Rob Paulsen
Yakko Warner
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- Overview
- Intro Setup
- Variable Verse
- Characters
- Variations
- Album Releases
- Trivia
- Errors
The theme song of Animaniacs is, as its title suggests, the song that begins every episode of Animaniacs and its reboot (with the exception of episodes 65 and 83 of the original series). The song describes the set-up of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot's zany adventures and also introduces several of the other major characters on the show (or, in the case of the reboot, poke fun of the modern-day world).
The theme was composed by Richard Stone and the lyrics by creator Tom Ruegger. The original main title was directed by Rich Arons and animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha (with additional scenes in seasons 3-5 by Wang); while the reboot's main title was animated by Snipple Animation Studios (with additional scenes being done in-house at Warner Bros. Animation).
Animaniacs (Original Series)
The intro begins with a shot of the Warner Bros.' water tower. The camera zooms in to the shield of tower, of which the Warners open while singing and jump out. The scene then cuts to Dr. Scratchansniff sitting in while watching a television; the Warners (wearing lab coats) appear and tickle his feet, sending him into hysterical laughter and Yakko sends Scratchansniff crashing into the floor with the lever of the examination chair and the show's title appears with them singing, Yakko and Wakko walk in a silly way along the Warner Bros.' studio lot while Dot hops in, but mirrored in the VHS version. The siblings do a double take and run with Ralph chasing them with a net. Ralph locks the Warners in the water tower, but they appear on his head under his hat and run away outside the lot. They are hit by the show's title with them singing again. Dot appears posing on a stage, Yakko talks to an annoyed yak, who splashes his face into the soup and Wakko eats food from a truck loading it into his mouth. Bill Clinton is playing a saxophone before the Warners pop out of it. This is replaced with reused animation from "Taming of the Screwy" in Season 2 and later new footage of the Warners paying income tax in Season 3. Yakko plays a bunch of characters from the show (mainly their 'special friends') like a xylophone. Pinky and the Brain are introduced; they are standing on top of the Earth. The Brain turns on a huge magnet with an awestruck Pinky gazing at the power beam, before Saturn crashes into the two. This is replaced with reused animation of Ralph T. Guard, Dr. Scratchansniff, and Hello Nurse from "Piano Rag", "Ups and Downs", and "De-Zanitized", respectively after Pinky & the Brain recieved their own spin-off. The Goodfeathers are standing on top of a power line; Squit hugs Bobby and Pesto before they are hit by Slappy's purse. Buttons chases Mindy across a steel beam, while Rita sings and Runt smiles while the Warners singing. Two writers in their office go crazy, Yakko and Dot throw away a script, of which Wakko eats. The cast are then seen walking, and show their contracts. In a lavender background, the Warners appear singing. Backed up by the cast (colored in blue), Dot puts slices of bologna in Yakko's slacks, of which Wakko is pulling. Zooms out with the cast singing in a dark-colored background, a solo happens sung by one of the Warners (sometimes all three of them). The show's logo appears one last time with the Warners singing the show's title (zooming letters), proclaiming "Those are the facts.", and the song ends.
Animaniacs (Reboot)
The intro is very much the same as the original series. However, due to the time-skip and the lack of characters, there are a lot of changes in the setup. Instead of tickling Dr. Scratchansniff, the Warners tickle a napping Ralph, with Yakko pulling the chair away to send him crashing into the floor (though Scratchansniff still appears in the xylophone line). Also, instead of posing, Dot is seen entertaining the audience with stand-up comedy. After Wakko eats food from the truck, the Warners are seen emerging from their graves (with their year of death being 1998, the year the original series ended), where they are interviewed by a bunch of reporters with microphones, taking photos with devices. The xylophone line has different characters, though Ralph and Dr. Scratchansniff stay. Pinky gazes at the magnet instead of the beam shooting from it. A boy (resembling Colin) is being tested by a group of executives and Nora Rita Norita while watching television, which falls on top of him. The Warners are sitting scales with Yakko and Wakko outweighing Dot, describing 'gender balance', pictures of the Warners are seen on restroom doors, with half of Yakko and Dot stuck together on one sign, and half of Wakko and Dot stuck together on the other, referencing 'pronoun neutrality', and a shot of the Earth is seen with several 'ethnically diverse' copies of the Warners wearing multicultural attire standing on it with flags above them. The screen zooms out to reveal it being a video on the computer of someone named the "Graphic Novel Guy". The Warners appear behind him and lift his shirt, revealing an Animaniacs shirt with the siblings' original designs and reading "Est. 1993", referencing the year the original Animaniacs premiered. The Warners are seen walking across a stage. They are then seen signing a contract for 'two new seasons' by Death, (2 10/13 seasons in the 3rd season) who makes the contract disappear afterwards. Instead of usually throwing slices of bologna into Yakko's slacks, Dot is seen slicing a loaf of bologna to produce slices, which fall into the slacks. Also, the screen zooms out (like the original), with the Warners singing with many other neon lights and signs of the siblings and verses they just sang. Like the original, the variable verse occurs and the song ends with the show's logo and the Warners singing the show's title, proclaiming "Those are the facts."
