Retronauts - Retronauts Micro 79: Animaniacs Games

Episode Date: January 19, 2018

Hulu just announced a two-season reboot of the classic '90s 'toon Animaniacs, so there's never been a better time to look back at the many games starring the Warner Brothers and their Warner sister, Dot. On this episode of Retronauts Micro, join Bob Mackey, Henry Gilbert, and Chris Antista as the crew looks back on this wildly popular, smart, and expensive TV series and the many games that tried their best to dive as deep into pop culture references as the source material did.

Hello, everybody, welcome to another episode of Retronauts Micro. I am your host for this one, Bob Mackey, and today's topic is Animaniac's Games. Before I start, who else is here with me today? Gosh and golly-y-uck-hams, Bob, it's Henry Gilbert. Who said that? One of the hip-hippos? No, that's what? Barney said Barney

Bologna not Humphrey the Hippo and who else? Proud good feather Chris Antista That's right Which one are you Squit Pesto Oh my God

I forgot their names And Bobby Bobby is the Oh yeah The Diiro Wonderful one note joke Chris God Pigeon Antista So yes

So in 2015 This is episode 34 We did an entire episode On Tiny Tune Adventures games We talked a lot About that cartoon The early 90s Animation Renaissance

And I think I might have promised in that episode, we'll talk about the few Animaniacs games. Of course, whenever I start doing these, I'm like, this will be easy. There are way too many of these. There's way more than you think. Yeah, I mean, Tiny Toadventures had a lot of games. There's maybe half of those, but there's still some notable ones, some very difficult ones. But this is also being done this whole podcast, because Hulu just announced they're doing

a two-season reboot of Animaniacs. I don't know when it's going to launch. I don't know how it's going to happen, what it'll look like, what it'll sound like. But why not talk about Animaniacs, the show, the games, the... It's 25 years old this year. Jesus Christ It's a great show And I literally just talked

To talk to someone Who discovered Laser Time Through the Tiny Tunes episode I did a Retronaut So shout out to God Oh awesome And I should say One of the first laser times I recorded

Was the WB episode Where you had me on a talk about That whole era of Warner's animation Five years ago It's fascinating And you forcing us to watch An episode of this How was this ever for children?

It's true I watched more than a couple Of the Hulu Because they're all on there. Yeah, I just let them auto play, and they're fantastic. They're so good. Before we get into it, though, I want to know from you guys. Like, how did you encounter Animaniacs 25 years ago?

Day one, I was there. Day one, I was a huge Tiny Tune superfan. So this new thing that looked even tinier and tunier than Tiny Tunes, I was there immediately, especially because, like, I was already becoming the animation nerd I'd grow into being. And from the beginning, they talk about Warner history and all this stuff. They're like, oh, I kind of like this. This is getting even dorkier.

Animaniacs almost shows a flippant disregard to people who aren't cartoon nerds. There's a lot of shit in there that you would never ever. I'm watching it now and like, how would they expect me to get that, just little things, the wonderful world of walnuts? And if you've heard me play on Lasers Time, Disney Wonderful World of Color, they have a fake version of that song. There's all these 1950s and 60s references, I never would have gotten. Were you there at day one, Chris? Oh, of course. All of us.

Fox kid. I not only remember that, I remember one of the most shameful things being said to me. I was watching this shit out of animaniacs and not really caring about my sister and being a general pubescent jerk. And my parents would hire me a babysitter. I guess more for my sister than for me

because I wasn't mature enough to watch her. And babysitter, my friend's hot sister, older sister, and I'm watching anime. And like, I'm coming home from high school, turn on animaniacs. And she's like, ugh, you still watch cartoons? It hurt me so much. I remember to say, fuck you, Mandy.

Now you have revenge. You're a famous podcaster. I wish you to see her again and show her like, no, this was good. This is good. I think, too, this was when I realized what the syndicated runs really were because it was the first show. I definitely watched Darkwing Duck from the start, but I didn't notice when the cycle ended.

But with tiny, with animaniacs, it was when I realized, like, I'm watching from the start. And now we have come back to the beginning on the airings of this. I was also a day one viewer. In fact, I think from maybe Darkwing Duck Onward I was very savvy about like I know the day the new cartoon of the year from Disney and Warner Brothers will premiere. Like, I'm there day one for

Dark Wing Duck and Goof Troop and bonkers. I do remember that. It was kind of synonymous to the new school year. You like they're not telling me what it is, but there's a new Disney afternoon show coming and I know it. But yeah, like Henry, I was way into Tiny Tunes. I loved it. I loved, you know, classic Warner Brothers animation. And I knew it was from the

same people and I knew I would love it and I did. And before we go on, I want to talk about the history of the show. So this show aired from September 13th, 1993, to November 14th, 1998. It's so short. It had a slightly longer shelf life than Tiny Toons, which was like 90 to 92. But they had

kind of identical episode counts. Animaniacs had 99 in a movie, and Tiny Tunes had 100 in like a movie and a special. Maybe two specials. Tiny Tunes got the boot a little too soon, I'd say, and I think it was because Animaniacs Well, I think that was kind of took their thunder. The point to get to 100, they'd make, what would this?

Like 35 first year? 35, the second year and then like 65 year one and then they moved to fox and they got like two like 10 episode seasons yeah it's like eight episode seasons or something like that but the goal is to get there and be syndicated forever a lofty goal in 2018 yeah but but something people shot for back then and i i think i always liked tiny tunes more hmm but animaniacs i'm discovering as an adult holds up a lot better tiny tunes is very reliant on the old loony tunes very much so they they were afraid of launching new characters that without those direct connection Animaniacs needs none of that.

So if you don't have cable or have an over-the-air antenna, it survives a lot better on... And it's more of a sketch comedy show than Tiny Tunes, too, and it let them have all their wackiest ideas or what I thought were their wackiest ideas. And then when I watched Freakazoid, I was like, no, these

are the ideas that were too goofy, even for anime. That shoot is insane. God damn it. In Tiny Tunes, they all exist in Acme Acres. They all live together and coexist. On Anamaniacs, they will cross over a lot, but there's not, there's not like, these characters are all together in this one town. They're going to live with each other and go to school with each other

and stuff like that. It is just a sketch show. You're right. Like a variety show because there's lots and lots of singing. The anti-maniacs travel time and space to go mess with somebody else. They're much more perfect cartoon characters where like Buster didn't finish his home. He had stuff baggage like that. He had relatable

kid problems and the Warner Brothers are just like abandoned orphans who live in a water tower and are insane. Which I'm saying I think that makes Honey Tunes great. But like Animaniacs, it survives, it's survived way longer in syndication and I think merchandise and I think globally the show still gets a pretty significant amount

of air time. Though I also think that kind of hurt the show just a little bit the varying of tones made it a weird show for a kid if you're like, well I love these silly animiniac things. Well then you might not like that two acts of this is Rita and runs singing Broadway

song. I love because it was Bernard Peters singing songs. Here's a very sincere Les Miserables parody with heartfelt songs belted out. I don't know how much we... You know I want to talk about this forever. We will. We talked about it a bunch on laser time,

but like, they all brought about from Steven Spielberg having a golden ticket to do whatever he wants. He wants to make old Looney Tunes cartoons in the exact same style, so he gets to. And the show is a hit in appeals like the old Looney Tunes,

not just with children, but with everybody. And that concern the hell out of afternoon programming. Yes. Where people were running away for Pokemon and Power Rangers to get that kid dollar

where there were adults, there were teenagers watching Animiacs. That's technically, its ratings were strong, but too diverse in the ratings, and that's not good. Because it was an ad-based show, because it was on Fox and broadcast TV. It's like, we bought ads for kids, and adults aren't going to

