Trivia / Animaniacs (2020)

• Adored by the Network: Hulu has been advertising this show everywhere, from TV broadcasts of shows and events like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to billboards and cars in major cities. They have also utilized it in several recent promotions for their service. It helps that it's based on a well-known property.
  • Screwed by the Network: But then advertising for the show slowed down around season 2 - then after the third and final season was announced in December 2022, Gabe Swarr confirmed on Twitter that the show had been axed in the middle of production by Hulu, they were never given a reason why, and that they had to rush in an ending.
• Demand Overload: The day this show first premiered, Twitter users kept seeing "Twitter is over capacity" messages as a result of fans sharing their reactions to this show.
• Disowned Adaptation:
  • According to this article, original Animaniacs co-creator Tom Ruegger was dissatisfied with the revival (its greater use of topical humor especially), along with how neither he nor many of the show's original staff were given the chance to work on it, and the absence of most of the recurring cast other than the cameos in "Good Warner Hunting". Both him and Sherri Stoner also particularly disliked the fact that the original show's characters are shown as dead hunting trophies in the aforementioned episode.
  Ruegger: I find it morally, ethically, and professionally wrong. That's pretty much it. Whether it's legally wrong, I don't know. They own the show, Warner Bros. and Amblin own Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Freakazoid, Pinky and the Brain. I think they feel they can do whatever the heck they want with it. If we, the creators of the show, had passed away, I could completely understand what they did. But we're not. We're all alive, thriving, active, and I really don't get it that they wouldn't want the people that know the show better than anyone to be involved. It's odd.
  • To be fair, according to another article, he was later offered a chance to write a script for the reboot, but declined because "basically it would be like an audition and I just didn’t feel comfortable auditioning for a show that I created."
• Distanced from Current Events: According to animator Kyle A. Carrozza, some scenes in "Hindenberg Cola" were altered to avoid resemblance to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Dueling Shows: With the 2021 reboot of Rugrats, another reboot of a popular 90's kids cartoon that's appearing on a streaming service. While both were successful, the fanbase for Animaniacs grew significantly after the release of the reboot, making it the more successful show. However, Animaniacs ended after three seasons on February 17th, 2023, while Rugrats' second season premiered on April 14th, 2023.
• Early-Bird Release: A minor example. The first episode was made available to watch on Twitter on November 19, 2020, about a day before the rest of the series premiered on Hulu.
• In Memoriam: Episode 8 of Season 3 was dedicated to Paul Coker Jr., a designer on a majority of Rankin/Bass Christmas specials beginning with Frosty the Snowman and various other holiday specials during the 70s and 80s. Paul Coker Jr. is responsible for the iconic "Rankin/Bass Style" and character designs.
• Missing Episode:
  • Episode 6 was briefly removed from Hulu because of the flashing lights in "The Cutening", and the phone number featured in "Close Encounters of the Worst Kind" was a real number... for a phone sex hotline. It was later reinstated but without the phone number before being replaced with a new version with a new number.
  • Teletoon skipped episodes 11 and 12 during its first run. While there might be a reason for the former episode (it was a Halloween Episode and they did not want to air it before its respective holiday), the reason for episode 12 being held off is unknown.
• No Export for You: The reboot is a Hulu exclusive. You have one guess for what this means for people living outside the US and Japan (and no, neither HBO Go nor HBO MAX has it in those regions). However, this is averted for Canada, as the show did air on Teletoon. It is also eventually shown on a mishmash of country-specific networks in Europe, but remains a no-show in many parts of Asia.
• Non-Singing Voice: In various songs, most notably "Reboot It!" from the first episode, Gabriel Mann, Brock Baker (no, not the McGoiter guy), and Missi Hale substitute for Paulsen, Harnell, and MacNeille respectively.
• The Other Darrin:
  • On the original series, Frank Welker often did the voice of Steven Spielberg, but in the very first episode, Andy Milder did Spielberg's voice.
  • Due to Greg Burson, who provided the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety, Foghorn Leghorn and Yosemite Sam for their cameos in the original series, passing away in 2008, the Looney Tunes themselves have new voices in their cameos, with Daffy Duck being voiced by Eric Bauza and Porky Pig by Bob Bergen, although they technically also count as a Role Reprise.
