#anvilania

FILE: Head, Heart, Guts

Experiment G-1aC: Dubbed Giacomo by Dr.VonScritch

DNA Ratio: 20% Rabbit, 14% Cat, 11% Canine, 9% Eel, 6% Flea, 40% Unknown

Abilities: Living Database

eidetic memory

able DOWNLOAD information from digital formats

ex. swallowed a flashdrive of confidential files only to recite the contents of said files to Dr. VonScritch through song the next morning

can download from a cloud database with Ethernet cable extensions, though complains extensively through out the process

has an odd preference for books, despite not being able download the material

electrokinesis

overuse leads to subject G-1aC to short circuit or “bluescreen”

“Bluescreening” can be stimulated through high voltage electroshocks

Notes: Sept. 29, 2351 Despite being able to “download” any information he pleases, Giacomo has shown much more interest in learning as well as bringing in his siblings interest up as well. Request for more reading materials and more stimulating toys. -Dr. VonScritch

Request: Denied. Subject G-1aC will download any information it needs.

Location: Watertower

Update: July 4, 2770: Maniacs Captured and Detained

Current Location: High Security Solitary Confinement Cell, Anvilanian Detention Center for the Criminally Insane

Update: Jan. 23, 2771

Subject G-1aC reported missing.

Update: Feb. 13, 2771

Subject G-1aC located and detained. Reprogram security program. Guard Change.

Update: May. 3, 2771

Subject G-1aC reported missing.

Update: August. 24, 2771

Subject G-1aC located and detained. Reprogram security program. Guard Change.

Update: Dec. 24, 2771

Subject G-1aC reported missing.

Update: Jun. 2771

Subject G-1aC located and detained by Acmetropolis-Terranium Protectorate, returned to Anvilania. Reprogram security program. Guard Change. Replace lock with deadbolt.

Update: Nov. 5, 2772

Subject G-1aC reported missing.

Update: Dec. 24, 2772

Subject G-1aC located and detained by Merrie Melody Galactic Force. Replace security program and increase deadbolts. Guard Change.

Update: Jan. 1, 2773.

Subject G-1aC transferred to Martian Detainment Center for examination and integration into the Ele-Computing System M.4.

FILE: Head, Heart, Guts

Experiment L-0773: Dubbed Loretta “Lottie” by Dr. VonScritch- 2044

DNA Ratio: 24% Cat, 17% Rabbit, 12% Canine, 7% Skunk. 40% Unknown

Abilities: Cute Charm

can cause instant adoration upon contact (74% of humans exposed to weak to it, while only 32% of Anthromorphs affected)

Increased exposure to affected parties leads to decrease in cognitive thinking and rational decision making skills

45% of humans with no initial reaction began to show signs of the “Charmed Effect” with continuous exposure

58% of Anthromorph with no initial reaction began to show signs of the “Charmed Effect” with continuous exposure

Charmed Effect cancels out, however, once the subject is no longer exposed to Subject (takes anywhere from seconds to an hour)

Source still uncertain: requires more testing

Notes: Mar. 30, 2351. Lottie decided to take matters into her own hands. Their entire room has been scribbled on to show some waxy semblance of color. She’d traded Doc a years worth of her deserts and Giacomo her beloved stuffed Kitty for their crayons to complete the task, and based upon her rather pleased features I can safely say she has little regrets. Requesting more coloring materials and crafting supplies. -Dr. VonScritch

Request: Denied. Room cleansing scheduled.

Weapons Specialist: Scan any and all Objects that will be in Subject L-0773′s possession before allowing it to handle them under supervision.

Location: Watertower

Update: July 4, 2770: Maniacs Captured and Detained

Current Location: High Security Solitary Confinement Cell, Blanc Detention Center, Sector 3v of Planet Blanc

Update: Nov. 12, 2773

Subject L-0773 removed from Solitary Confinement for Good Behavior

Update: Nov. 17, 2773

Supject L-0773 reported missing.

FILE: Head, Heart, Guts

Experiment D-0oC: Dubbed Doc, or Docko by Dr.VonScritch

DNA Ratio: 22% Canine, 11% Cat, 11% Rabbit, 10% Salamander, 6% Tasmanian Devil, 40% Unknown

Abilities: Matter Transmogrification, “Matter Recycling”

anything material, organic or inorganic, Subject D-0oC eats, it can take the properties of

ex: consumption of steel bed frame -> increased density and luster, cells might as well be made of steel

the more matter it consumes the longer the effects last

complete control over its mass has led to limited shape shifting

higher molecular density than subjects G-1aC and subject L-0773

Update: Anvilite Coating Experiment successful, though recovery is taking longer than expected. Subject D-0oC collapsing randomly during training. Cancel surgeries for Subject G-1aC and Subject L-0773 until Subject D-0oC if further stabilized.