buy these products unless they have kids, and like, these stone college students watching Animaniacs don't have kids yet. Yeah, it's a trouble that Renn and Simpey ran into, but it ultimately like, I think, killed the Spielberg momentum of shows. Those shows, I didn't get to see Freakus of it. If you've heard me on Laser Time, I live in a small town

with no WB affiliates. So when all those shows switched, they were gone from forever. There's no streaming service, there's no home video, they're gone. That was a big, that's actually what sort of fell to Animaniacs, because it debuted as the number two kids show that year, number one, Power Rangers, of course. It was the number two kids show that year

period amongst everything, I think, on broadcast TV. So they run 65 episodes, and then they're like, we'll move to the Kids WB for this new deal. We'll launch our new channel. Yes, so in the year between Fox moving, sorry, Animaniacs moving from Fox to KidsWB, Fox orders four episodes

as sort of a screw you. So For an entire year, there were only four new Animaniacs episodes, and they're all made up of existing ideas that didn't make it into the current 65. So that really hamstrung them. Cooled it down. Yeah. And then they moved to a platform with a much smaller viewership, ultimately. Yeah, built around what they thought was going to be for kids, and then it wasn't. And that was kind of the kids' WB Empire early was trying to build around that.

And they're like, well, what if we then made Pinky and the Brain its own show? Well, what if Pinky and the Brain was for a Simpsons show in late and night instead? in the night shows. Like, they, they couldn't really find a place for it, even though the, the water tower was key to kids WB in the background

when they started. Oh, yeah, for sure. But that was pre-Pocomon. Pokemon would kill it, ultimately. They even had an episode of Animaniacs about how much they hated Power Rangers. Super strong Warner Simplains, yeah.

Why can't your, why is your math movie? It's so fuzzy. And it's like, I, it's just like Roger Rabbit, I wish anybody but Spielberg was at the helm because if this was, anybody else had a hit of this stature,

it would be moving on instead of Spielberg who creates, gets bored, moves on, makes something else. It's like Hulu now to do it, they're bringing it back. Well, it's like Bob said, I think it works, since they're not as worried about demographics and commercials, it's a much better fit for Hulu. Like, sign them for the service, even though

I guess they have an ad option. But they can target people a little better. Well, and all the key voice actors are still alive, too. Yeah. And Spielberg is just, he just directed Ready Player 1. I think he's starting to see like there's a value in this kind of nostalgia. I mean, everything he made in the 70s and 80s was his nostalgia from the 50s and 60s. So now it's like, oh, the stuff I made in the 90s, people are nostalgic for that.

I'm incredibly old. I should cash in on this. It is a clever ruse. People didn't even notice that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were pulling off. They're repackaging the cereals of their childhood in a modern way. And like, it makes them more like Tarantino than David O'Slzelnick. They're just reveling in this stuff that you don't remember. They just cashed in more than Tarantino did.

But yeah, they, but the Animaniacs, too, the animation. was incredible. The voice actors did the best, and it was a writer-driven show, though, with great animation. Yeah, I mean, it would vary from studio to studio, but there were some really good stuff in here. There wasn't anything as bad as Kennedy Tunes. No. They booted Kennedy off of Tiny Tunes after those episodes

came in. Which I fucking loved on O KKO, the show we've talked a ton about, I talk a ton about. They had a specific joke in their episode about Kennedy Tunes animating an episode poorly and firing them. And they do the Kennedy Tunes kickdance. Look it up, kids. Oh, God, the kickdance. So I want to go over more of the

premise of Animaniacs. By the way, we will talk about the games. There's not a lot to talk about, and yes, I am using this as an excuse to talk about Animaniacs. I assume no one is offended, but... On Hulu now. Check it out. It's great. Yeah, I mean, like, Tiny Tunes did this as well, but more than anything, this is a like a commentary on cartoon history.

The premise of Animaniacs is like, what if the really boring black and white early cartoons were as crazy as the ones you actually love? And the episode, I ask you guys to watch for this. We're not going to talk about that episode in great detail, but... It's a good refresher. The 65th anniversary special, that's what it's called. It's like, they look more into the lore of the Warner Brothers and Dot and how they were

created. And they were in the canon of Animaniacs, the sidekicks of Buddy. One of the first Warner Brothers characters, there's a reason you don't know about Buddy. You might know about Bosco. Buddy is even more boring than Bosco. And it's so funny that they were allowed to be like, look how lame these cartoons are. It's an idiot walking down the street, singing a jaunty song, and then the cartoon ends. It's sort of like, in The Simpsons, that happy cat. Yeah. Those were cartoons back then. It's what disappointed you. when you see what the 30s cartoons were and you see old Mickey Mouse

are like Mickey Mouse is so exciting compared to these guys they're almost like screensavers because you're kind of watching the animation technology develop so it's just like we made this character do something we think looks appealing he'll do it in three cycles

and then find another thing to move around and it'll be just like moving his arms a little bit or swinging his hips around they just shit all over buddy they're just like buddy the worst like boys by Jim Cummings a twisted would be murderer But yes, so we just did the Talking Critics series, 23 episodes of that on Patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons.

And watching this, I'm like, the critic and animaics were developed at the same time, but it feels like they're going for the exact same things. Like, Tiny Tunes would reference TV and movies and music and everything like that. But this series takes place in a movie lot, a TV lot, and they live in the logo of a production company. Like, it's all about pop culture. It's about executives and actors and all this stuff. Describe it as just a magical time to be alive. I was already in love with cartoons. Roger Rabbit comes out, and, you know, I'm not buying this like Santa Claus,

but sets up a world where cartoon characters are actors who exist in the real world. They live in a town on their own. And, like, Spielberg just kept that going. Yeah. Like, the idea that, like, there's an animated world. I don't know, there's a little kid. It was, like, awesome to live in that. And, like, there's not, I felt like that was something that happened after Roger Rabbit

that every cartoon acknowledged that we're in a cartoon for a while. But also that critic thing reminds me, too, that, like, casting wise had Maurice Lamarche on both doing a lot of the same impressions. The same impressions. Yes, like he's doing Orson Welles on both. As pink as the brain. He's doing Spartacus on both. He's doing Bob Hope on both. Oh, God. Rosebud. It's so astonishing how many people aren't dead when I'm watching Animaniacs at that point. We're so lucky

that they're still, knock on wood, that they're all still around for this. Like Paul Ruger and Paul, uh, Paul Rudd. Paul Rudd. No, not Paul Rudd. The Rugg. Yeah. Paul Rugg. Tom Ruger. The weirdo from, uh, who's, Yako.

He just says giant hair that Rob Paulson. Ross McNeil. St. McNeil. Frank Bulkner. Also, I have my mind blown. I didn't realize like, Warner Brothers, they're the Warner Brothers, aka the Warner Brothers. But Dot is the dot at the end of Warner Brothers.

I never realized that. It's very clever. There's a lot of stuff to like re-get when watching a maniacs. It makes it so rewarding. Yeah. Revisiting this as an adult, I was like, how did I think this was funny? I mean, just the silly drawings and the silly action and stuff is great. But, like, watching this again, I'm like, this is written for people who grew up in the 60s.

That period. That's it. There's fun songs. There's slapstick. But all of these references, it's all about, like, stuff you would see on TV, like, before I was born. There's a character who is basically serious director, Jerry Lewis. So funny in hindsight. Yeah.

Like, I had no idea that was Jerry Lewis except when you were like, nice lady and stuff. But, like, why is this guy acting so, like, stern and, like, you know, up and he. You know, it's very serious. just watching, like, it's a Jimmy Stewart impression, but he's credited as George Bailey, which is not something I would have got, but now I love. But, like, yeah, all the Hollywood insidery stuff is just, like, baked into the show. Every episode opens with the line, they have pay or play contracts, which is a joke that says, these characters are not that invested in being in this. They'll get paid no matter what happens, so. Well, and yeah, Mr. Director was a regular character on the show.

