- The final scene has the frame filling with water. This is western
California falling into the sea after the big one. As one of the
catastrophic urban legends says... Thrust fault quakes such as the
Northridge quake actually build mountains, keeping Los Angeles
safely above sea level. What will actually occur is that the L.A.
area (and the entire western coast of California south of San
Francisco) will continue to slide to the northwest for many millions
of years, until Los Angeles directly adjoins San Francisco on the
southeast side. At that point, the land masses will separate, and
western California, with Baja California still attached will become
an island in the Pacific. They'll stay that way for many more
millions of years until they eventually crash into Alaska and get
subducted. (BD, RW)
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***Show#71***
"Variety Speak" ---
- I suddenly remembered hearing long ago of another planned-for-
theatrical-release short called "Variety Speak". I guess it ended
up not being chosen for the cinema. "The Ballad of Magellan"
recently was sent overseas to be animated, and it, too, is in
cinematic aspect ratio. (RO)
- Actually, this was originally written by Randy Rogel to be part of
a proposed-but-never-produced "Animaniacs" movie, the plot of which
was to center around the Warners arriving in Hollywood to make a
movie. So of course Wakko had to learn how to speak Varietese. Perhaps
the animation company used the original letterboxed storyboards, or
maybe they actually began production of it. Or maybe the nice folks
at WBA thought it would be cool. (EG)
- This would explain why "Variety Speak" & "Ballad of Magellan" are
both in letterbox format, just as "I'm Mad" which actually did make it
to the big screen. Hmm... Makes me also wonder about "Wakko's Two
Note Song", which was in that format as well. (SS)
+ "Variety" is the best known and most prominent newspaper covering
the entertainment industry. There are both daily and weekly
editions. (MB)
+ Wakko's soliloquy after Dot asks him to "Play Dead" is a ref to the
classic book and movie, "Little Caesar". It's a novel about a gangster
named Rico; at the end of the novel, Rico, says, "Mother of God, is
this the end of Rico?" In the movie, I believe the line was changed
to "Mother of Mercy." Edward G. Robinson starred. (RN)
+ When Dot says "speak," Wakko does the Richard Nixon "I am not a
crook" routine. (SS, DY)
+ The banner headline on Variety was "Hix Nix Pix", which is a ref to
the famous Variety headline, "Stix Nix Hix Pix" as seen in the 1946
WB musical, "Yankee Doodle Dandy", starring James Cagney. An aging
George M. Cohan (Cagney, in his favorite role) "translated" to a
bunch of "jive-talking" teenagers thus: "'Stix': Small towns; 'Nix':
Refuse; 'Hix': Rube; 'Pix': Pictures. 'Small towns refuse rube
pictures'; Stix nix hix pix." (JW, MrC)
+ This is sort of a reference in reverse. Spielberg makes an inside
joke in his new blockbuster. There's a movie poster in the video
store window in "The Lost World" that really DOES have
"Schwarzenegger doing 'King Lear'!" (SS)
+ At the mention of critics, Hiskel and Eggbert appear on the scene
(Siskel and Ebert knockoffs). (DY)
+ "Daville Studios" in background: Reference to Cooper DaVille from
Tiny Toon Adventures, I presume. (RO)
- We see a rack of polka-dot dresses from King Yakko. (RW)
+ "Lethal Weapon 5" splash screen in the backdrop for the next scene.
(DY)
+ "Disney's up a nickel a share"--M. Eisner shown playing in a pile
of money. (Dr Yakko)
+ "Stallone cuts deal for a major reel"-- Sly Stallone is planting
his Rocky gloves in the concrete outside the famous Chinese Theatre.
Other prints in the cement...Roy Rogers and Trigger (w/hoofprint),
Rita Hayworth (1 hand and high-heels), Fred Astaire, plus one Wakko's
sitting on. (DY)
+ "If you want the poop..." YW&D appear with Beethoven (the dog, not
the composer) (DY)
+ "Boffo smash makes Warner cash"--Batman appears with a cane on a
poster advertising "Batman XVIII". (DY)
+ "Oliver Stone...Home Alone"--Macaulay Culkin bounces out of the Home
Alone house, firing his machine gun madly. Oliver Stone appears in
scene. (DY)
+ "...the crowd that's chic..."--Taking place at the Oscars. (DY)
+ The conference room is the one at Warner Bros. Animation. That table
in the shape of the WB shield is much bigger than they show, though:
it's big enough to accommodate 20 people with no crowding. It's one
huge slab of marble. (JM)
"Three Tenors and You're Out" ---
+ Dodger Dogs are hot dogs plus various condiments and about $1.50.
(spurdy)
+ Right before they play the national anthem, YW&D (in silhouette)
run up and shake hands with the conductor (also in silhouette).
This is a ref to the Disney movie "Fantasia", Mickey's and the
conductor do the same. (Nnicole)
+ The Three Tenors are: Luciano Peperoni, Placido Domino, & Jose
Carumba, parodies of Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti and Spanish
tenors Placido Domingo & Jose Carreras. (DY, CLM, DG)
- During the nat'l anthem, we see: 1. Arnold Schwarzenegger and
Maria with baby (Arnold's in his French maid's apron). 2. George
and Babs Bush with Candace Bergen (Candace drops the famous
"Sprint pin" from the commercial, and is carrying her baby from
Murphy Brown, who, incidentally, is waving a "Quayle" banner.
Kudos to Odosbucket for figuring this one out solo.) (DY)
+ Clint Eastwood, starring as the Secret Service agent from the
movie "In The Line Of Fire." (RN)
0 The actual date when Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti appeared at
Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles was July 16, 1994. (RN)
+ Slappy sez one of the "umps" is related to Shamu, referring to
the Sea World orca. (DY)
0 Slappy yells at Pepperoni to "get back on that Slim-Fast diet",
a ref to Tommy Lasorda's series of Slim-Fast diet commercials. (DY)
+ Slappy tells the crowd to "put a salary cap on it", which was
likely a poke at the baseball strike/lockout. The strike lasted
from 8/12/94 - 4/2/95, but will probably be remembered as the 1994
strike. A salary cap is the most that a single player can be paid,
or that a team can pay its players total. This was much of the
reason for the strike. (DY, BD, spurdy)
- Broken Slurpee machines really do make that noise. They spray a
little bit of Slurpee, but mostly a lot of air, producing a hiss.
(spurdy)
+ One of the tenors' songs is set to the tune of the Dance of the
Hours from "La Gioconda" by Amilcare Ponchielli. (RO)
0 I have no idea why they were wearing the clown costumes, which
are for Verdi's "Pagliacci", while singing the list of baseball
players to the tune of the "Toreador Song" from the opera "Carmen"
by Georges Bizet. (MB, RW)
- The Alou brothers were Felipe, Matty, and Jesus; all played from
the early-mid 60's to the mid-late 70's. At one time, all three
played in the San Francisco Giants' outfield. Moises is Felipe's
son, and plays outfield for the Montreal Expos. Felipe manages the
Expos. (AV)
+ The "Hoy-ya-ta-ho" song is "The Flight of the Valkyries" from
Wagner's opera cycle, "The Ring of the Nibelung"(sp?). That's an
odd choice for tenors, since the Valkyries who sing it are sopranos,
and, of course, female. (MB)
+ "Slippin' On The Ice" was first sung by the Warners as the cold
opening for Animaniacs Episode 50. Here, Slappy is driving a
Zamboni, a machine used to smooth the ice in skating and hockey
rinks. (HB, MB)
+ During the channel changer bit, we see Droopy Dog in a clip from
"Northwest Hounded Police", MGM, directed by Tex Avery (one of the
classics), the intro to the Andy Griffith show, and a short bit
from the Yankees game. We note that when the runner is "safe", only
the men stand and cheer. The women look very bored. (GL, DY)
Nit The baseball announcer makes a surprising error, he said the
runner was sliding into second. That was clearly home plate. And
when the US flag is raised, it only has 28 stars. (probably due to
the difficulty of trying to draw 50 stars and making it look right).
(BNorm)
Nit The baseball scene on the scoreboard is riddled with continuity and
animation errors. In early shots, home plate is depicted as a bag
like 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. In a later shot, it's correctly shown as a
pentagonal plate, but facing the wrong direction, with the point
facing the pitcher instead of the catcher. You'd think the animators
would be paying attention each time Taiwan crushes the U.S. in the
Little League World Series... (BD)
0 The organ that comes out of the ground with Skippy playing is an
exaggerated version of the kinds of organs found at baseball stadiums,
and sounds like it too. You'd *never* use one of those at a
classical concert. The organ has a large "O" on it, but otherwise
resembles the organ from "Take My Siblings, Please", which had an "N"
for Nemo, although was misanimated at one point to have an "M". I
predict the next organ we see will have a "P" on it... (MB, BD)
+ Skippy: "They're heee-eeere", backed by an eerie light. A take
on "Poltergeist". (DY)
0 The entire spaceship and music routine is taken from "Close
Encounters of the Third Kind". Slappy is sitting in the spaceship
with Steven Spielberg. (DY)
0 Many have noted the riff on CEotTK - but it seemed to me this
was also a ref to the closing of the Summer Olympics in L.A. several
years ago. I seem to recall that at the closing ceremonies, they
staged a visit from a flying saucer. The saucer was a decorated
blimp, and there was a big light show. (RN)
0 Slappy's final sportscaster bit (the hat, the "Holy cow, he's
outta here!") is a reference to Chicago sportscaster Harry Carey.
The voice however, was more like Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto (Yankee
ex-player/broadcaster/legend). And somebody put out a book of
Rizzuto's on-air ramblings, rearranged to look like free verse,
entitled *O Holy Cow!* As for that hat, could it possibly be a
ref to the radar gun operator at Dodger Stadium? When they show
the batter from the center field camera he is always there behind
the screen with the gun. He always has on that same white hat
also. (MB, JS, Ucalegon, BJ)
"Bingo" ---
- The attendees of Animania IV were present for the scoring
session of this episode. (RW)
- The Doctor is apparently 50-ish. (JW)
+ Some of the numbers Wakko claims to get Bingo from are impossible
on a real Bingo card, of course. (O9, N4, G10...) (RO)
+ Dr. SnS says I-30 which Wakko interprets to be I'm thirsty
(with a bad lisp), Wakko hands Dr. SnS an Abyss Boy. This is the
same drink Wakko had in "Potty Emergency". (BNorm, JW)
0 The prize box at the end reads "Das Prizes". It's a German thing.
All nouns have a gender-specific version of "The" that goes with
them. But actually "Die" is the proper article. Since "prizes" is
a plural it would following the rule that all plurals in German
take the article "Die" in the nominative case. Whew! Getting
mighty close to Grammar Anality there. (RW, NV)
"Finale" ---
- Animaniacs theme, as interpreted by The Three Tenors.
+ Variable Verse: "Spaghetti Stain-y" (DY)
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***Show #72***
Previously On Animaniacs
- The fact that none of these scenes has anything to do with anything
ever aired on the show should be of little concern.
0 Very similar to the "Previously on..." parodies that Conan O'Brien
occasionally does. Yes, I realize that he by no means invented the
format, but take a look at it. His parodies are very similar to what
we saw here. (BD)
- This short been broken into its component parts for discussion...
(thanks Jonathan Woodward for posting the scenes in order.)
.Plotz & Yakko, "Yakko, it's insane!"
- Based on Yakko's gear, possibly Cliffhanger. (MB)
.Wakko & Dot, "It's big, and it's headed right for us!"
- "The Abyss"
.Charlton Heston, "Oh... my... BOOM!" (War Room)
- The man saying "Oh, my" is Charlton Heston, perhaps
to make up for snubbing him in "Hooked On A
Ceiling". :) (MB)
.Scratchy, "I don't think I love you."
- Donald Sutherland said that line to Mary Tyler
Moore at the end of "Ordinary People". (MB)
.Warners, "It's gotten to the blood."
- From John Carpenter's remake of The Thing (since the
original film omitted this aspect of Campbell's
story.) (BM)
.Wakko & Babe, "I'll hit one out of the park."
- "Don't worry kid, I'm gonna hit a ball right out of
the park just for you." William Bendix as Babe Ruth
in "The Babe Ruth Story". Or possibly John Goodman
in the more recent "The Babe". Ruth once promised
to hit a ball out of the park for a dying/sick
child. (JW, MB)
.Charlton Heston, "Oh... my... BOOM!" #2 (Boat)
- Gray Lady Down (BM)
.Scratchy & Yakko, "We're losing altitude!"
.Plotz, "I sentence you to life imprisonment!"
- The Shawshank Redemption (MB)
.Charlton Heston, "Oh... my... BOOM!" #3 (Helicopter)
- The Omega Man (BM)
.Wakko, woman putting on stocking
- Anne Bancroft seducing Dustin Hoffman in "The
Graduate". (MB, JW)
.Yakko, "No, you're out of order!"
+ "You're out of order" is Al Pacino (...And Justice
For All)...and "Don't ya see?" is Jimmy Stewart
(Mr. Smith Goes To Washington). Yakko's specialty?
Two references at once! (SC)
.Tower blows up, "We'll rebuild!"
- Possibly based on an old cliché; one of the most
famous uses was at the end of the film San Francisco,
when Clark Gable and others say they're going to build
a new San Francisco after the great earthquake and
fire. (RN)
"Deduces Wild" ---
+ The title is a pun on "deuces wild", a term used in card games,
especially poker, when deuces (2s) can be used as any card. (MB)
+ Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and their housekeeper are from the
stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. All the basic Holmesian "facts" are
correct -- they supposedly lived at 221B Baker St., London, Holmes
played the violin, and so forth. (MB)
+ The classical piece Sherlock Holmes was playing on the violin was
"Minuet in A." by Luigi Boccherini. (RO)
+ Mariachi = Professor Moriarity; obviously, Holmes long time nemesis.
(BC)
+ Mariachi is the name of Mexico's best known typical orchestra, and
also the name given to its musicians. He wears Mariachi jacket and hat.
(DG)
- "El Mariachi", a movie produced in Mexico with a ridiculously low
budget, that became quite popular. This director also did "Desperado"
starring Antonio Banderas playing the same character. (ND)
+ "Flip over all the cards...": "What's My Line", an early TV game
show, where celebrity panelists asked yes/no questions to help them
guess what the contestant did for a living. The flip cards were used
to keep track of how many questions the panelists had left, and were
all flipped when someone guessed right. (MB)
+ The prize for winning the scavenger hunt was a guest shot on
"Baywatch". "Baywatch" is a popular syndicated lifeguard drama,
whose main appeal is lots of good-looking people in skimpy swimsuits.
(MB, SS)
+ When the Warners pop out of the closet and yell, "DISGUISE!!!",
Dot is dressed as an astronaut, Wakko a surgeon, and Yakko,
@@@@@@@@hhh...a nun. (SS)
- The things on the Warner's scavenger hunt list:
.used dental floss -
.a yam shaped like Elvis' dad Vernon -
.Prince Albert in a can - From the famous prank phone
call. "Prince Albert" is a brand of pipe tobacco.
The idea was to call a tobacconist shop, ask if
they had Prince Albert in a can, and if the
answer was yes, say, "Then let him out!" and hang
up. (RW, MB)
.Princess Di in a leotard - ref to one of the British
tabloids' pictures of Di in a leotard that they
obtained by monitoring a camera in a health club
where she was working out. The picture was somewhat
revealing and quite unflattering. The tabloid was
sued successfully. (BD, KM)
.Prince Charles in a tabloid - ref to all the controversy
over the break-up of the world's "perfect" couple.
After recent events, though, this will most likely
be the last Charles/Di jokes we'll be hearing.
.A happy postal worker - Here in the US, postal workers
have had some bad press for being disgruntled and
shooting co-workers. (RW)
.Edible fruitcake - The notion that fruitcake, a
traditional Christmas gift, is inedible has been a
joke for decades.
.a funny episode of "Bonkers" - They continue to poke fun
of the Disney cartoon, "Bonkers", which premiered
the same week as Animaniacs did.
.7 swans a swimming, 6 geese a laying, 5 golden rings, 4
calling birds, 3 french hens, 2 turtle doves, a partridge
in a pear tree - ref to the song "12 Days of Christmas.
.maltese falcon - From the Bogart movie of the same name,
this was a valuable statue of a bird that everyone
was chasing after.
.lock of Yul Brenner's hair (the guy was famous for being
bald! ex: "The King and I")
.Burt Ward's career - ("Can't find it.") Ward played Robin
on the 60s TV version of Batman, and hasn't done
anything since.
.bowling pins
.batteries - Wakko throws out the Energizer Bunny
.the Lusitania - British liner, carrying some American
passengers sunk by German U-boats in 1915. It was
also carrying armaments to England. Used as a
rallying point to bring the U.S. into WWI. (BD)
.Marlon Brando - He's in there, really" (aka: the
Godfather) Wakko's inability to get him out of the
sack, especially after pulling out an entire ocean
liner, is a fat joke, since Brando has gained a lot
of weight over the years.
.railroad ties
.the odd pair of ladies nickers - "Knickers" is a british
term for women's underwear, and yes, the Victorian
version did look like that.
.a fat chubby sidekick with a curly mustache - ref, of
course, to Sherlock's Dr. Watson.
DYN The return of 'Two paddleballs at once!' (from "Hearts Of Twilight")
(BN)
DYN Dot's magazine is Modern Dot (Modern Toon would've been funnier)
(BC)
+ After Holmes yells for quiet, the instrument Watson is playing is a
mouth harp. (MB)
+ "Good answer, Good Answer! (clap clap clap)" from game show Family
Feud. Also used in the short, "Fair Game". (RW, SS)
+ "Check your local listings." Since "Baywatch" is a syndicated show,
when it's on varies from station to station, so this phrase is used
whenever it's advertised. (MB)
+ Dot says, "Sometimes it's just worth the Hasselhoff," as in
David, star of "Baywatch". (RW, SS)
"Rest In Pieces" ---
0 Skippy quotes the 'Farm Film Celebrity Blowup" sketch from SCTV by
saying Slappy made Walter "blow up good." (CL)
+ Perry Mason: the famous tv lawyer who starred in his tv show and
specials from the 50's all the way through to the 80's. (SS)
+ "Hotel California": Title of an Eagles song, and also referenced
in "Hurray for Slappy". (AV)
- Voice note: Sid and Beany are voiced by Jack Burns and Avery
Schreiber, who together had a very popular comedy act in the 60s. (MB)
- One of the hardest things to do is write a good dumb line, and
Beanie's "If you're not dead, how come you're talkin' to me?" is a
damn good dumb line. (CL)
+ Sid and Walter's question marks, with which Walter assaults Beanie:
This is an excellent ref to the original Felix the Cat series, where
Felix would quite often get question marks and exclamation points
appearing above him (a throwback to the problem of emotional
expression for a b&w character in a silent film, ie, how the heck
do you get him to emote??) and use them as devices for solving
whatever problem was immediately before him. (MK)
+ The villains coughing after chuckling at their scheme to get
Slappy was done before in "Scare Happy Slappy". (AV)
- Mary Hartless, cheerful and perky at the funeral. hehhehehe. (AV)
Nit Several of the male background toons have female voices. (JW)
DYN In the church there are seven-arms Yiddish candlesticks, common
at synagogues. (DG)
+ Slappy's remark ("Like I always say: Give people what they want.")
has been around a long time & attributed to lots of Hollywood figures.
In Halliwell's "Filmgoer's Companion", it's attributed to Red Skelton
at Harry Cohn's funeral. Halliwell quotes Skelton as saying, "It
proves what they always say: give the public what they want to see,
and they'll come out for it." Harry Cohn was the chief of Columbia
Pictures for many years. (RN)
+ The signs at the chapel are show-business oriented. A theatre is
likely to have a "Performers' Entrance", and any place that does
several shows a day might have a "Next Show (or in this case, Funeral)
x Minutes" sign. (MB, SS)
- Watch where Slappy hits Walter with the clubs. Oy!!! (AV)
+ Slappy's humorous eulogy, is reminiscent of a scene from "Amazon
Women on the Moon" where the wife of the late Harvey Putnik (I think)
ends up giving a lengthy comedy routine. Style of humor is the same
also -- A sentence with a eulogy like start, but ending in a rim-
shot humor line. (RW)
0 "Talk about stone faces. I get more laughs on Easter Island,"
is a ref to the mysterious stone carvings in the shape of large
heads which inhabit that island. They are very old and nobody
really knows who put them there. (SS)
+ "...I got a Mah Jongg game at three," Mah Jongg is an ancient
Chinese game using marked tiles and is similar to gin rummy.
Four players take tiles from a wall and try to build four sets
of three (either three-in-a-row or three-of-a-kind) and a pair.
There are two versions of the game. The regular version, which
is very easy-going, and the "little Jewish grandmother" tournament
version in which only certain combinations are allowed, according
to the Mah Jongg Association. (JW)
Nit Times on the bombs: Walter's watch reads 11:45; on Bomb 1 (in
podium), the time reads 10:00; it's 9:00 when Slappy takes it out
of the podium; on Bomb 3 the time reads 11:00....and why is there
a fuse on a time bomb? (AV)
? Probably because there was one in "Daffy The Commando", a
WB cartoon from WWII, in which Daffy makes a big deal about getting
the right time from Kommandant Von Vultur, so he can set the clock
on a bomb which -- in the next cut -- has a fuse burning on it when
he hands it to the Kommandant. (MrC)
+ "Now that's what I call embalming (bombing)," Embalming fluid is
what you use to preserve dead bodies. (SS)
+ "...there's no dyin' in the world of cartoons! Well, Bonkers."
