A staple of 90s pop-culture and a hilarious self-referential look at Hollywood,Animaniacshas been an iconic cartoon for years. Since the launch of the new seasons on Hulu—the 3rd of which is coming out on Friday February 17, there’s been no shortage of chances to consider how new episodes of such a big property have balanced the passage of time with an ability to retain the tongue-in-cheek zeitgeist that made the original such a classic.
In a candid discussion withGameRant, the voices of Yakko, Wakko, Dot, Pinky and the Brain all share their favorite memories of gags past—and gags that fans can expect in the upcoming season. Whether discussing the new angles to explore with their toons, or how to keep that in tune (in toon?) with the original’s soul, the humorous and heartfelt thoughts of Rob Paulsen, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille, and Jess Harnell are just as entertaining as the animated antics of the Warner Bros. lot.
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GameRant: So, the premiere of this new season ofAnimaniacsis definitely an opportunity to look back on such an iconic show! What was one favorite gag you can remember, either from the original 90s seasons of Animaniacs, or the first two Hulu seasons, or really any of it that’s stuck out to you?
Maurice LaMarche(voice of The Brain): One of the things that most sticks out, from the original seasons, is the Christmas Special. And of course, there was the gag within the Christmas Special about the Donner Party, and that was always entertaining because it felt like a really adult reference. But then again, we were on on primetime for that so there’s a little more leeway than it being just for kids, but still. The idea of referencing the history of the Donner Party, and then tying that into Donner, one of Santa’s reindeer, that was always an entertaining one.
Rob Paulsen(voice of Yakko Warner and Pinky): I’m with Moe, my favorite old episode is the Christmas Special. But for a specific gag I really loved that time, with the wordplay, on…[to Maurice] what was that episode where you played the country music guy?
Maurice LaMarche: “Bubba Bo Bob Brain!”
Rob Paulsen: Yes! In that episode, when Pinky was constantly trying to mouth the names. “Eegad Bubba Be Bo Bop Baloola!” I just love that. And there’s a wonderful line in which a character who was clearly supposed to be Dolly Parton, and Brain meets the Dolly Parton character, who tells Brain something, and then the response is just great, remember that.
Maurice LaMarche: Yeah, so she says “And what do you say to that!” And Brain says, “I would say that puberty was inordinately kind to you.” The just, the deadpan delivery on that one was great.
Jess Harnell(voice of Wakko Warner): I’m just going to go with the first thing that comes to mind, I loved the Bingo episode, and recording that with Rob [Paulsen], where Rob played Dr. Scratch-and-Sniff, and Wakko kept coming up with all these strange combinations of letters to make something Bingo! Like, “B11! B1-What!?” And they turn it into a whole running gag for, like, six minutes. That still makes me laugh.
Tress MacNeille(voice of Dot Warner): As far as things I liked in the original! I always liked just Dot’s character, I always liked her cute vibe.
Jess Harnell: You still got it! laughs
Tress MacNeille: laughs I always thought that Dot was allowed to be the cute one, and play into that dynamic, and an acknowledgment of her cuteness and femininity. That always played into a sense of comedy and sweetness, and her dynamic with her brothers. “I’m Mad!” was always one of my favorites.
GameRant: And that does show the dynamics of the characters, keeping that cute element to Dot.
Tress MacNeille: Right? And I don’t want to get too cranky with the boys, because that makes the characters unsympathetic. But keeping that dynamic there is what makes the characters relatable.
GameRant: Very interesting all around! And now that this new season is coming out this week, what is one gag, or one aspect you enjoy about the new stuff that’s coming out now?
Maurice LaMarche: In the new batch, the fact that Brain has such conflicted feelings about Julia, and their characters have this love-hate, and then this hate-hate relationship. That was rich ground to explore in these new episodes, and you can see that in the new season.
Rob Paulsen: And so much of that dynamic is helped out with Julia being played by Maria Bamford, one of the most inherently human beings. With the new episodes, we do have something with Pinky and Brain going on with the royal family, and that’s a pretty entertaining direction to go in with that! So that was always kind of fun, and of course credit has got to go to the writers, with knowing which parts of the cultural zeitgeist to attach their brains to. And their pinky.
Maurice LaMarche: [in Brain’s voice] “Yes…”
Jess Harnell: As far as the recent stuff, one of the things I like about the reboot, and it’s not a gag so much as a thematic thing, is that they so different animation styles. They did the anime thing in the earlier season, and this season, in season 3 they’ve got this CGI thing coming up that’ll blow your mind!
Tress MacNeille: Yeah, I’m looking forward to that episode with the CGI, from what I’ve seen of it I’m looking forward to it. It’s funny with these new episodes, there is a lot more focus on the action in addition to just the dialogue, I just don’t think of there being a whole lot of dialogue. We did some very, very wordy songs, and some very edumucational things there that are really going to impress.
GameRant: Well that idea of it being more actiony really goes to the heart of it, because in a wayAnimaniacshad started out as an attempt to kind of go back to the style of old theatrical cartoons, like Looney Tunes on TV, and so much of that was always so physical and so timing based.
Tress MacNeille: Yes, that’s very true! But these new episodes are great. Once they put a couple of lines in our mouths we were off and running, and we didn’t want to stop! “I miss saying a lot of words to people!”
Season 3 of the newAnimaniacsis coming on June 07, 2025, exclusively on Hulu.
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