This verse is the third to last line in the theme song. It is always a different one depending on the show's episode, with another sibling singing it. In some episodes, it's all three of them. They are in the order that they first appeared on the show. In Season 2 of the original series, the variable verse in all the episodes was "here's the show's...
The following characters appear in the intro: Yakko Warner, Wakko Warner, Dot Warner, Dr. Scratchansniff, Ralph T. Guard, Bill Clinton, Albert Einstein, Thaddeus Plotz, Dracula, Ludwig von Beethoven, Pinky, the Brain, Bobby, Squit, Pesto, Slappy Squirrel, Mindy, Buttons, Runt, Rita, Skippy Squirrel, Chicken Boo, Hello Nurse, Newt, Minerva Mink, Marita, Flavio, and The Mime.
•The members of the head xylophone include Bob Hope, Ludwig van Beethoven from "Roll Over, Beethoven", Dracula from "Draculee, Dracula", Thaddeus Plotz, Dr. Scratchansniff, Albert Einstein from "Cookies for Einstein", and Ralph. To the far left of Bob Hope, the Three Stooges can be glimpsed: Larry Fine, Curly Howard, and Moe Howard (look for Moe's hair as the giveaway).
One of the writers that "flipped" looks like William Shakespeare.
In the 2020 theme, for obvious reasons, the other characters were removed from the intro, leaving only the Warners, Pinky and the Brain, Ralph, and Dr. Scratchansniff. This time, the intro is completely focused on and sung by the Warners, with Pinky and the Brain only appearing in what is left of the roll call lyrics, Ralph only appearing in the first part and some variable lines, and Scratchansniff only appearing in his place in the xylophone line, with Ralph taking his place in the beginning. The members of the head xylophone include the Conductor from "Here Comes Treble," Dr. Walter Grubb, Serge Sokolov, Nils Niedhart, Dr. Scratchansniff, Nora Rita Norita, and Ralph. Additional unnamed characters also appear in the line-up. Most of these characters take the places of older original series antagonists.
Death from "Meatballs or Consequences" appears holding a contract for 'two new seasons', of which the Warners sign. In season 3, this is changed to "2¹0⁄13 New Seasons" due to the ordering of a shorter third season.
A character named "Graphic Novel Guy" is shown in the "we did meta first" line, with Mr. Skullhead appearing in a comment on an online message board under the name "Mr. Lul Head" on his computer.
International Versions
•Arabic •Brazilian •Bulgarian (voice-over) •Czech •Croatian •Danish •Dutch •Finnish •French •German •Greek (VHS edition) •Greek (2012 Edition) •Hebrew •Hungarian •Italian •Japanese •Polish •Portuguese (Portugal) •Romanian •Russian (1997 edition) •Russian (2002 edition) •Russian (2014 edition) •Spanish •Ukrainian
Other Versions
•The Animaniacs Game Pack has its own version of the theme song with variable words describing the game. •In episode 1 of Freakazoid!, the Warners perform a Freakazoid!-themed version entitled Freakazoid and Friends. •There is also a song on the Yakko's World album that is the same tune titled Travelin' Animaniacs. •An extended version of the theme was used for episode 82 (the third season finale) with an instrumental break and montage of clips from the show. This version was reused again for episodes 84, 94, and 99 and it also was released on the Animaniacs soundtrack. The soundtrack and Episode 99 versions of the extended theme song use the line "While Bill Clinton plays the sax". The Episode 82, Episode 84, and Episode 94 versions of the extended theme song instead use the line "We pay tons of income tax". •Episode 98: The Christmas Tree/Punchline (Part I)/Prom Night/Punchline (Part II) featured another Christmas intro, this time, with the Kids' WB lyrics dubbed over the Season 1 Fox Kids lyrics. This is presumably due to the crew not having enough time to add the Christmas filter over the Kids' WB intro visuals. •When the show was aired in reruns on Paramount's Nickelodeon and its sister channel Nicktoons, the song was cut down to less than half of its original length, and the variable lines at the end were all replaced with the newly-added line "Nickelaney", which was dubbed over the previously made line "Shirley MacLaine-y, with the Nickelodeon logo being placed inside the crystal ball. •The episode "Cute First (Ask Questions Later)" has a version of the intro where Dot is snatched by 2 dwarves Yakko and Wakko didn't notice until the part where they tickle Dr. Scratchansniff. •"Animaniacs on The Hub" is produced for Hub Network (which the network acquired by the show's producer nine years later) in 2013. •The intro to the sing along videos has alternated lyrics. •"Branimaniacs" and the "Three Tenors Edition" •In "Anima-Nyet", the Russian bootleg of the series contains a take on the theme song; "Anima-nyet Theme Song".