--See note on Bonkers in "Deduces Wild"-- (SS)
"U.N. Me" ---
+ The tune is based on "Down By The River Side", an old hymn. (MB)
+ The United Nations building is, in fact, located on First Avenue
between 42nd and 48th Sts, near the east river in New York City. (BD)
+ When Yakko sings the line "New York, on 42nd. St.", he is joined
briefly by a chorus line. It's a ref to the title song from the
musical "42nd Street" ("On the avenue I'm takin' ya to...42nd
Street") is always accompanied by a leggy line of chorus girls. (SC)
- 42nd Street *is* indeed a musical not only about chorus girls,
but about the lure of Broadway. It takes place during the Depression.
A bankrupted director tries to produce one last big show to try and
save his career. The only financial backing he can get is from a
rich Texan who says that his girlfriend must play the lead if he is
to provide money. A shy girl from Allentown, PA auditions for the
play and in her nervous bumbling opening night, causes the lead to
break her leg. The show, which had a lot riding on it for a lot of
people, seemingly must close and fail. Everything gets sorted out by
the end, tho. The play gave us songs like "We're in the Money",
"Lullaby of Broadway", "Shuffle Off to Buffalo", and of course,
"42nd Street". It is a very dance-intensive show, with many Chorus
girl tap numbers. (ES)
+ "Boutros Boutros Golly Gee". Ouch. Boutros Boutros Ghali is the
name of the current Secretary General of the U.N. (MB)
DYN The Nigerian has a "Nigerian Express" traveler's check. Don't
leave Lagos without it. (AV)
DYN Yakko and Wakko are drooling over a book titled, "Girls of the
World". (SS)
DYN The reflections of Dot in the mirrors are all different. (WS)
+ The tossing food at Wakko, climaxed by Dot handing him a mint
which sends him crashing through the floor, is a ref to "Monty
Python & the Meaning of Life", where they feed the world's fattest
man, and then the waiter hands him a mint, which causes him to
explode. (JM)
DYN The Warners and the Dutch tourists exchange clothing while in
the elevator. (SS)
+ The soda spills on the priceless painting to reveal one of those
pictures of dogs playing poker. (MB, SS)
DYN Squit with the olive branch. A takeoff of the dove and olive
branch, representing peace. Squit made a similar cameo in the ep.
"Noah's Lark". (SS)
? I saw the Lawyer from Hearts Of Twilight (the one who says "Isn't
that SCARY??), and 'P' from The Chicken who Loved Me in the crowds.
(WENDOID)
+ "Beat our swords into liverwurst" is a variation on the biblical
reference to beating swords into plowshares, which basically means
giving up war for peace. Negotiating peacefully between nations and
avoiding war is the basic mission of the U.N. (MB)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #73***
Note on Alternative Lyric: "Penny Lane-y"
+ The visual is a very toony, VERY good re-creation of the cover of
the Beatles album, "Abbey Road". "Penny Lane" is the name of one
of the Beatles' songs from the "Magical Mystery Tour" album. Wakko
voices the line here. Very fitting considering that Jess Harnell
got the part of Wakko by using his impression of the Beatle, Ringo
Starr. (SS, NV)
DYN Scratchy is bare-footed, much like Paul was on the cover. Will
this start a spate of "Scratchy is dead" rumors? Transposing the
characters onto the album cover yields: Scratchy = John Lennon, Dot
= Ringo, Wakko = Paul, and Yakko = George. (NV)
- Wakko should have been barefooted, going by his position on the
album cover, but at least they got the walking out of step part...
(WENDOID)
- For more info on the strange connections between the Warners and
the Beatles, visit my Animaniacs/Beatles page at:
http://www.geocities.com/wakkanne (dontcha LOVE shameless plugs?).
(SS)
"A Hard Day's Warners" ---
+ Extensive spoof of Beatles' 1964 flick, "A Hard Day's Night".
Other Beatles films spoofed en passant. (Jon, SS)
+ It starts in black & white (and red noses) with the Warners
running from fans while singing a parody of "A Hard Days Night"
("Running from our Fans"). In the opening of the Beatles' movie, "A
Hard Day's Night" (which BTW, was filmed in B&W), the Beatles are
running from their fans, trying to catch their train. (JW, SS)
+ Two of raving fans are Elmyra of Tiny Toons and Toondom's Biggest
Fan, who they use a lot. (Jon, JW)
+ Magazine "Insanity Fair" = Vanity Fair. (Jon)
DYN They are wearing wrong outfits. Wakko looks good in a skirt! (Jon)
0 In the beginning of the cartoon, it shows the Warners jumping in
and out of garbage cans. In "Of Mouse and Man", Brain is riding
on a train and some punks approach him, he proceeds to throw them
out of the train into--you guessed it, the EXACT SAME GARBAGE CANS!
(it's the exact same scene, okay.) (Maverick)
+ Direct ref to the movie: The sibs run into their dressing room
Scratchansniff (like the Beatles' road manager in the movie) yells
at them a bit, then makes them reply to their fan mail. (JW, SS)
+ Elvis makes obligatory cameo. (Jon)
+ The fan mail scene: In A Hard Day's Night, it is Ringo that gets
the load of mail. Yet ANOTHER connection between Wakko and Ringo!
The others blame it on his nose, say that Ringo has a large family,
then say that it must have cost him a fortune in stamps...
(WENDOID, JW, SS)
+ A number of cartoon booths at the convention were real cartoons,
obvious onces: Tiny Toon Adventures and Batman the Animated Series.
The Mask, the Jim Carrey movie and the cartoon (with Rob Paulsen's
voice). (BEC)
+ In overhead shot of convention, look for "Carrotblanca" ref; there
are at least two. (Jon)
+ John Wilkes Booth is the actor who shot Lincoln. He ought to be
sorry! (Jon)
+ The Warners meet up with a dire fan, but fast-talk her into
thinking that they aren't them. GIRL: "What to they look like?"
WAKKO: "They look exactly like them." In the movie, a woman stops
John Lennon in the hall. She insists that he's "him". WOMAN: "You
look just like him." JOHN: (looking in mirror) "Do I?" (JW, SS)
- Was I the only one expecting the fan-lady to think they were the
Two Tones? (Jon)
+ Unmasked = The Mask, obviously. (Jon)
+ Masks change Warners to Elmyra, then Tex Avery's Wolf (from "Red
Hot Riding Hood", among others). (Jon)
+ "And we did all that without computers..." - the movie, not the
cartoon used a lot of fancy computer animation to make the star look
like a moron. (spurdy, JW)
+ They hold a press conference in "A Hard Day's Night" as well.
Notice the reporters in the cartoon all have British accents. The
reporters ask ridiculous questions and the Beatles give equally
ridiculous answers as the Warners do here. (JW, SS)
+ "Fame" was a movie and tv series about aspiring actors/dancers.
(Jon)
+ On the classic 16-Ton Weight gag: The practice of using ton weights
that are powers of two originates in the old method of weighing cargo
for shipping. These weights, weighing 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 tons can
then be combined to balance any weight up to 31 tons. This is also
the origin of the weight for the song "16 Tons", in case you're
wondering. (Yes, the song isn't about shipping, but a similar
weighing system was used in mining.) The 16 ton weight therefore
naturally became a Very Heavy Object. (BD)
+ "They Want To Laugh" = "Can't Buy Me Love" (RF)
+ Disney riff: castle, Yakko as Tinkerbell, clip from Beauty & the
Beast ballroom sequence, best known for extensive use of computers
and very few funny bits. (Jon)
DYN The countdown test pattern shows "3... 2... $..." (SS)
+ Wakko's head on Belle's body is dancing with the Beast as in
Disney's "Beauty and the Beast". (JW, GS)
+ The bit during the second song with the succession of freeze-
frames of the Warners (and Mr. Director) making funny faces was taken
from the end credits to the Monkees' TV show, where Mike, Micky,
Davy, and Peter were shown in similar poses and angles behind the
credits. I'm going to insist that it's a Monkees ref for one reason:
The color backgrounds. (RD)
+ This scene is also reminiscent of the end credits in "A Hard Day's
Night". Two poses were exact from the movie: Yakko, holding up his
hands up to his eyes like binoculars (John Lennon) and the one of the
back of Yakko's head (George Harrison). The brightly colorful
backgrounds cause me to point this reference at the Monkees' bits
(which were stolen from the Beatles to begin with...) "A Hard Day's
Night" was entirely in black & white; this short was not. Which is
probably why they went with the background color ref from the Monkees'
tv show. (SC, SS)
"Gimme A Break" ---
+ Parodies segments of several movies: "Die Hard", "Speed", airplane
disaster movies, James Bond movies. (DG)
- Actors mentioned and appearing: Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves,
Jamie Lee Curtis, Brad Pitt, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis,
Wesley Snipes, (Jon, DG, SS)
+ Pogs: really silly fad among kids involving small circular pieces
of cardboard. (Jon)
Nit Since when does grass crack? (Jon)
+ "Sitz bath". I'm not exactly sure what it is but I know it involves
a tube of some sort.(Don't really want to know where it goes) You
can usually find Sitz bath kits in the incontinence section of
your local Pharmacy. I gather it's for the elderly. (BigGoobie)
+ Warners in bath: Mr. Bubbles, Plucky Rubber Ducky. (Jon) I
believe that this could be an additional spoof to the Beatles' "A
Hard Day's Night" movie (why not? this episode is laced with them).
It's the scene where John is in the bathtub. (SS)
+ The woman with Bruce Willis when he first appears is supposed to
be Demi Moore, his wife in real life. The kids are, presumably, their
kids. (RN)
+ First bit spoofs Die Hard. Another ref to the "Hair Club For Men".
Actor is Willis, who is balding. (Jon) --See also Yakko Warner's
World of Baldness in the CRGA--
+ Chocolates on bench is Forrest Gump, but you knew that. (Jon)
+ Next up is Speed with Reeves, who was more wooden than usual in Bram
Stoker's Dracula. (Jon)
0 Keanu Reeve's accent was a lot closer to how he sounded in the
"Bill & Ted" flicks. (SS)
+ Nancy - Sluggo: ref to comic strip "Nancy". (Jon)
- Any of you who've seen Speed remember how silly looking this jump
was. We watched it on campus, and a groan of disgust went up. For
whatever reason, the bus gets a lot of lift that really shouldn't be
there unless there was a lot more slope to the freeway. In GAB, the
road is actually heading downward into the pit, and then the bus
jumps upward. (spurdy)
? "Huh? I don't get it." "You're not supposed to." I'm not sure
if this was a crack at airline employees or at Hello Nurse personally.
Still, it fits and was funny either way. (SS)
+ Huey, Dewie, Louie, Daisy: Eww! More Disney! (Jon)
+ When Slappy gets on the plane, she walks by a girl on a stretcher
with an IV bottle. This is (ready for this?) a reference to
Airplane's gag, which was, in turn, a reference to Airport 75. In
the original, Linda Blair was being transported in the lounge area
of the 747 on a stretcher for some sort of operation. (Russ) Wesley
Snipes is Passenger 57, but he's wearing his outfit from Demolition
Man. (Jon)
+ On the airplane: Clint Eastwood was seated. Slappy sits next to
William Shatner, who does a take from "Nightmare at 20,000 feet",
the famous Twilight Zone he starred in, and then uses Slappy's
sponge to beam him onto the Enterprise! (BEC, Jon, SS) This
episode was also redone in 1983's Twilight Zone The Movie but starred
John Lithgow in the passenger role. (WBB)
+ Arnold Schwarzenegger was the pilot and dressed as he did in
"True Lies" (BEC, Jon) The co-pilot was Tom Arnold, Arnie's "True
Lies" sidekick. Jamie Lee Curtis was also in the cockpit.
(spurdy, JJW)
- Deregulation was a reduction in the number of laws that the
airlines had to follow, particularly in routes and hubs. Many
believe that it's reduced safety in the industry. (BEC)
+ Plane crashes, brief bit with the hungry survivors from Alive.
(Jon, RN)
- "Alive" is the true story of a Uruguayan rugby team that crashed in
the Andes mountains in the 1970's. Survivors ate the dead and
survived for about four months snowbound. 16 lived. (BEC, MHI)
0 The plane crash reminded me an awful lot of the crash at the beginning
of "Cliffhanger."
+ Tony The Tiger is Frosted Flakes mascot; the one who always says,
"They're Grrreat!" (Jon)
+ Poseidon: The Poseidon Adventure, a 70s disaster flick. (Jon)
+ Captains: Hook (Peter Pan, Hook), Kirk (Star Trek), Courageous
(Captains Courageous), Bligh (Mutiny On The Bounty), and Stuebing
(The Love Boat). (Jon)
+ Generic James Bond spoof, including guest appearance by mechanical
Jaws from Universal Studios, which is also a ref to the silly Jaws
character from several Moore-era Bond films, notably Moonraker (which
bore no resemblance to the book, Moonraker, BTW). (Jon)
"Please Please Please Get A Life Foundation" ---
+ Parody of a drug recovery center ad.
- This short quotes parts of the original CRGA almost verbatim. (LC)
- Several months ago I received email from Peter Hastings asking for
copies of the CRGA by email and snail mail, which I provided. You
can fill in the rest yourself. (WBB)
- Like Knights questing for the Holy Grail, you have ended up
becoming that which you seek--a Cultural Reference in the TV show
Animaniacs. (furry)
- Things in the first Geek's room. Yeah, we rewound the tape and
freeze-framed...you think we'd pass up a challenge like that?:
.Buster, Dizzy and Hampton dolls on the foreground shelf
.Bugs, Tweety and Wakko dolls on facing shelf
.Brain doll on the floor
.Possibly a Slappy doll at the near left in the beginning
.Big Minerva Mink poster
.Small Dot Warner poster
.Watertower bank
.Kirk/Picard poster
.Animaniacs poster
.Bumper Sticker: "I speak Klingon"
.Sign on door: "Flame at your own risk" ...Appropo for this group!
.WB rug
.Warner Brothers bedspread
.A Wakko picture
.A model of the U.S.S. Enterprise hanging from the guy's
ceiling, except the body of the enterprise is in a really
.odd spot in relation to the nacells. but Ahhh let's not be
anal. (WY)
.Possibly a Brain snowy ball as well as the A! snowy ball.
(List compiled by Bryan Chaney and Red Adept)
0 Okay, so like in the opening scene, the guy at the computer says
that Slappy races a roadrunner, which he says is a Dodge Charger
R/T variant of the 60's.. Well it's NOT. The Plymouth Roadrunner
is a Dodge CORONET variant in the 60's while the Dodge Charger *R/T*
is a variant itself of a normal Dodge Charger while the Roadrunner
didn't become a variant of the Charger until the *70's*. How could
they get that wrong? (BB) --See "Little Old Slappy From Pasadena"
in the CRGA--
DYN The coffee in the mug when Baloney was about to come on was a
clear reference to Jurassic Park, when the same thing was done
with numerous liquids that shook as dinosaurs romped around...
(Berna)
+ I can now reveal the error that I spotted in this segment when the
folks at WBA showed it to the Animania IV group... In the first geek's
speech near the end, when he talks about the Beverly Hills 90210
reference in the Pinky and the Brain intro, he says that the
chalkboard has BH90201 on it. This is, as anyone who is familiar with
the intro or the CRGA entry referencing it can see, incorrect; he
should have said BH91210. (JM)
- What Jay didn't mention is that within 10 seconds of the laughter
ending when we were shown PPPGALF at Animania IV, he pointed out
this error to WBA. (Note that he was seeing it for the first time
and did not have a copy of the CRGA handy.) After a moments
reflection, Peter Hastings (I think) made the comment "It's very
layered, isn't it?" Now everyone can decide for themselves (or
debate it here)... Did WBA make the "error" on purpose? or was it a
hook for us to byte? Remember, the folks at WBA are pretty damn
sharp. (RW) It was at that point that Hastings named Maynard the
PPPGALF's "Poster Boy". (SC)
+ At the end of the cartoon, the third "Please" is misspelt with
two "e"s. I think that was intentional. And the "Iris Out On The
Nose" bit's been done.
Notes on gag credit:
"Surlaw Eht T'nsaw Luap, Surlaw Eht Saw Okkay"
+ It's backwards: "Paul wasn't the walrus, Yakko was the walrus."
This refers to the Beatles song "I Am The Walrus", from "Magical
Mystery Tour" hence the backwards lettering of the gag credit.
(JEO, Lari, SS)
+ In the Beatles' later years, odd lyrics, forwards and backwards,
began appearing in their songs saying things like "Paul is the Walrus"
and later, "The walrus is dead". Clues even popped up in pictures on
the Beatles' album covers. The story, (which turned out to be an
elaborate hoax), was that Beatle, Paul McCartney, had died in a car
accident years earlier and was replaced without the public even
knowing it. These odd clues were supposedly trying to tell the fans
what couldn't be said in person. (SS)
+ This is also parodying another of the Beatles' songs, "Glass
Onion" from The Beatles (the white album). Here are the lyrics in
question, as best as I can remember them: "I've told you about the
Walrus and me. You know that we're as close as can be. Well, here's
another clue for you all: The Walrus is Paul." (Mat)
- In the film Magical Mystery Tour, the Beatles sing "I Am the Walrus"
while wearing animal costumes. It was actually John who was wearing
the walrus costume in that scene. He wrote the line about "the walrus
was Paul" partly as sarcasm -- all of "Glass Onion" is a complaint
about people who read too much into Beatles songs, actually sorta like
PPPGALF now that I think about it -- and partly as a conciliatory
gesture toward Paul, because they were fighting a lot around that time.
(BH)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #74***
"The Tiger Prince" ---
+ Note-for-note parody of the opening of Disney's "The Lion King",
except for the "fall down, go boom" part.
+ The female singer is none other than the voice of Elmyra, Cree
Summer! Poor little tiger-HEAD! (AV)
DYN In the imitation of the African chant, you can hear them say, "I
know eets joost a lotta walla." (SS)
+ `Walla' is the industry word for background dialogue. (RO)
? The line before it is definitely, "Ooh Galleria thatsa malla". (BD)
+ The TLK character Yakko parodies is Rafiki, the baboon. (DG)
"The Kid in the Lid" ---
+ Parody of Dr. Seuss', "The Cat In The Hat", down to the animation
stylings. (JW)
+ There's a ref to that case in which the parents went on vacation
and left their kids unattended for a long time. ("...but in truth
they'd been gone for a 90-day streak.") (JW)
+ Charlton Woodchuck is back, as 'Baynarts' from "Hollywoodchuck", the
opener of "The 65th Anniversary Show" and "Nutcracker Slappy". He
takes the place of the killjoy goldfish in the book. Charlton ends
up in a much more ignominious place, though. :) (JW, SS, AV)
+ Dot and Wakko (Kid 2 and Kid 3) are Thing 1 and Thing 2 from the
book. The water tower takes the place of the box the Things arrive
in. (AV)
- Wakko's reason for eating so much is revealed-- he's hypoglycemic!
(poor kid) (JW)
+ Glidden is a brand of paint (available at a Standard Brands near
you!). (BEC)
+ There's a ref to the Rice-A-Roni ads where Dot pulls up in a trolley
car, and says "The San Francisco Treat" -- Rice-A-Roni's longtime
slogan. I think that the "San Fransico Treat" bit was to point out
"Plug here!" (JW, LC, BEC)
+ The hat of Yakko is similar to "the cat in the hat" character. (DG)
DYN The military uniforms of the Warners are World War I style. (DG)
DYN At the end of the "Kid in the Lid", they were eating green ham (as
in Green Eggs and Ham) (Q-Girl, JW)
"Method To Her Madness" ---
- The Stanislavsky Method of Acting teaches the actor to enter into
the mentality of the character. In order to fully understand the
character, one must "become" the character. (DG, ED) --See show #13
in the CRGA--
+ Skippy says something about "comrades", and Slappy calls him "Ivan"
in response. This is a ref to the '50s phobia about Communism: the
normal reference to the Soviets personalized was Ivan, much like the
Germans were called Jerry in WWII. (JM)
- Celebrities recognized: Marlon Brando (who acts with Skippy),
Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Elizibeth Taylor, Ricardo Montalban,
William Shatner, Jack Nicholson, Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason
(DG, BC, BEC, MB)
- They did a little cheating/time compression here, mixing actors of
different generations. Most of the people shown in the class came to
prominence in the 50s and early 60s, while Nicholson made Easy Rider
in '69. (MB)
0 At the end when they play pool-- from the movie "The Hustler",
Jackie Gleason played Minnesota Fats and Paul Newman played the title
character, "Fast" Eddie Felson. He reprised the character for "The
Color of Money" a couple of years back. (MB, chance)
+ Marlon Brando played Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire",
the origin of the "Stellaaaaa!" yell. (AV, BC)
+ Skippy's speech is from "On The Waterfront". (BC)
+ "Offer you can't refuse" is from "The Godfather". (BC)
Notes on "All the Words in the English Language" segments
+ The melody (same as in "Yakko's World") is the Mexican traditional,
"El Jarabe Tapatio". (DG)
DYN The earphone-microphone Dot wear changes to the side of the head at
the end of the short. (DG)
+ Dick Button is a figure skating commentator for ABC Sports. His
performance here is in the exact style of his figure skating
commentary... (JM)
+ Yes, his performance was perfect, right down to his pronouncing
'Yakko' wrong, like he does with half of the figure skaters. What he
said sounded more like Yokko, when he was talking about the mistake.