  • The show's take on former President Donald Trump was voiced by Maurice LaMarche on "Warners Unbound" and then by Fred Tatasciore on "Rome Sweet Rome".
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Dot, Brain, Dr. Scratchansniff and Chicken Boo's voice actors were replaced. In Dot's case, it was because her previous voice actress, Elena Prieto, retired from voice acting, not to mention she doesn't live in Venezuela anymore. Likewise, Brain, Dr. Scratchansniff and Chicken Boo's, Orlando Noguera, was unable to voice him again due to being unable to reach a deal with Etcetera Group, the voice studio who did the dub of the previous series and this one.
  • In the Brazilian dub, Dr. Scratchansniff has a new voice actor as both of his voice actors in the original series are unavailable; one retired and the other passed away.
• Out of Holiday Episode:
  • Season 1 has a Halloween episode despite coming out on November 20, almost 3 weeks after Halloween.
  • Season 3, released in February 2023, contains a Christmas Episode.
• Poorly Disguised Pilot: Some of the episodes feature short cartoons with all-new characters ("Starbox & Cindy," "The Incredible Gnome in People's Mouths"), suggesting that they might become recurring segments in future seasons if they catch on. The latter segment even said "to be continued" at the end. And that was the case.
• Real-Time Timeskip: The show outright acknowledges that it's been about two decades since the original series.
• Role Reprise:
  • The show sees the return of Rob Paulsen as the voice of Yakko, Pinky and Dr. Scratchansniff, Jess Harnell as Wakko, Tress MacNeille as Dot, Maurice LaMarche as Brain, and Frank Welker as Ralph T. Guard, Chicken Boo and Thaddeus Plotz.
  • And a bigger surprise...in the final episode, Sherri Stoner as Slappy Squirrel. As well as Paul Rugg as Mr. Clown.
  • The cameos of Daffy Duck and Pepé Le Pew, Porky Pig, and Sylvester have them voiced once again by Eric Bauza, Bob Bergen, and Jeff Bergman, respectively.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Rafael Monsalve, Giset Blanco and Frank Carreño reprise their roles as Yakko, Wakko and Pinky respectively.
  • In the Brazilian dub, Clécio Souto, Marcus Jardym, Marisa Leal, Alexandre Moreno and Hércules Franco reprise their roles as Yakko, Wakko, Dot, Pinky and the Brain.
• Rule 34 – Creator Reactions: When someone made a rather lewd fan art of "80s Cats" Dot from the Season 2 teaser, the official Animaniacs Twitter account quote retweeted it, praising it. Since the brand account is intended to be family-friendly, this came with backlash and so they deleted their QRT. It's unknown if the poor intern didn't know it was lewd (Remember the Twitter crop on images), or if they did and forgot, for a moment, that Animaniacs is technically still a family show.
• Schedule Slip: It's clear that the show was supposed to premiere sometime in or before October 2020, with the first season having episodes based around Halloween and the U.S. 2020 elections, but it's likely that issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic caused it to be pushed back to late November 2020.
• Science Marches On: The show would outright reference scientific discoveries made after the original series ended, such as Pluto's demotion to a dwarf planet and feathered dinosaurs.
• Sleeper Hit: Almost immediately after its release, Animaniacs became the most-watched animated series on Hulu, beating the previous record-holder, Family Guy. It is the second most-watched series on the service overall, behind only Fargo. It’s mainly because the show is a long-awaited revival of one of the most beloved cartoon series of all time.
• Sequel Gap: The last episode of the original series aired in 1998, making this a 22-year gap. If the 1999 release of Wakko's Wish is considered, it's 21 years. It's also 15 years since the last Animaniacs related production with the 2005 video game Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt.
• Throw It In!: Much of Cindy's dialogue was improvised by the child voicing her.
• Torch the Franchise and Run: The finale, with its End-of-Series Awareness, ends with the characters being blown up by a meteorite, being unable to get in a few Last Words. In spite of this, it was later revealed by the showrunners that the Warners did survive the meteor.
• Voices in One Room: Behind the scenes footage showed how, prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the voice actors all recorded together.
• What Could Have Been: Has its own page alongside the original series.

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