One time he became an amalgamation of him and Marlon Brando on the set of Apocalypse Now. Right. which was an allegory for the making of the clown who cried. Another time he was a clown doing the clown who cried. A win the whippoor will whispers in the west the wind can whistle back go nice and chubby baby. There's a great like 30-hour loop of that on YouTube.

I think I'll just end the episode with that. Part of my job with laser time and retronautists revisiting, revisiting crap to tell you how it holds up. An animaniacs is one of the best a couple years ago. It's a fucking shame. no one will revisit this. This should be able to work in practically any decade.

I mean, we're going to see in a year to do what happens. I'm really looking forward to it. You're showing some trepidation. Yeah, the one thing, of course, it's like looking at this show, just like this was an expensive show that only got to be this expensive

because Spielberg was like, this is what we're doing with this show. No one spends this much money on animation anymore on TV. No one does. Carl Stalling made his show with a 35-piece orchestra where every move had a sound to it. We're going to do that.

And I was talking to you off mic. like some of it is like some of this some of these jokes are so well written and so well done the animation is needlessly lavish it's a guy sitting at a table like fluid movement like totally not necessary only his mouth needs to move but he's like justiculating wildly it's great and you like you talk about the music chris you just you forget how sparsely scored shows are these days compared to this i mean no show sounded like these shows then either but it was like in some cases a show uh someone will write like 30 songs for a show and they'll just Drop them in where appropriate.

Sometimes, like, the Simpsons, there's cues. Here's, like, a one-minute cue. Here's a five-second cue. This show, from start to finish, it's nothing but non-stop scoring to every action you see. So they're paying not only 35 people to play that music, but one guy to write on paper 22 minutes of music to accompany animation. That is where, like, that the animation, the voice actors, the fact that it was a union show with union writers in the WGA. Expensive, expensive, expensive. I can't see how this could work on Hulu unless they pay two to three.

$3 million per episode. I think if they're being clever, if you make it look like Animaniac Season 6, like this is just a widescreen version of what's before. Yes. Kids will devour it, not knowing where or when it was made. I hope that's... But it's got to be digital, too. Like, they can't use ink and paint, so it's already

going to look a little different. I will say the movie Wacko's Witch is digital. And it's animated by TMS. And it looks really good. Yeah, but their faces look slightly. I don't... The, the Yakos Wish is such a weird one because it, it is both a parody of Treekly Disney stuff, but also is Treekly Disney stuff. They kind of want to have their key in their line in it. Yeah. They know they're in a Disney-esque film, but they're also like, but what will Ackos Wish be before he dies? Like, it's, it doesn't work on all the levels it should.

You kind of have to know that it was going to be theatrical until W.B. was like, we don't want to pay for advertising. So it was kind of meant to compete with the Disney Renaissance. Like, let's be sincere, but also goofy. That plays differently in a theater than it does on a TV screen, yes. Never made the theaters, right? Never did, no. There was one short, which I felt like was going, they always wanted to make shorts. It's called I'm Mad, which they eventually put into the TV show. But it's sort of like the Roger Rabbit shorts where there was some interest at first, and they're like, ah, fuck it, who cares?

Who doesn't he's out anymore? Which is really too bad because they also invented them to be, they're the Warner Brothers and their sister Dodd. They are the mascots for Warner Brothers. They should be that. You wouldn't embrace a Michigan J. Frog over the Warner Bros? Oh, yeah, they sure did. He was in all of two cartoons? And I also did like that the war, that animaniacs got to get a little more,

they got to get closer to the red and stimpy scatology that Tiny Tunes didn't get to do as much. Like they got to vomit into barf bags. They had an entire episode about how much yak, wacko needed to pee. I have to potty. I have to potty emergency. An example to surprise you with later. The most famous joke, I don't have a clip of it, but that I rediscovered was like, Dot, I'll check the, I'll search this scene.

You go over there and dust for Prince and she comes back and like, I found him and she's carrying Prince. And Wiacos says, no, no, no, no, fingerprints. And she looks at Prince and at the camera and like, no, I don't think so. And like, did you just sneak a fingering joke into the kids WB? I think there's a Thanksgiving cartoon where this pilgrim wants his turkey back. He's like, give me the bird, the bird. And Yacko says, we can't. This is a kid show.

Yes. Also, every Minerva Mink was too hot for TV. They got away with two Minnirva Mink jokes tunes ever, and then she kind of gets shoved to the background. Voiced by the beautiful Julie Brown. Why wasn't at all embarrassed to be watching this at 14?

I didn't realize that Minerva Mink was co-created by Paul Dini was Sherry Stoner. It was both in. Paul Dini was kind of jumping between productions on the kids' animation, but also Batman. He was working on Bat. That's also why the production values are so high

on this and Batman, Warner was ready for this. And I will say, the plus I'll give to this animation, the better chance I'll give Animaniacs coming back is that if they're going through Warner Studios, like they produce OKCAO, they do produce Stephen Universe.

The one thing I wouldn't say, I maybe don't like the WWE crossover films, but they aren't poorly animated. That's good to hear. They are digital ink and paint, but it's well done. You can confirm with me, Henry. the Flintstones

what rumble at Stone Rock It's the best the Flintstones have ever looked And it's in a WWE production It's true But also they have a lot more character to them So Bob's and the Teen Titans go flat style Of almost everything there I hope it doesn't look like that

You're right, I can't see them branching out too much from that I really hope it doesn't look like that But so one final thing before we were going to take a short break And then talk about the games But I want to talk about this one website you guys need to visit If you want to know more about Animaniacs There's a great Tumblr that stopped updating in 2014, but it's called Hello

Nice Warner's. If you just search for that, you'll find it, but I'll put a link to that in the blog post for this episode. It is an extensive breakdown of every episode complete with images. It talks about, like, specific scenes, specific directors, like how each studio drew the characters differently, things like that,

super behind the scene stuff, and it's like, it's like five books worth of knowledge about Animaniacs. I read through it all at one point of my life. It's amazing. The problem is it's on Tumblr, so it's very poorly organized. You just have to go through every post in order, but It's called Hello Nice Warner's, and I'll link to it in this blog post, but we're going to take a short break and be back to talk about the games. Here are some useful car tips you might not be aware of.

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Switching makes it easy to save. So yes, this is a video game podcast. I almost forgot. And there have been several Animaniacs games, and in no particular order, well, it is semi-chronological. I do want to talk about them. The first one I want to talk about is the S-NES version, and I will tell you, folks, I am on the Twitter very often these days. And occasionally I'll make an innocuous comment about a game saying, this game is hard. And people get really mad about that for reasons that are beyond me. And they say, this game is not hard.

You just don't know how to play games, or how dare you call this game hard? I dare you, dear listener, to tell me this game isn't hard because sweet Georgia Brown, this game, kick my ass in several ways. Did you guys play any of these before? It's cool if you didn't. No, I did not. Yeah, but this NES version looks really good, sounds really good, Konami quality, but it is a 45-minute game designed to make every one of those minutes painful in as long as possible. And I will say, with some games, they're hard because they're poorly designed, like Barbers is a space, there's like there's no sense of design

that you see. It's just sort of haphazard. This game it's like, no. This game is a machine designed to hurt you instantly in every occasion. It is a game designed around memorization. In that sense, it is a well-designed torture device. I will give them that. But man, when I play this as a kid, I would only rent it. I would play through

the interest stage and try every other stage because you can try them all, thankfully, get a sample of all the pain. But I could never get to the end of any of these stages and I'll tell you why. Guys, what's up with this game? I just wanted to make sure to We have a whole Tiny Tunes episode, but, like, because of duct tails and because of how well Konami did with Tiny Tunes, there was a time, people, where you could be a kid looking forward to a license game and not feel like a moron. Yes.