•Animaniacs (album) (Original and Extended)
•Twisted Tunes
•The Animaniacs Faboo! Collection (Original and Extended)
•Yakko's World (Traveling Animaniacs)
•The Animaniacs' Wacky Universe
•Cartoon Network Cartoon Medley (Original)
General
•When the theme song is performed at the end of some of the Animaniacs Live! shows accompanied with an orchestra and/or Randy Rogel on the piano, the performers Rob Paulsen, Jess Harnell, and Tress MacNeille (the voices of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot) sing it with composers Steve and Julie Bernstein respectively (or Maurice LaMarche). Sometimes, it's just Paulsen and Rogel singing it as a duet. •The last few bars of the theme song (mainly the "Those are the facts!") are an alternate pitch of a jingle which is considered to be a 1990s Warner Bros. essential. It notably plays when Bugs Bunny munches on a carrot in front of the Warner Bros. Family Entertainment logo intro that was used to open several Warner Bros. Family Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television Animation-produced shows from the early-1990s to mid-2000s; as well as portions of scores from other WB cartoons. These bars were a signature trademark of original Animaniacs composer Richard Stone; and are said to literally sound-out "I'm Rich-ard Stone!". The opening was discontinued in 2009, but the signature bars live on at the end of the theme song and several other songs in the 2020 reboot (and even at the end of other works such as the Looney Tunes Cartoons short "Pest Coaster").
Original Series
•The closed captioning in the original series originally had the line as "pay for play" contracts". This was mentioned in the segment "Please Please Please Get a Life Foundation". •At the end of episode 71 in the original series, the Three Tenors sing a modified version of the theme with this verse: •President Bill Clinton playing the saxophone is a reference to his saxophone performance on the 1990s late-night talk show The Arsenio Hall Show. •Tom Ruegger's son and the voice of Skippy, Nathan Ruegger came up with the line "While Bill Clinton plays the sax." •A scrapped gag from the intro by producer Rich Arons would've had Yakko and Dot stretching Wakko during the "We're zany to the max!" line. •Voice actor Rob Paulsen tweeted the original sheet music for the song on August 1, 2013. One of the unused lyrics that was to replace "While Bill Clinton plays the sax" was "It's a show that's made by hacks". •In "Jockey for Position," when Pinky is knocked off a horse, he dizzily says, "There's baloney in our slacks..." •In "Cute First (Ask Questions Later)," a parody of the intro happens near the beginning of the episode where Dot gets kidnapped in the middle of the intro. The director realizes Dot is gone during the line "So just sit back and relax, you'll laugh 'til you collapse". •In episode 32, the variable verse for the episode is "Here's the show's name-y" but the sound is replaced with "Dana Delaney!" (It can only be assumed they recorded the audio of that line, but never created the footage of Yakko raising his eyebrows until later on in the show).
Reboot
•The yak is sitting next to Yakko in the "Yakko yaks" line was given a redesign in the 2020 reboot, now appearing much more realistically than in the 1993 version. •The footage of Pinky and the Brain atop the Earth with their magnet from the reboot's version of the intro is used in the 2023 Lexus ad "2023 Invitation to Lexus Sales Event: Electric Feels." •The real-world flags present in "U.N. Me" appear in the "ethnically diverse" verse in the reboot's intro. •The reboot intro was originally going to have the angle in "We're animany, totally insane-y" be the same as it's in the original, but it was altered to the Warners being now on front of the screen. On the Twitter website, Planned scenes were for the variable lyric "Have no shame-y" should've been storyboarded include the Warners watching Hulu on the television. •In the first two seasons of the reboot, the contract held by the Grim Reaper says "2 New Seasons". In the third and final season, the writing was changed to "2¹0⁄13 New Seasons" due to the ordering of a shorter third season. •Unlike the Season 1-2, In the Scene During the line "You Should See Our New Contracts" in Season 3 has a different Art Style and featured a more rounded design of The Warners
•In the scene on the Water Tower, the Warners are arranged from left to right: Yakko, Wakko, Dot. However, after jumping off, somehow Yakko and Wakko switched places. This was never fixed in the 2020 version.
•This may have been kept in because it helps add to the zaniness of the sequence.
Animaniacs Lyrics. It's time for Animaniacs. And we're zany to the max. So just sit back and relax. You'll laugh 'til you collapse. We're Animaniacs! Come join the Warner Brothers. And the Warner Sister, Dot. Just for fun we run around the Warner movie lot.
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Nov 20, 2020 · Steven Spielberg. Writers. Richard Stone & Tom Ruegger. Release Date. November 20, 2020. Tags. Main Theme Lyrics: It's time for Animaniacs / And we're zany to the max / So just sit back and...
Amimaniacs Theme Song (Classic and Hulu Original Versions) Lyrics. It's time for Animaniacs! And we're zany to the max. So just sit back and relax. You'll laugh until you collapse. We're...
