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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The Main Duo
General
Tropes that apply to both:
- Animal Stereotypes: Rita is a cat, and an aloof, sassy Sugar-and-Ice Personality, while Runt is a dog, and a goofball, yet friendly, loyal and brave.
- Animal Talk: Mostly they aren't shown to be able to talk to humans. It depends on the story whether they understand what humans say to them or not, though as a rule Rita is more likely to at least get the general gist of it.
- Butt-Monkey: Both of them can fall into this in their segments.
- Demoted to Extra: They stopped having their own segments after Season 1, only to make cameo appearances for the rest of the series. They got major roles again in Wakko's Wish.
- Female Feline, Male Mutt: The trope pic. However, Runt doesn't realize Rita isn't a dog no matter how many people (Rita included) he hears describing her as a cat.
- Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: Runt is a happy-go-lucky Kindhearted Simpleton, Rita is aloof and sarcastic.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Runt, a Big Friendly Dog, and Rita, a small cat, are a non-romantic example.
- Little Guy, Big Buddy: They have a similar big dog/little cat relationship, although in this case the little one is sophisticated and the big one is dumb (mistaking the cat for another dog).
- Local Reference: When Rita and Runt go to Poland in "Puttin on the Blitz", Rita sings that it doesn't look like Burbank, more like Van Nuys. (Both are cities near Los Angeles. You can guess which one has higher property values).
- Musical Episode: Rita and Runt have at least one song per short. "Les Miseranimals" has 12 (including reprises).
- Odd Friendship: An independent and aloof female cat and a big dumb yet sweet dog.
- Platonic Life-Partners: A pair of homeless cat and dog who are always seen together and despite having a desire to find a nice permanent new home, the two manage to live quite comfortably by offering each other a close unbreakable friendship in defending one another for protection and giving moral support.
- Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: Rita is an arrogant and sarcastic cat who is always accompanied by dimwitted Big Friendly Dog Runt.
Rita
Voiced by: Bernadette Peters (English), Emi Shinohara (Japanese), Elena Prieto (Latin American Spanish)
- Anthropomorphic Zig-Zag: Rita is a Civilized Animal cat with a lot of Talking Animal moments would switch between walking on two legs and walking on four legs. In a few cameos and possibly in part of "Kiki's Kitten", she is shown as a Funny Animal, and in a cameo in "The Return of The Great Wakkorotti," she is even fully-dressed.
- Cats Are Snarkers: Rita is very sarcastic, especially with Runt.
- Cats Are Superior: Rita is more of a sympathetic nature, as despite her arrogance and selfishness, most of her misfortunes have been examples of unfair and unequal treatment.
- Cat Up a Tree: In "Up A Tree".
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: She looks out for Runt and tries to give him advice on how to survive.
- Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much comes with her Noo Yawk accent.
- Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes: Rita usually has her eyes half closed to show her seductive and snarky sides.
- Ear Notch: Has a notch in one of her ears.
- Foreshadowing: Blink and you'll miss it: In the "Up A Tree" segment, during Rita's first musical number, she goes into a very minor Disney Acid Sequence about the advantages of Chicago as they appear onscreen. One of them is the Sears Tower, which she stands on. Afterwards, she immediately jumps off, and if you look closely at the expression on her face, you can tell that she's clearly acrophobic. Guess what happens later.
- Freudian Excuse: As her debut episode reveals, her attitude stems from having gone through various bad owners and repeated stints in the pound.
- "I Am" Song: "I'm Nobody's Mama" and "It's Always the Same Thing With Cats," among others.
- "I Want" Song: Often when she sings a song, it's about how much she wants a home or thinks she's found one.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's aloof, sarcastic, arrogant, and pretends to care only about herself, but Runt knows that inside she's "definitely sweet." In the war episode "Puttin' On the Blitz," she's disgusted when she thinks a man has abandoned his kid daughter (he was really protecting her because the Nazis were after him), goes on to protect said girl like a Mama Bear, and in the same episode she gives up the chance for a home with good owners to be with Runt.
- List Song: In "Up a Tree", she lists things that are great about Chicago in the form of a song.
- Mistaken for Dog: Runt thinks that she is a dog, and will often correct someone who tells him otherwise. Since Runt hates cats (Rita being the one exception because he thinks she's a dog), she goes along with it.
- No Sense of Direction: Rita has all kinds of glamorous places she wants to go, but no idea how to get there. Trying to get to Sonny Bono's house lands her and Runt in Egypt. Trying to go to Florida gets them to Alaska. Trying to go to Monterey puts them on a bunny farm more inland in Central California. Trying to go to Chicago puts them on a farm in the mid-west.
- Sexophone: Her leitmotif. Although it is not as heard as much as Runt's theme.
- Tsundere: Type A. Doubles as a Sugar-and-Ice Personality.
Runt
Voiced by: Frank Welker (English), Kozo Shioya (Japanese), Ricardo Mirabal (Latin American Spanish)
- All-Loving Hero: Hatred of cats aside, he's by far one of the nicest characters in the entire show.
- Berserk Button: Whenever he hears the word "cat," he exclaims "Cat?! Where's the cat?!" and goes ballistic growling and threatening to tear it to pieces. Yet he has no idea that his best friend is a cat.
- Big Friendly Dog: Bigger and friendlier than his cat friend, Rita.
- Butt Biter: Does it to Mr. Tristesse, which prompts the latter to wax lyrical about it.