(WENDOID)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #75***
- Very surprised to see Pinky & The Brain back into the theme song
for one episode. (RO)
"The Presidents Song" ---
+ The song's to the tune of the "William Tell Overture by Rossini,
aka, the "Lone Ranger" theme, but the first few notes of it are
really from the president's "theme", "Hail To The Chief". (SS, LC)
- As recorded on "Variety Pack," they said Jefferson wrote the
Constitution. This was corrected to the "Declaration" in the cartoon
version. (RN)
DYN "The Flame" on the right as Jefferson writes the "Declaration of
Independence". (BEC, ME)
DYN When the Warners sing of the Civil War, they have the titles:
Lieutenant Colonel Dot, Lieutenant General Wakko, and Brigadier
General Yakko. Wakko's coat is too big on him. (SS)
- When it mentions "Rutherford Hayes wins by just one vote", there's
a drawing of a newspaper with "DEMOCRATS LEAD POLLS" and the
following text (as best as I can make out): "...of the five year arc,
the "Babylon 5" series ends...if I have anything to say about it
it???? I do. If something more follows, we'll see what that is, but
it won't be..."--fold--"...The 5 year arc is worked out considerable
detail. 500 single spaced pages in a triple- encrypted file. There
is a five- year story arc, yes. What's..."--fold--"...' holographic
storytelling.' I asked him what the hell this meant. He said that
the image of pictures side by side. linear storytelling, wasn't
right. That..." --fold-- So, it's all stuff I've seen JMS write,
though some lines are cut off. It's cool to see some ref to B5 in A!
however subtle it is. I remember seeing some B5 stuff on a cubicle
wall at WBA, so there's certainly one big B5 fan there. Apparently
the person has access to r.a.s.t.b5, or read it off the Lurker's
Guide. (RO)
Nit "In 1913 Woodrow Wil-son takes us into World War I" While that was
the year he was sworn in, it still leaves an impression that was the
year the US joined the war, which of course was 1917. Furthermore,
of the four battles flashed on the screen, only one (Argonne) is
arguably a battle (or, more accurately, a campaign) in which US
troops fought. Gallipoli, for example, was a campaign that featured
British, French, Australian, New Zealand, Turkish and German
troops, but no Americans. The Somme was principally a British-
German conflict, and Verdun principally a French-German conflict,
all three battles taking place *before* the US entry in 1917.
If they want American battles/campaigns, they ought to try
Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood, Catigny, and/or Meuse/Argonne
(granted, there's not much to choose from, since US troops really
had only about six months of sustained participation in combat,
from about May to November, 1918.) (EOC)
- In the recording, they said "Warren Harding, he does fine, It's
Calvin Coolidge next in line." In the cartoon, this was corrected
to "Warren Harding next in line. Calvin Coolidge he does fine."
I question whether Coolidge really did fine, but he was better
than Harding. Coolidge's policy of letting business do whatever
it wants helped lead to the Great Depression, but the Republicans
seem to believe his policies were better than what followed, and
since I suspect there are a number of right wingers on the
ANIMANIACS writing staff, I won't argue the point. (RN)
- Note the change in lyrics. They changed "President Kennedy, he
got shot" to "Kennedy had Camelot," (JW, BEC) For those of us
who are old enough to vividly remember the Kennedy assassination
it sounds a little too flip to reduce his role in history to "he
gets shot" (although that REALLY is what he's remembered for). (RN)
- "Clinton, first name Hillary!" changed to "Clintons, Bill and
Hillary!" (JW) I'm not a Clinton fan, but even most Republicans
have given up on espousing the idea that Hillary is really the one
in charge. (RN) I think they just decided that it wasn't very
funny (which it isn't), just as the conspiracy theories about kicking
Clinton's sax out of the theme proved groundless. (Plato)
+ When they sing about Kennedy, the brothers dress up like JFK jr.
and salute, taken from that footage of JFK's funeral procession. I
can't tell whether they're being kind or not. (JW)
"Don't Tread On Us" ---
+ The title, is a play on "Don't tread on me", a popular slogan
during the American Revolution. (ME)
- One proposed official flag for the U.S. (before the "Stars and
Stripes" design was chosen) was a coiled rattlesnake with the
caption "Don't tread on me". Ben Franklin used the image in an
editorial cartoon either during or shortly after the revolution,
depicting a snake cut into thirteen pieces, to show that
cooperation was necessary. But that's another story. (BEC)
- Akom forgot to color Pinky's nose in one segment (when Brain
threatens to hurt him in a Neolithic primitive sort of way).
Overall nice work by Akom. Their camerawork is much cleaner than
Wang's, in general. (R0)
Nit Pinky and the Brain are in the bell tower when Jefferson rings
the bell, which is shown with the very noticeable signature crack...
but, at the time the Declaration of Independence was signed (the
Bell was rung to call citizens to the first public reading of it -
8 July 1776) the bell was *not* cracked! The bell began to crack
during the 1800's, was repaired (by making the crack larger, so the
edges would not vibrate against each other), but was finally
silenced after it was rung for George Washington's birthday in 1846.
(HB)
- Contrary to popular belief, the Liberty Bell, was not created or
commissioned for the American Revolution. In fact, it was made long
before that. So why is it the *Liberty* Bell? It was crafted by an
abolitionist who wanted a bell to ring every time a slave was freed.
Cynicism made him use not-so-durable materials (hence the crack).
As to why it was used for such patriotic events? Well, it was the
cheapest bell the Continental Congress could find. They weren't
exactly rich back then. (There also wasn't any income tax for over a
century.) (JL)
- The Boston Tea Party was actually in 1773. Note the "East India Tea
Company" on the side of the box. The British government allowing the
company to sell directly to the colonists, instead of through
colonial merchants, is part of the reason the Party happened. (ME)
0 Detroit, Michigan is the home of Motown Records whose haydey in
the 60's features well-choreographed signing groups. (ME)
+ The "Declaration of Independence" served notice to the world that
the colonies and especially Britain intended to become an
independent nation. (ME)
+ The substitute of the "Independence Declaration" is titled the
"Obedience Declaration". (DG)
+ Pinky's response to AYPWIP? refers to "Yankee Doodle", the song
made up by the British to ridicule the Americans but was instead
used by the colonists to ridicule the British. (ME)
+ Ben Franklin is talking with John Adams, who later became the
second President of the United States. Both were on the committee
charged with drafting the Declaration. (ME)
Nit Ben Franklin used a kite during a thunderstorm in 1752, not 1776,
to find out if lightning was an electrical discharge. The
experiment wasn't done the way depicted in the cartoon (and most
everywhere else, to be fair) and the kite (luckily) was not struck
by lightning. (EG, ME) I read somewhere that Franklin used
another string that he kept dry to hold onto the wet string, and
he stood in a stable, so that the lightning wouldn't zap him.
From his experiments, he invented the lightning rod. (EG) I
remember learning that he detailed the experiment in his journal,
but never actually carried it out. I know that he *did* perform
many important experiments in electricity, and I believe that he
is responsible for messing up the sign of the electron's charge.
(Note: I mean "messed up" in the nicest possible way.) (MMA)
+ French people are stereotyped in the U.S. as being rude.
+ Cameo appearance of Elmer Fudd (Looney Tunes). (DG)
DYN The end title says "Fin", which means "End" in Spanish (and maybe
in French). (DG)
"The Flame Returns" ---
+ The Flame helps a caricature of writer Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, and of course, the story is an adaptation of his "Paul
Revere's Ride". (DG)
+ Paul Revere's friend is interpreted by Ralph the guard. (DG)
+ Other cameo appearances are: The little blue bird, Buttons,
Rita and Runt, Yakko, Wakko and Dot, Slappy and Skippy. (DG)
+ The other birds with the Bluebird were two of the Girlfeathers.
Yes, that is Chicken Boo. He only looks a little different
because we've never seen him drawn by Wang before, but you only
have to notice his coloring (albeit in "night colors") and his
size to tell. (R0)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #76***
"Gimme the Works" ---
0 The hotdog seller resembles the one in the Disney movie, "Oliver
and Company". (DG)
- This is the shortest Animaniacs cartoon with a title card by a
comfortable margin: it's 1:03, while the next shortest, A Midsummer
Night's Dream, is 1:56. Quite a few segments of filler are longer
than Gimme the Works...There seem to be two reactions to this one:
either slack-jawed astonishment or rolling-on-the-floor laughter...
and no in between. I was in the latter category... I love metahumor
(humor about humor), and this one was dead on the mark for me. We
can now scratch one off the list of "They'll never do that in a
cartoon..." ...Still, I have to wonder... Why would they do one this
short? That makes fitting it into an episode a bit difficult. While
discussing it on IRC, we came up with one possibility: The gag
matches up perfectly with the one used later in "Hercules Unwound".
Could it be that they needed an extra minute of air time to make
this episode work, and knocked this one out? Which came first?
Only the producer knows for sure... In any case, this makes the first
appearance of a real running gag in Animaniacs - at least
intentionally - and it worked well. (JM)
"Buttons in Ows" ---
+ The title is a double ref. It refers to Oz, as the whole ep is a
take off of the movie Wizard of Oz, and the song "Buttons and Bows".
(BC)
- I've never seen "THE HARVEY GIRLS," so I can't say for certain
that "Buttons and Bows" was not sung by Judy Garland in that picture.
However, it seems unlikely because "THE HARVEY GIRLS was made in 1946,
and two years later "THE PALEFACE," a Bob Hope movie, won the academy
award for best song for "Buttons And Bows." Why would it win an
academy award for that song if it had been in another picture two
years previously? (RN)
+ This is a parody of MGM's "The Wizard of Oz", starring Judy
Garland. Many elements were spoofed almost directly; there were a few
alterations. (SK, DG)
- The only other Wang-animated M&B we've seen so far is "Up the
Crazy River". (RyH)
- Buttons and Mindy look VERY differently drawn in this short!!
Buttons more so than Mindy; Buttons looks very young and almost
clean-cut, leaner, too. More rudimentary and simple than Buttons
usually looks. (SK)
+ Many things flew by in the tornado; the most notable of which
were the Warners rowing in a rowboat, and Wile E. Coyote in his
infamous "Bat-Suit" with wings (NOT BatMAN, you fools :). (SK)
+ Yellow Brick Road became the Ochre Brick Road! (hee) (SK, DG)
+ When the house lands on Buttons, his feet curl up exactly the way
the feet of the Wicked Witch of the East curled up when Dorothy's
house landed on her (um, the witch, that is, not Dorothy). (MB)
+ "Oooh! Technicolor!" - a ref to the fact that Kansas sequences
in the movie were B&W, whereas Oz sequences were color. (spurdy)
0 The good witch wears a headdress similar to Beetlejuice's (BC)
DYN When Mindy reaches the entrance of Emerald City, there's a flower
on her dress that wasn't there before. (DG)
+ The doorman was a perfect spoof of the movie. Basically, Dorothy
just confuses him until he decides it's okkay for her to come in.
Mindy is good at nothing else. (spurdy)
- The Cowardly Lion was not very cowardly at all; in fact, he sliced
and diced Buttons when they met face to face. (poor Buttons) (SK)
+ The Wizard was Brain. CLASSIC green-flamed floating face of Brain
above a throne. :) (This would be a _hot_ cel, IMHO :) (SK, DG)
- Both Brain and Pinky were behind the curtain with the "Wizard's"
equipment. (SK)
+ Toto (Dorothy's dog) appears in the short. (DG)
+ The Wizard of Ows is interpreted by The Brain. (DG)
- While they made the effort to have Buttons in the house & knocked
on the head, this, unlike the movie, was very obviously not a dream.
Consider the way they returned home. (spurdy)
+ The escape balloon featured in the film: the "wizard" is the only
one who gets away, while Dorothy apparently wakes up. In Buttons
in Owz, Buttons and Mindy ride the balloon to safety, and, since
the balloon was real(the bit with the windmill), it stands to
reason that Ows was real...let's not start another philosophy
debate, tho. (RyH)
"Hercules Unwound" ---
0 A parody of "Hercules Unchained". (BC, RN, JW) A godsawful movie
starring Steve Reeves, in which he loses his memory, cheats on his
wife, drinks a lot, and wrestles some tigers. The only reason I
know is that it was on Mystery Science Theater 3000. (JW)
+ The signs on the signpost point to Delphi, Olympus, Athens, Sparta,
and Gyro. All but the last are actual place names from the period.
Gyro is a type of Greek sandwich. (MB)
- Um... well, first of all, as long as we're being anal, the singular
of "gyro" is gyros, the plural gyroi. Pronunciations a pain to
indicate, though, without the International Phonetic Alphabet. The
g should be pronounced as a voiced palatal fricative. For an
english speaker this sounds mostly like a "y" with a bit of a "zh".
The r should be trilled. The "oi" should be pronounced like the e
in elephantiasis, not like in goyish or ehap...Frankly, however,
just as I don't get mad when English speakers pronounce "hors
d'oeuvres" as "ordrrrvz", I don't care when people say geerow.
Gyro like gyroscope does kinda bother me, but frankly so does
yeero. If you're going to affect a modern-greekk pronunciation,
you can at least do it right. (Justin)
DYN At the beginning, someone runs by in the background carrying a
torch? This is a reference to the Olympic Games, which originated
in ancient Greece. (MB)
+ In that initial pan (pun not intended) shot, there are grape vines
in the foreground. These are correct for the setting and much
beloved of Bacchus, god of wine. (MB)
0 The statues leading up to the one of Hercules are of Zeus,
Hephaestus (god of the forge, and maker of Zeus' lightning bolts),
and Artemis (goddess of the hunt). (MB)
- I think the list Hercules holds up of the 12 tasks is correct. (MB)
- Hercules had to perform all those labors because he'd killed
someone in a fit of pique (he lost more relatives and friends that
way), and Zeus told him that only his half-brother, King
Euresthenes(sp?) could purify him of the crime. Due to some sibling
rivalry, Heracles got stuck with twelve "impossible" tasks. But I
guess that was too bloody and detailed for a short. (Mike)
- Heracles' 12 labors were assigned to him from Hera (not Zeus.)
Hera (who was Zeus' wife and the lady on the couch on Mount Olympus)
gave Hercules 12 nearly impossible tasks to perform. The first,
cleaning out the Aegean Stables, was accomplished by diverting a
river through it (not by busting a dam). (DS)
- Pinky & the Brain also appeared in this episode, with Pinky being
called "Pinkus". (SK)
+ Pinky for a brief second imitates the famous pose of the discus-
thrower. Also, shots of Olympus are accompanied by Wagnerian
strains (via "What's Opera, Doc?"). (Plato)
+ The Warners appear as "Yakkoleus", "Wakkomeno" and "Afrodotty, the
Goodness of cuteness". (DG)
+ The names the Warner Bros. give for themselves are Yakkolaus and
Wakkomemnon, based on Menelaus and Agamemnon, which is appropriate
because Menelaus and Agamemnon were also brothers. Menelaus was
the King of Sparta whose husband Helen was taken away by Paris,
starting the Trojan War. Agamemnon was the King of Mycenae. On the
subject of names, the name "Pinkus" sounded more Roman than Greek
to me, but I'm not really an expert on this. (RN)
+ Aphrodottie's entrance (I guess she'll put up with the name if it
involves godhood) on a giant clam is based on the famous painting
by Botticelli, "The Birth of Venus". (Venus was the Roman version
of Aphrodite.) (MB)
+ Socrates' most famous teaching technique (known as the Socratic
Method) was to ask his students leading questions, forcing them
to think about the answers. Either it works a whole lot better
with philosophy (Soc's real field) than with fact-based subjects,
or he's stuck with one braindead class here. :-) (MB)
? The classroom instructor uses Roman numerals... did the Greeks use
Roman numerals? I was under the impression that they didn't, but
please correct me if i'm wrong. (SM)
+ Actually, that was meant to be Aristotle, who founded the Lyceum,
the first university of Western Civ ("Lyceum...rah..."); notice
also that Aristotle paces back and forth a bit, which was supposedly
a habit of his that led to his teaching method to be called
"peripatetic" (i.e. "wandering"). (GHOST DANCE)
? Did anyone else think Zeus looked like Orson Welles? This would
have been funny in its own right, but given that the Brain was
trying to take his place, it was particularly amusing. (spurdy)
+ A fragment of the Pastoral symphony plays after the stables are
cleaned; refs to that sequence in "Fantasia" which has a Greek god
theme. (BC)
- There was a Trojan Horse in the stables which Hercules was using
as a manure receptacle. It had a sign on it saying "Open." In case
the Trojans were as dumb as Hercules? (ASL)
+ Medusa, whilst chatting with Peg, refers to the winged messenger
as "Mercury". This was, also, the Roman name. The Greeks referred
to him as Hermes (which has nothing to do with social diseases, btw).
(SM)
+ Medusa/Rivers' joke about Mercury ("I just flew down from Olympus,
and my feet are killing me!") refers to the fact that Hermes
(Mercury was the Roman name) is often depicted as having wings on
his ankles. (MB)
+ Another Useless Fact (re above) If I recall my mythology
correctly... When Perseus beheaded Medusa, the winged horse,
Pegasus sprang from the blood that spilled out of her (um) severed
parts. So, Medusa and Pegasus in the same place doesn't work. (raven)
- Oddly, Hercules did NOT turn to stone when he looked at Medusa,
even close up. It would have made for a shorter toon', but I
was looking forward to seeing that... (SK)
- BTW, since she was never referred to by name, we can't be sure that's
Medusa. Medusa was one of three Gorgons, but the only one who wasn't
immortal. She was beheaded by Perseus. (This has been another Useless
Fact.) (MB)
+ "Come and share the moment"- General Foods International Coffees
ad. (BC, CL)
+ Pinkus and the Brain were being chased by the three-headed dog
Cerberus, who guarded the entrance to Hades. (DS) --See also,
"Hot Bothered and Bedeviled" in the CRGA--
DYN The markings on the top of one of the buildings on Olympus are
those of a helipad, or helicopter landing pad. (MB, SK)
+ Pinky speaks of when Bactine is invented after he and Brain get
banged up. Refers to a commonly used disinfectant which supposedly
doesn't sting. (SK)
- Let's just say that everyone's concepts of the Greeks and the
Romans are pretty mixed-up. Roman Numerals: The Greeks used the
first few letters of their alphabet (plus the digamma, which
disappeared from the alphabet at some point). (MB)
+ Names of gods and heroes. Mercury, as you pointed out, should
have been Hermes. Hercules should have been Heracles. (Mike)
+ Togas. The Greeks didn't wear them, and that thing Hercules was
wearing _certainly_ wasn't a toga. Proper togas are made of yards
and yards of wool, and they don't stay on unless you stand with
great dignity (the famous Roman gravitas), and hang on to key
portions with one hand. (Mike)
- Of course, stuff like "Hercules Unchained" was just as bad, so
maybe this was more satire :-) (Mike)
Notes on Wheel Of Morality
"2B or not 2b; that is the pencil."
+ "To explore Rush Limbaugh?" Rush Limbaugh is the most prominent
conservative talk-show host in the U.S., and is, shall we say,
rather large. (MB, SK)
+ "To share a pie with Newt Gingrich?" Newt Gingrich is the current
Speaker of the House of Representatives, and probably the most
powerful person in the U.S. Congress. The debate currently under
way in Congress is over the federal budget, often referred to as
"splitting the pie" of government funds. (MB, SK)
+ "To be, or not to be" is, of course, from Shakespeare's "Hamlet",
though the original quote ends "that is the question." Pretty
good trick, having a pencil be sharp and pointless at the same
time. :-) (MB)
+ 2B is a grade of pencil "lead" hardness, being a fairly soft lead.
The most common, of course, is 2H...or "not 2B." (RJR)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #77***
"This Pun For Hire" ---
+ Pokes fun at all those old dee-tec-a-tive movies. (SS)
+ Parody of the movie "The Maltese Falcon", starring Humphrey Bogart.
Instead of a falcon, the statuette is Squit, The Maltese Pigeon.
(AH, DG)
DYN Yakko's reading "Pulp Fiction" in the opening scene. (SM, SS)
The ref that perhaps both A! & Tarantino were aiming for was the fact
that back in the 30's-50's there were quite a lot of cheap dime-store
novels, and they were mostly printed up on the cheapest paper the
printers could find... ones with lots of "pulp" in them.. hence,
"pulp" fiction. (SM)
+ When Yakko says to the mysterious Hello Nurse, "So sister, what's
your story?" Dot replies with "I was born in the wagon of a traveling
show/ Mama used to dance for the money they'd throw/ Papa would..."
which is from "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves", by Cher. (JW)
DYN Between the time Dot does the Cher thing and Wakko makes his "I'm
confused..." comment about it, 1 minute and 35 seconds have passed.
Phew! Kinda makes you wonder how that little guy's mind really
works. (SS)
+ The "that is exactly correct" bit is a Groucho Marx ref. --See
show #27 in the CRGA--
+ The woman who keeps coming out singing ("No, not her, HER!") It
sure looks like Bette Midler, who did recently star in a period
piece set in the 1940's ("For The Boys") (BEC, SS)
+ Freakazoid made an appearance. (BEC)
? Dot's inquiring of Freakazoid, "And you aaaarre...": Could this
be a reference to David Spade's incredibly annoying SNL character?
(SM)
+ Dot was dressed like Carmen Miranda (BEC)
+ Yakko gets slipped a mickey... Mouse. (JW)
- The statuette is reclaimed by Hello Nurse in the name of
Paramount, by Minerva Mink in the name of Fox, by Ralph in the name
of Universal and independently by Dr. Scratchansniff. (DG)
+ Paramount is owned by Gulf+Western and Fox by Rupert Murdoch.
Luckily for Ralph, Universal was sold by Matsushita to Seagram's.