Because Konami had an astounding pedigree with a tiny... They made four pretty damn great Tiny Tunes games. Yeah, there were some really good ones, some kind of bad ones, but Konami mostly hit him out of the park. But just perfect for their time. You can trust Konami. Yeah, this would take. This one I could barely wrap my head around. Have you seen the commercial for it?

I haven't. I could show it to you or describe it to you. Which wouldn't you like? Is it visual? There's a visual thing in it, but it'll blow your fucking mind. Let's play it. Say your prayers, farm it. Hmm?

Chili. Me this. So it's the Warner's interacting with live action actors because that's so good. But check this out. And that's just Jason. Hey, look where you're going. Darling. So that's Ja-Jaj.

Gabor appears in the Animaniacs video game commercial to make a gag that would be on the Animaniacs. It's true. An unlicensed use of Jason that they didn't pay for. It's all super astonishing that that kind of I don't know, I love these tiny tunes in Animaniacs Game commercials. Those are cool, yeah. So in the first

scene, you might not have, you know, you can't see it, but look it up on YouTube. The gunslinger pulls out two guns, but it's actually Yakko and Wacko. So yeah, very cool. But yeah, this game, so let's describe how it works. So the stories in all these games are very slight because nothing is very taken seriously in the Madiac's world. In this game, Pinking

in the Brain steal a 24-page movie script from Warner Bros. And they're going to use the money that they make from that movie to take over the world, of course. That's their thing. And you as the animaniacs have to get the 24 pages back and destroy yourself in six impossible levels. And that's kind of it. It's very tough.

So it's one of those... Sorry, I didn't watch the play-through of this at a time, but it's one of those side-scrollers. It's like not even an end to a level. It's finding things within a level. No, you can beat the game and get a bad ending. with an added boss rush right just to really prolong the magic yeah so in this game I'll go over the basics

Yakko, Wacko and Dot they all control the same they don't have different abilities but you can switch to them at will depending on who your favorite Warner is I like I like Wacko he's cool but Yacca was my favorite It's Faboo I mean that was his one joke but in this game you don't really have any means of offense you can throw things but there are not a lot of things to be thrown on the levels

you're mostly just avoiding enemies you can jump on you can jump on and around things a dash move, very similar to the dash and Buster Bust Loose, but it's not used as well. You don't like dash up walls and do crazy things. You sort of just dash when things are chasing you or there's an auto scroll section. And that's basically it. The problem is

it's a beautiful game with some cool ideas. It is incredibly great sprites, too. Really off model, but it's sort of like that West meets anime kind of thing like in the Simpsons arcade game. But this game, the problem is it is like even harder than super ghouls and ghosts or ghosts and gobbels

and that you can each take one hit. All of your characters can each take one hit. Let's say you get hit as Wacko. Wacko goes underground, gets captured by Ralph. The stage starts over again. You're one of the other two. Oh, my God. Whoa.

One hit, and you lose all of your progress in that world. I'm sure you talked about it before, but like... That's horrible. The rental market was kind of the death knell for license games. Like, the Simpsons games we talk about. We're the biggest Simpsons fans in the world, but we know better than to buy one. You rent one and, like, this. sucks. I don't like, and I didn't know

that it sucked. I just didn't like it. Bust or bust loose, you can complete on your first try in a like 30 minutes. Pretty much, yeah. Only the last stage is really, really hard. I have to imagine this is a response to that. We can't have that again. I think Konami of all publishers really overcompensated for that rental problem. This game

feels like the ultimate experiment in defeating people who rent games. You must memorize every square inch of this game or else instant death will befall you. Again, one hit per character, when you get When you lose a character, you go back to the last checkpoint, which often involves going through a lot of really hard stuff again.

When you lose all three, you have to continue, and that means you lose all progress in that world. I think you get to keep the pages you collect. But I believe when you continue, which I didn't, I just saved my way through this awful game. Offly hard. It's a well-made game. I believe that when you continue,

you start with the last Warner who died, and you have to rescue the other two. So you have to go the extra mile of rescuing the other two just to get lives back. For the sake of absorbing one more hits. worked in Konami's Ninja Turtles. That's painful. So, yeah, like Chris was saying, there's maybe 45 minutes of content in this game. And one of the things that makes it a little, like, awkward is that the gameplay is built around, it's a 2D platformer, but the gameplay is built around, like, three lanes in the play field that you switch between.

Like a site bikey. Exactly, just like that, except the lanes are not demarcated in any way most of the time. So it's really hard to tell, like, is this collectible in the right lane? Is this enemy in the right lane? And that's very important in a game where an enemy kills you in one hit and you lose a ton of progress. So there's a lot of awkwardness. They're ambitious in kind of bad ways in this game. They're kind of overthinking a lot of these ideas that were going in or like sort of underserving them, I think.

And I think the real problem is there's no means of offense for these characters. It's like a lot of this game is just avoiding things that are coming after you. And that gets really old. It's like a very disempowering game experience. But that doesn't make any sense from a design based on the, animaniacs, they are aggressors. They hit people with mallets all the time. They beat people up.

Like, at the very least, they should just have a simple mallet attack. Yeah, I mean, the Genesis version does do more with that. But in this game, yeah, you can throw things the very few things that are throwable in the game. But most of the time, you were just like, oh, that big things after me. I have to avoid it until it's gone. Or, like, I have to duck under these guys until they're gone. Yeah, it feels like, you're right, Henry, that is not the spirit of the chaotic animaniacs. They should be the ones like hitting people with pies and hammers

And messing with them Yeah Like that is at least I can take a bad license game a lot better If it at least understands what it's licensing I do want to compliment It's just making pinky in the brain the enemy Because they don't

It makes sense It's like other than this They don't have a ton of interaction The Warner sing their theme song And that's kind of it And the justice game too They are the end bosses as well That's how they usually got around it on the show

Like the warners would Sometimes like in a Goodfellas cartoon and the Warners were they run through it just to be like, this is technically still Animaniacs, kids. That's the show you're watching, yeah. So I will say, I talk about this game being hard. Again, I challenge you listeners to prove me wrong, children, prove me wrong, that this game is tough.

In fact, we all talk about the infamous thing from our childhoods is the Battletoad speeder bike stage. There's a version of that in this game that I would say is five times harder. Oh, wow. And that you were all riding brooms. All the Warners are riding broomsticks. And it's sort of like the Jetbike race in Battleto. But in this case, you're not looking at the obstacles.

You're watching where this rabbit is going. And you basically have like a tenth of a second to react. Or again, you lose an entire character and you go back to the beginning. It is designed around pure memorization, pure like last Starfighter style memorization of these levels. It is insane. And if you're out there, did you beat this game as a child? Are you currently in the military? I need to know because, dear Lord, again, I feel much better about myself.

