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Time for one of my favorite Tiny Toons episodes, "Animaniacs!" It was the 36th episode of season 1 and aired on 11/12/1990.
Written by: Paul Dini & Tom Minton
Storyboards by: Bruce Timm & Douglas McCarthy
Directed by: Art Vitello
Animation by: Akom
Plucky shows up for animation class at ACME Loo... the only catch is, he hasn't attended class YET and it's finals day. He thinks he'll have to watch a bunch of cartoons but nooooooo, there's actual work involved: Making an animated short. He freaks out but Buster, the kind soul that he is, agrees to show him the process, with a little help from the Magic Pen (which plays a cue from Scheherezade when first taken out of its protective case).
Buster goes through all the steps, from original concept to storyboards to layouts to backgrounds to voice acting, etc. In every step the visual example of Plucky getting walloped with a bunch of beets is used. Despite knowing the punchline, the gag of beets falling on his head is pretty much funny every time.
Anyway, once Buster describes everything, Plucky sets to work, because the clock is ticking for the big animation festival that night. But immediately in act two, he quits and goes a little crazy. Buster has to calm him down.
This reaction to Buster's "Whoa, easy! It's me, Buster!" gets me every time. Plucky slowly snaps back to reality and quivers, "...Buster...?" I love it- the way Joe Alaskey delivers that line is gold.
Plucky tells Buster that he wants to make a film about his youth- specifically an incident when he was in the lake and his inflatable toy popped, sending him into a stream of tears. In the process, Buster teaches Plucky about how to make flashbacks, only they accidentally flash back too far, into World War II and finally into the stone age. Buster temporarily leaves cocky Plucky to be ravaged by the 2001 apes, thinking he'll figure out how to flash forward, but realizes "This IS Plucky we're talking about" and goes to the library to save him from a book (he's now a puddle of primordial ooze). Plucky's grateful but at the end of act two the festival is almost here!
Bugs, Daffy, and Porky reluctantly agree to be the judges. Their antics are hilarious- besides the above shot, I love the bit where Daffy is reading a dirty magazine. Bugs snatches it from him in disgust, but then opens it himself.
The festival is arguably my favorite part of the episode because of all the different animation styles we get. Elmyra makes a film called "Elmyra's Aminals, Aminals, Aminals and More Aminals", which is a poem consisting of her crushing a dog to death with her hugging. Yikes.
Hamton makes a piece called "My Worst Nightmare", though who knows what that happens to be. Hamton is the solo clapper at the end.
"Dizzy Eat World": See title for plot. Two bits of random trivia:
1) The tune that is played on the kazoo during the short is "Mastersingers of Nuremberg" by Richard Wagner. Take a listen to the actual piece if you haven't- I guarantee you'll at least crack a smile.
2) While it hasn't been confirmed, the rock band's name Jimmy Eat World may have been inspired by the name of this short.
Montana Max farms his film out to an independent contractor instead of doing it himself (a sly in-joke at overseas animation? Maybe) and presents "A Montana Max Christmas", with Max as Jolly Old St. Nick. Funny, I didn't know Santa used a sledge hammer.
Everyone's pumped to see Gogo's film, but he ends up splicing together live action footage to make "So You Want to Learn to Dance". I don't know what Babs's problem was; I thought this was hilarious, in a non sequitur kind of way. These are the most ridiculous dance moves I've ever seen, and the music to go with it was appropriately nutty too. Plus the shot of the man whipping the obviously dummy replica female around was great.
Shirley's "Song of the Loon" is next to last, and beforehand she informs the audience that it had to be cut to fit onto the program schedule, and that it now runs 17 hours and 34 minutes (seriously? How LONG was this festival supposed to go in the first place, anyway?). Everyone freaks out but Shirley won't let anyone leave, including the judges, who she electrocutes and prevents from leaving their room.
After that ordeal, Plucky FINALLY gets to air his film, which he just barely finished in time. It's three seconds and consists of just him crying as a baby. Since it's short, it wins!
Only catch is, he gets to take the course over for skipping it the first time. Ah, poetic justice.
I love this episode. Most any episode which deals with the making of a cartoon ("Stimpy's Cartoon Show", "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show") I'll love, and this is no exception. While they simplified the creation process a bit (they never even mentioned shipping it overseas for inbetweening- they only briefly mention assistant animators), it was actually pretty informative, especially since I was seven and impressionable in 1990. It could be argued that this episode got me interested in the animation process, though I don't know if that's true.
It's paced just right. Whenever I start watching this one, I have to finish it, and there's no scene which I feel like skipping. There's a joke that works in pretty much every scene.
I like the Akom animation, which was fairly inconsistent in the show but works for this episode. The timing on the gags is usually pretty solid, especially all those falling beets.
And overall it's just a fun episode, easily one of the best full length shows. Your thoughts on this one?