(BEC, SC)
? The way Ralph was stumbling over his words, he reminded me of the
big dumb Giant/Ghost of Christmas Present character from Disney's
"Mickey and the Beanstalk" and "Mickey's Christmas Carol". (SS)
+ There's a TRIPLE reference at the end... The first is to
Shakespeare's "THE TEMPEST", when Prospero says, "We are such stuff
as dreams are made on." The second, like so many refs in this
cartoon, is to "THE MALTESE FALCON". At the end of the film, Sam
Spade (played by Humphrey Bogart) is holding up the fake statue of
the Falcon which everyone has been chasing after throughout the
film (not knowing it was a fake until the end), and someone - I
think it's a cop - asks him what it is, and he says, "The stuff
that dreams are made of." I may not have his quote exactly right,
but that's close. The third, is to DREAMWORKS, the studio formed
by Katzenberg, Spielberg, and Geffen. (RN, JW)
"Star Truck" ---
+ In case you've been living in a cave for the past 30 years (or
just got a TV this morning), this is a Star Trek parody. 'Obvious'
varies from person to person, eh? (RH)
- Well done. Trek fans will throw their phasers at their TVs. The
rest of us will simply sit back and laugh. It's a real shame that
voice crediting rules (one role per actor per episode) keep us from
knowing who did which voice, since most of them were quite good.
(The one that missed the mark the most, IMHO, was Spo[rc]k, and
that's surprising after the dead-on Nimoy in Karaoke-Dokie.) (JM)
+ The Starfleet delegates are playing an old Atari game. I'd guess
Space Invaders. (RH)
- Wakko's "Squatty, Squatty, Squatty!" sounds a little like his lines
from Potty Emergency. (RH)
+ The whole thing about Scotty's weight is probably because he was
sizably larger in the films than in the series. As an interesting
side note, this is probably one of the first times that a character's
number of fingers is accurate; James Doohan has only four fingers on
one hand (He lost one in an accident years ago). (BEC)
DYN There are three restrooms: men, women, and alien (with a picture
of the alien from "Alien".) (RH, JW)
+ The Warners run out of the potty, and start humming the original
Star Trek theme. (SS)
+ "We're Kingons! Get it?" a race of aliens of the Star Trek world.
(SS)
+ "Live long and perspire." = "Live long and prosper."
+ When the Warners are suggesting all sorts of adventures to the
captain, many were refs to actual Star Trek episodes or movies. (SS)
Harry Mudd, "Spock's Brain", "Space Seed", "The Trouble with
Tribbles", Star Trek 2, Star Trek 4, "Plato's Stepchildren" (or did
Spock chase Nurse Chapel in that ep? It would have made more sense
if she walked through that door) (RH) Also, "The City on the Edge
of Forever". (That's the one that was written by my very own Harlan
Ellison!) (AM)
DYN Wakko shines the light into the captain's ear and it comes out
the other side, nearly blinding Dot. (SS)
+ "I wanna swim with the whales!" is a ref to "Star Trek IV: The
Voyage Home". (SS)
+ The donuts falling out of the chute onto Scotty look a lot like
the tribbles falling out on Kirk in the original Star Trek series. (AH)
+ The evil villian is Khan Soong, from the TOS episode "Space Seed" and
later the movie "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn". His ship was a good
representation of the "Avenger" class USS Relient, NCC-1864 (latest
date commissioned February 16th, 2275), a starship that Kahn hijacks
in the movie and uses to attack the Enterprise. (BEC, RH) Kahn, of
course, was played by Ricardo Montalban. (BEC, DG)
- During Star Trek 2, Stardate 8130.3(January 28th), Chekov was the
first officer on the Reliant and had a rank of Commander (promoted
Stardate 7823.6). But in this episode, he's still an ensign stationed
on the Enterprise. This covers the time span from Stardate 3034.6
through 6384.91. (RH)
? When the crew members are shown getting gassed, is that Commander
Wil Riker of "Star Trek: The Next Generation"?
- Red meant security and engineering (or ships services) in the old
series. It switched to meaning command in the new series. And, yes,
you're right. Anyone wearing a red shirt was definitely doomed to
certain death. :) (BEC)
DYN When Yakko sits in the captain's chair, he pulls out a tribble from
the "Star Trek" ep. "Trouble With Tribbles". (BEC, SS)
0 Dot's "Fancy Fan Dance" is taken from Uhura's Fancy Leaf Dance in
Star Trek V: The Search For A Plot. (JW)
+ Did anybody else notice that Pinky and the Brain had KEYCHAIN
phasers? A salute to the merchandising that is Star Trek. (Russ)
- --See show #60 in the CRGA--
"Go Fish" ---
- Well, if we needed any more proof that Wakko was weird... (JM)
+ Yakko and Dot are reading Variety magazine. This pops up a lot
since "Variety Speak". (SS)
+ That bit with Dot: "Ward, I'm worried about the Beaver," is from
the 50's television program, "Leave It To Beaver." (MM, SS)
DYN The picture of Scratchansniff on the wall with darts in it. (SS)
"Multiplication" ---
+ The song (which has a slightly different tune than the one on the
CD) is a tribute/rip-off of Tom Lehrer's New Math. The music and
some of the lyrics are nearly identical. (JW) It matched the
version on the CD pretty well, and worked for me. The music is
_not_ the same as Tom Lehrer's "New Math", but it's close. (JM)
- Bit of trivia: I think Ms. Flamiel holds the record for highest
ratio of animation studios to appearances: 1.000..three appearances,
three studios. (Of course, this excludes one-shot characters.) (JM)
Nit When Yakko was singing on the desk after multiplying the ones
digits, the problem was already finished on the blackboard behind
him. The unfinished portion looked different in colour/brightness
from the first ... as if it were intended to be added later? (Still,
a solitary error in a relatively exceptional episode.) (SF, BT)
Nit And Yakko carried that 5 into the hundred's place, not the ten's
place, despite what the lyrics said! The hundred's place, I tell
you! (AM)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #78***
"The Sound of Warners" ---
- The 11:32 first act of this cartoon gives this episode the latest
first commercial break of any episode thus far. That act may even
be the longest single act in the show's history. Add in the 1:07
theme song and you've got quite a fair span of time without a
commercial break for a half-hour show. (RO) The previous longest
was Plane Pals, at 11:22. (JM)
- Song Parodies --
."Burbank" = "The Sound of Music"
."A Problem Like Maria" = "Children Like the Warners"
."Poison Oak" = "Edelweiss"
."When I Am Afraid" = "My Favorite Things"
."A Grumpy Chicken" = "The Lonely Goatherd"
."Eat All Your Oatmeal" = "Climb Ev'ry Mountain"
DYN The Maul from "Survey Ladies". (SS)
+ Brunella Flanderghast = Maria of "The Sound of Music".
- Both Hello Nurse and Ralph can sing if they try. (JM)
0 Little-known fact: When speaking Morse code (for practice,
usually), dots are pronounced "dit". (JM)
+ "We'll sing, we'll dance, we'll bicycle wearing clothes made of
upholstery fabric," Maria and the kids did all this stuff in "The
Sound of Music". (SMC, SS)
+ Scratchansniff says to Wakko, "Look who's talking, Mr. Potty
Emergency!" That's a ref to one of Wakko's episodes, "Potty
Emergency". (SS)
? "Scratchy's itchy!"?! Aw, c'mon, guys...isn't that a little blatant?
(For the three readers who've never seen The Simpsons,
their favorite cartoon is "The Itchy & Scratchy Show".) (JM)
Nit The Warners aren't sleeping in their bunks. (Plato)
+ Yakko mumbles in his sleep, "United States, Canada, Mexico,
Jamaica, Haiti, Peru ... You left one out! Left One Out," is
another reference to "Yakko's World". BTW, the one he left out was,
"Panama". (SS, RO)
+ Dot swoons in her sleep, "Mmm, Newt Gingrich!" This is
foreshadowing the upcoming song `Dear Mr. Gingrich'. I wonder if the
brief musical cue at this moment is part of that song. (RO)
+ "Why don't you go bug the kids on 'Goof Troop'?" They're poking
fun at another Disney series. (SS)
0 Refs in the song "When I am Afraid":
."fun Bob Hope specials" - From how A! treats Bob
Hope, this line is definitely sarcasm.
."Spam on the griddle" - Spam, the world famous processed
luncheon meat in a can.
.Mary Heart's the co-host of "Entertainment Tonight".
A! has it's own parody of her, Mary Heartless.
.Shriners are famous for those miniature cars that they
drive in parades.
."paintings of children with really huge eyeballs" -
called "moppets". (see "Hooked on a Ceiling" in
CRGA for more)
."Paul Harvey's head" - Paul Harvey, it turns out, is
the guy they parody in Freakazoid!, in those "Now
you know...the rest of the backstory!" blackouts.
There's more about him in the F!CRG at
http://www.netcom.ca/~jacjud/freaka.html (LC)
.Leonard Maltin's the famous movie critic, who puts out
those video review books every year.
."those Olsen twins" - Need I even comment? Their sappy
videos make my skin crawl. (SS)
- The Warners' animation changes quite a bit when they visit the kid
and her dad. (JM) What was with that middle segment when the
Warners describe to the girl (Ricola -- the name of some Swiss cough
drops, thus poking around the reference area for The Sound of Music)
about their moral code? The artwork was totally different there.
They had separated teeth, the frame rate was different... Much of
the time it didn't look like Wang at all. Was this segment added in
later, or was there a conscious effort to make the Warners seem
different when they appeared in "real life"? (RO) My guess is it
was added later. I even thought it might have been animated by Akom.
(Plato)
- This sets the Warners' moral code: They can't hurt someone until
they've been antagonized. Because Prunella simply was too nice, they
couldn't do anything, no matter how annoyed they were by her. This
kind of proves the argument people give to those who claim the Warners
are destructive for no reason: They're only purposefully destructive
to those who deserve it. (RO)
DYN Their train appears again, and again is number 49. I'm told this
number is significant for some reason. Haven't figured it out yet.
(RO)
- Is it me, or is it really kinky for the Warners to nod and "uh huh"
enthusiastically at the idea of being spanked? I'm reminded of
Yakko's wink in `Boot Camping' when he says, "Frankly, we'd prefer
the spanking machine." (RO)
- I was pleased to see Wang didn't draw Slappy all puffy, as usual.
Why can't they do her own cartoons like that? (Plato)
Nit Slappy says, "If Skippy comes by..." which sounds more like he
doesn't live there (as the very first cartoons suggested, as opposed
to the others from this season). (Plato)
+ The house in Austria that Prunella crashes into is the Von Trapp
residence. (Maria, the Julie Andrews character in "The Sound of
Music", was a novice in a convent who was assigned as a nanny to the
Von Trapp children, and ended up falling in love with and marrying
their widowed father, Captain Von Trapp. It's based on a true
story.) (SS, MB)
+ In the end, Mary Poppins shows up to be the Warner's new nanny.
Both nanny-type characters from "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of
Music" are played by the same actress, Julie Andrews. (SS)
"Yabba Dabba Boo" ---
- There's a new Chicken Boo theme, eliminating the question about what
the line is. (JM) One of the legendary arguments on a.t.a was over
the line "You wear a disguise to look like human guys." Some people
insisted that the final word was `guise', even though that makes no
sense in syntax or grammar. So those sneaky WBA people decided to
solve the argument by throwing new lyrics at us:
Chicken Boo, What's the matter with you?
You don't act like the other chickens do.
You're jumbo-sized and you wear a disguise
But you're not a man, you're a chicken, Boo.
(And the closing lyrics...)
He's jumbo-size and he wears a disguise
But he's not a man, he is Chicken Boo. (RO)
- Once again, we meet the crew at WBA. The guy at the head of the
table, leading the meeting, is a caricature of senior producer, Tom
Ruegger. The one with the frizzy hair is called "Shecky" by the
Ruegger character. This is Nicholas Hollander's nickname. I don't
remember what Nick looks like, but I guess it's a safe bet that that
character is supposed to be him. The other speaking male character
is a caricature of producer Peter Hastings. We also see Andrea
Romano, John P. McCann, Paul Rugg, and Audu Paden, Sherri Stoner(?)
as well as more folks I don't recognize. (RO, JM, BC)
+ "Larry Gelboo" is a reference to Larry Gelbart, noted TV
writer/story editor. If my memory's right, he worked extensively
on M*A*S*H. (RD)
+ "I hear he completely salvaged Casper.": Sherri Stoner and Deanna
Oliver did exactly that. (JM)
+ In case you really missed the boat, the movie they are discussing
is "The Flintstones" which was produced by Amblin. Note that Amblin
offices are Acme Loo (from TTA) (BC)
- Unlike "Yes, Always", none of the staff provides their own voices.
Too bad, really... (At least, if they did, they weren't credited.) (JM)
- The Tom Ruegger character is Rob Paulsen -- pretty much his natural
voice, too. Had they done their own voices, they would have been
credited again. (RO)
Nit The depictions of the staff aren't as good as in "Yes, Always",
either - and Wang animated both cartoons. (JM)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #79***
"My Mother The Squirrel" ---
(No noteworthy comments so far)
"The Party" ---
+ The song that Wakko burps is the traditional Mexican melody,
"Las Chiapanecas". (DG)
DYN The melody is Mexican, but the musicians are Spanish dressed. (DG)
+ The Warner's guest, Steven Botner, is the first guy that appears
in "PPPALF". (DG)
"Oh Say Can You See" ---
(no noteworthy comments so far)
"The Twelve Days of Christmas" ---
- The orchestra: Back row: Marita (xylophone), Flavio (trombone), Rita
(flute), Runt (alto clarinet), Ralph (tympani). Second row: Buttons
(trumpet), Mindy (cymbals). Third row: Dot (contrabass), Wakko
(viola), Yakko (violin), Scratchy (violin), Hello Nurse (harp).
Bottom row: Pesto (saxophone), Bobby (clarinet), Squit (saxophone),
Pinky (pole, with triangle dangling), the Brain (metal rod to strike
the triangle), Skippy (recorder?). (RO)
- Slappy's conducting... I think this is a bit of continuity with
Three Tenors and You're Out. (JM)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #80***
"Dot's Entertainment" ---
+ Andy Lloud Webby is a caricature of theatrical author, Sir Andrew
Lloyd Webber. (DG)
+ When Andy Lloud Webby picks Dot, they show what appears to be a
parody of the opening to the classic tv series "That Girl." (TADXN)
+ The music is parody of several Webber theater pieces: "Sunset
Boulevard", "Phantom of the Opera", "Cats", and "Evita". Also, "The
Sound of Music". (DG)
+ The first song, "Cats of Phantom Boulevard" is just a mix of some
of those titles: Cats of Phantom [of the Opera] [Sunset] Boulevard.
DYN The title card is drawn in the style of the poster of "Cats", and
there are Dot silhouettes in the cat's eyes. (DG)
"The Girl With the Googily Goop" ---
+ Of course, a parody of Max Fleishcher's character Betty Boop,
created in 1931. Betty Boop really disappears because of the censure
in 1939. (DG)
+ Frank Sinatra mentions Bimbo, Betty's sidekick. (DG)
- Many credit the Talkartoon "Dizzy Dishes" (released August 9, 1930)
as the first Betty Boop cartoon. She actually appears more as a dog
than as a human, but the character is clearly recognizable. (EOC)
- Many sources actually prefer to credit Grim Natwick, rather than
Max Fleischer (= Leon Schlesinger, that is, the producer) as the
creator of the character, since he did all of the original design
work for Betty Boop. (EOC)
- The "censure" refers to the fact that in 1934, the MPAA instituted
the Production Code, which dampened some of the more risqué elements
seen in a number of cartoons and movies, most notably Betty's fellow
Paramount star Mae West. The series continued on for some years,
Betty playing opposite characters like cheery inventor Grampy and a
dog, Pudgy. Many believe that when the sauciness went out of the
character, a lot of the vim went out as well. The last Boop cartoon,
"Yip Yip Yipee" was released in August, 1939. (EOC)
+ "The Girl With the Googily Goop" gets a lot of its humour from the
fact that it accurately spoofs a notable feature of cartoons produced
by the Fleischer studio in the 1920s and early 1930s -- many cartoons
feature normally inanimate objects coming to life (e.g. the animated
towel that dries off Betty Boop in "Betty Boop's Penthouse"(1933)
The opening shot of the character peering through a curtain decorated
with caricatures, while a song plays in the background, is a direct
spoof of the opening of many of the early Betty Boop cartoons. (EOC)
- For more information, I suggest consulting "The Fleischer Story"
by Leslie Carbaga, which is one of the best sources on the
Fleischer cartoons, and is liberally illustrated. (EOC)
- "Will Hays" was in fact the censor (who ran the Hays
Office) that pretty much killed the Betty Boop cartoons. (MrC)
"Gunga Dot" ---
+ Based in the poem, "Gunga Din", by Rudyard Kipling. (DG)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #81***
"Soccer Coach Slappy" ---
+ The announcer's comment "No Goal!" refers to the famous "Goal!"
yell when ever someone scores a goal in a soccer game that airs on
Univision. The popularity of the yell reached its peak (for now)
when it was yelled during the 1994 World Cup. (JK)
"Belly Button Blues" ---
(No noteworthy comments so far)
"Our Final Space Cartoon, We Promise" ---
+ Parody of the movie based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel, "2001: A
Space Odyssey". (DG, SS)
+ Ship's main computer is "AL-5000". The name in the movie is
"HAL-9000" (DG, SS)
+ AL-5000's voice is, of course, a caricature of US vice-president
Al Gore. (DG)
0 I would presume that the 19.6 seconds AL sets on the clock is a
reference to the election year 1996. (RO)
+ Dot comments on how Wakko got lost on Magnolia. Magnolia Street,
like most of the streets in L.A., are very long, very straight, and
built with clearly-marked intersections. It is therefore very hard
to get lost on a street in L.A. (JW)
"Valuable Lesson" ---
+ The Snugglers are a parody of the Smurfs, the blue gnomes created
by Peyo (Pierre Culliford). (DG)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #82***
"Wakko's Two-Note Song" ---
? When they do the country version of Wakko's song, are those the
same audience members as in "Bubba Bo Bob Brain"?
"Panama Canal" ---
+ The tune is a parody of the old folk song, "Low Bridge, Everybody
Down", although it is often misnamed "Erie Canal". Those words are
sung during the part where "Panama Canal"'s lyrics are "High lock, Up
goes the ship. (J!)
- Just a completely useless bit of info, the real lyrics to "Low Bridge"
are "15 miles on the Erie Canal" referring to when the boats were
pulled through the canal by mules, which are only able to pull the
boats for 15 miles a day. This leads to not only the "15 miles on the
Erie Canal," but also the first line of the song, "I've got an old
mule and her name is Sal", which is directly reflected in Yakko naming
his ship Hal. (J!)
0 The decals on Yakko's ship are as follows: Ear Canal, Canal No. 5,
Eerie Canal, Steven & Canal, Alimeatary Canal, Martian Canals, Canal
St. NY, Suez Canal, Root Canal, Panama, Khenklo Canal. (SS, J!)
+ Yes, that's Pinky and Brain in that little sub that pops up.
They're in the sub from "Das Mouse". (SS, JW)
"Hello Nurse" ---
DYN Dot's room at the beginning is identical to the one in Katie
Kaboom's introduction. (DG)
DYN Yakko is reading Variety magazine. (SS)
- The books in Hello Nurse's room are "The Complete Works of
Shakespeare", "Don Quixote", "War and Peace", "Foucaults Pendulum"
(I think), and "Grayit's -------" (can't tell 2nd word). (SS, WS)
+ We find out that Wakko is only seven years old (in Warner years,
right?). (SS)
"Ballad of Magellan" ---
+ The tune is a parody of the old folk song, "Get Along Little
Dogies". (SS)
- Has a historical note. The expedition continues after Magellan's
death under the rule of the Spanish Juan Sebastian Elcano, who
concludes it in 1522, in what today is the port of Cadiz, Spain. (DG)
+ The Warners are leaning against a barrel marked "GROG", which BTW,
Wakko is drinking out of with a straw. Grog is an alcoholic liquor,
most likely rum, mixed with water. Naughty Wakko! When someone
would get drunk on grog, that person was said to be "groggy". (SS)
+ "Evita Coming Soon" sign in Argentina: that's where the musical's
story takes place. (SS)
"Return of the Great Wakkorotti" ---
+ The melody is the "Chinese Dance", from Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker
Suite". (DG)
- Members of the orchestra: Yakko (Director), Skippy, Mindy, Pinky,
Brain, Slappy, the Goodfeathers, Dr. Scratchansniff, Flavio, Hello
Nurse, Minerva, the mime, Rita, and Chicken Boo. (SS)
- The things that Dot puts into the Great Wakkorotti's glove: talcum
powder, perfume, Creme de la Hand (Cream of the Hand? SPEWWWW! Ok,
ok, so it really just means "hand cream".) ketchup, Golden Mustard,
relish, 2 hotdogs, chili, and sauerkraut. (SS, WS, J!)
DYN That last "note" the Great Wakkorotti performs, is not done by his
hands. hmmm... (SS)
"The Big Wrap Party Tonight" ---
0 The stars at the party are as follows (most of these are names which
aren't directly mentioned in the song): Jack Palance, Sharon Stone,
John Tesh, Whoopi Goldberg, Batman, Mr. Director, Freakazoid, Jack
Nicholson, Marlon Brando, Julia Roberts, Michael Keaton, Bob Hope,
William Shatner (ala Captain Kirk), David Letterman, Alfred Hitchcock,
Dustin Hoffman, Cher, Jay Leno, Beast (as in "Beauty & the ..."),
Mel Gibson (of course), Scratchansniff is chatting with Elmer Fudd,
Ms. Flamiel is with Veena Waleen (aka: Bumbie's Mom), Pip (aka:
Francis Pumphandle), Luke Perry, Woody Allen, Gean Siskel & Roger
Ebert (or Lean Hisskill & Codger Eggbert), Mike Tyson, Michele
Pfeiffer, Stephen Spielberg & wife: Kate Capshaw(?), Bea Arthur, Jack
Benny(?), Plucky Duck, Gogo Dodo, Babs and Buster Bunny (no relation),
Dizzy Devil, and Hampton J. Pig. (SS)
DYN Plotz's credit card has "Take Your Money and Run Credit Agency"
written on it. (WS)
Nit The line in the song says, "Sylvester wants a parakeet-a" while the
cat in question is being shown chasing Tweety. Tweety is a canary.