as a child, because when I play this, I'm like, I love anime next, but God, this, I don't, I don't get this game at all. It's so hard. Yeah, it was a little bit of bummer trying to re-address it. Under the assumption, it would hold up as well as the Tiny Tunes games. Again, there's a lot of things in this game that are really well crafted, the sprites, the music. There's a lot

of great ideas in the levels. There's a lot of fun, like very slight movie parody stuff in the levels, but I feel like, again, it was designed to combat a market that no longer exists, so it's kind of out of the context in which it should be played today. And, uh, I, but, now that you can steal this game in less than one second on the internet

and save state your way through it, it might be worth playing through it. I got kind of fatigued pausing every five seconds and saving and playing another five seconds and pausing. I should do that, but I didn't. But yeah, it's, it's, I know a game does not hold up if I get tired of save stating my way through it. So if you want to see this game, I recommend just watching

a let's play. It is a very pretty game with some cool ideas, but you will see just through watching it how tough it can be. The let's play person is going to do it way better than you. Uh, speed runs clock in around 22 minutes I think. Yes. And again, like in every really tough game, there's a boss rush at the end

which is like, after all of that you make me to a boss rush. Oh my God, Animaniacs. Why? Okay, we'll move on to the better game. Animaniacs for the Genesis May of 1994. A much more thought out idea. They came up with one basic idea and built an entire game around

it in that you control all the animaics at once and you choose on the fly which one you want to control and they all have different powers. Yako can stunt enemies with a paddle ball and push crates. Wacko can hit things with mallets, which interacts with various contraptions in different ways. You can blow up bombs, you know, move

seesaws, and Dot can kiss enemies or blow kisses at enemies to lure them to her or make them go away or... So what a girl would do? Yes, that's what the girl character should do in every game, of course. But the entire game is built around all these mechanics, and I will say, even though it is a little tough, and things

could be a bit better. I like that they double down on this one basic idea and built an entire short game around. It's a much better execution of a premise. It sounds much more like the complete vision of what this S&S one had because that one, the idea that you have all three Warners and once

is a good idea, but then it's like they don't, if they play exactly the same, why do you have three sprites on screen at the same time then? At the very least, if they have different tools and abilities, it lets you do things a lot more creatively. So I like that. Yeah, and then in the SNES version, I feel like you can

dash, but no real levels or things are really built around dashing. You can throw objects, but they're not a lot of objects to throw, and it only comes up in, like, one boss fight. But in this, it's like you are always using all of your abilities, and the levels are designed around these, like, it's a puzzle platformer in the way that a modern platformer would be like. You know, that difference in weapons also reminds me of Aladdin on Genesis versus

Supranes, which you throw apples on the SupreniS, but you don't get to hold a sword all the time like you do on the Genesis version. But the game is much worse. Maybe see. Prove me wrong. Sorry. I used to be a believer that Sega's Aladdin was better, but it actually is, and it is a Supranios one.

But... God, you came around finally. But I wonder if it was the same deal on the Genesis. Sega was like, we don't have a rule against holding weapons. Just hold weapons all you want. Maybe, maybe. Maybe Nintendo just had the rule, like, no holding weapons. Kids might pick up a weapon and pretend it's...

This is an ultra-hard game for four-year-olds. Get those weapons out of here. Yeah, this game, it looks really good for a Genesis game. I'm not saying Genesis games look bad, of course, but the S&ES, of course, had more colors, could do more with sprites and stuff like that. But these sprites are smaller, but they're very well animated, I'll say, and they're very much more on model. And I might like the sprites

in the Genesis version a little bit more. And the soundtrack is fantastic. Like, Konami sprites and soundtracks of this era just are so good. Hopefully, I can work a few of the songs into this episode. But yeah, this game... I love that that's done because Animaniacs had to have a certain quotient of educational stuff.

Yes. And the links they went to entertain you, it's in the first episode. Just Yaqo's singing about every country in the world. And it was super clever and super hard to do. You were just impressed that he did it. Germany now whole again? Like it's of a certain time. Yes, yes. That was recent news. No, it went overboard with

the show hysteria, which was their like complete, the government said you've got to make a history show. We could put all the education in this one show, and the rest of the shows can be anime. That's basically what it was. So yeah, any other comments on this? I think it's like one of the games that holds up. Unfortunately, you'll never play any of these again.

I said that before Disney Afternoon Games, but I really don't think these games would come back. I think the only future they have is a collection like a collection that hard if you could own every licensed Spider-Man game or every licensed Tiny Tunes game and you sold it to me for $20 to $40 I don't care how good or bad it is

just give it all to me These days Konami doesn't seem as ready to open up the vault as Capcom has been lately I think they're more likely to make like an Animaniacs erotic Pachinko machine in Japan or something slightly more likely on that way Sorry erotic violence that's the Castlevania Pachinko machine

Oh, God. No, I saw a lot of those in Japan where I just was. So our next game is not much to talk about here. Animaniacs for the Game Boy. All these games are just called Animaniacs, by the way. And there's nothing more to this. It's a port of the Genesis game by Factor 5, makers of... Wait, Red, the Star Wars game.

Yes, Rogue Squadron. Rogue Squadron. That's hard to say, isn't it? Rogue. Rouge Scrogeron. And, of course, Lair. Lair. Our favorite game.

Oh, my God. But they dared to trust the PS3 and six axes. Only the six axes could bring you this experience. But there's not much to say about this game. It is an impressive port of the Genesis game, of course. Not all three characters are on screen at all times. You switch between them, and they just pop into existence. But from what I watch, I didn't play this one.

The level layouts are basically the same. The music is basically the same, except they're more chip-tuny remixes. And it's like, hey, good job, Factor 5. Not bad, you know. 1995 was a dour time for the game. Game Boy. They'd had all their glory years, but they had their first golden age, but the silver age from Pokemon had not begun yet. No, and it was like, okay, all the kids' games go here now because this is a hand-me-down system.

So have your Animaniacs game, 4-year-old. You'll love it. Maybe you'll play a grown-up game on the pocket or the light. But, yeah, the pre-game boy color, it wasn't, it wouldn't be until like 98 when the Game Boy Color would get in real second life. So, surprisingly, there are more anime-x games than the ones we talked about. So, surprisingly, there are more Animaniacs games than the ones we talked about. And they're not just named Animaniacs. I want to say, in my notes, I have this listed as games from the Who Cares era,

aka when the license got cheap. This is my proof. But if the show wasn't airing in other markets and globally, this wouldn't be possible. But Animaniacs, like, people worked. It must have been more of a license in, like, Europe or Japan, perhaps. People worked on Animaniacs, I think, for four years. And it was still airing on television for another 15. Though it's W.B.

episodes, like, it definitely became less. a lesser show. Yeah, lower budgets. They didn't get the TMS animation on those. Yeah, but, like, I remember Nickelodeon bringing it into syndication? And I think it ran on, like, the Hub channel as a, like, fairly recently. Yeah, like, controversially, uh, they,

Nickelodeon, when they got the rights to animanacs in Tynetunes in the early 2000s, they would alter the openings to put Nickelodeon things in them. Oh, man. Yeah, like, in Pinky and the brain, when, uh, when they're pointing to the brain's brain on, like, the X-ray machine, it's like an orange Nickelodeon brain with Nickelodeon written on it. Very strange. I don't know why they did that. But let's talk about games from this era. We're not going to talk very

long about them because none of these are worth playing and they're not very interesting. But the first one is called the Animaniacs Game Pack. For the PC. What makes them interesting, just like Tiny Tunes, long after everybody left the offices of Tiny Tunes and Animaniacs, the voice actors and writers occasionally got together to only

make games. Yeah, and this one at least has new 2D animation that a multimedia computer could handle in 1997, which means it's basically like glorified sprite work. It's a bit like Virtual Springfield. It kind of is like that actually, but this is like five mini games and there's a little short cartoon before them.

It's like a minute-long cartoon. But so the one thing that's different between these games and the ones that will follow is the fact that they got the theme song. The next one does have the theme song, but you could tell who didn't want to pay for the theme song. The theme song won an Emmy. The theme song won an Emmy, and I've had it in my head for the past 25 years. I will say a lot of these games are very low effort.

For this one, though, they wrote news. songs. They wrote an entire different version of the opening. And here is the new version of the opening set to the same music. That's all about computer terminology and, like, video games and stuff. It's pretty neat. So them start to crash. Give your CPU a whack. We're an anima-maniacs.