- CloudCuckooLander: He believes in such things as "cheese trees," insists that he hates cats yet mistakes every cat he meets for a dog, and in one episode thinks he fathered a litter of puppies (really kittens) just because he found them.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Most of the time he's sweet and ditzy, but if Rita is in danger, he becomes a Heroic Dog
- The Ditz: Most of the time he's clueless, but he will occasionally subvert the trope and detect danger before Rita.
- Dogs Are Dumb: Runt hates cats. The only reason why Rita is the exception is because he thinks she's a dog: "Rita's a good dog. Definitely, definitely a good dog."
- Does Not Understand Sarcasm: Like the character who inspired his voice, Runt tends to be Literal-Minded, so naturally he often takes Rita's snarky comments literally.
- Fantastic Racism: He holds one towards cats except Rita, whom he thinks she's also a dog.
- Heroic Dog: Not shown nearly as much as Buttons, partly because Rita is much more capable of taking care of herself, plus Runt is sometimes oblivious to the possible danger. But if he knows Rita's in trouble, he'll be there for her, guaranteed.
- Leitmotif: He has a very playful theme in 6/8 time.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: He's as sweet as he is dim.
- Nice Guy: One of the sweetest.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Runt's voice and quirky speech patterns are a takeoff of Dustin "Rain Man" Hoffman.
- Simpleton Voice: The same voice of Ralph the Guard who is a simpleton as well.
- Too Dumb to Fool: In one instance, Runt saved his oblivious feline friend from becoming an Egyptian ritual sacrifice. Still, in Rita's defense, she was probably caught completely off-guard because she knew that Ancient Egyptians aren't supposed to do that.
- Verbal Tic: He definitely, definitely has one. Definitely.
Supporting and One Shot Characters
Dr. Phrankenstein
Voiced by: Adrienne Alexander
- Dr. Fakenstein: She's a mad scientist whose name is just "Frankenstein" spelled with a "Ph".
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: She pronounces her Ls and Rs as Ws.
- Mad Scientist: She tries to create a Frankenstein monster dog to attack a nearby village.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Her whole persona evokes Madeline Kahn, who in Young Frankenstein played the doctor's and later the monster's love interest and ended up with a Bride of Frankenstein hairdo, and who spoke with Elmuh Fudd Syndwome in Blazing Saddles'.
Scout
Voiced by: Maria Bamford
He is Dr. Phrankenstein's creation intended to destroy the world, but he is really just a playful dog who wants to have fun.- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: He's green.
- Big Friendly Dog: Much to Dr. Phrankenstein's dismay, all he wants to do is play.
Mr. Squeak
Dr. Phrankenstein's faithful pet rat.
- Silent Snarker: Doesn't say a word, but can be seen doing the "cuckoo" gesture when Phrankenstein gloats about how much destruction she'll cause with Scout.
- You Dirty Rat!: He's a rat.
Mrs. Mumphead
Voiced by: Paul Rugg
An eccentric old lady who constantly hums to herself and appears in the crossover episode "No Place Like Homeless".
- Never Mess with Granny: Attacks Pesto on sight and kicks both Pesto and Runt out after Pesto hurts Crackers.
Crackers the Parrot
Voiced by: Frank Welker
Mrs. Mumphead's aggressive pet parrot.
- Feathered Fiend: He isn't nice to Runt.
- Pokémon Speak: He only says his name. Pesto even thought Crackers was calling him "crackers!"
- Speech-Impaired Animal: "Crackers" is all he says.
Mr. Tristesse
Voiced by: Jeff Bennett
- Even the Rats Won't Touch It: Camembert the rottweiler eats one of his "meat" pies, only to spit it out in disgust.
- Expy: Of Thénardier in Les Misérables.
- Goofy Print Underwear: Has a classic heart-pattern pair of boxers, which are shown after Runt bites him.
- Lethal Chef: Not under normal circumstances, but because of the lack of proper ingredients in Revolution-era Useful Paris, his food has taken a serious dip in quality.
- Meaningful Name: Tristesse is the French word for "sadness".
- Pain to the Ass: Runt bites him in the butt to save Rita.
Kitty Litter, Kitty Ducockis, and Cat Ballue
Voiced by: Karen Hartman (Kitty Ducockis), Nancy Linari (Cat Ballue), Lisa Raggio (Kitty Litter)
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Kitty Ducockis (the blonde), Kitty Litter (the brunette), and Cat Ballue (the redhead)
- Cats Are Mean: Sort of. They're rather rude to Rita.
- Fat Bastard: Kitty Ducockis is far more obese than the others.
Marabella Maybeloota Missy McCoy
Voiced by: Tress MacNeille
- Cat Up a Tree: She got stuck up the tree in 1972 and adapted to living up there. She survived by living off bark.
Kiki the Gorilla
Voiced by: Frank Welker
- And Call Him "George": Her treatment of Rita is rather brutal, even if she's not intentionally harming her.
- Fluffy the Terrible: An aggressive gorilla with a cutesy name like Kiki.
- Killer Gorilla: Unless pacified with a cat to take care of, she becomes very violent.
- Kindness Button: Cats are this for her.
- Maniac Monkeys: A Maniac Ape.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Her name and obsession with cats are inspired by the Real Life female gorilla Koko.
- Primal Chest-Pound: When she's angry.
- Speech-Impaired Animal: She talks "ape" while Rita talks "cat".
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: She has a ribbon on her head to indicate she's female.
Sykes the Crow
Voiced by: Frank Welker
- Clever Crows: He's a crow and he uses his cunning to catch alleged witches.
- Feathered Fiend: He aids the witch-hunter in capturing people wrongly accused of being witches.