(SS)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #83***
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo Clock" ---
DYN Freakazoid is on the cover of Slappy's TV Guide.
- Talk show hosts which are parodied: Jenny Jones, Geraldo, Ricki Lake,
Montel Williams, Phil Donahue (with Gordon Elliott), Oprah Winfrey,
Sally Jesse Rafael , Maury Povich, Jane Whitney, Jerry Springer, Mike
[Burger] & Matty, Rolanda, Regis [Philbin] & Kathie Lee [Gifford],
Rosie O' Donnell. (SS)
+ In the talk show montage, you can hear "Uma, Oprah". David
Letterman said this in a joke when he MC'ed the Oscars introducing
Oprah Winfrey to Uma Thurman. (RM)
DYN Wakko on the TV set when Skippy comes in. CHECK THIS OUT!!
Wakko moves into the likeness of three widely publicized Wakko pics.
See if you can spot the one where he's ... (1) jumping with his
hands out (half concealed by Skippy's head), (2) yanking on his
collar, & (3) face front with his ears half-way out of his cap. (SS)
+ The doctor is supposed to be ER's George Clooney. (SS)
+ Skippy saying, "Okay, I love you, bye-bye," is, of course, in ref
to the Mindy & Buttons cartoons.
+ Several cartoon character parodies can be found at the nursing
home: Wile E. Coyote, Tom & Jerry, Woody Woodpecker, Goofy,
Mighty Mouse (called Rocket Rat), Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse(?). (SS)
+ One of the nurses at the rest home is another character from ER.
(SS)
DYN Slappy gives the orderly a bedpan as a "parting gift". (SS)
+ A ref to that swift, Mexican, WB mouse, Speedy Gonzoles, is used.
Slappy even says, "Arriba, arriba! Andale!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #84***
"Cutie and the Beast" ---
+ Obvious parody of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast".
DYN In the opening shot, the two gargoyles on the Beast's castle,
look strangely like those from another Disney animated movie, "The
Hunchback of Notre Damme". (SS)
+ "Mr. United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama," is of course,
referring to "Yakko's World", in which Yakko sings, "the nations of
the world".
DYN When Dot makes the comment about Wakko not bathing and the Warners
start to argue, if you listen carefully, you can hear Wakko object,
"I'm allergic ta water!" (SS)
DYN Dot bumps the "real" Belle from the movie into a well. (SS)
0 One of the French guys was from the movie in "Drive In-Sane" and
PatB's "Napoleon Brainapart." (JW)
+ Just before the Warners enter the Dark and Mysterious Forest, Pinky
& the Brain run through, dressed in their outfits from "Spellbound".
(JW)
- After Dot says the line, "What is this, Make Fun of Your Sister Day
on Animaniacs?" she and Yakko argue again. Here's what they say:
Dot: "You know, this isn't really right, You've got issues man,
serious things ... You can't pick on me like that, You're not the boss
of me!"
Yakko: "Oh, c'mon, Why don't you just, Oh just, You can't take a joke,
you know, you're really driving me nuts, I can't listen to this, Oh
c'mon!" (SS)
+ The whole "do that funny thing that you do" is from a Tiny Toons
short with Babs and her family called "It's All Relatives", from
the episode, "Pledge Week" (the 2nd-season premiere). (JW, ED, LC)
DYN When miffed, the Warners lash their tails. A nice touch, I think.
Another nice bit is how often they shoot nasty glances at each
other... these are both neat extras that really lend an air of
reality to them. (JW)
"Boo Happens" ---
+ Parody of Forrest Gump.
+ The title is a parody of a phrase Forest supposedly immortalized
in the 80's: "Sh*t Happens".
+ Kennedy remarks, "I do believe he said, 'buck-bacaw'," just like
in the movie, he quips, "I do believe he said he had to go pee." (SS)
+ Nixon saying, "He is not a cluck," parodies the ex-president's
real line, "I am not a crook."
DYN The hippies are beating Chicken Boo to a pulp with peace signs.
Quite ironic. (SS)
"Noel" ---
+ Captain Ahab was in the episode, "Moby or Not Moby". (SS)
Cold Ending ---
+ Wakko says, "We're touched, so you be touched." This is a ref to
the closing for the news show, "20-20". Barbara Walters says, "We're
in touch, so you be in touch." (SS)
+ Yet another "Mystery Science Theater 3000" tribute, and very nicely
done, I might add. (JW)
+ On MST3K, when they watch a newer movie (with end credits), they
tend to riff on the credits much like the Warners do here. (See
"MST3K The Movie" for a perfect example.) You don't see this much,
because many of the movies on MST3K are from the 50s, 60s and early
70s, and end credits weren't really a de facto standard till the mid-
70s (before then, the production staff and all were credited at the
beginning, and there was only a cast list at the end; also, not all
of the staff got credited, as is the practice today). (LC)
+ The closing parodies news shows where the anchors, on a darkened
set, commence in chit-chat between one another while the credits roll
by and theme music is heard. (SS)
+ Although I believe the ending to be a MST3K ref, I don't necessarily
think that the "news show" idea was off its mark. It probably was a
mixture of the two. The "cold ending" has the Warners using
microphones which they realize they've forgotten to turn off after
they've made their "rude" comments. This is similar to the scenario
in a "Murphy Brown" episode when the producers of FYI experiment with
the "darkened set" concept for the first time. (SS)
+ Yakko says that "I have a headache this big, and it's got "Warner Bros."
written all over it. "This is a ref to an old Excedrin ad (Scratchansniff
said the first part once). (RyM)
+ I'm assuming you don't know Yiddish, Drek (or Dreck) means sh*t.
Quite the mouth on Yakko, huh? (JW) But it isn't regarded with the
same force, at least not in English. (LC)
+ When the Warners stumble over the name of the "executive producer",
Dot ends the discussion with, "Mr. Kate Capshaw," the name of Stephen
Spielberg's current wife. (SS)
- Incidentally, Spielberg first met Capshaw while directing "Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom". Capshaw co-starred, with Harrison Ford, as
singer Willie Scott, in the movie. (SS)
- First full screen of gag credits: "Reading small print can lead to
eye strain. Visit your optometrist regularly. And for that matter,
don't forget to go to the dentist at least every six months. If not,
you might get cavities or gingivitis or some nasty gum disease. As
for me, I got a toothache right now that's killing me, so don't make
the mistake I did. See a dentist! (And try using some mouth wash
now & then, okay?) And remember to brush after every meal, and floss
once a day." (SS)
- Second full screen of gag credits: "This has been ANIMANIACS
episode #84. Upcoming episodes are #85, #86, #87, #88, #89. And
don't forget about show #90. Another good show you can look forward
to is show #91! If you'd like even more episodes of ANIMANIACS,
don't forget to write to Jamie Kellner, c/o Kids WB and say, "we
want more ANIMANIACS." His home phone # is 555-1212." (SS)
- The 555 exchange is used by various internal numbers of the telephone
company, most of which cannot be dialed by the public. An exception
is 555-1212, which is US long-distance Information. (411 is local
info.) (jkennedy, LC, YJW) Hollywood has an agreement to use only
"555" numbers (or sometimes KLondike 5 numbers, which are the same
thing) for fictional purposes, so that mental defectives won't call
numbers they hear in movies or TV shows. Use of "555-1212" in this
particular case is a deliberate joke. (jkennedy, CB)
? The guys' phone number in the last screen has changed. The 1212 has
something like a 1213 superimposed over it. Maybe someone called it.
(RyM)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #85***
"Animani-rats" opener ---
+ For those without cable, "Rugrats" is a cartoon airing on
Nickelodeon which is all done from the baby's point of view. This
is a parody of the show's opening theme which it follows quite
closely. (SS)
DYN Rita & Runt are on the side of the milk cartoon, ala the missing
children ads. Appropriate as they've been missing since season 2. (JW)
+ Wakko = Chuckie, Yakko = Tommy, Slappy = Grandpa, Skippy & Mindy =
Phil & Lil, Dot = Angelica, Buttons = Spike, Dr. Scratchansniff &
Hello Nurse = Tommy's Parents (Stu and Didi). (SS)
- Interestingly enough, both Wakko and Chuckie are paranoid of
clowns. (SS)
DYN The milk carton instead of the bottle (has pretty much the same
effect though). Parody of the toys using Pinky and Brain. (SS)
"Jokahontas" ---
- Wakkoum = Cocoum, Chief Yakhatan = Chief Powhattan, Pocadotas =
Pocahontas, Genie&Beast = Ralph, Aladdin = Dr. Scratchansniff,
Grandmother Willow = Grandmama Maple, Meeko = Skippy. (SS)
+ "Shuffle off, buffalo," is a probably ref to the song, "Shuffle
Off to Buffalo", from the musical, "42nd Street". (SS) --See also,
"U.N. Me" above--
+ The Buffalo was doing a tap step combination called the "Buffalo"
and part of the step is a shuffle. The buffalo is step shuffle hop
step shuffle hop step or if you want to get tricky you can shuffle
before the step and shuffle both feet while doing the buffalo. It's
a very common step. Whenever in a performance the dancers do it
for a while they always get applauded afterwards 'cause it's
considered to be very difficult. But I personally don't think so
'cause I was taught it my first year of tap classes. (ED)
+ "The cast of 'Friends'? Are you kidding? Those guys are
everywhere!" I totally agree. Never watched the show and STILL can
pick all of them out. Especially that Jennifer what's-her-name. (SS)
DYN Parodies of Flounder and Sabastian from "The Little Mermaid". (SS)
+ "First I tuned an aerial..." = Ariel of "The Little Mermaid, "Then
I rang a bell..." = Belle of "Beauty and the Beast". (SS)
DYN The Mickey Mouse helmet and shorts on John Smith. (SS)
+ See, the gag here with Mel Gibson as John Smith is simple. Dot
loves the guy and he also did the voice for ol' Johnny in the movie.
+ When the paint splatters on Mel, he looks like his character from
"Braveheart". (SS)
+ The Ice Cream Song was the tune, "Hungarian Rhapsody No.2", by Franz
Liszt. (SS)
DYN The last three ice cream flavors listed are, "Asphalt", "Gravel",
and "Macaroni & Cheese", which aren't all that bizarre if you consider
some of the latest Ben & Jerry flavors. (SS, RO)
- Yakko says Ben & Jerry will get the ice cream recipe "over my tootie
fruity, Rudie!" as he drops the recipe down his pants. hmmm... (SS)
0 What I always thought was that "tutti frutti, Rudi" was a ref to
Little Richard's song "Tutti Frutti". --Tutti Frutti, oh Rudi! (x3)
A wap babaloobap a wap bam boop!-- (Michelle)
"Boids on the Hood" ---
+ Title parodies "Boyz N the Hood", an "inner-city" film directed
by John Singleton, but the parody ends there. For what it's worth,
the movie came out in 1991, and was one of the first of the "inner-
city" films to get recognition. Singleton got an Oscar nomination
for "Boyz N the Hood"(?) in 1992. (LC, MN, JK)
+ Richard Wagner's "Flight of the Valkyries" is the tune. The title
of the song is also referred to sometimes as "The Ride of the
Valkyries". It's from Act II of Die Walkkure, which is performed on
the first day of Ring des Nibelungen. (Source: "The Victor Book of
the Opera" RCA, Camden, 1936) (SS, EOC)
0 The whole scene is a blistering spoof of the similar scene from
"Apocalypse Now." (EOC)
"Mighty Wakko at the Bat" ---
+ Parody of the classic poem, "Mighty Casey at the Bat", but with a
happier ending! (SS)
+ Tiny Toons did a version of Thayer's poem, in the short, "Buster
at the Bat" from the episode "Son of the Wacko World of Sports".
Disney also did the poem straight in "Make Mine Music (1946)".
The poem is in the public domain, I believe, so it got around. (LC,
EOC)
Nit The background artist has put a white line between first and second,
and second and third, which is not generally done in professional
baseball today. (And yes, this is pro baseball. Witness Plotzie's
crack about not getting paid.) Lines are usually only painted down
the first and third base lines, and in the batter's box. (EOC)
+ WB is being no-hit in the ninth, down 1-0. Note that the other team
had no hits either (Scoreboard shot late as Skippy scores). This is
not only possible, but has happened. (In 1917, there was a double
no-hit game between the Cubs and Reds that ended only in extra innings,
when the Reds broke up the no-hitter). Depending on the scorer, the
no-hitter for the other team might still be intact, with the error
charged to one of the outfielders. Score it E-8, if you want my view.
There are numerous cases where pitchers have thrown no-hitters and
lost (e.g. Steve Barber and Stu Miller for the Orioles in 1967 or Ken
Johnson for Houston in 1964.). (EOC)
DYN The sign for Freleng Fizz. Reference to Friz Freleng, Classic-era
WB director who directed "Porky's Baseball Broadcast", "Baseball
Bugs", and "Boulevardier from the Bronx," the last cartoon also
having a baseball theme. (EOC)
+ One of the spectators in the stands was the same guy who bought
the "gribble refiner" in "Garage Sale of the Century". (SS)
- A gribble is a type of marine termite with fourteen legs. Dunno
why it needs refining... (JW)
+ Minerva and Hello Nurse have certainly violated the rules about
players from the bench venturing into fair territory while the ball
is in play. Since 1955, it has also been illegal for any member or
members of the offensive team to stand or gather around any base to
which a runner is advancing, to confuse, hinder or add to the
difficulty of the fielders. Such runner shall be declared out for
the interference of his teammate or teammates. This would mean the
other team would win the game, since the third out would occur before
Skippy scored the tying run. (EOC)
0 I believe that the little kid with the high-pitched voice was Danny
Dingle, who appeared in the Freakazoid ep "Hero Boy." At any rate, it
was the same voice. (JW)
+ We find out that Wakko is "only three feet tall". (SS)
+ In the end, when you don't know if Wakko was safe or out, the lines
are almost as exactly the same as the real poem. (SS)
+ The umpire's call is rather unlikely. Umpires very rarely change
calls; that usually only happens when another umpire overrules them.
Most likely, the umpire would not have made any call until *after*
Wakko popped his head up, showing he touched home. Most umpires,
when they give a decision, stick to it. (EOC)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #86***
"A Very Very Very Very Special Show" ---
+ This one parodies many of the "moral" shows that some series do once
in a while. (MN)
- TTA won a "humanitarian" award of the sort mentioned here. It was
an Environmental Media Award for Children's Programming. Some of the
shorts/eps that got it that award were as preachy as what the Warners
were doing here...(Ex. "Whale's Tales", "Pollution Solution") (LC)
"Night of the Living Buttons" ---
- Watch for the Warners to do a run-through... WHOA, scary!
+ Mindy tells Buttons to "kiss the frog, baby," which was once the slogan
of the WB Network. (RyM)
+ Near the end, Buttons dresses as Michael Jackson from his "Thriller"
video, and the dance skit afterwards parodies this video. (MN)
+ The frog results in becoming Michgan J. Frog, the singing frog
mascot of the WB network. (MN)
"Soda Jerk" ---
- The voice of the Soda Jerk is uncredited to Rob Paulsen, speaking
in his normal voice. (MN)
+ The ice cream guy whistles the PatB tune. (JW)
+ The Center For Advance Research, from "Super Strong Warner Sibs"
is back. (JW)
+ When they attempt shock therapy to cure Wakko, Yakko is dressed up as
a prototypical mad scientist, and Dot as Bride of Frankenstein. (JW)
- Wakko attempts to swim with the Polar Bear club, who always swim on
the coldest day of the year. (JW)
+ An Alien and his Robot come down and zap Wakko... They are from
"The Day The Earth Stood Still". (JW)
+ Acme Loo is holding the Medical Conference at the end. (JW)
Nit One of the scientists is talking, but her lips aren't moving. (JW)
DYN In the shot where everyone on earth except Wakko hiccups, someone
hiccups on the moon. (RyM)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #87***
"From Burbank With Love" ---
+ A spoof of the James Bond movie series.
+ The title refers to "From Russia With Love", the second James Bond
film in the series. (JK)
+ The plot of the short is lifted from the film, "Goldfinger". (JK)
DYN The gun in the title song was a dart gun. (JW)
+ Blowfinger = Goldfinger
+ Municipal Bond, 0007 = James Bond, 007
+ The voice of 0007 copies the original James Bond, Sean Connery.
(SS)
+ "I'm Dot Warner, the spy who loves you," is a ref to the James
Bond movie, "The Spy Who Loved Me". There was another A! short with
a Bond theme: "The Chicken Who Loved Me". (SS) --See also show #60
in the CRGA--
? Is it my imagination, or does Lionel Tempjob, throw his hat OFF
the projector screen? (SS)
- When the agents are being briefed on their mission, the Warners
throw things at the projection screen because, as Dot explains, "He
looks like our agent." This is what they throw: popcorn, candy bars,
chicken drumsticks, soft drinks, and a pot of flowers. (SS)
- They throw things a second time at a fly buzzing around the screen
because they claim the room was "bugged". Here's what they throw this
time: 2 lightbulbs, a pair of shoes, a golf club, 2 rolls of toilet
paper, 2 wooden stools, an octopus, 2 drawers, a metal pot, an anvil
(which rips through the screen and flys out the window), a tomato,
and a golden trophy. (SS)
DYN The road sign going into Kentucky says "Welcome to Kentucky. Home
of Blue Cross, Ft. Knox, Blowfinger's Secret Hide Out!" (SS)
+ Tempjob's reaction to the 1996 movie, "The Cable Guy", (starring
Jim Carrey as a maniac cable installer who makes life miserable for
one of his subscribers) by lowering our heroes into a pit of acid
and Yakko's remark: "He must have seen that movie." is a ref to the
fact that even though this movie had high hopes, it was widely
knocked by critics and movie-goers alike. (SS, JK)
- Take note of Blowfinger's line, "When I rob Fort Knox, I buy two
very big heads. hmmm... (SS)
+ The person the Warners are with at the end is McCloud from the show
of the same name. (JK)
"Anchors A-Warners" ---
0 The title of this short probably comes from the old movie, "Anchors
A-weigh". (SS)
+ Anchors Aweigh (1945), prolly best known for having Jerry Mouse
dancing with Gene Kelly. Synching animation to live action was
rather rare back then. (LC)
+ The Lung Boat = The Love Boat.
DYN The cast of "Gilligan's Island" waiting in line to get on the cruise
ship. They are seen again later at the party. (SS)
DYN Ms. Flamiel was on the cruise. (SS)
Nit When Scratchansniff takes his disguise off, he mysteriously loses
his pants and gets shorts. hmm... (JW)
+ The repetitive bingo jokes were from "Bingo". (JW)
- Between this episode and "Drive-Insane", it seems that Dr.
Scratchansniff has a thing for overweight women. Also in both
episodes, the Warners call out to him, "Daddy, Daddy!" just to get
old Scratchy in trouble. (SS)
+ "Could you do that 'No, no, no' thing again? ... I LOVE that!" was
also in the episode, "This Pun For Hire". (SS)
+ The "Romp" stuff comes from the episode, "Take My Siblings Please".
(SS)
Travel Song ---
(No noteworthy comments so far)
Note on gag credit:
"The Beaver: Jerry Mathers."
+ Refers to the show, "Leave It To Beaver". (JK)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #88***
"Papers For Papa" ---
+ The writer the Warners meet is Ernest Hemingway. (DG)
+ It should be noted that Ernest Hemingway's nickname was "Papa Doc".
(JW)
+ One of the rejected opening lines Hemingway writes is a spoof of
the Dr. Seuss story, "Green Eggs and Ham". (JK)
+ The show Hemingway watches is "Lamb Chop's Play Along". (JK)
DYN All the references to books. "Farewell To Arms," "The Old Man and
the Sea," "The Sun Also Rises," "The Green Hills Of Africa," and so
on. (JW)
- The weird eyeball alien from a PatB ep pops out of a spaceship.
(Don't remember the title of the ep. It was the one where Brain
changes the info in a probe, then gets taken to Fronabulax) (JW)
+ John Tesh is a former "Entertainment Tonight" host who is better
known as a musician and a bad gymnastics commentator. (JK)
"Amazing Gladiators" ---
+ Parody of "American Gladiators".
+ The ending has the hippos on "Baywatch". (JK)
"Pinky and the Ralph" ---
+ Pinky and the Brain Parody.
Notes on Hippos Commercial Parodies:
+ The first Flavio ad spoofs ads for the Soloflex muscle machine.
(JK)
+ Although all of Flavio's ads were refs, the Soak ad was special
because of the somewhat "controversial" nature of the Coca-Cola ad
it parodied. (Controversial in that it showed sexism from a
different point of view.) (JW)
Note on gag credit:
"When I Dance They Call Me Macerena."
+ The first line of the Bayside Mix version of "The Macarena". (JK)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #89***
"Ten Short Films About Wakko Warner" ---
? "10 Short Films About Wakko" = "32 Short Films About G. Gould."
Never seen the movie, but I saw the soundtrack at Borders. (JW)
+ "Lunch With Steven". Wakko has lunch with Steven...Spielberg. (SS)
DYN In "Volunteerism", Wakko arches his back like a cat at the petting.
He also begins involuntarily kicking his leg as many dogs would do.
