Animaniacs Main Character Index
The Warner Siblings | Pinky and the Brain | Slappy Squirrel | Goodfeathers | Rita and Runt | Buttons and Mindy | Other Supporting Characters
The Warner Siblings | Pinky and the Brain | Slappy Squirrel | Goodfeathers | Rita and Runt | Buttons and Mindy | Other Supporting Characters
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Mindy
Voiced by: Nancy Cartwright (English), Satomi Koorogi (Japanese), Elena Prieto (Latin American Spanish)
A send up of Lassie. Mindy Sadlier is a toddler who constantly wanders off into dangerous situations prompting her dog, Buttons, to keep her out of it at the expense of his safety.Tropes that apply to Mindy:
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: She's very easily distracted by the things she sees which is very much in line for a girl who's about three years old at the most.
- Born Lucky: Besides having Buttons as a devoted protector, she always escapes harm in some contrived way even when Buttons can't get to her in time.
- Character Catchphrase: "Okay, I love you, bye-bye."
- Chasing a Butterfly: She tends to follow any cute creature she spots.
- Cheerful Child: Since she's unaware of the dangers she keeps getting into, she's constantly cheery.
- Constantly Curious: Mindy constantly asks questions to people much to their annoyance. Her usual questions are "What's you doing?", followed by a series of "Why?", until the person questioned loses patience.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Especially her yelling "Buttons! Oh, Buttons!" in the Mindy and Buttons intro.
- The Cutie: Cute and innocent like a toddler.
- Damsel in Distress: She always gets herself into dangerous situations, while her dog Buttons tries to rescue her or keep her out of trouble.
- Fearless Fool: She isn't afraid of anything, even going to chase a kitten into a dangerous construction site or jumping out of a plane, among other things. She would be dead, if it wasn't for Buttons.
- Fearless Infant: She would lead Buttons into multiple dangerous situations, blithe as you please.
- The Fool: Her blithe wanderings into dangerous situations can be explained simply by the fact that she's just a toddler and thus doesn't know better. That said, while Buttons' direct involvement is the most frequent effort keeping her safe, she sometimes just gets absurdly lucky, particularly when Buttons can't get to her in time.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: If this weren't a cartoon, Mindy's parents would lose custody on account of severe neglect.
- Lady Looks Like a Dude: If it wasn't for her name, you could easily assume that she is a little boy, because of her hairstyle and outfit.
- Nice Girl: She's shown many times that she absolutely adores Buttons and doesn't have a single mean bone in her body, making it very easy to see why Buttons is so dedicated to making sure she's safe.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Her brief appearance in the 2020 series, as she and the other Animaniacs characters seek revenge on Chicken Boo, is the first time we've ever seen her genuinely angry.
- Pet the Dog: Or rather hug him. Mindy unknowingly gives Buttons a lot of grief, but when she's actually interacting with him, she shows him more love and admiration than her parents do.
- Straying Baby: The whole point of her shorts is that she wanders off while Buttons tries to rescue her.
- Summon Bigger Fish: She's the bigger fish the Warners sic on Elmyra, who follows Mindy right into danger while the Warners and Buttons sit back and watch.
Buttons
Voiced by: Frank Welker
Mindy's faithful dog. He is a lot like Lassie but gets in trouble instead of being the hero.Tropes that apply to Buttons:
- Badly Battered Babysitter: This is the setup of his segments, where the writers appeared to take an almost sadistic glee in torturing the poor dog in his efforts to ensure that Mindy is safe and returned home.
- Big Friendly Dog: He's much bigger than his child owner Mindy and is very protective of her.
- Butt-Monkey: The bad things he saves Mindy from usually end up happening to him.
- The Chew Toy: He gets thoroughly abused trying to keep his charge from getting killed, and then gets yelled at by Mindy's mom for some minor infraction at the end.
- Determinator: Despite all the suffering, Buttons will never let Mindy be hurt.
- Dog Stereotype: His appearance is based on that of a German Shepherd and he tries at all costs to protect Mindy from whatever harm might befall her.
- Heroic Dog: He's undeniably heroic, charging into danger time and time again to rescue his charge, Mindy, (and getting comically beat up in the process).
