One of the first things to notice about the revival of the beloved variety series is that the “variety” aspect has been markedly pared down.

The voice cast, too, is a delight – hearing Rob Paulsen, Jess Harnell, and Tress MacNeille back together as the show’s power trio warmed my eardrums, particularly when they began singing in unison (as they do in the updated theme song and original songs like “Reboot It,” written by original series lyricist Randy Rogel).īut when it comes to story and characterization, these Animaniacs don’t have enough baloney in their slacks. The animation style is smooth and sleek, retaining the general designs of the original series while updating them for the computer-enhanced era, with sharp and angular characters popping against more muted backgrounds. I went into these 13 episodes with high hopes, wondering if they’d recapture the magic that defined the original series as one of the finest cartoons of the ’90s.Ĭertainly the new series has its strong suits.

On Friday, Hulu released the entire first season of the all-new Animaniacs (a second season has already been ordered), allowing many longtime fans of the series – myself included – to devour it over the weekend. (If you’re old enough to remember the debut of Animaniacs, odds are you remember the original glory of Spielberg’s other 1993 project as well.) When this clip was released online in October, the Internet understandably went wild. It’s an ingenious opening that accomplishes everything it should – reveal the Warner kids in newly animated glory, play up the show’s penchant for meta-humor, and tip the hat to the nostalgic millennials returning to the show after twenty-odd years. As the show’s version of Alan Grant notes the characters’ “clean, vectored outlines,” a nearby Hulu executive gloats that they’re going to “make a fortune” from these new characters.

Parodying Jurassic Park, the scene features Steven Spielberg as a Professor Hammond stand-in, revealing to a group of slack-jawed scientists that he has “reanimated” the Warner Brothers (and the Warner Sister!) for the first time since the late 1990s. The best scene in Hulu’s new Animaniacs reboot occurs right in the opening of the first episode.

Download animaniacs reboot dvd