(SS)
+ In "Wakko Plays Golf With Benny Hill", spoofs the usual credits
scene on the "Benny Hill Show". That's a variation on the Benny Hill
theme music being played in the background. (JK, SS)
+ The theme music that they played was technically, and legally, "In
The Style Of" (without copying) what Benny Hill used as a theme song,
which was "Yakety Sax" by Boots Randolph. (MrC)
? Is that Bob Hope seen with Hello Nurse?
+ "My Dinner With Wakko" is a spoof of "My Dinner With Andre". (JK)
- The waiter refers to Wakko as a "puppy". (SS)
+ Wakko was doing "A Big Duet" with Frank Sinatra. Sinatra recently
released an album featuring him singing duets with other famous
singers, thus the short with him and Wakko sing "Pop Goes the Weasel".
(SS, JK)
+ The guy in The Dollar Store was Mitch, who also worked at the
drive-in's Snackaterium, from the short, "Drive-Insane". (SS)
+ He's in a Road Rovers episode too (A Day in the Life, I think) and
the weird, fat guy that was in line behind Scratchy is now behind the
counter with "Mitch". (RO, CS)
"No Time For Love" ---
DYN That canary looks strangely like the sparrow, Carloota, from "West
Side Pigeons". (SS)
DYN The can of "sufferin' succotash" with Sylvester the cat on it. (SS)
"The Boo Network" ---
DYN Plotz is reading Variety Magazine. An Animaniacs ad is on the back
cover. (SS)
+ "60 Clucks" = "60 Minutes".
+ Molter and Tully of "The Egg Files" = Mulder and Scully of"The X
Files" Get it? Molter as in molting birds. (SS)
+ The Wonderful World of Colonel Feathers Presents = The Wonderful
World of Disney. Also, Colonel Feathers possibly a parody of
Colonel Sanders, the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise guy? (SS)
+ "Charlie, the Lonesome Chicken" = "Charlie the Lonesome Cougar",
the first Disney short that was done after Walt's death. (JK)
+ Emelda, Mickey, and Alice on "Melrose Coop" = Amanda Woodward,
Michael Mancini(?), and Alison Parker on "Melrose Place". (SS)
+ David Featherman = David Letterman.
+ "Henhouse Improvement" starring Tim Illen = "Home Improvement"
starring Tim Allen.
+ "Full Nest" with those adorable Olsten twins = "Full House",
starring the Olsen twins. One also might have taken "Full Nest" to
parody the comedy, "Empty Nest", but the mention of the twins makes
the reference clearly the former. (SS)
Note on gag credit:
"If You Can't Say Something Nice, We'd Rather Not Hear About It."
0 Spoofs Thumper's famous line in the film Bambi.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #90***
"Pitter Patter of Little Feet" ---
+ The show Brain watches is a spoof of Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood. (JK)
+ Attica is a prison in New York where, during the 70's, the inmates
took over after their demands to improve the prison weren't met. (JK)
+ The mixed-up stork is a classic cartoon gag, used in many cartoons of
the '30's and '40's. In those cartoons, however, the bird was usually
drunk. (CM)
+ The purple bear Brain tries to use to escape is, of course, a reference
to the kiddie fad known as Barney the Purple Dinosaur, which I'm sure
you'd all like to forget. (CM)
"Mindy in Wonderland" ---
+ The plot, of course, spoofs the 1950 Disney film "Alice in Wonderland".
Most of the scenes in this episode are taken directly from the movie.
(CM)
+ Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber- Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, the
stars of the film, "Dumb and Dumber". (JK)
+ The Cheshire Cat- Rita, of course. (JK)
"Ralph's Wedding" ---
- Nuptial wedding? Hm...apparently, Ralph's Catholic. (CM)
+ The address on the card reads "Burbank California, 90210", referring to
the long-lived FOX show "Beverly Hills, 90210". (CM)
- Characters appearing at the wedding: Hello Nurse and Dot (as bridesmaids),
Miss Flamiel & Veena Waleena (Bumbie's Mom--interesting how this is the
second time we've seen her appear with Ms. Flamiel, the first being "The
Big Wrap Party Tonight"), Slappy & Skippy, the Hip Hippos, Pinky & Brain,
Mindy & Buttons, Plotzy & Scratchansniff. (CM)
Note on gag credit:
"On The WB, Big Kids Go First. In Reality, Big Kids Sleep In."
+ Refers to the "Big Kids Go First" campaign on Kids' WB that only
lasted five weeks before Freakazoid was moved to Fridays and
Earthworm Jim aired every three weeks. (JK)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #91***
- Hey, you notice that this was the shortest Animaniacs episode ever?
I think the material added up to about 18 minutes on the, er, dot.
(JJW)
Variable Verse: "Public Domainy"
+ Refers to information or material that is not copyrighted or the
copyright as expired on. The television the Warners are watching has
"It's a Wonderful Life" on the screen - An example of a movie that
had fallen into the public domain. (RW)
+ "It's A Wonderful Life" did lose its copyright status in 1974 when
the copyright wasn't renewed. This is what made it possible for all
those ad nauseum shows of the movies from 1975 until recently. In
the early '90s, Republic Pictures used a 1978 copyright law to renew
the copyright and gain control of the negatives, music, and story.
That's why you no longer see so many showings of the movie. The
upshot of it is that NBC has near-exclusive rights to show the film
on TV. (ME, JJW)
+ If memory serves, Republic Pictures was able to regain the copyright
by asserting ownership of the *music* used in the film, which is why
it's not plastered all over TV at Christmastime any more. (I know one
local station bought a *VHS tape* of the film to broadcast a few years
ago -- instead of paying a couple of hundred dollars for a
professional dub!) (PC)
"Message in a Bootle" ---
+ "Fan mail from some flounder?" A gag from Rocky & Bullwinkle. (PC)
"Back in Style" ---
0 The history is pretty accurate--Jack Warner shut down the original
Warner Bros. Cartoon Department the early 60s but he then farmed out
the Looney Tunes series for several years to DePatie-Freleng, which
produced some downright awful Daffy/Speedy shorts before WB got out
of the animated short subject business in the late 60s. (RM)
- Dates for the second closure of the studio (there had been a
previous closure in the 1950s during the 3-D panic) vary. Some
sources list 1962, others list 1963. (EOC)
+ The flavored drink commercial reference Bugs makes refers to the
fact that Tex Avery directed commercials for Kool-Aid in the 1960s
that featured Bugs Bunny. (EOC)
? Daffy's calling Bugs "Tex" is a reference to the fact that the
rabbit we know as Bugs Bunny was created by Tex Avery, and his model
sheet was originally labeled "Tex's Rabbit". (RM)
? EOCostello suggests that the model sheet in question was labeled
"Bug's Bunny", after J.B. "Bugs" Hardaway, a writer at WB at the
time. (ref EOC's WB Cartoon Companion). (MrC)
+ Animators leaving Termite Terrace: Chuck Jones on the left, and
Friz Freleng on the right changing a Bugs Bunny drawing into the
"Grey Panther". Freleng, directed/produced the Pink Panther cartoons
(created for the Inspector Clouseau films, actually) after the WB
cartoon studio shut down. (RM, JJW)
+ Reason Freleng sounds like Yosemite Sam is that (a) Freleng created
Sam, and (b) Mike Maltese, who wrote the first few Sam cartoons,
claimed that he patterned Sam after Freleng, who was also a little
guy with a terrible temper. (JJW)
- On the steps of the studio, conspicuous by his absence is Bob
McKimson. Note Jones appears to be holding part of a light table.
Others have correctly noted the origin of Friz's voice that's used
here (though if you have ever seen "Bugs Bunny Superstar" you know
what his voice is like). (EOC)
+ "Treg Green" is an homage/parody of longtime LTMM-era WBA sound
effects editor Tregowith "Treg" Brown. (RM) Treg Brown actually
had great success after WB closed -- he won an Oscar for sound
effects for "The Great Race." (EOC)
+ Chicken Boo gets a workout here. A poster for "The Good, the Boo
and the Ugly" (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 1966) can be seen, as
well as one for "Freebie and the Boo" (Freebie and the Bean, 1974)
and "Shampoo" from 1975, and Boo is seen in a spoof of Youngblood
Hawke, from 1964, which, by the way, was adapted from a novel by
Herman Wouk, the author of "The Caine Mutiny" and an ex-gag writer
for Fred Allen. (EOC)
+ The "loanout" thing is based on fact, sort of. In the early 70s,
Warner Brothers "loaned" Porky Pig and Daffy Duck to Filmation, which
made a TV movie combining Porky and Daffy with Filmation's "Groovie
Ghoulies." (JJW)
Nit The short claims that that is the FIRST time that the Warners were
loaned out, thereby CONTRADICTING the short "The Girl With The
Googily Goop" in which the Warners were loaned out to the Fleichmann
Studios. (JW, Lari)
+ Phil & Schmo = Bill Hanna & Joseph Barbara
+ The Warners are rented out to appear in parodies of Yogi Bear,
Scooby Doo, Underdog, Fat Albert, and the Beatles cartoon show.
They matched the styles of the various studios DEAD-ON. (RM, RW, LC)
- Calhoun Capybara = Yogi Bear, Loo Loo Lemur = Boo Boo Bear
+ A Capybara is a large South American rodent. (RW)
+ Calhoun wears a Kiss the Kook apron - Normally seen as "kiss the
cook". (RW)
+ The jerkiness, the bad, flat animation and the comments about it by
the Warners refer to the cheap animation used by Hanna Barbara in Yogi
Bear and its other works. (RW)
+ One year of the long run of Scooby-Doo was an hour-long format
called "The New Scooby-Doo Movies", each episode of which did
feature celebrity guests in animated form, although I think they
were mainly real people, rather than cartoon characters. (TB, EOC)
+ They even got the EYES right in the Scooby-doo riff. Very scary.
(JW)
+ Background music styles were also similar -- lots of flutes. (PC)
- Bristly = Shaggy, (with his catch phrase, "Zoiks!" depicted here as,
"Zink!") Pheobe = Daphne, Fred is parodied too, but they don't mention
a name, Uruhu = Scooby Doo... (SS)
- Uhruhu looks a little like Scooby's cousin, Scooby Dumb, if he
just had that red hat. He's the same color, anyway. (SS)
- Adding to the pun, the character design of the girl resembled Uhura
from "Star Trek", whose name is a feminization of the Swahili "uhuru,"
meaning "freedom," according to some accounts (disputed). (PC)
+ Or maybe you can read something into it by figuring that when Scooby
talked, he replaced most of his consonants with "r" sounds... (PC)
+ Cheesy Rock songs - Typical music of Scooby-Doo
- Among the cartoon shows referred to in Plotz's list are "The Perils
of Penelope Pit Stop" "Hong Kong Phooey" "Hair Bear Bunch" and
"Underdog". (EOC)
- Thunderdog = Underdog
- H20 Na2Cl - Water and Salt - Seawater
+ Thunderdog's magic feather seems in part to be a standin for the
Underdog Energy Vitamin Pill, via Dumbo. (EOC)
? The Warners put the feather in a machine called the Gammalaminator.
When it comes out, Wakko captures it in a book titled, "History of
Fleas". Ummm, the point? There must be one somewhere.
+ It finally hit me as to the significance of that "drawbridge" joke
in the Underdog spoof in "Back in Style." Simon San Simeon (great
alliteration) is named for the fabled California estate of William
Randolph Hearst, which is now a popular park. So, a drawbridge
would be appropriate for someone named after an estate. (EOC)
- Gee, but look where the door to the drawbridge is located. hmmm...
+ "Phlegmation" refers to the notoriously bad, "Filmation" studio,
maker of less than quality animation.
+ Obese Orson was the Filmation-style parody. (MN)
- Note the cheesey laugh track like in Fat Albert as well.
+ Video Wasteland - ref to former FCC chairman, Newton Minow's
observation of '60's television as a "vast wasteland". (PC) Fat
Albert and his gang hung out in a junkyard.
0 Todd-AO was (and for all I know, may still be) a filming process
like Cinerama or VistaVision. That's probably Mike Todd, the
impresario behind the process, being caricatured. (EOC)
+ The rock group cartoon was a parody of The Beatles, who just happened
to have their own cheaply-animated series on ABC in the mid-60s. The
music had the same Beatle-esque feel of "A Hard Day's Warners". The
song they're singing is a parody of Day Tripper (LC, TB)
- The animation looked almost identical to the animation for the old
Beatles cartoon show. Only the hair color and who played what
instrument was changed. Heck, I could even tell which one was which
Beatle at a glance. I've seen quite a bit of the animated Beatles,
and this was definitely a parody of it. Also remember that the
Beatles in the animated Beatle series looked nothing like the animated
Beatles in Yellow Submarine. Maybe that's what's throwing people off.
(D&D)
+ A reliable source has informed me that the Beatles caricatures that
wear kilts were a ref to the long gone Bay City Rollers, a cheesy
Beatles impersonator of the mid-70's who wore kilts. (EOC)
- "Don't call us again until we can have our own network," Need I say
more? (RW)
- I thought "Back In Style" was a riot, myself -- but then I remember
all of those Saturday Morning Fiascoes -- and I wonder if the "months
off-model" scene, where they were deliberately *not* drawn in the
"original" Akom model, was a commentary on the quality of overseas-
production values. (MC)
- The commentary would be by TM, who wrote the thing early last year
(this episode was fully animated last year). I can tell ya that TM
generally isn't terribly pleased by Akom, and was a little
disappointed that it was the studio which got to do this one. No
work for Animaniacs was farmed out to Akom this year. I think they'd
started to do a pretty good job, but of course I don't know how many
retakes are needed before they get that way... Meanwhile, Wang has
improved also, so there you go. (RO)
"Bones in the Body" ---
- Good to see you again, Runt! (EOC)
+ The notorious bean-eating sequence from Blazing Saddles is being
referred to in "Bones" (EOC)
+ The Rachmanninoff Piano Concerto Number Two in C# Minor, Movement
One, is a notoriously difficult piece of music to play. The recent
movie, Shine", told of how it drove a very talented pianist insane.
(RM, EOC)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #92***
"It" ---
+ A ref to Stephen King's "It".
- During the bit, did anyone else think Wakko was being chased by a
clown? (GS)
+ "It" was in ref to 'Pennywise' the clown; a frightful apparition
played with sinister aplomb by Tim Curry in the miniseries of the
same name some years back. 'Pennywise' was the clown embodiment of
an ancient evil that'd plagued the town for a period of time each
generation, who specialized in luring kids to a gory fate and
taunting the victim's friends and siblings. In the miniseries, a
group of kids band together to hunt 'It' down and kill it, but only
succeed in postponing a truly fatal encounter until some 20 years
down the road when they all have to band together once more as
adults, and return to the scene of their childhood nightmares to
finish the job. The miniseries was quite haunting (all the more so
for yours truly after seeing that every location shot from the thing
was blocks away from home), but I felt the ending was anti-climactic
when it's finally revealed that the corporeal form of "It" is
actually this intergalactic spider kinda-deal that looks vaguely
similar to the ones made out of pipe-cleaners for that ancient Alan
Hale Jr. flick, "Kingdom of the Spiders". (chance)
- See also "Clown and Out", show #34, in the CRGA.
"Dot-The Macadamia Nut" ---
+ A parody of Macarena Bayside Mix. 'Nuff said.
? Is that Rob doing that background vocal part? Y'know, the
"Oooohhaaaah..." background singing like the Macarena has as well.
Just listen carefully. :) (SS)
- The lyric translations:
.lyric: "Donde que vas a Nintendo - Macadamia"
.trans: Where did you go to, Nintendo? - Macadamia
? Possibly asking what ever happened to Nintendo?
They now have N64, but ya never hear anything about
the good old 8 bit Nintendo Entertainment System,
which people plainly called, "Nintendo". (WS, SS)
.lyric: "Hola, que pasa, you grande sack o' grain-ia"
.trans: Hi, what's up, you big sacks of grain?
? One of the basic principles of animation (as far as
maintaining consistent size and volume, IIRC) is to
envision your character as a half-full sack of flour.
Since this line accompanies the Hip Hippos onscreen,
they would indeed be "grande" sacks of flour - or
"grain", since "flour-ia" wouldn't rhyme with
"Macadamia". (solarfox)
.lyric: "Qui a coupe le fromage, we abstrain-ia"
.trans: Who cut the cheese? We abstrain.
+ This is actually French, and if you remember, this
was Freakazoid's lesson on French. (Jade)
.lyric: "Lava tus manos, por favor - Macadamia"
.trans: Wash your hands, please. - Macadamia (Jade)
.lyric: "Otra vez on y vas the repetitive refrain-ia"
.trans: One more time ans you go the repetitive refrain.
(Jade)
Nit The part where they are laughing and Slappy says "I don't get it,
what's the joke?" You can clearly hear Wakko laughing, but he's
the only one laughing who's not drawn in the scene... hmmmm... I
wonder if he was meant to be? (SS)
"Bully for Slappy" ---
+ They featured a character named 'Reef Blunt' who was supposed to be
a congressional tv censor. I have heard that many theories on
#watertower... First thing was "Oh my god! People at WBA are smoking
pot!" but then Varro told me than a former director of the FCC was
named 'Reed Hundt' (Liz)
- The law, in case you didn't notice, forces all networks to broadcast
at least three hours of educational programming a week. Thus the
existence of Captain Planet and Channel Umptee-3 and the cancellation
of Road Rovers and Freakazoid. (JK)
+ Slappy refers to Mike Ovitz, the ex-head of the Creative Artists
Agency and the ex-No. 2 at The Walt Disney Company. (EOC)
+ Robin Hood: Men in Tights is a Mel Brooks flop that spoofs the
legend of Robin Hood. Actually, it's good IMO. (JK)
+ Skippy, after returning from round one with the Bully, Slappy refers
at to heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield. (EOC)
+ The 1944 film clip is interesting. On the one hand, it seems to be
a disguised Road Rovers reference, in that the German dog (note the
pickelhaube helmet and the pseduo-swastika) is very like the character
of Blitz, including his preference for biting locations. It has been
long rumoured in RoRo fandom that there was going to be a RoRo spoof
on A! Perhaps this was it. (EOC, JK)
+ Skippy does a decent Clinton, reciting chubbyboy's line about the
bridge to the 21st century from last year's election campaign. (EOC)
- Of course, there are other quotes, like "Yo, Adrienne!", "Let's get
ready to rumble!", and "I have not yet begun to fight." Hmmm...a
fighting theme? Boxing, wrestling, and the president... hmmm...
(Jade) As well as the famous John Paul Jones line. Slappy shows
her experience by reciting the well-known Popeye line, used just
before he downs the spinach. (EOC)
+ "It's two, two, two mints in one." -- The catchphrase for Certs
mints. (JK, Jade)
+ "Yo, Adrian" is from the Rocky films. (many)
+ "If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your
face." --the Carl's Jr. Slogan for the Big Star (Jade)
+ "It's strong enough for a man, but made for a woman." -- from the
Secret deodorant bar. (Jade)
- You noticed how "Bully For Skippy" was the closest they've come to
a 1st season Slappy cartoon since the 1st season. Either a) There
really *is* something to the animation (Startoons does the best Slappy
[despite her eyebrows]) or b) the writers are making a concerted
effort. (JW)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #93***
"Cute First (Ask Questions Later)" ---
- Does anybody get the feeling that the influence of "Freakazoid" has
seeped into Animaniacs as if by osmosis? This short was very
disjointed and nonsensical in the F! style. (JJW)
Nit The Robin Leech-like announcers got too annoying later into the
short.
+ The queen falling over the cliff is a direct shot at what happened
in the Disney 1937 version. (EOC)
? Did the two dwarves sound a lot like Benjamin and Jerome from
"Jokahontas"? (EOC)
+ Dot manages to work her cute weirdness on Dennis Hopper yet again (as
she did in "Hearts of Twilight"). (EOC, BC)
- I found this weird in itself. Normally I'd shrug it off as a mere
case of the show repeating itself, but since they used the same guy,
the same voice, and the same dialogue--in other words, they went OUT
OF THEIR WAY to repeat themselves-- I have to assume that they were
trying for an effect that didn't quite come off. Continuity, perhaps?
Or an attempt at a running gag? I dunno. (JJW)
? What was that, anyway? Is it an "Apocalypse Now" joke? A Dennis
Hopper joke? Or just a PPPGALF joke? (Speaking of PPPGALF, didja
notice that the dialogue wasn't *quite* the same?) (plato)
- Did I hear a splash, followed by a clearly audible when Snow
White went to her reward? (EOC) The chomp actually surprised me
that they would do that on a KID'S show! None the less, it was funny!
(Liz) Still, at least she was swallowed whole (presumably). Better
than being wishboned between two crocs. (JW) That was a
surprisingly morbid fate for a (modern) cartoon character, even if it
was off-screen ... but otherwise the Prince wouldn't have been able
to marry Dot. (plato)
+ Yet another Olsen twin ref. (EOC)
DYN Aside from the immortal CHOMP near the end, did anyone notice the
mass graveyard and the "over one million served" sign? (JJW)
"Acquaintances" ---
+ The long-awaited spoof of sister WB-produced show "Friends." (EOC)
I thought that sister-WB-produced show was the one with the twins???