Wow. Food up the Warner Brothers and the Warner Sister Dot. The developers would like to buy a really snappy yacht. They put all kinds of games in here to tie your mind and knots. And zamy animation that will leave you seeing spots. We're at a maniacs. They transform.

dust to Big Macs. If you move your mouse to click on things, you'll force us to react. We're anima-maniacs. Look at Paco as he tries to pull your processor apart. And Yakko's burning random access memory with a spark. Got a strapped her cursor, she wants you to restart. We kidnapped all the programmers they think that they're so smart.

We're anima-maniacs. Play at work and you'll get sucked. If the artwork is too slack, well they license us to hacks. Totally insaney Monitors and play me Animaniacs Wow Isn't that amazing

That was so much effort Remember what I said You can do anything with these characters God damn That's great I like that they point out Like yes This is gonna look worse

In the TV show We are aware of that By the way I have some clips too It is never going to get better No This is as good as gets As far as the games go

Whatever who cares But I like that This much work went into it Of course There's no orchestrated music, who cares. They wrote a new version of the theme song. That's very clever. It's very funny. We laugh at the jokes in it. You know, way to

go, guys. But those shows are way ahead of their time, too. Yeah, yeah. Especially if you're thinking this is supposed to be it for a 12 year old, maybe. Yeah, and this is like, I got a new computer with a CD-ROM drive. Wow me. And you sit down with this. I tried to cram research on the game pack. Because the way that logo looks like it's a license thing. What the

fuck is a game pack? So you assume that there could have been other game packs? Yeah. It looks like the fucking Bleam logo. Yeah, yeah, you're right, actually. So I assume it was part of a line that didn't totally get launched. Or I checked, Funny Bone Entertainment, Warner Bros. Interactive. I don't know what it is. But GamePack, I think, meant something that we don't understand now.

And we're the only people who dig up this trash. GamePack is what Nintendo Power called Game Cartridges in 1988. I watch. Yeah. So I will say, you heard this. Just watch the opening for this. It's great. I'll put a link to it in the blog post.

It's really neat. I mean, obviously, they're working with limited technology, like what a 1997 computer can show you without pre-rendered video. But it's really neat. I'm a huge fan of this. I forget what feature I was doing, but when you have this animated thing you love and like, oh, there's actually some of it,

you have something you haven't seen, and it's buried in a terrible PC game somewhere. The voice, Robin Williams, his final performance is genie, is locked into a PC math game. Exactly. And I capture some of me. There's a lot of squash and stretch to those characters, too.

I like it gets way worse after this. And again, there are original cartoons. They're like, I don't know, 60 seconds long, but that's still new material. And the rest of the rest of it. these games have new material, but it's not worth watching because Animaniacs is worth watching because of the jokes, of course, and the music, but the animation

is why you're really turning in. Animation isn't the fucking name. You can't replicate that with 3D, crude 3D models of this era. The worst. Yeah. It's a good way to segue into the other game. Let's do it. So, Animaniacs, 10 Pin Alley. It is a 10 Pin Alley variant with Animaniacs in it, and it's from 1998, and that's all I have to say, but there is

a very, very bad opening with stiff PlayStation one cutscene CGI. And there's a joke about what's about to happen to them. I got this for a feature I did for Laser Time. These are all in our YouTube channel of animated intros recreated on PS1. And I got SpongeBob, baby.

I got Powerpuff girls. It's all horrifying. Yes. Horrifying. Like with this intro. It makes the squirt of the white stuff from Tommy look more suggestive than you could possibly imagine. Well, you know, the guy who made a.m. Flux animated that. What? The original.

Yeah, this is why it's so suggestive. Peter Chung. So, Ten Pan Alley, it's a pre-existing bowling series. Yeah, the original came out in 1996 for the PlayStation. And I also couldn't not put it on YouTube. Our YouTube channel, there's a documentary about the Bowling Museum hosted by Yakko. And it just, this is years after I think any of these actors had done much animaics work at all. What's also crazy is that at one point in time, there could have been a freestanding bowling game.

At this point in history, bowling is now a mini game and a much larger game. You can not build an entire game around stopping a meter. I mean, golf does it, but there's more than one way. This has all the voice actors from, like, I think Konami had made a bowling game with the Simpsons. There's no voice acting. Yeah, that's in the arcade, I think. Yeah. And so that's impressive.

Everybody's back. Pinky the brain are there. But there's a joke here. I'm going to let it play, but it's very visual. But I just want to hear it, see how disgusted you get to transition. I will link to the video listeners. They start out in 2D and become 3D. For the warners.

Look, we're going bowling. And it'll be in 3D. What's 3D? Digitally developed for dollars. I want to do it again. It looks so bad. They turn into like laminated papercraft. I love bringing myself back in time, but it's really hard to go back and think of that ever looking impressive.

And they clearly thought it would look impressive. Kids, look at this. I mean, you could tell when they stopped tracing existing animation frames and then they just did their own thing after that. I know for a very, for a very, for a. moment there. I was like, oh, do they get TMS? No, they just re-drew over. They drew over, I think, probably on the wheel of morality ending sequence. They copied

someone else's work without permission, and then they did their own thing. Way to go, guys. We really earning those bucks. So our next game, I have absolutely nothing to say about, but I must say it here, for the sake of posterity. It's Animaniac's A Gigantic Adventure, which came out in June of 1999, about when, you know, Wacko's Wish was coming out

or whatever. It is a kind of bad platformer. I don't know if it has music. All the videos I've seen of it had no music in it, which is weird for an Animaniacs game, but... Sounds like I'll save you money. Definitely will. Like, your computer might play music. I don't know.

The Jazz Jack Rabbit engine. The only, the only thing of note I have is that it runs on the Jazz Jackrabbit 2 engine, which means it's like oddly and awkwardly high resolution, and it just kind of moves very slippery in a way. I don't know. I'll have a video of this on the blog, but I have nothing to say about this game. I don't know who played it. I never saw it on a shelf.

Yeah. This is a gigantic adventure, but we're going to move on to another game. Animaniacs, the Great Edgar Huff. Hunt. That's not the name of a man. That's the name of their parody of the Oscars, the Edgars. And in this game, you're going off in search of the Edgar Awards for some reason. And this game came out in 2005. Yes, it's an Animaniacs game. In 2005, even I couldn't believe it. Like, walking like, what's doing the game? Animaniacs. It's unbelievable. I'm a grown ass man. I can't believe they did it. I mean, it was, holy shit, Ignition Entertainment was the publisher. Wow. Hey, they at least gave us deadly premonition so they're not all bad Elshad I yeah it was that was from them there is no Ignition Entertainment anymore because they decided

to try to make their own game like Elshadai and they should have just stuck to trash I say Elshah don'ts I remember that name of it confusing me because I was like oh yeah that's what they called Oscars wasn't it like isn't that wild that the title of the game is based on such a deep reference to a show

no one remembers a 10 year old reference oh my it's so but here's what is really cool. The cutscenes are fucking terrible. Oh, they're bad. But, like, I tried my best to check. It features a prominent voice actor as the villain who was never on Animaniacs. Oh, who's that? Billy West.

No way. Billy West plays the villain in this game. Billy West did a lot of shitty cartoon voice work. I recommend finding the deleted Saturn Bomberman files where he's cursing up a storm. Charlie Adler is offensive in those. Yes, it's... I mean, wait, isn't he? Yes, that's true. Charlie Adler, how dare you? That's why I made that

Tiny Toons video in the first place and why we wanted to do that episode, because I was just astonished by how long the brand lasted in games well afterward. It's an affordable brand that if you're, if you're ignition entertainment in 2005, you're like, well, we meet, let's make a safe license game, but what can we afford?

No, we can't afford Danny Phantom. It's too hot. It's impossible. No way. Space ghost, no. Yeah, so there's how much to say about this, it is a bad 3D platformer. What I will say about this in the next game is that they clearly were like, we'll buy animaniacs, we'll make our own theme song. Just leave that to me.

