Oh hey, what’s this? Animaniacs is coming back? You don’t say. Last month we were told to expect a delay for the revival of the beloved 1990s classic, but it turns out the Warners will make it in just in time to meet their original fall deadline: the 13-episode first season will be on Hulu November 20.
Ordinarily this kind of announcement would have been accompanied by a trailer, or a teaser, or at least one screenshot from the actual series, but all we got was this new promotional art of the Warners and the lab mice crawling all over the Hulu logo. The art and the date announcement was all that came out today.
I suppose we can just regurgitate what we do know, most of which is secondhand from voice actor Rob Paulsen in an Animation Magazine interview. Rob will reprise his role as Yakko and Pinky, and so will the others: Jess Harnell will return as Wakko, Tress MacNeille will voice Dot again, and Maurice LaMarche will reprise Brain. In fact any returning character will likely retain their original voice, with the weird exception of Ralph the Guard, who was reported by this source as being voiced by Terry Crews.
They managed to bring the full orchestra score back, which is fantastic news. Steve and Julie Bernstein, who scored some of the original episodes, are doing these new ones. The most prolific Animaniacs composer, Richard Stone, was not available on account of being dead.
Paulsen said in the linked interview he’s also doing the voices of Otto Scratchansniff and Squit, which I guess means more Goodfeathers. Bermadette Peters has been confirmed which could also mean more Rita (what else could it mean?) But the staff writers are also trying out some new ideas for shorts.
The streaming scene has grown pretty crowded and noisy, but hopefully Animaniacs can make enough of an impression to stick around for a while again. A second season is guaranteed and will appear in 2021.