(plato)
- Butchering Eastern European names was a very common feature of US
immigration. The (real) Warner clan had a far different name when
they came over from Poland. (It might have been either Varna or
Varnereski, according to Jack Warner Jr. in his book "Hollywood Be
Thy Name.") (EOC)
- Ellis Island was particularly adept at that, but didn't confine the
'simplifications' to those of Eastern European origin. I think we
also have multiple spellings of 'traditional' Irish and Italian names
thanks to the dubious penmanship of these same overwhelmed C&I
officials. (chance)
- When Dot had to give her name, why wasn't it "Princess Angelina
Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo
Bescalorisketchivanovapivonudlerdelamareovitch?" (plato)
0 Carmen Sandiego's cameo is probably a bashing of the fact "Where on
Earth is Carmen Sandiego", like "Rugrats", beat A! for the Best
Animated Program Daytime Emmy. (JK)
+ The monkey jumping on the man is the germ protection suit refers to
the film, "Outbreak", where a similar monkey carries a disease that
could wipe out the world's population. (JK)
+ MwaHaHaHa! I'm ahead of you on that one! It was the same monkey!
(Monkey-actor shall I say?) (Liz)
- Even without getting all of the individual gags, it was still a
highly enjoyable episode (like the laugh track gag). (EOC)
DYN The monkey picked nits (and ate one) off that guy in red. Cute
little bit, I thought. (JW)
+ The last little dig at fellow NBC must-see TV New York show,
"Seinfeld" was the last little bit that pushed this story over the
top for me. (EOC)
- I'm getting fed up with YW&D cartoons that are parodies and
reference-filled. I like original shorts, where we go into the
Warners' personalities a bit. That's what makes them loveable...
"Here Comes Attila" ---
+ The tune used was the American folk song "Old Dan Tucker." (Barbara)
- Did nobody kinda like this one? Sure, it was pointless, but maybe
that was, um, the point. Anyway, despite the title card, it was so
short (barely over a minute) that it almost had the effect of a
hit-and-run filler segment. Very much like "Lake Titicaca". Anyway,
I thought the lyrics were neat. (JJW)
0 That emperor looked like the typical caricature of Julius Caesar,
who neither wore a cocktail dress nor was alive in the year 441.
(plato)
- In 441 (the year mentioned in the Attila song) the Unds smashed an
Army of the Eastern Roman Empire. He would beat them again in 447.
In 451, Attila invaded France, but was defeated at the battle of
Chalons. This is how the death of Attila is described in "Power
Brokers: Kingmakers and Usurpers Throughout History" by Rupert
Mathews: "In 453 Attila married a beautiful young German girl named
Ildico. The wedding was a grand affair with thousands of warriors
drinking themselves insensible and indulging in barbaric sports.
Attila retired to bed with his young bride, but during the night died
by choking on blood from a nosebleed. The following morning the
unfortunate girl had to explain to the hundreds of bloodthirsty
warriors that their beloved leader was dead. One cannot help having
sympathy for the poor bride." (EOC)
? What is there none of allowed on the "Empire Limits" sign? (plato)
+ A dig at Hanna-Barbera star Magilla Gorilla is meant in the closing
line of the song. (EOC) Note his trousers, hat, and the "for sale"
sign. (plato)
"Boo Wonder" ---
+ Great Boo short. Very attractively designed and directed, too.
Commissioner Gordon is drawn to resemble Neil Hamilton, who played
the role on the Adam West "Batman." (JJW)
+ Chicken Boo plays opposite an obvious Adam West parody in a spoof of
the 1960s version of Batman. (EOC) Behind the Adam West parody is
the original voice of the 1960s version of Batman, if my ears (Oh,
yeah and if the end credits) don't deceive me. Getting him to play
Spruce/Batman added the perfect touch. (plato)
DYN The nest in the poles leading to the Guano (read Bat) cave. (EOC)
+ Dot's coming out the window, is remarkably similarly to a famous
crossover scene in the original Batman series, where The Green Hornet
comes out of the window. Both series were produced by Fox. (BC)
People used to come out of windows all the time, and make some silly
quip. ("Hey, Gladys! There's a couple of guys in tights climbing up
our apartment building!") Except on the TV show, the actors were just
walking across the floor with the camera on its side, so the folks
sticking their heads out of the "windows" were always at a funny
angle. (plato)
+ Punchline was a play on the Riddler... although the name is certainly
a takeoff on the Joker. (HG, Liz, EOC, plato)
+ Punchline sounding like Jim Carrey's Riddler is maybe why they chose
Rob Paulsen. Paulsen does do a good job of impersonating Carrey, and
in fact does The Mask's voice on the animated series of "The Mask."
(NDM)
+ "She's the Sheriff" was a Suzanne Somers comedy of some years ago,
syndicated, which was set in Nevada. (EOC)
Nit Isn't Robin the one who says, "Holy _______, Batman!"? Boo can't
talk, couldn't they have just skipped that part altogether instead of
making it inaccurate? (How anal was THAT rant?) (Liz)
- I noticed the same thing. But I think that was the whole point, to
radically dichotomize the sudden conflict between the two once-
partners, symbolizing the shattered trust vs. the betrayal,
juxtapositioned against the just-resolved parallel confrontation
between the forces of good and evil, effecting a motionless shift in
perspective from the audience's point of view in order to mirror the
shifting confusion we are expected to empathize with in the tortured
mind of Spruce Wayne... Either that, or Adam West just always wanted
to say that line. (plato)
Nit Is it my imagination, or did the color of the Commissioner's shirt
flicker? (EOC)
Nit What about the fact that Boo was Brown? (Liz)
+ A capon (seen in one of the comic balloons) is essentially a
castrated rooster. (EOC) So wouldn't it have made more sense for
that punch to be one laid against Boo? (plato)
+ The anchorwoman for WHIZ similar to the one for the PatB ep. that
starred Brain as "The Cranial Crusader" in another Batman spoof.
(EOC) ...and any other time an anchorwoman is needed. (plato)
+ The moon shot is another parody of a well-known shot from Batman.
(EOC)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #94***
"Magic Time" ---
- At the time of its original airing, this Warner short had experienced
some production delays and "Hercule Yakko" along with Punchline (see
#98 for more details) occupied its spot in 094a. (JJW, SS)
"The Brain's Apprentice" ---
+ A parody of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".
+ The door bit spoofs the scene in Fantasia where Mickey Mouse tries to
hold the brooms in one room, yet they burst out. (JK)
0 The president is a spoof of Michael Douglas, star of "The American
President". (JK)
0 When PatB are watching the TV near the end, you can see the shadow of
the President shaking hands with a member of the press, and it looks
very similar to the scene in Disney's "Fantasia" where Mickey Mouse
shakes with the conductor. (CM)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Shows #95 & #96***
"Hooray For North Hollywood" ---
- The title refers to the old song, owned by WB, and used a lot by
Carl Stalling. I'm surprised it wasn't used more openly here. (EOC)
- I don't think Warners owns the rights to it anymore, though come to
think of it, they sang it on TTA once or twice. Since Richard
Stone uses stock Stalling themes whenever possible (ex: "We're In the
Money"), I assume he'd use "Hooray For Hollywood" if he could. (JJW)
- While the story seems to be a condensed version of the planned
theatrical feature we first heard about back in '95, it was obviously
rewritten and updated rather than merely being cut down for
length. (RM) Which, BTW, is the explanation of why "Variety Speak"
was semi-recycled for this ep; the song was originally written for
the never-produced feature. (JJW)
- North Hollywood is indeed rundown these days, but they're trying to
fix it. (EOC)
- The music for the introductory verse of "We're Our Way..." ("We wrote
a script, at last we did it" and so forth) is, stylistically, pure
Sondheim, the most Sondheim-esque music I've heard on A! since "What
Are We?" (JJW)
- The Warners refer to their script being a bit long at 800 pages. A bit
long, indeed! Drama is usually written at 1 page = 1 minute; comedy is
generally somewhat faster-paced, at 45 seconds per page. This means
that 800 pages of script would be in the 10-13 hour range. (By
comparison, according to TTA's "Toons Take Over," a six-minute cartoon
script is supposed to be 10 pages.) (RM)
DYN When Dot sings "On THE SIMPSONS you suggested that they call the kid
Bart," a familiar pointy yellow head can be seen walking by--but ONLY
the top of the head. Copyright, y'know. (JJW)
- Trying to identify all the writers waiting to pitch ideas to Plotz. I
noticed two of the writers from "Brain Drained", who I *think* are
Wendell Morris and Tom Sheppard, though I can't be sure. (JJW)
? The rhythm to the verses in "Do the Schmooze" sounds a bit like Ursela,
the Sea Witch's song, 'Poor Unfortunate Souls', in the Disney movie,
"The Little Mermaid". (SS)
- Yakko's comment about Plotz' lasagna stain "that diet's working" is a
ref to baseball Dodger's manager Tommy Lasorda and his Weight Watcher's
commercial. (KL)
Nit The "Only One Of You" song really looked like is was thrown in there as
padding. But I really didn't care -- it was still *great!* (JW)
DYN The headline about ET and the Zapruder film (i.e. the amateur film of
the JFK assassination) going into the National Registry? (EOC)
+ For this Republican, good Clinton jokes on Whitewater (the real
estate gag) and the campaign finance scandals (the bedroom). Of
course, a liberal like fatboy would hang around Hollywood. (EOC)
- Carl Sagan was the host of "Cosmos" and wrote often on space-related
matters, hence Pesto's rant against Squit. (EOC)
- Yes, Titanic did cost $200+ million. But it's doing well. (EOC)
+ The sheer number of caricatures beggars listing. Just a few to note:
Joe Esterhas (sp?) has written some terrible scripts that nevertheless
keep getting made into films ("Sliver" "An Alan Smithee Film" and
"Showgirls".) The winning producer is a combination of Mike Eisner of
Disney and his former #2 Jeff Katzenberg, now Spielberg's partner at
Dreamworks. Seen on the walls outside Plotz's office are famous WB
stars: Bogart, Robinson, Cagney, Bugs. Whoppi Goldberg, a number of
Clint Eastwood (looking very wrinkled) shots, Sharon Stone, George
Lucas, Tom Cruise, and a cast of millions. The $93 million for
Mike Ovitz refers to his severance pay when he left Disney recently.
Good shot at Tarantino, who's been accused of using the same concepts
over and over. Good use of Jackie Mason as the newsstand operator.
Schulmaker, the director of the recent "Batman" flicks, gets a
well-deserved shot here. Jim Carrey and Art Carney in the LADOT
sequence, too. Madonna, Cher, et alia. The guy who says "I cried
till I laughed" is a caricature of Russell Calabrese, who has also
appeared as Fabrizio Ditzio in "Calvin Brain" and the milkman in
"Brain Drained". The two people dining with Joel Schulmacher at the
charity benefit are Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy, and what is probably
Ah-nahld as Dr. Freeze. (EOC, JJW)
- Listen to the background music for the scene with Joel Schumacher:
it's "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy." Stone also used it for
Fabrizio Ditzio in "Calvin Brain," and in general it seems to be his
"Yep, they're gay" theme. Schumacher is fairly widely believed to be
gay, though it's not "official," and his Batman movies have accordingly
pumped up the homoerotic subtext in the Batman-Robin relationship.
Hence the line about putting Batman in a dress. Those mean WBA people,
so un-PC...remember the animal psychologist in F!'s "The Chip?"
[Insert Seinfeld-esque "Not that there's anything wrong with that"
here.] (JJW)
+ Cameos by Minerva Mink, the Hip Hippos, Slappy (looking oddly
foolish), Skippy, SnS (seen briefly). Good bit with Boo, who seems
to have moved from being an agent to counsel. Good use of Colin in
the Sling Blade spoof. Hampton Pig photo in Hoffemeyer's office.
A picture of Freakazoid can be seen just under the "Now Serving"
sign in the anteroom to Plotz's office, a picture of Buster Bunny can
be seen in one shot. One of the writers in Plotz's office is the guy
from "PPPGALF" (who was only stopped by a visit from Baloney), Mr.
Death turns up in Plotz's office; at the party, Mr. Director and Pip
Pumphandle are in attendance. OK, how does Pip keep getting invited
to these big Hollywood parties? Is he a plastic surgeon? What do we
really know about him? Do we want to know it? (EOC, JJW)
- The plot sort of borrows from reality. Warner Bros. originally had
"Home Alone," but put it in turnaround. It was picked up by 20th
Century Fox (the Murdoch studio) and became the highest grossing
comedy of all time. However, Messrs, Semel, and Daly kept their jobs.
(EOC)
+ "Jamalot"= Pungent barb at the upcoming "Quest for Camelot" that takes
a hard swipe at Space Jam, with basketball players and a cast of
cartoon characters. (EOC)
- This is only remotely related, but anyone notice how ever since Lola
Bunny's debut in Space Jam, she now seems to be considered a classic
Looney Tunes character? Kinda makes you wonder what staring on the big
screen with Bugs Bunny could possibly do for the Warners, had they ever
the chance. (SS)
- It's interesting that the clips from the Warners' movie were shown not
only letterboxed, but in full widescreen CinemaScope; previous
letterboxed Animaniacs segments were in the standard non-wide 1.85:1
ratio. It looked good, anyway, and I suspect that the ulterior motive
behind it is to try and get kids used to letterboxing so they'll insist
on it when they rent the latest Spielberg pic. (JJW)
+ The Uma/Oprah Letterman gag refers to a gag at the Oscars last year
during Billy Crystal's opening montage, which in turn referred to
Letterman's critical disaster in hosting the Oscars a few years
before. See also show #83. (EOC)
Nit Something majorly wrong in LA DOT. The skies over Burbank and North
Hollywood (well, the entire SF Valley) are NOT that clear! (See "The
Sound of Warners" for the more proper tone.) (KL)
Nit LA Dot ... first off, it's NOT Metro! It's City of LA. And most have
their own bus stop signs. Next off, wrong type of bus; that looked
more like an MCI, but what they use here are Neoplan's. Part of it is
the right idea, though ... they do use really naf commuter-type buses.
And no way do the windows open all the way ... unless it was like the
431 last time in which the front right one was cracked. Also the part
when Dot was driving ... they aren't manual transmissions (note the
stick shift) but automatic instead. There is one line that runs by
the Burbank lot, but I forgot which one. And the only place where all
that many would be running around at the same time would be downtown
LA; they all branch out from there. (KL)
Nit Plotzie switches from evening dress, to his business suit, and back,
in one shot during the New Year's Eve sequence. (EOC)
DYN Towards the end of "It's New Year's Eve", Yakko and Dot are dancing
together. One part of the lyrics says "we'll hug and kiss", and you
can see Yakko kiss Dot on the cheek if you look close. (LC)
- No one has mentioned is that the 7Up they were toasting with was
cola-colored. (MJN Wikki) The 7Up should have been gold, in honor of
the short-lived 7Up Gold, a ginger-flavored soda which had caffeine
and came in both regular and diet versions. I enjoyed it and was sorry
to see it go off the market, but then again I loved Diet Crystal
Pepsi, too... (VPaterno)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #97***
"The Carpool" ---
+ Ed was voiced by the same guy who voiced Earl Sinclair on Dinosaurs.
(MRusso)
"Sunshine Squirrels" ---
+ A spoof of the Neil Simon play, the Sunshine Boys. (JK)
- Skippy's voice is getting higher these days. (JK)
+ What's My Life-What's My Line, an old game show where a celebrity panel
tried to guess the occupation of the contestant. (JK)
- Daly is Robert Daly, co-head of the WB Studio... (EOC)
+ The Postman is the 1997 Warner Brothers bomb starring Kevin Costner. In
it, he attempts to deliver mail in a post-apocolyptic world. (JK, EOC)
+ "Show me the money" is lifted from Jerry MacGuire. (JK)
+ The USO (United Service Organization) puts on shows for military
personnel, first and most famously during World War II (e.g. Bob Hope,
Jack Benny" See the Bette Midler flick "For the Boys.". (EOC)
- Loved the crack about the WB network (ha-ha). Also the network exec
gag, concerned about nothing funny. (EOC)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #98***
DYN The gag credit for this episode: "You better not cry, You better not
pout, I'm telling you why, Wakko put a little surprise in the eggnog."
Hmmmm, g'night everybody!" (F2E, SS)
"The Christmas Tree" ---
(No noteworthy comments so far)
"Punchline" ---
- Punchline was first seen in 094a as filler before "Magic Time" was
completed. Seems like #98 was where this bit was actually intended
to be. (LC, SS)
- Runt's back! Now if only Rita can return.
"Katie KaBoom: Prom Night" ---
- Informed source sez: This cartoon was actually made three years ago
and not used, and it was wedged into this episode because...well,
because they had three minutes to fill. (JJW)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Show #99***
"Star Warners" ---
"The Animaniacs Suite" ---
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Wakko's Wish***
- Ralph T. Guard: "T" for "Theodore", as seen in "Ralph's Wedding".
(Plato)
DYN Hello Nurse is wearing her usual nurse's cap in the intro
snowflake, even though we never see her regular uniform in the
movie. Ralph's snowflake also shows him with his normal hat. (Plato)
+ Rosebud: aw, you know. The scene mirrors the end of the film
where the sled gets burned in the furnace. (Plato)
- The opening bit may be significant as the first time Moe LaMarche
actually voiced Orson Welles in Animaniacs (correct me if I'm wrong,
but I think he was voiced by Jim Cummings in all previous appearances;
true, this wasn't technically an appearance, but it was supposed to be
him...) (CM) Moe also did Orson "Whales" in TTA, and a Yes-Always-ite
giant in Taz-mania. (Plato)
+ The map of Europe is fairly accurate in showing national boundaries,
except of course for Warnerstock and Tictockia, which are placed right
about where Luxembourg would be. (Too add insult to injury, either of
those countries as drawn is larger than the real Luxembourg.) (Plato)
+ Tictockia buys Warner [Bros.] stock --> Time-Warner (tee-hee) (Plato)
DYN The intro to "Never Ever Give Up Hope" in the beginning sounds strangely
similar to the intro to the song Pinky sings in the P&tB ep "Brainy Jack"
(and the lyrics here obviously don't quite fit). (CM)
- A note on the "nuts" gag: definitely among the top 10 shocking jokes A!
has gotten away with over the years... (CM)
- Rhyming "spinach" with "finished" is clever -- but we've all heard it
before (Plato) as in the "Popeye" theme. "I'm strong to the finish /
'Cause I eats me spinach..." (CM)
DYN Animaniacs' 'core' characters, i.e. those who appear in the A! theme, are
all featured through the film. Here's who else is in the film:
.Fermin Flaxseed ("The Big Candy Store")
.Toymaker ("Toy Shop Terror")
.Weed Memlo (65th Anniversary Special)
.Scratchansniff's date, Frau Hausenpepper, butcher ("Drive In-sane")
.Otto Von Schnitzelpusskrankengescheitmeyer, baker ("Schnitzelbank")
.Prunella Flundergust, candlestick maker ("The Sound of Warners")
.Gertie Bilchmoitner, grocer ("La La Law")
.Umlatt, Dictator of Dunlikus ("King Yakko")
.M. Tristesse ("Les Miseranimals")
.The Dover Boys ("Frontier Slappy")
.Little Blue Bird ("Wild Blue Yonder")
.Wild-bearded pioneer ("Davey Omelette")
.Randy Beaman's friend
.Mr. & Mrs. Kaboom, Katie
.Newt
.Plus some miscellaneous extras. (Plato)
- There are nine other characters who show up through the film; I don't
recognize any of them, but I'm guessing they're staff caricatures?
(Plato)
DYN Shops in the village: TOYS, CANDY, INN, BUTCHER, BAKERY, Candle shop
(unsigned), grocery (unsigned), NUTS. Also a cafe and tailor. (Plato)
DYN The inn has a crown on its sign, reminding me of Best Western, a chain of
motels for which Tom Bodett does not do the ads. (Plato)
DYN Rita and Runt don't get a special wardrobe for the movie; everyone else
does, though. (Mostly in the form of scarves) (Plato)
- Do Rita and Runt EVER get a special wardrobe? They're just about the only
sort of regular looking creatures on the show; Boo with those really cyute
oversized eyes and Pinky and the Brain with...differences, i.e.: Brain's
head, Pinky's teeth, etc. (ZW)
- @@@@@h -- just how did Yakko wear out the middle finger of his glove?!?
(Plato)
DYN where Pinky and Brain are hiding out? (They're churchmice!) (Plato)
Nit "Wherefore" dost not mean "where"!!!!!!! (Plato)
- "I didn't know you could talk": why shouldn't Pharfignewton talk? Is she
mute? ("She's mute, yes it's true!/She really can't help it, but what can
you do/If she's mute, you can't tell/'Cause she can't make a sound and she
surely can't yell!...") (Plato)
+ That "Train Bringing Wakko" song reminded me more than a little of "The
Wells Fargo Wagon" from 'The Music Man.' (CM)
+ Note that the station that A! cast is standing at is exactly the building
that the two opening girls were playing at in Music man. The music, the
lyrics, the vehicle bringing something yearned for, Rob's brilliant
reproduction of the style Well's Fargo Wagon was sung in--it's a parody,
by me. (ZW)
- Wakko's ha'penny reads..."HA'PENNY (1/2)" (Plato, JM)
+ Jack Nicholson at the Lakers game. (Plato)
? As the scene disolves to the Warners in their "watertower shanty" the
first tune that Wakko plays on the mattress spring board sounds almost
exactly like the opening to the song from a 1995 cartoon called "The
Forgotten Toys: The Night After Christmas". The story is about a doll and
a teddy bear who search for a new home after finding themselves neglected
in the light of their former families new Christmas toys. The doll sings
this really sweet song which starts out just like the tune Wakko was
playing. I don't believe this was intentional, but the similarities are
so striking that it bared mentioning. (SS)
DYN Also, there's a bit of a tune played throughout the movie that is not in
any of the actual songs, sort of a recurring theme (for example, it comes
up when Mindy's mother gets all excited because Mindy calls her "Mom").
It sounds a bit like the song "Reflections" song from Disney's Mulan.