Notes: May 16, 2352  Doc’s shyer, quieter disposition makes it challenging to get him to open up about any issues he’s been having. I suspect that due to his abilities, he needs a significantly higher calorie intake than his siblings. Additionally, I have found numerous indicators that the boy is developing poor vision. Request for a discussion in change in diet as well as an optometrist visit- Dr. VonScritch:

Request Denied: Dietary needs are being met and Subject D-0oC physical displayed no need for vision aids.

Location: Watertower

Update: July 4, 2770: Maniacs Captured and Detained

Current Location: High Security Solitary Confinement Cell, Acmetropolis Subterranean Prison

Update: June 13, 2770

Subject D-0oC attempted to break out, minor damage to interior structures, minimal injuries to staff and prisoners.

Increased security, Change in Diet. No more silverware allowed.

Update: April 1, 2771

Subject D-0oC attempted to break out, severe injuries of the guards stationed by its cell.

Increased Security, transferred to “the Pit”. Strictly IV nutrients and Fluids. Muzzle is to be kept on at all times.

Update: Nov. 5, 2772

Subject D-0oC’s cell damaged with comet strike. Severe structural damage, Sever injuries amongst Staff and Prisoners. 18 casualties caused by subject D-0oC.

To be placed under sedation until further notice.

Update: Mar. 24, 2774

The show was, and KINDA still is, a variety show: taking a page from looney tunes, as well as tex avery’s other work, the crew decided rather than just focus on the warners, to instead create a whole cast with various ensembles to work with so we got Pinky and the Brain, The Goodfeathers, Rita and Runt,  the Hip HIppos, Katie Kaboom, Chicken Boo, and my personal faviorite Slappy Squirrel.. and the bane of my existance, Buttons and Mindy.. or rather Mindy’s Mom. The kid did nothing wrong.  So naturally the first thing Animaniacs related I cover.. is an episode entirely breaking from format for one 20 something minute Warners cartoon. I do intend to do more animanics stuff in the future, so i’ll hopefully get a chance to talk about everyone, I just feel unlike with say house of mouse most people reading this probably know who they all are, and I can save any deep dives for if I cover the characters specifically. Spoilers: there’s probably never going to be a buttons and mindy deep dive unless someone tourtues me by paying for it. 

So with that out of the way, we can dive into the episode.. which I won’t be covering in my usual recap it point by point because the writers have freely admitted that’s not what Animaniacs is about. While some of i’ts SEGMENTS are more story based like Pinky and the Brain, Goodfeathers and Rita and Runt, most are just based on simple set ups to reams and reams of gags. And I love it. I grew up with this stuff not just Tiny Tunes and Animaniacs but the classic Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry and Droopy shorts. 

Their well timed, well executed feats of comedy and most have aged pretty well.. emphasis on MOST. I’m keenly aware why there are several gaps in the shorts for both Tom and Jerry and The Looney Tunes on HBO Max, including all of the Pepe LePew and Speedy Gonzalez shorts. Also all of Droopy is missing. 

My grumblin aside though, it is VERY NICE to have all the classic Warner and Tom and Jerry shorts at my fingertips and it was one of the biggest selling points of Max for me. Last year I gained an intrest in the old disney theatrical shorts, hence my various birthday specials, so I BADLY wanted to revisit the theatrical shorts I grew up with. And honestly.. Max is the best way to do that: their in crisp hd, in neat season collections (Though the Looney Tunes one is better sorted, tom and jerry’s seasons are just.. random smatterings of shorts across various eras), and most importantly EVERY SHORT they felt comfortable with putting up there is on there. Every. Single. One.  I make a big deal about this because Disney.. has only maybe 30-40 of their hundreds of shorts on there. Now lucky for me the vast majority are still on youtube and I get why some really arne’t suitable.. we probably don’t need the donald duck short where he prepares to shoot a penguin in the face or the Goofy short where his own reflection, the goofy equilvent of tyler durden I guess?, keeps saying “Hey Fat” to him. And yes BOTH of these actually happened. But.. there’s MANY shorts with no clear excuse why their absent like the triplets first apperance, gus’ only apperance, and one a friend told me about.. that time mickey built a robot to box a gorillia. Again not making this up, just wondering why you can’t restore the rest of these for plus. They’ve ADDED shorts ocasionally, but it still dosen’t make a whole lot of sense to just.. not have them all up there. and to not put them in some sorta collection for easier consumption but hey it’s Disney. They either full ass things or half ass it. There is no middle ground.  Point is Warner.. actually cares about their heritage in shorts and honors it and thus has everything avaliable in the best quality, so tha’ts nice.

