Animaniacs! is the 36th episode of Tiny Toon Adventures. It was written by Paul Dini and Tom Minton, and directed by Art Vitello.
Plot[]
Plucky is late for school, as he overslept. He rushes to Animation 101, a class he has never seen or heard of before, as he kept cutting classes. He assumes all he has to do is watch cartoons, but the other toons are busy working on their cartoons. Buster tells him that making a film for the animation festival tonight is the only way to get a passing grade. Plucky is unfamiliar with how to make a cartoon, so Buster uses the magic pen to give him a lesson through all the steps in animation.
In the second act, Bugs Bunny announces to the other Looney Tunes that it is once again time to judge the films at the Acme Looniversity animation festival. Most of the other Looney Tunes run away, but Bugs stops Daffy and Porky before they can escape. Meanwhile, Plucky, having learned how to animate, is having trouble with his life story. He wants to see his childhood, so Buster teaches him how to use various cartoon transitions, including flashing back. They flash back to Plucky as a baby with his first inner tube. Baby Plucky's inner tube gets popped by a log and Baby Plucky cries. Plucky in his normal age cries as well, having remembered such a sad moment.
Buster suggests flashing forward to the present day, but Plucky instead accidentally flashes them back to World War II. Plucky quickly flashes them back even further, to the dawn of time. Buster tells Plucky, "You shouldn't mess with time so much. Remember what happened in Back to the Future? Plucky tells him, "Yeah, it was a great movie." and holds up a $PLUG$ sign. Buster flashes forward back to the present day, but remembers he never taught Plucky to flash forward. He uses the magic pen and retrieves Plucky as an amoeba from a history book.
In the third act, it's time for the animation festival. Buster is the host, and Bugs, Daffy and Porky are the judges (although they want little to do with the films). As the other films are shown, Plucky works on his movie, The Plucky Duck Story. Meanwhile, the first film is Aminals, Aminals, Aminals, and More Aminals in Color by Elmyra Duff, a poem drawn crudely in crayon consisting of her inadvertently crushing a dog to death, which ends up being a critical failure. Because of this, Daffy takes it as Bugs' revenge for all of those yearly "Rabbit Season" signs and the former calls the latter a sadist. The next film, My Worst Nightmare by Hamton J. Pig, is somewhat more successful, as Hamton is the only one who likes it. Dizzy Devil's film, Dizzy Eat World, a twenty-one second film drawn crudely in crayon where Dizzy's gaping jaw engulfs the Earth, meets with deafening silence from the Toon audience, aside from Daffy telling someone to shoot him. Monty's film, A Montana Max Christmas, which he paid other cartoonists to do, is a huge critical failure, and Monty is disqualified for the act of Monty Claus (his character, spoofing Santa Claus) being about to chop the rabbits. Gogo Dodo's film So You Want to Learn to Dance, is a black and white silent live-action film depicting a couple dancing. Babs tells Gogo it was the dumbest movie she's ever seen, and that everyone expected something wacky from him. Gogo tells Babs that even he has to take a break from wackiness occasionally.
Porky and Daffy want to quit judging the films, but Bugs ensures them that there are only two films left. Shirley the Loon introduces the next film, Song of the Loon, and she tells the audience that she had to cut her film down to 17 hours and 34 minutes to fit onto the program schedule. Bugs, Daffy, and Porky, horrified, run for the door but Shirley has attached a battery charger and car battery to the doorknob to prevent the judges from leaving. As Plucky finally finishes his movie, The Plucky Duck Story, Buster tells him that he is going to have to cut his film short because of Shirley's 17-&-1/2 hours long film, Song of the Loon. After Song of the Loon finally ends, the judges are visibly mentally shot and overloaded. Buster announces that Plucky's film is the last. The shortened version of The Plucky Duck Story, which shows Baby Plucky crying and THE END, wins first prize, simply because it's short. Plucky is excited that he won, and asks what he won. Bugs tells him he has to take animation class over, because he missed it the first time.
Allusions[]
- Buster tells Plucky he shouldn't mess around with time too much, and asks him, "Remember what happened in Back to the Future?" Plucky replies with, "Yeah, it was a great movie," and holds up a $PLUG$ sign. Back to the Future is a live-action movie involving time travel made by Universal Pictures and produced by Steven Spielberg in 1985.
- The scene that Buster and Plucky flash back to with the monkeys is a parody of a scene in 2001: A Space Odyessy.