Still, probably not a ref and it's not as good as the "Forgotten Toys"
one (in that it's similar by only about 8 - 10 notes) but still notable.
(SS)
+ "Turn in to what?": see "Space Probed". (Plato)
+ Wakko singing "Like finding a needle in a haystack/Eenie meenie minie
Moe and Jack" is a reference to Manny, Moe, and Jack, the "mascots" of
Pep Boys, a chain of auto repair stores. (SS)
Nit *Another* rotating vertical pan, during Wakko's Twinkle Twinkle song,
upward to the holes in the roof! AUGH! I wish TMS would learn about
this one...especially since they get it right later. (JM)
- Oh, er, that's simply the, um -- a bizarre warping of the spatial
continuum owing to the immense gravitational field of the rapidly
approaching, highly dense, wishing neutron star, yeah, that's it!
(Plato)
DYN What always gets me is the way Wakko's eyes blob together. That *can't*
be healthy!! (Plato)
+ The whole handshake bit, Wakko gnawing off his arm, holding fake hand,
etc.: see "Chairman of the Bored". (Plato)
- Random thought: I think Pip can actually sing better than the squirrels.
(CM)
- "Try us, we're gullible!": COMMERCIAL TIME! (22 minutes) (Plato)
+ "Try us, we're gullible" is a paraphrase from "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad
World," when Jonathan Winters offers to tell Phil Silvers the story about
the money under "the Big W." Winters suggests that Silvers is never going
to believe this tale, but when Silvers hears about the money, he smacks
his lips, perks up and says: "Try me, I'm gullible." (TR)
Nit Wakko says, "You'll never guess what just happened!" when he's supposed
to say, "You'll never BELIEVE what just happened!" Otherwise Yakko's
"Try us, we're gullible" doesn't make sense, right? (Plato)
DYN The envelope with caricatures of Publishers' Clearing House Sweepstakes
shills Ed McMahon and Dick Clark reads: Published Cleaning House "YOU
WAKKO WARNER COULD WIN... 3 MILLION DOLLARS" Wakko Warner, ACME Labs. It
looks like a dove on the stamp? (Plato)
DYN Is that mime singing? Umm, just lip-synching, no doubt. (Plato) Odd how
he didn't do that in the other songs--he just sort of bobbed up and down.
(ZW)
+ The "Hungarian Rhapsody" is Franz Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2", an
old favorite of the "Looney Tunes"/"Merrie Melodies" cartoons. It's also
been used in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit', and on A! in "Jokahontas", when
the Warners sing the "Ice Cream Song" that "wasn't in the show." This may
be the most extensively I've heard it used in a cartoon--the entire second
movement is used here (give or take a little snippet here or there). (CM)
- Well, "Rhapsody in Rivets" uses it for the whole seven minutes, but I
can't recall offhand just how thoroughly. But for extension of
Liszsspht's Cartoonian Rhapsody, TTA's "C Sharp or B Flat" has got 'em
all beat. (Plato)
Nit In the middle of the Wishing Star Rhapsody, everyone who was out in the
snow in their jammies (and bare feet, ooh!) is suddenly dressed. (Plato)
- AYPEWIP: "I think so, Brain, but just how will we get the weasel to hold
still?"
+ "All the king's horses and all the king's men": see Humpty Dumpty. (Okkay,
okkay, just trying to be thorough!) (Plato)
+ Da Vinci did indeed design an air screw much like the one shown here,
somewhere around 1490. His model, however, wouldn't quite have worked --
Brain's brilliant modification was to add the pedals to drive the screw.
(Plato)
DYN They take pains to have the screw rotating in the proper direction. (JM)
Nit Pinky protests, "Oh, no, no, wait--", instead of "Oh, wait, no--" (Plato)
+ The pie for Mindy's grandmother was a Marrion Berry (Marrion Barry,
mayor of Washington DC noted for involvement with cocaine) pie. Also it
seems grandma acts strangely if she doesn't get her 'fix'. And yes,
there are Marrion Berries. (PN)
- Marrion (sp?) Berry pies actually are sold at some bakery chain or other
in L.A. I couldn't get a straight answer as to whether it was aimed at
the politico or not. (JWK)
- What's with Scooby Buttons?? (When he says, "Rhank rrou") (Plato)
+ The jungle drums mimic the "George of the Jungle" theme. (Carol Burnett
did a better Tarzan yell) (Plato)
+ The squirrels parody "the Bonny Bonny Shores of Loch Lomond"
+ "Puppies can't climb trees!": see "Smell You Later" (Plato)
DYN King Saladbar sure has a lot of fingers... (Plato) The first thing I
noticed about him. I've never seen another hand like that on A! Perhaps
it's because of the real Salazar? (ZW)
? The bit where Salazar talks to Plotz about "a star brighter than his very
countenance" (in English, his face) was reminiscent of a scene in 'Jesus
of Nazareth'. (CM, Gypsy Jr)
+ Andy Williamses, popular crooner of such songs as "Moon River", does
indeed have a theatre in Branson, Missouri. (Plato)
+ "Cheese it, the boss": I've never heard anyone say 'cheese it' outside of
cartoons. I think one was actually not a WB cartoon (but the writers
probably just got it from watching old Merrie Melodies) (Plato)
DYN Dot is reading "RAG" magazine in the sleigh. (Plato)
DYN The opening to "If I Could Have My Wish Then I'd Be Happy" is reminicent
of the "Yakko Sings About Time" song. Randy Rogel wrote them both. (SS)
- "I've got a mean IQ of 192": ah, the old question of just how smart Hello
Nurse really is (or isn't). (All that stuff in the "Hello Nurse" song is
exaggerated, though.) (Plato)
- "What I really wish to do is direct": does that really need explaining?
(Plato)
- "And when I get my wish, they'll all be gone": end of part 2! (when they
break it into four episodes for TV) (Plato)
Nit The bridge is magically repaired after the Warners cross. (Plato)
Nit Upon twigging to the explosive attributes of SNS's elixir, Buttons and
Rita exchange crafty looks, but Runt shouldn't catch on that fast.
(Plato)
DYN The shots of P&tB falling don't seem consistent, but it's probably just
the angle. If you look at the given angles relating to their position
and to the sides of the cliff and of the spot where they would have
landed you can see that it's one of those inverse optical illusion
things...like the cube that's either pointing out towards you or
pointing away from you. (ZW)
+ Pharfignewton saves Pinky: see "Jockey for Position". (Plato)
DYN The look Buttons gives Rita when Runt calls her a good doggie. And
Slappy detaching Mindy from her hug and giving her to Buttons. (Plato)
DYN After the crash, Hello Nurse is doing her nails. And in the prison camp.
(Slappy, meanwhile, is flossing.) (Plato)
- The first time I saw this I was puzzled at how she flossed the outside
part of her teeth, not between, where the food would get caught. How
much flossing can creamed spinach and frozen nuts require, anyway? (ZW)
Nit The numbers on those dice are so right, it's hardly enjoyable. (The
numbers on opposite sides of a die add up to seven, and the dice as
drawn don't have any impossible combinations showing. What are we
supposed to pick on if they start getting the details right?!?) P.S. the
Warners have rolled a 1 and two 3's. (Plato)
- "I told you to get rid of those little monsters": see "What are We?"
("I'm as normal as the next kid!") (Plato)
- What's with the Ice Palace? Hmm, I guess the Salad bar would spoil if
they didn't keep it on ice. (Iceberg lettuce???) What happens to that
place in the summer?? (Plato)
? Note on Saladbar's palace: Maybe it's a parody shot of another Disney
film? The only thing I can think of at the moment is the Little Mermaid.
The mermaid castle had similar spike things on the top and a similar
dome-like structure. (ZW)
DYN Wakko is sitting on some books to boost him up. (Plato)
+ "We're in charge!": see "The Three Muska-Warners". (Plato)
+ The "will you be our daddy?" bit was first pulled on Death in "Meatballs
or Consequences" and was later used in "Mobster Mash". (CM, SS)
+ "Good answer, good answer," while from our cartoon "Fair Game," is a
reference to "Family Feud." But you knew that. (TR)
+ "When will this insanity stop?": see "Temporary Insanity". (Plato)
+ Cave of Your Worst Nightmares: see "Hello, Nice Warners", "Potty
Emergency", and "Baloney and Kids". (Plato)
+ The room Mr. Director is the same one from "Hello Nice Warners," but the
song he sings is from "Macbeth". (CM)
- King Saladbar's list (transcribed by Plato):
.THE WORLD
.FAME
.FORTUNE
.MIDAS TOUCH
.YOUTH
.BEAUTY
+ Another, rather similar gag involving 'Fame' was done in "A Hard Day's
Warners." (CM)
+ The horse is, of course, Black Beauty. (*He's* a horse, and *he* can
talk!) (Plato)
DYN Captain of the Guard: see "Hearts of Twilight", "Cute First". Here,
instead of a camera lens, he's wearing what is presumably a pocket
watch. His dialogue with Dot is quite a bit different from his previous
appearances. (Plato)
DYN All the Ticktockian officials (Plotz, Ralph, GFs, Salazar, and CotG) all
are wearing some emblem that represents a time measurement device.
(clock..."Tick Tock", get it? :-) (MN)
- Ah -- so those are hourglasses on Plotz and Ralph's hats! I missed
that. I suppose the flag on Salamander's castle is a clock of some
sort, but I can't make it out clearly. (Plato)
- How hot is that star anyway? I mean, it must be hot as seen when
Wakko's running towards it. But the snow around it isn't melted.
And Wakko isn't burning when he's wishing or when he lands on it.
(ZW)
DYN Interesting how Wakko wasn't absorbed like the cannonball. Maybe
because he's the one who picked it? You never really know if the star
would let anyone else touch it, because no one ever does. (ZW)
+ The whole film is an obvious parody of the Disney formula. The bit
where Dot "dies" in a way-overdone scene, only to be fine moments
later, is reminiscent of 'The Jungle Book,' as well as various other
Disney films. (CM)
+ "Those acting lessons paid off after all": see "Cookies for Einstein".
(Plato)
- "Mr. Spielberg loves this shot". Probably just another tribute/suck-up
to Mister Kate Capshaw, and his fondness for big ol' overdone shots
of big, shiny, awe-inspiring objects (space ships, etc.). (CM) See
also "Meatballs or Consequences". That had one or two nice little
mentions of Steven's cinematic style. "How Spielbergian!" and
"Spielberg eats this stuff up." (Plato, SPOOON, SS)
- Cindy Crawford: famous model with a famous beauty mark. (Plato)
DYN Slappy gets gloves. Yellow gloves. (Shrug) (Plato)
0 The scene where Skippy meets the "squirrel chick" seems to be a
tribute to the similar scene in 'Bambi.' (CM)
0 It also reminded me of the scene in "the Sword and the Stone" where
Merlin and Wart are turned into squirrels. (Gypsy Jr)
DYN Mindy calls her mother "mom" for no apparent reason -- and then
we almost see her face, but Mindy's body hides it. (Plato, JM)
- The little that we do see of Mindy's mother's face is shocking enough,
considering that, apart from those daring shots in "Buttons in Ows",
we've never seen above her neck. I figure it was done deliberately,
part of the closure thing -- Mindy finally calls her 'Mom', we finally
get to see her face...except they couldn't quite bring themselves to
show her full face. (Which is a good thing.) (Plato)
Nit Why is Mindy's mom so thrilled to see her home safe? As far as she
knows all Mindy did was go deliver a pie... (Gypsy Jr)
DYN Wonder what happened to Grandma, anyway... (Gypsy Jr)
- That is one thing left hanging... hrmm.. you know that means: 1. Sequel
fodder! and two 2. Fanfic fodder! and three 3. Rampant wild
speculation on a.t.a. (PN)
+ Burgermeister King: a take-off on Burger King. (A burgermeister is
the town magistrate.)
- Signs (transcribed by Plato):
."Home of the Big Plotz" - McDonald's Big Mac. Note the double
arches on the windows.
."Schadenfreude meal .35" - McDonald's Happy Meals.
'schadenfreude' means joy at the misfortunes of another
(see "Broadway Malady")
."Your vay you can haff!" - parodies Burger King slogan "Have it
your way"
.BURGERS:
Mit der pickle .11
Mit der lettuce .12
Mit der cheese .15
Mit nuttink .10
.FRIES:
Regular .10
Large .15
Too much mit der fries already .25
."Hot apple strudel"
DYN The Warners' birth certificates have WB shields (go fig) (Plato)
DYN Dot's scepter has a flower on it. (Plato)
- What kind of a name for a Warner is "William"?!?!? Yeesh, no wonder
we never saw him before. ["And now, William Warner in 'Where There's
a Will, there's a Wait'." Scene: William sitting quietly reading a
book for seven minutes. ...And iris out!!!!!] (Plato)
DYN We're not specifically told what happened to their mother. (Plato)
DYN The Warners' father has no gloves. But he does have eyebrows! (Plato)
And a mustache!! Maybe the parents are from a Marx film? (ZW)
- I noticed that the second time around when I paused the movie to
stare at the cyute little Yakko in overalls. It caught my eye because
during the "everybody loved King William" thing, he DID have gloves. I
suppose Wakko's little gloved hand on his father's nongloved hand just
wouldn' be as cyute if William was wearing gloves too. (ZW)
DYN Their mother has her ears back, like Dot's. Her face is different
though (or maybe her hair is pulled back too). (Plato)
- AAAAAAAAUGGGGHHHH!!! Warner Babies!! ***Don't let the marketing dept.
see them!!!*** (Plato)
DYN Pinky is using a mousey-sized horse brush to brush Phar's teeth.
(Plato)
DYN The water, er, turret is a nice touch -- the fact that it has "legs"
look a bit funny. (And a ladder. And hinges on the shield part, no
doubt.) (Plato)
DYN The Wheel of Morality got fixed!!! Or maybe it's just not broken yet,
as this is the old days. Hmm, also, it's bluer here, instead of
purpley -- the colour must've faded over time, too. Otherwise, it's
exactly the same as always. (Plato)
DYN The characters in the final overhead shots are positioned exactly as
they appear in the A! theme! Those core characters who appear in the
theme, of course. (Plato)
Nit Well, not *quite* exactly: here we've got D,W,Y instead of the (more
obvious) Y,W,D of the opening; and Boo is missing from these shots,
although he's in the theme song. (Plato)
? In the end credits, snippets of music from "The Animaniacs Suite" seem
to be interspersed with the new composition. (CM)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***CREDITS***
I'd like to thank, first and foremost, pioneering Will Bell, for leading
the way with the Animaniacs' CRG, and keeping it up for as long as he did.
Without him, these cultural references documents may never have existed.
I'd also like to thank Sean Carolan (Hubcity) for allowing me to use his
valuable season #3 Animaniacs references he'd collected in the WARNER. Will,
Sean, you both are truly groovy-faboo!
***OTHER CREDITS***
(AH) Arthur Hu: artherhu@coho.halcyon.com
(AM) Andrew Mutchler: kturtle@intergate.com
(ASL) Alison S. Leininger: aleining@ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu
(AV) Aaron Varhola: avarhola@ix.netcom.com
(BB) Buster Bunny: buster@magi.com
(BD) Brendan Dunn: bdunn@cco.caltech.edu
(BJ) Brandon Johnson: brandonj@is.state.sd.us
(BEC) Brian Eirik Coe: bcoe@trumpet.aix.calpoly.edu
(Berna): bgs1@columbia.edu
(BH) Brian Harvey: bh@anarres.cs.berkeley.edu
(BigGoobie): biggoobie@aol.com
(BL) Bryan Lambert: bryan.lambert@co.hennepin.mn.us
(BC) Bryan Chaney: wbwolf@u.washington.edu
(BM) Brett Middleton: brettm@uga.cc.uga.edu
(BN) Bill Nottingham: bill@662772.student.cwru.edu
(BNorm): bnorman861@aol.com
(BT) The Blue Tigress: sapphire@uclink.berkeley.edu
(Barbara) Barbara Thomas: thomas3@airmail.net
(CB) Charles Brown: runt@ooh.dircon.co.uk
(chance): timberwolf@lynx.bc.ca
(CL) Chris Lambert: wlambert@copper.ucs.indiana.edu
(CLM) Christina L. Melville: tinalynn@ix.netcom.com
(CM) Craig Marinaro: marinaro@gateway.net
(CS) Chris Saia: csaia@yakko.wtower.com
(D&D) Dave & Deanna: davendeanna@earthlink.net
(DG) Daniel Gallo: daniel@biosys.net
(DL) Dairenn Lombard: piero@hondo.cyberverse.com
(DS) Derek Schin: schindf96%cs39@cadetmail.usafa.af.mil
(DY) Dr. Yakko: dryakko@aol.com
(ED) Elizabeth Davis, edavis@su.edu
(EG) Eric Gjovaag: tiktok@eskimo.com
(EGG): eggie19@idt.net
(EOC) EO Costello: eocostello@aol.com
(ES) Erik Sojka: st91e8e2@dunx1.ocs.drexel.edu
(F2E) Film2Edit: film2edit@aol.com
(Femajoe) Femajoe: femajoe@aol.com
(furry) furry@ids2
(GHOST DANCE): petersod@river.it.gvsu.edu
(GL) GLaugh: laughlan@gates.rchland.ibm.com
(GS) Gabe Su: okkay@u.washington.edu
(Gypsy Jr) Becky Mroczkowski: gypsyjr512@aol.com
(HB) Heather Bennett: hbennet@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
(HG) Hank Gillette: Hank_Gillette@smtp.svl.trw.com
(J!) Jeremy Kempisty: Snuk@mail.rit.edu
(Jade) AllJade: alljade@aol.com
(JEO) Jennette E. Owen: bm998@yfn.ysu.edu
(JJW) Jaime J. Weinman: weinmans@netcom.ca
(JK) Joe Klemm: psklemm@csc.umd.edu
(jkennedy): jkennedy@himail.hcc.com
(JWK) John W. Kennedy: jwkenned@bellatlantic.net
(JL) J. Lee: jfl666@u.washington.edu
(JM) Jay Maynard: jmaynard@admin5.hsc.uth.tmc.edu
(Jon) Jonathan Woodward: woodward@io.com
(JS) Jenn Scott: abrams53@spotvb.potsdam.edu
(Justin) Justin Mansfield: jmansfield@macalstr.edu
(JW) Jessica Wolfman: loupgarou@webtv.net
(KL) Kane Leung: ap057@lafn.org
(KJT Dot) KJT Dot: kjtdot@aol.com
(KM) Kenneth McAlinden: kmcalind@elvis.umd.umich.edu
(Lari): lari35960@aol.com
(LC) Lee Cremeans: lcremean@tidalwave.net
(Liz): Liz@kbp.com
(Maverick): maverick@wwa.com
(MMA) Marsh Michael Alan: m-marsh@coewl.cen.uius.edu
(MB) Mark Bernstein: markb@erim.org
(MrC) Mister Challeron: challeron@rauland.com
(Mat) Matthew Miller: rmiller@infinet.com
(MD) Michael Dare:
(ME) Mark Elbrecht: melbrecht@ibm.net
(MHI) Matías Hernández: mhernand@ucu.edu.uy
(Michelle): michlim@rgs.edu.sg
(Mike) Michael Blakeley: mblakele@best.com
(MJN Wikki): wikki_warner@juno.com
(MK) Matthew Kurth: mkurth@wwa.com
(MM) Michael McAvoy: mcavoy@u.washington.edu
(MN) Michael Neylon: mneylon@neylonpc.engin.umich.edu
(MRusso): mrusso1949@aol.com
(ND) Natalia Dunaeff: npd1@cec.wustl.edu
(NDM) Nicola "Ditzi" Makela: ditzi_warner@hotmail.com
(Nnicole): nnicole@aol.com
(NV) NV Raptor: nvraptor@aol.com
(PC) Peter Cat: petercat@servtech.com
(Plato): plato@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca
(PN) Paul Neubauer: vakko@frontiernet.net
(Q-Girl): jas659@nwu.edu
(raven): theraven@imap2.asu.edu
(RD) Robert Dahlen: robdahl@crl.com
(RF) Rich Firestone: reechie@leba.net
(RH) Rylan Hilman: rhilman@oasis.quay.com
(Rizz): therizz@aol.com
(RJR) Robert J. Repas, Jr: aa2043#freenet.lorain.oberlin.edu
(RM) Richard Manning: dafox@yakko.wtower.com
(RyM) Ryan Mead: mobo@webtv.net
(RN) Richard Nathan: sswss18a@prodigy.com
(Russ) Russ Newhouse: newhour@aa.wl.com
(RO) Ron "Keeper" O'Dell: keeper@cruzio.com
(RW) Rex Wheeler: rexw@udp.com
(SC) Sean Carolan: hubcity@exit109.com
(SF) Sylvester Fox:
(SK) Steve Kramer: skramer@nyx10.cs.du.edu
(SM) Sir Mercator: zfsj47c@prodigy.com
(SMC) Stewart M. Clamen: clamen@cs.cmu.edu
(solarfox): solarfox@eden.com
(SPOOON) SPOOON!!: spooon@home.com
(spurdy): spurdy@pomona.edu
(TADXN): tadxn@aol.com
(TB) Tom Bromley: ap465@yfn.ysu.edu
(TR) Tom Ruegger: trtoonswba@aol.com
(VPaterno): vpaterno@aol.com
(WBB) Will Bell: wbb@netcom.com
(WENDOID): wendoid@aol.com
(WS) William Smiley: yakko82@hotmail.com
(WY) Wayne Yuen: jorus@rahul.net
(YJW) Yakko J. Warner: yakko@wtower.com
(ZW) Zang Watson: telkera@aol.com
(
geocities.com/wakkanne)