They sing a song at the end And it's just like There's all these jokes about singing a bad song I think poking fun at the end of the other than not singing their own theme song Okay yeah So another thing to let you know It's quality level It was never released on PS2 here

Oh Which was one of those things If you saw something on Xbox and GameCube But not PlayStation 2 in America That meant Sony computer entertainment of America It was like this is too shit No Throw it over the fence

Well let Arby's deal with it It's really shitty I tried to play this I see actually the ISO on your desktop over here But I just like fuck this This is terrible I want to look at the cutscenes Because I do like the fact that these original voice actors

Are doing new material But it's done like a game cutscene from 2005 Lots of slow pauses Yeah Nobody moves It almost feels like no None of the characters are ever in the same room I did find

Along the lines of the fingerprint joke A pretty racy joke To be in a kids Kids cartoon This is like one of the only moment I can find where they're actually talking to one another because you're separated at the beginning of the game anyway. No child played that far.

So this is a witch boiling a turtle and a pot. Not witch hazel. No. No, don't go. I think I'm in a spot of hot water. Oh, my, please help me. I'm too fruity to make a good soup. I'm not going to touch that line.

There we go. Whoa. What the hell? Yeah. What the hell? Wow. I mean, I think like on the show, whenever there would be, be a dirty punch line, a potential dirty punch line, uh, Yakoga, good night, everybody. Yeah, yeah, it really should have been

a good night, everybody line. But this is what, this is what the interaction. It's awful. It's awful. It's awful. It looks more like puppetry than animation. It really is. Yeah, like, uh, there's a stick in that lady somewhere. We prefer the term vertically impaired pre-adult. What do you say, Sibs? Should we help him out? We'll have to kick some stinky witch behind first. Then we can all Have soup? Let's get her! It's just like, Animaniac styles,

that's like an agonizing pace for them to talk to one another. Yeah, yeah, I feel like, yeah, they're not in the same room. They're probably acting over the phone. Yeah, they have to wait for the sound file to queue up.

They can't cut it together. What we're missing is the CD spinning sound or the DVD spinning sound in that. So I want to talk about the fake version of the theme. We're going to play this one, and then when we get to the next game, we'll play their version of the theme

in that game. Let's hear it. I assume all of our listeners have the anime next theme stuck in their brain because they're all our age or younger, possibly a little bit older, but when you hear this, you're like, something is wrong. My head is breaking. Let's hear

that great Edgar Hunt's version of the theme song. It's so weird. Oh. literally in this sense of the notes they're not playing. These are all the notes that weren't played in the original song. Legally distinct. Legally distinct. It's just crazy to think about it.

You can't get the song, but the voice actors show up. It would have been great if they sang a song about how, if they sang over that song, that this is a legally distinct song. That would have been, that would have justified the entire game. But yeah, it's like, with the Simpsons, I believe the Simpsons theme won an Emmy, correct? I assume it did. This theme did win an Emmy, which I assume made it even more expensive than buying. any other theme. So it's like, yes, we don't want that cost to license an Emmy Award winning song.

Especially they're trying to make this cheap. Then they see like, well, licensing this song is not cheap. Yes. You got to keep the cost down. And our final game, which came out a month later, November 2005, is Animaniacs Lights Camera Action. It is a, as a DS and Game Boy Advance game. And let's just hear their version of the theme since we're here. That's enough. It's enough. I'm more comforted that these were, these were kind of games take advantage of a, I'll say, poor kids. Because if I was an animation fan, I'm like, fuck yeah, Animaniacs in 2005, I would be, I would be giving death threats on Twitter. It's given hashtag Animaniacsgate. But yeah, this game, there's not much to talk about. it is literally like a three level

Isometric Action Game. I'll give you guys one guess. Where was this made? Isometric Action Game. Oh, England, yeah. Correct. That's always a bad idea, isometric action. But there's one cool thing in this game. I didn't play it. I watched a long play of it. The one cool thing is they jazzed up this very mediocre game by being like, you Animaniacs are actors in a movie and every level is like a scene and there'll be a director telling you what to do.

And in front of the screen, there are little silhouettes of people watching you, you know, act in your movie. they're clapping and stuff so that's cool but this game is just you know a licensed game boy advanced game from 2005 so set your standards low at least it has that extra layer to it I suppose yeah they thought that hard about it but oh man that's uh well also like that shows you how cheap something is or also how fear they fearful they are they're not going to make their money back that they put it on DS and GBA they're like I gotta believe the DS version is not at all different I bet there's no stylus interaction yeah I'm triple checking it's just this is

It came out so late, there's a Metacritic for it, and people had to review this thing. I was almost in the games industry at this point. I bet people I know have reviewed this game. Dude, maybe they have. Did anybody, any of them work for GameZone? Or E. Toy Chess? They got to be stored. Those websites still exist, right?

I got a fatal error. Never mind. We went over all the games. I hope you guys like this. It was a lot of fun to do. An excuse to talk about anime. Yes, that's basically what this was. I'm more interested in the show than the games, and I'm slightly excited about the reboot. And we talked a bit about it at the beginning of the show, but what do you guys feel about it?

How do you feel about there being a reboot? One of the things I didn't bring up is that animaniacs relied on there being a monoculture. Like, yes, of course, you're a human in America. You've seen all these things that have been on TV forever. So you'll get all of these jokes. We don't have that anymore. And I'm wondering, like, what are they going to do? Are they going to be hipstery?

Are they going to rely on the same old Hollywood tropes and, you know, references? Like, what's going to happen? I would lean heavily towards that And I heard somebody talk about it But that's why SNL is like the highest rated scripted thing Because outside of the monoculture We are all watching politics So it'll be really

In Animaniacs, it is Bill Clinton in the intro Yeah, he was baked in for about a year So like Well, I'd also say When it comes to them skewering celebrity It doesn't work the same as then Like they definitely There were definitely jokes they did at Animaniacs

That a year later It's like that's not the jokes we make about Michael Jackson now or whatever. Those would change, but now it's too much of a risk. What if they did think a Kevin Spacey joke was funny four months ago? They can't joke.

Could they honestly joke about any celebrity now without expecting them to be revealed to be a sexual predator? They kind of can't. Like, who can they count on? I think that's what I'm most curious about. I don't, I'll accept a loss of animation quality if they're actually making something

that's geared towards adults and children. Something adults can enjoy with their children I don't want this to be the edgy Spike TV reboot of Animaniacs but I would also like it to be like just like the original Just you know embrace the entire audience The broad audience Cartoon Network does it all the time

Almost all of their non-adult swim programming You can enjoy as an adult It is just objectively funny And I do yeah Nickelodeon and Netflix not so much Some of that shit is just very clearly Over the top kid shit that you could never enjoy If they can just have better animation

Then well Hulu's original animation was horrendous that Seth Meyer's show Oh, the awesoms Yeah I believe Amazon Prime's original animation

was probably worse Even that There's You don't associate Netflix Good animated shows With good animation No I mean

Big Mouth and Bojack Aren't they're good shows But they're not well animated Effister family Is good animation In spite of its obvious flashiness I'd like to issue a challenge to them You can be the streaming cartoon

That looks good The people that talk about Like Renan Simpy did When we were little kids, like, this looks incredible. What the hell is this? You're right. No one has done that outside of anime. I will say Netflix's anime that they fund.

It looks better than almost any other modern anime that's out around it. So it's like they're clearly getting money, more money people who will work themselves to death. Hey, how about this? Make less. I'm fine. Well, they bought two seasons, so who knows. But I guess we'll see, and you can look back on this episode when that comes out and laugh at us. If we're right or wrong, it all depends on how you feel.