My point after that detour is I really love this kind of humor, and now as an adult I can see the effort the timing, pacing and character chemistry these shorts had takes. And Rugger and co.. they got it. They got it down perfect. And this episode is a great show of that and just how they barely updated this format for the 90′s. But as I said it’s more about the jokes and basic setup, our heroes are slotted into x scenario and just left to run wild. It’s been the basic seutp for looney tunes, tom and jerry and all the gag based greats, and it works perfectly here. Sure there’s some setting and continuity with the warner lot, scratch n sniff, ralph, plotz and in the reboot Rita, but it’s mostly just our heroes go up against “X asshole” and it just works. 

And that’s.. entirley what this episode is. The short is an homage to the graucho marx film Duck Soup, which given the warners were based on the marx brothers that isn’t a huge suprise, a film like brian’s song I have not seen, but genuinely want to. The basic setup is the same: An underqualified womanizer, though since htis is Yakko it dosen’t get past hitting on his chancelor, played by hello nurse, constantly, which is still.. ewwwww... but clearly not the same thing, becomes king of a small nation and ends up at war with another country. There were spies and other stuff in the original short but that was left out to streamline things.  But this homage stands on it’s own fine: The basic plot is this: Yakko, due to being a distant relative and the last one alive, becomes king of the small happy and very musical, as the wonderful opening number shows, country of Anvilania, which makes anvils and why yes there is one MASSIVE anvil gag as a result at the end. Yakko says he’ll try his best and geninely tries to with the shenanigans you’d expect, including Dot not gettnig Polka Dot’s are a thing and instead taknig any mention of it as a sign to polka, Yakko again hitting on his colleague and wanting ot get a new anthem because the current one by “Perry Coma’ puts people to sleep. Honeslty that gag didn’t do it for me: Partly because I genuinely know next to nothing about Como and he’s far past my generation.. and because despite this, SCTV did a MUCH better Perry Como gag over a decade before this episode that while still left me baffled as to why anyone cared about mocking him, was 80 times funnier and felt far less like you needed to know who he was to be funny. 

That being said it’s one of only three running gags, and jokes period that didn’t land for me. The other ones being the hello nurse bits, because it’s aged really badly to have Yakko harass one of his employees and his age is hte only thing that keeps it from scuttling the episode as he’s just 13 or 14. Maybe 15. 

So SO glad I now have that on hand whenever i need it. The other being the “Your highness” joke as it just.. dosen’t make much sense and isn’t very funny. But that’s it: a refrence i specfically don’t get and I doubt most of you will, and if you do fine we all have our frames of refrences, a joke that’s dated very poorly, and one that just.. didn’t land. And even then the Perry Coma thing’s third use to knock out the opposing army DID work for me as did the VERY clever joke of “Sire” “Maybe later”, so even the weaker bits still had some legs.  But getting back to what little plot there is the king of the rival country, upon hearing this, assumes he can easily intimidate a child into giving him the throne and goes to a royal reception. Instead, as you’d expect, the Warners mistake him for a party clown, show him no respect and fail to take his delcration of war seriously, and while in a REALLY great gag, and the reason i’m not doing a strict summary is 90% of the review would be me saying something to that effect, Yakkos’ call to action for his troops ends up having them all run off in fear, the Warners take out the army as noted above and then in one of the most GLORIOUS climaxes in the series history...

 In which the Warners give the bad guy “all the anvils” as he requested. I sadly coulnd’t find a clip of it but seek it out if you got hulu, my words can’t do it justice as they hit him with anvil after anvil in increasingly clever and insane ways till the guy finally gives up and it .. is glorious.  Other highlights not already mentioned include: The opening song, the bad guy dictator from the other nation not being able to hear because of his helmet and his attendee having to lift it, leading to Yakko taking off his helmet just to end the “what’ running gag, Yakko’s bit explaning his distant relation and more.  So yeah not a ton to say on this one. It’s a very good, very funny episode but also very typical of a warner cartoon in structure, just stretched over 22 or so minutes. As I said with few exceptions the jokes work, the anmation is crisp as always, and the climax is one of the series best. A crisp, quick watch and a nice quick review after a week of with some really tough ones behind me and ahead of me and a month of rather large ones a few weeks out. So yeah if you like animaniacs, even ifyou’ve seen this one worth a watch, if you have any more animaniacs you’d like me to take a look at feel free to comment or comission and until the next rainbow..