The Guru's Impressions: Animaniacs Season 2!

The Animation Guru gets zany to the max as he got to check out some of the newest episodes of Hulu’s Animaniacs reboot! Was it animany? Totally insaney? Andromeda Strainy?!

The Animaniacs reboot that came out last year was a mixed, but overall well-received take on the iconic 90s comedy series. Of course, by the time the first season came out, a second season was underway and a third season was also greenlit. You should already know about the thoughts and opinions of the first season, if you have listened to the podcast. In general, we found it to be pretty good, but it lacked some of the flair the original show had with its main focus being on the Warner Siblings and the duo of Pinky & The Brain. I was lucky enough to get access to five of the 10 episodes that will be releasing on November 5th on Hulu for us US viewers and wherever Hulu may reside. Did the new batch of episodes fix or improve upon the first season, or do we wait and see how season 3 unfolds to see if they have what it takes to keep this reboot going? 

One of the pieces of feedback I wanted to personally see is more of the new side characters. If they weren’t going to bring back a majority of the previous cast members of the show, and I do mean in and behind the scenes of said show, then the new characters needed to have more time in the spotlight. For now, from the five episodes I saw, they sort of do this. We got to see more of Nora Rita Norita, the new head of the Warner Bros. lot, and she is definitely more interesting than just being a cold corporate talking head. I mean, she is partly one, but we get to see more of her throughout the episodes that were given to me. We even see a little more of the bodybuilder himself Nils, and while he was only in one episode, it was nice to see him. There is even the return of a fan favorite character from the first season who I think people will really like to see. One of the sketches even brings back one of the original cast members in a fun cameo. 

Animation-wise, it’s more or less the same as the first season. In general it looks good and even when the clunkier moments come about, it’s noticeable, but it still looks good. When they get to be more cartoony, then it becomes a joyride. The songs were also catchy, whether they were original tunes or play-offs of other famous songs. The voice work was also strong as usual, but this batch really showed that some of these were produced while everyone was either at home or during the pandemic. Rob Paulsen sounded satisfactory, but there was definitely an echo that could be heard through some of the episodes. We did get to see another Starbox and Cindy skit, and there was some echo in there as well. Granted, they were probably doing what they did with the first one by following around a little kid so the echo coming from them was more passable. 

Now, one of the few problems many critics and fans had was how the new show only focused on two segments with a few shorts in between and some new skits. Well, if you were hoping for more variation, that is not going to be the case. They will still do one Warner Siblings sketch, and then one Pinky and the Brain sketch. Very little has changed from what I have seen with the batch of episodes. That’s fairly disappointing because while they were the best parts from the previous show, there needs to be more variation and push for diverse sketches. When you only focus on those two, then it becomes much easier to criticize the sketches themselves. The result is that the humor was more hit-and-miss than usual, which is a shame because when the jokes work, they really work! It can feel just as sharp and witty like the show was still part of the original. Some of the jokes do fall flat. I know this won’t be anything new, and comedy is never consistent enough to forgive when jokes fall flat, but there is a real bad case of this. Maybe it will be better when we see all 10 new episodes, but for now, making a first impression with new seasons matters immensely, and, well, it comes off like they didn’t really show us the best episodes. Constant innovation isn’t always the right answer, but if you are going to stick to a certain pattern, then you need to kick it up a notch every once in a while. 

Overall, the new batch of episodes hasn’t really changed my mind with how I feel about the show, but if this new batch is a sign of things to come, I hope there is more of a push to keep moving the show forward so it doesn’t become stagnant. It’s how I’m feeling with the new batch of Looney Toons shorts. I’m enjoying them, and I’m having a blast when they hit the nail on the head, but there needs to be more innovation. I’m hoping for the best, and if you liked the previous season of Animaniacs, then you will probably like this new batch, but hopefully, the other batch of episodes will help make season 2 as good or better than season 1.

Animaniacs is streaming on Hulu, and Season 2 will be premiering on November 5th.