And no more Rita and Runtz. Oh, but Bernardette Peters is a national treasure, Broadway, fame and fortune. I will say, read and run can get one episode, no more hip hippos. They were...

Yeah, the hip hippos were the worst. They were the worst. I didn't want to talk about it too much, but it is so styled in the Warner Brothers style. Oh, for sure. Yeah. They're like, we need, you know,

there were periphery characters. There wasn't just bugs and daffy. It was Tweety and those two idiot twin mice, and they had their shot, but they defined all of that in the first episode. Good Feathers is a one-note joke, and we did not, they did not need the last for the run of the show.

When they did, like, the next five good feathers, it was always like, well, what was another thing about the mafia? Let's make that. Guys and dolls, have? You could have called it a day after three, so you don't have to do that. They picked at the West Side Story Parody. Oh, what's the chickens name? Chicken boo.

Chicken boo. Well, those jokes are one minute long. They are one minute long. Those are fine. Tom Bodette's still around, do mime time. Let's cut out Katie Caboom. Don't want her in the show. It's a joke about how raising a teenage daughter is hard.

As an 11-year-old, that really resonated with me. Or don't commit yourself to multiple. Do it one. Once. Do one thing. But I like your... Kibum really suck. That really sucked, too. But Chris, I love your idea.

Make it the prestige animation show. No one has done that. And I don't think anyone is going to do it unless there's a pioneer like this. Like you said, with Renan Stimpy, they were a pioneer in TV animation as Duck Tales was as the original Animatic and Tiny Tunes where, like, animation on this platform can be this good. And there's no reason why streaming animation can't be as good as it is on TV. And the guy who could do it is Spielberg if he's interested. He's on board. I just don't know how invested he is.

I think, honestly, when we talk about leaving out all those bad ones, it's just like, just make room for Freakazoid and the brain. Just have those be now Animaniacs characters. You could funnel Tiny Tunes in there, too. Tiny Tunes could all exist under an Animaniacs brand. God damn, it would be really cool. Maybe even El Maira, like, Cree Summer is still around, acting up a store. They did combine them eventually.

Yeah, it was bare for the worst. Remember that great episode of Tiny Tunes was a pilot for an El Maira-style Simpson show? Yeah, it was all right, but thank God that never was a show. But thanks for listening, folks, another hour plus long micro. Don't say I never give anything to you. I love the audience. And most importantly, I love talking about cartoons. And this show lets me do it in ways that I don't think are cheating on the retronauts audience.

So thanks for listening, folks. I'll let everyone else talk about what they do and who they are. And then I'll wrap up with our Patreon info. Well, I'm A.G, N-E-R-E-Y-G on Twitter. Follow me there. And you should also follow, if you love, cartoon talk. We do a ton of it on Talking Simpsons, which you can find in all your regular pod catcher devices. but we also have a Patreon with tons of exclusives

where me, Bob, and Chris talked through tons of classic cartoonery, not just The Simpsons. And if you haven't heard Laser Time, the show that we started a while back, Bob and Hank have been on a bunch of them. I, my name is Chris Antista, and I specialize in garbage minutia.

I love all this shit. I love forgotten relics to once great things, and our show is all about that. You guys have been on a billion times to talk about this animation renaissance, Disney stuff, and some other pop culture stuff, movies, TV. I even did a whole episode about farts.

Yeah. Along with it, I tried to capture every in-game fart I could find up until, like, last year. I'm surprised no one likes that video. It's a lot of good farts in diarrhea. I like all the farting in it. Yeah, exactly. But we also do Viggini Apocalypse, a weekly video game show, which we masquerade is something that's current and not like returnauts, but, you know, when we come alive, it's about old stuff.

And 30, 2010, a look back 30, 20, and 10 years ago into the past of that week. Games, music, movies, news. TV. Really, really fun to discover where you were, what you were doing when this stuff premiered. Sometimes you don't remember it very well. I believe one we just did was, oh yeah, Bob, you were with me for the Disney afternoon show we did, where we

interviewed Tat Sun, creator of Darkwing Duck and Chippendale's Rescue Rangers, but just a pioneer for the Disney afternoon. In 30, 2010, in 1988, the new Adventures of Winnie the Pooh debuted, which is the unsung show that helped usher in the Disney afternoon, which is really well animated, really cute,

funny, and before Poo was like a merchandising empire, it was a funny show, man, like, it was a really funny property. I remember, man, that now reminds me in one of my favorite incredibly dense creakazoid jokes because they did a gargoyles parody that was

gnomes. Lawn gnomes, right? Law gnomes, and it made no sense. It was, if you weren't watching gargoyles anymore, it made no sense any longer, anyway. Wonderful. So you can find me on Twitter as Bob Serbo. Also follow Retronauts on Twitter. I don't, I think a people aren't following us on there and we respond

to all the comments on there. I fucking name search Retronauts on Twitter every day to see what people are talking about and don't think I don't see you when you don't tag Retronauts. I see you and I see what you're saying. But please follow us there and follow us on Facebook too. Like we're all over the place and we like to talk to you guys. I love reading comments. Frankly like I get the biggest kick out of seeing

what you like about the show. I love reading comments. So please leave a comment. I mean I want to hear what you think. And yeah, as far as Retronauts goes, we're all funded by Patreon here. Patreon makes the show possible of course. and if you want to get the best possible version of Retronauts, it's only $3 a month, go to patreon.com slash Retronauts, and for that price, you get the entire show

a week ahead of time, ad free, and at a higher bit rate, and you help support our show, and I believe that comes out to maybe 50 cents per podcast per month. So that's not a lot to ask for what we do, I believe, and I mean, if you want the ideal version of Retronauts with no ads, with us sounding at our best, and a week ahead of time, you can gloat over people who don't get to hear, you can spoil everything we say,

and they can yell at you when you say three bucks buddy that's all takes that's what i say to you three bucks go to patreon.com slash retronauts and follow us there and yeah please support us really appreciate it so thanks so much for listening we will see you monday for a new full-length episode goodbye Hi, it's Jamie. Progressive number one, number two employee. Leave a message at the... Hey, Jamie, it's me, Jamie. This is your daily pep talk?

I know it's been rough going ever since people found out about your acapella group, Matt Harmony, but you will bounce back. I mean, you're the guy always helping people find coverage options with the name your price tool. It should be you giving me the pep talk.

Now get out there, hit that high note, and take Mad Harmony all the way to Nationals this year. Sorry, it's pitchy. and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. And caller number nine for $1 million. Rita, complete this quote. Life is like a box of... Chocolate.

Uh, Rita, you're cutting out. We need your answer. Life is like a box of chocolate. Oh, sorry. That's not what we were looking for. On to caller number 10. Oh, gosh. Bad network got you glitched out of luck.

Switch to Boost Mobile, super reliable, super fast nationwide network, and get four lines, each with unlimited gigs for just $100 a month. Plus get four free phones. makes it easy to switch. Switching makes it easy to save. The Mueller report. I'm Edonoghue with an AP News Minute. President Trump was asked at the White House if special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation report should be released next week when he will be out of town. I guess from what I understand that will be totally up to the Attorney General. Maine Susan Collins says she would vote for a congressional resolution disapproving of President Trump's emergency declaration to build a border wall,

becoming the first Republican senator to publicly back it. In New York, the wounded supervisor. of a police detective killed by friendly fire was among the mourners attending his funeral. Detective Brian Simonson was killed as officers started shooting at a robbery suspect last week. Commissioner James O'Neill was among the speakers today at Simonson's funeral. It's a tremendous way to bear, knowing that your choices will directly affect the lives of others. The cops like Brian don't shy away from it. It's the very foundation of who they are and what they do. The robbery suspect in a man, police, they acted as his lookout, have been charged with murder.

Donahue.