- Gogo's "animated" film is actually So You Want to Learn to Dance, an obscure live-action Warner Bros. film from 1953 starring George O'Hanlon, the original voice of George Jetson, with new music.
Trivia[]
- The name of this episode predated the series that would succeed Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs. Ralph the Guard, who originated in this series, became a regular character in that series, and characters originating in that series would show up in Tiny Toon Spring Break and Night Ghoulery.
- When Daffy tries to sneak away, Taz appears in Dizzy's lavender color scheme.
- When Plucky is told to put down one of the Art Tools, he is called "Toshiro", a reference to Toshiro Mifune, star of many samurai films.
- This is the first appearance of Baby Plucky.
- The Animation Lab is decorated with posters and title art from other episodes of Tiny Toons.
Cast[]
| Voice Actors: | Character(s): |
| Charlie Adler | Buster Bunny |
| Tress MacNeille | Babs Bunny |
| Joe Alaskey | Plucky Duck, |
| Don Messick | Hamton J. Pig |
| Danny Cooksey | Montana Max |
| Cree Summer | Elmyra Duff |
| Maurice LaMarche | Dizzy Devil |
| Frank Welker | Gogo Dodo, Road Runner |
| Gail Matthius | Shirley the Loon |
| Jeff Bergman | Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester the Cat, Foghorn Leghorn, Taz Devil |
| Bob Bergen | Porky Pig, Tweety Bird |
Quotes[]
- Bugs: "Distinguished friends, honored colleagues, beloved cartoon stars, oh, and you too, Daffy."
- Daffy (sarcastically): "Oh, har har. It is to laugh."
- Buster: "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and Monty."
- Monty: Boo get him off! ( buster throws watermelon at him) Ow.
- Elmyra: "It's my movie!"
- Babs: "I hate horror flicks."
- Daffy (after seeing Elmyra's Aminals, Aminals, Aminals, and More Aminals in Color): "This is your revenge for all those Rabbit Season signs I put up every year, isn't it? Sadist."
- Daffy (after seeing Dizzy Eat World): "Shoot me! Shoot me now!"
- Babs (After seeing Monty mistreat Buster and Babs in A Montana Max Christmas): "Oh, that's sick."
- Buster: "Boo! Get it off!"
- Monty Claus: "Now to ring in the new year!"
- (Monty Claus pulls out a hammer from the bag and hits Buster and Babs with it, however, the film is cut from the projector, and boos, jeers, whistles, hisses, and obscenities are heard in the background as the Toons pick up Monty)
- Montana Max: "What? What? This will be a beloved holiday classic! Hey, put me down!"
- (The Toons toss Monty out of the auditorium)
- Montana Max: "This is censorship! I'll sue!" (Monty's film is tossed into his mouth.)
- Babs (After seeing So You Want to Learn to Dance): "Gogo, that was the dumbest thing I ever saw."
- Gogo: "That was realism, Babs."
- Babs: "We were hoping you'd do something wacky."
- Gogo: "Wacky?!" (Deep voice) "Uh, Can't I have a serious moment now and then?" (Normal voice) "It's always 'Stand on your head, Gogo!'" (detaches his head and his body stands on top of it) "'Do that weird thing with your tongue, Gogo!'" (sticks out his tongue, then speaks in a deep voice) "Even I have to take a break from wackiness occasionally." (walks away)
- Porky (After seeing So You Want to Learn to Dance): "Please, Bugs, I can't take anym-m-m, m-m-m, I've had enough."
- Daffy: "Yeah, when it comes to cartoons, us old-timers only have a six-minute attention span."
- Buster: "Now to introduce the next film, Shirley the Loon!"
- Shirley: "Um, like, thanks, Buster. Okay, first let me say that I had to, like, cut my animated tone poem, Song of the Loon, to fit onto the program schedule, totally sad. Still, I think it holds up to its shortened running time of seventeen hours and thirty-four minutes."
- (The judges scream and try to escape, only to be electrocuted by the doorknob.)
- Shirley: "Like, this year, we're keeping the judges inside for a change."
- Bugs (After seeing the shortened version of The Plucky Duck Story): "It's magnificent!"
- Porky: "It's stupendous!"
- Daffy: "It's short!"
- Bugs, Daffy, and Porky: "It wins!"
Transcript[]
- To read the transcript of this episode, click here.
Gallery[]
Main article: Animaniacs!/Gallery
Home Video Releases[]