- Nervous Wreck: Although given what he goes through, its completely understandable.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Buttons goes to enormous lengths, risking his own hide to keep Mindy from harm. Every episode ends with Buttons getting in trouble over some (generally minor) misbehavior he performed in the course of his duties. At least till the movie, where he finally got his due.
- Papa Wolf: Towards Mindy, big time. Especially in The Movie, when she and the rest of the characters are being rounded up by the Big Bad's soldiers.
- Parental Substitute: He might as well be Mindy's parent considering how severely neglectful her parents are and she has much more respect for him than she does her parents who she seems to regard as complete strangers.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the future episode, after Mindy's mother scolds him for Mindy inadvertently getting into the family's cloning machine, he packs up, holds out an "I QUIT!" sign and leaves.
- Suddenly Speaking: The end of Wakko's Wish reveals that he actually can speak.
- Throw the Dog a Bone:
- In the Crossover episode where Elmyra bothers the Warners, they ultimately distract her by introducing Elmyra to Mindy. Mindy wanders off as usual, but when Buttons goes to chase her as usual, the Warners hold him back. Sure enough, Elmyra is chasing Mindy and receiving all the abuse that Buttons usually gets. Buttons effusively thanks the Warners in response.
- An often overlooked example is "Night of the Living Buttons", where Mindy's mother doesn't scold Buttons in the ending. She doesn't even warn Buttons about any kind of misbehavior he'll be punished for, instead remarking how strange it is to see fog over the nearby cemetery.
- Buttons nearly gets scolded for ruining Mindy's mother's flower bed in "Mindy in Wonderland", but she forgives Buttons after the dog hands her the rose in his mouth. Mindy even tells him she likes him much better than the rabbit she was chasing.
- At the end of Wakko's Wish, he gets praise and several large steaks from Mindy's parents.
- In a smaller way, at the end of each short, he's generally annoyed with all the crap he's had to go through to protect Mindy only to get scolded by her mother for the minor thing. Any sign of annoyance is erased when Mindy comes over, hugs/pets him, and tells him she loves him.
- Undying Loyalty: Despite all the suffering, he loves Mindy since she's the only family member who genuinely loves him in return.
- Vertigo Effect: Occasionally done with Buttons the moment Mindy escapes.
Mindy's Parents
Voiced by: Tress MacNeille (Mother), Frank Welker (Father)
Mindy's neglectful parents. always calls them "Lady" and "Mr. Man," except in Wakko's Wish, in which she finally calls her mother "Mom".
- Abusive Parents: Both parents are severely neglectful and pretty much see Buttons as a free babysitter. They're also quick to scold Buttons for things that never are his fault, oblivious to the fact that he's been running ragged trying to keep Mindy safe.
- Accidental Misnaming: Mindy always addresses her mom as "Lady" (and her father as "Mr. Man").
- The Faceless: The mother's face isn't entirely seen in Wakko's Wish, but she's a brunette.
- Hypocritical Humor: Mindy's mom leaves her alone for going to things like a better parenting conference, the Mother of the Year Grand Finals, or on Oprah, because the topic is "Overprotective Mothers".
- Obliviously Evil: Evil may not be the right word but they seem to be woefully unaware that they're neglecting Mindy by leaving her alone in their garden and expect a dog to take care of her.
- Parental Neglect: Which is probably why Mindy never calls them "mom" and "dad" like they want her to (except in Wakko's Wish) and instead calls them "Lady" and "Mr. Man", something she might refer to a stranger as.
- Parental Obliviousness: Totally oblivious to the fact that their child is a walking (crawling?) danger magnet, and moreover, they're clueless to the fact that brave and selfless Buttons is pretty much the only thing standing between her and Child Protective Services.
- Social Services Does Not Exist: Pretty much the only reason they aren't in jail for gross neglect and child endangerment. It's especially bad in Cat On A Hot Steel Beam, when you'd think that a large crowd seeing Mindy need to be retrieved from a construction site by emergency crews would be more than enough to have them locked up and permanently lose custody of Mindy.
- Unnamed Parent: Their names are never revealed.