Written by: Paul Dini & Tom Minton
Storyboards by: Bruce Timm & Douglas McCarthy
Directed by: Art Vitello
Animation by: Akom
Plucky shows up for animation class at ACME Loo... the only catch is, he hasn't attended class YET and it's finals day. He thinks he'll have to watch a bunch of cartoons but nooooooo, there's actual work involved: Making an animated short. He freaks out but Buster, the kind soul that he is, agrees to show him the process, with a little help from the Magic Pen (which plays a cue from Scheherezade when first taken out of its protective case).
Buster goes through all the steps, from original concept to storyboards to layouts to backgrounds to voice acting, etc. In every step the visual example of Plucky getting walloped with a bunch of beets is used. Despite knowing the punchline, the gag of beets falling on his head is pretty much funny every time.
Anyway, once Buster describes everything, Plucky sets to work, because the clock is ticking for the big animation festival that night. But immediately in act two, he quits and goes a little crazy. Buster has to calm him down.
This reaction to Buster's "Whoa, easy! It's me, Buster!" gets me every time. Plucky slowly snaps back to reality and quivers, "...Buster...?" I love it- the way Joe Alaskey delivers that line is gold.
Plucky tells Buster that he wants to make a film about his youth- specifically an incident when he was in the lake and his inflatable toy popped, sending him into a stream of tears. In the process, Buster teaches Plucky about how to make flashbacks, only they accidentally flash back too far, into World War II and finally into the stone age. Buster temporarily leaves cocky Plucky to be ravaged by the 2001 apes, thinking he'll figure out how to flash forward, but realizes "This IS Plucky we're talking about" and goes to the library to save him from a book (he's now a puddle of primordial ooze). Plucky's grateful but at the end of act two the festival is almost here!
Bugs, Daffy, and Porky reluctantly agree to be the judges. Their antics are hilarious- besides the above shot, I love the bit where Daffy is reading a dirty magazine. Bugs snatches it from him in disgust, but then opens it himself.
The festival is arguably my favorite part of the episode because of all the different animation styles we get. Elmyra makes a film called "Elmyra's Aminals, Aminals, Aminals and More Aminals", which is a poem consisting of her crushing a dog to death with her hugging. Yikes.
Hamton makes a piece called "My Worst Nightmare", though who knows what that happens to be. Hamton is the solo clapper at the end.
"Dizzy Eat World": See title for plot. Two bits of random trivia:
1) The tune that is played on the kazoo during the short is "Mastersingers of Nuremberg" by Richard Wagner. Take a listen to the actual piece if you haven't- I guarantee you'll at least crack a smile.
2) While it hasn't been confirmed, the rock band's name Jimmy Eat World may have been inspired by the name of this short.
Montana Max farms his film out to an independent contractor instead of doing it himself (a sly in-joke at overseas animation? Maybe) and presents "A Montana Max Christmas", with Max as Jolly Old St. Nick. Funny, I didn't know Santa used a sledge hammer.
Everyone's pumped to see Gogo's film, but he ends up splicing together live action footage to make "So You Want to Learn to Dance". I don't know what Babs's problem was; I thought this was hilarious, in a non sequitur kind of way. These are the most ridiculous dance moves I've ever seen, and the music to go with it was appropriately nutty too. Plus the shot of the man whipping the obviously dummy replica female around was great.
Shirley's "Song of the Loon" is next to last, and beforehand she informs the audience that it had to be cut to fit onto the program schedule, and that it now runs 17 hours and 34 minutes (seriously? How LONG was this festival supposed to go in the first place, anyway?). Everyone freaks out but Shirley won't let anyone leave, including the judges, who she electrocutes and prevents from leaving their room.
After that ordeal, Plucky FINALLY gets to air his film, which he just barely finished in time. It's three seconds and consists of just him crying as a baby. Since it's short, it wins!
Only catch is, he gets to take the course over for skipping it the first time. Ah, poetic justice.
I love this episode. Most any episode which deals with the making of a cartoon ("Stimpy's Cartoon Show", "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show") I'll love, and this is no exception. While they simplified the creation process a bit (they never even mentioned shipping it overseas for inbetweening- they only briefly mention assistant animators), it was actually pretty informative, especially since I was seven and impressionable in 1990. It could be argued that this episode got me interested in the animation process, though I don't know if that's true.
It's paced just right. Whenever I start watching this one, I have to finish it, and there's no scene which I feel like skipping. There's a joke that works in pretty much every scene.
I like the Akom animation, which was fairly inconsistent in the show but works for this episode. The timing on the gags is usually pretty solid, especially all those falling beets.
And overall it's just a fun episode, easily one of the best full length shows. Your thoughts on this one?
Probably just like that French film the Warners and Scratchy were watching in "Drive Insane." 
