The very first episode of Hulu's revival of "Animaniacs" left me with one thought: This show is going to age terribly. I'm positive it will, but the show will be better off with that flaw, since the original aged just as poorly.
This is just the latest in a long line of reboots from streaming services. This time instead of another superhero movie or the return of a cult classic drama, Hulu decided to reboot the 1993 cartoon "Animaniacs," a satirical and mildly educational cartoon centered around the Warner siblings, Yakko, Wakko and Dot. It was known for making fun of pop culture and politics while still being a lighthearted watch for the whole family from its premier in 1993 to its end in 1998. Nothing's really changed with this 2020 reboot.
There's still jokes making fun of Hollywood, the episodes are split into sketches, Pinky and the Brain still try to take over the world. It's essentially a direct continuation of the original broadcast, since it's more of the same.
Aiding that feeling is the original voice cast making a return. Still, the writers are the core of that concentrated effort to keep the original tone and feeling, even to the point of making the characters acknowledge they've only left for 20 years, instead of starting completely fresh.
The problem comes with the jokes. I didn't really laugh out loud once, but it was still pretty entertaining. Other critics have mentioned this aspect of the show causes problems saying other, more modern shows are better at satirizing Hollywood or that the jokes are simply played out. While certainly true, I'm reminded of what the writers make sure to mention whenever a joke might get too risque — this is a kids' show.
I think too many people put the original on this pedestal where it was a biting satire that lambasted the power structures and entertainments around us when in reality it was just a kids' show. I haven't gotten the chance to watch the entirety of the original '90s show, but I've seen quite a bit, and it's not the show it was made out to be. I suspect this is because the kids in the '90s are the critics in 2020, and nostalgia is a factor.
This is always a tough balance to hit and this series isn't the first reboot, adaptation or revival to grapple with this problem. Do you cater to the old audience, whose tastes have likely matured, or do you want to draw in new members of the audience? There's plenty of examples of this gone wrong. Think 2019's reboot of "The Lion King," which swung too far in one direction, forgetting much of what made the original so great. And others like 2009's "Watchmen," which caters almost exclusively to fans of the original comic.
Instead, 2020's "Animaniacs" aims to hit the same space the 1993 version did. Having watched much of the original, while still very entertaining, I can tell you close to none of the jokes left me in tears. A lot of the humor was built on a kind of formula that let a joke do double duty — kids laugh at Brain because of his antics, adults because he's a parody of Orson Wells. And much of it is referential, with punchlines being little more than a cameo or mention of a popular '90s personality, but now instead of Bill Clinton and Prince, it's Donald Trump and Edward Snowden.
That said, there are some differences I can't help but point out. The cast is alarmingly small this time around, with much of the expanded cast being cut from the show, except for the small cameo. The original shared concepts and characters with its predecessor "Tiny Toon Adventures," which is also getting a reboot soon.
Some of the newer jokes amount to the writers talking about how "modern" they are by using terms like "ethnically diverse" and "pronoun neutral" because it's what sells right now, but the show never punches down on marginalized groups. It was also written back in 2018, despite the 2020 release date, so if jokes don't land it's likely because of how much the world has changed in those two short years.
Overall the show does today exactly what it did in the '90s, and that's a good thing, even if it won't stand the test of time. It wasn't meant to. Maybe adult audience members won't find the jokes as hilarious as they did back in the '90s, but the kids today will. That's what "Animaniacs" does best, it lets the young and old both laugh at the same show, be it back in 1993 or today in 2020.
