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Released by: Warner Brothers
Released on: February 4, 2013.
Director: Various
Cast: Rob Paulsen, Jess Harnell, Tress MacNeille, Frank Welke
Year: 1994 - 1995
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The Series:
The last Animaniacs set came out in 2007. That's six years ago, give or take a few months. Most fans of the cult hit animated series had probably given up hope that Warner Brothers would actually get around to releasing the last batch of episodes and assumed it would languish, unfinished, like other more cultish TV series (think Punky Brewster - it never did get finished). Lo and behold, 2013 comes around and Warner Brothers finally steps up to the plate and thus we now have Animaniacs Volume Four. So what's on here? Well the third volume collected everything up until about the half way mark of the third season, so we get the remainder of the third season and then on top of that we also get the eight episodes that made up the fourth season and the fifth and final season's nine episodes. What don't we get? The Wakko's Wish direct to video feature length film, which at the time of this writing is still missing on DVD.
Enough about the DVD history of the series though... let's talk about the show itself for a bit. Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner are the Warner Siblings and they live in California where they and a large group of supporting characters get into trouble. The Warners were popular stars in the 1930s but were locked in a vault until they made their way out in the nineties and subsequently went on to wreak Looney Tunes style mayhem wherever they could. They'd occasionally have help from the likes of Pinky and The Brain, Slappy Squirrel, Dr. Otto Scratchansniff, Rita and Runt, Buttons and Mindy, Chicken Boo, The Hip Hippos, Katie Ka-Boom and a security guard named Ralph.
The series was basically a collection of shorts tied together by the presence of the three main characters and as such, it was able to more or less take the characters to any time or any place that they wanted. Obviously inspired by the work of pioneering cartoonists Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, the series was as insane as the early Bugs Bunny shorts, though a bit toned down in terms of violence and the less politically incorrect aspects of those early Bugs cartoons.
Produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, these last episodes of the show really let the creative staff 'go for it' with the characters. As episode orders started to dwindle down they had to have known that the time was coming near where there would no longer be a show for them to work on so you get the impression that they were just going all out and throwing in every nutty idea they could think of.
Though the series was originally geared towards a younger audience, part of the problem with it in terms of commercial appeal was that although it was airing on a channel intended for younger viewers, it connected more with adults. So armed with that knowledge, in this volume even more so than those that preceded it we get a lot of pop culture parodies (this was always a part of the show but it's an even bigger part in the later episodes featured here). How much you get out of this might depend on your age, however, as not surprisingly given when the series was made, much of the parody is skewed towards nineties era fads and trends. While this might not always connect with kids born afterwards, this doesn't change the fact that there's a lot of really clever writing here and more sight gags and slapstick jokes than you can shake a stick at (the kind that kids of all ages can enjoy).
All in all it's a nice end to a show that never quite got the audience that it deserved, but which has at least rightfully been lauded as a legitimate cult classic since it was yanked off of the airways before its time.
The complete breakdown of episodes contained in this set is as follows:
Disc One:
76. Gimme The Works / Buttons In Ows / Hercules Unwound
77. This Pun For Hire / Star Truck / Go Fish / Multiplication Song
78. The Sound Of Warners / Yabba Dabba Boo
79. My Mother The Squirrel / The Party / Oh! Say Can You See / The Twelve Days Of Christmas Song
80. Dot's Entertainment / The Girl With The Googily Goop / Gunga Dot
81. Soccer Coach Slappy / Belly Button Blues / Our Final Space Cartoon, We Promise / Valuable Lesson
82. Wakko's 2-Note Song / Panama Canal / Hello Nurse / The Ballad of Magellan / The Return Of The Great Wakkorotti / The Big Wrap Party Tonight
83. One Flew Over The Cuckoo Clock
Disc Two:
84. Cutie And The Beast / Boo Happens / Noel
85. Jokahontas / Boids On The Hood / Mighty Wakko At The Bat
86. A Very Very Very Very Special Show / Night Of The Living Buttons / Soda Jerk
87. From Burbank With Love / Anchors A-Warners / When You're Traveling From Nantucket
88. Papers for Pappa / Amazing Gladiators / Pinky And The Ralph
89. Ten Short Films About Wakko Warner / No Time For Love / The Boo Network
90. Pitter Patter Of Little Feet / Mindy In Wonderland / Ralph's Wedding
91. Moosage In A Bottle/Back In Style / Bones In The Body
Disc Three:
92. It / Dot - The Macadamia Nut / Bully For Skippy
93. Cute First (Ask Questions Later) / Acquaintances / Here Comes Attila / Boo Wonder
94. Magic Time / The Brain's Apprentice
95. Hooray For North Hollywood (Part I)
96. Hooray For North Hollywood (Part II)
97. The Carpool / The Sunshine Squirrels
98. The Christmas Tree / Punchline (Part I) / Prom Night / Punchline (Part II)
99. Birds On A Wire / The Scoring Session / The Animaniacs Suite
Video/Audio/Extras:
Each episode is presented as it was broadcast, in 1.33.1 fullframe. Quality is fine. It won't floor you but for an older cartoon presented in standard definition it doesn't look bad at all. Colors are reasonably bright and bold and occasionally garish when called for and if black levels aren't reference quality, they're decent. Detail would be seem to be about as good as the source material will allow for and there are no issues with print damage.
The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo tracks on the DVDs are also pretty good. Dialogue is easy to follow, the levels are well balanced and there are no problems to report with any hiss or distortion.
There are no extras at all on the set outside of a few promo spots for other Warner Brothers releases, though menus and chapter stops are included on each of the three DVDs in the set.
The Final Word:
While it doesn't offer up any extra features, fans of the cult hit series will be happy to be able to complete their Animaniacs collection with this fourth release that finally releases the last batch of episodes to DVD.
