WARNING: May contain swearing in this review that may be unsuitable for children under the age of 16-18.
AND SPOILER NOTE: This isn't gonna be a John K. kind of rant either way. After all, he tends to give the show unnecessary hatred towards it that's a little too much I'll say. I mean, I'm not saying that he shouldn't dislike the show at all in his own opinion but on what he says about it is a problem at some point. And I feel like on what he's trying to say in his own words be like: "Oh, my one cartoon that I've created called: "The Ren & Stimpy Show" is way more hilarious, charming and entertaining for the children (plus adults) rather than those pieces of crappy garbage made at Warner Brothers nowadays unlike what Bob Clampett made back in the good old days of 'The Golden Age of Animation'!" And this is the same guy that also hated Tiny Toon Adventures at some point which is unsurprising once you already know on how he hated Animaniacs by now.
Anyway, let's get into the review, shall we?
As a little kid back in the early 2000's, my parents and I stumbled upon watching this movie that I didn't know it was based off a certain TV show back then, but I just wasn't that interested to watch it and wanted to play with my Fisher Price steering wheel toy (if I'm not mistaken despite my memory might be rusty here since it's been a long time ago) at the time. Years later when I found out this movie was based off of a TV show that I was getting in to in my teen years in which that was called: "Animaniacs". And I wanted to give this movie like a second chance at some point if I would ever like this movie than I ever did as a little kid. But when I finally got to watch it like a few times in a row, I just couldn't help myself feeling disappointed about it and in my teen years I used to call Wakko's Wish a "garbage" kind of movie. And getting into my young adulthood for the past few years as I'm writing this, I tend to have complex feelings about it like a love/hate relationship. Not to mention that I kinda like Wakko's Wish more than I ever did since surprise, surprise (This is coming from a casual fan of DazzReviews BTW) that the Animaniacs 2020 reboot disappointed me as well.
Instead of saying on what the plot is about from beginning to end since it's fairly quite simple I'll say for this kind of movie and I'm going straight ahead on how I like and dislike some bits from the movie itself. First up, I'll be getting into the songs first, so they'll be out of the way since this is a musical movie honestly. In my opinion, I feel like there's too many songs that I feel like it pauses the story whenever these characters want to do a Disney style musical number in which that can feel annoying after a little bit. And you know what else is annoying about this movie? It's the fact that the characters love to bring up the wishing star the most like A LOT within this movie (especially in the songs). And if you don't believe me on what I just said, take a drink every time whenever the characters sing or talk about the wishing star. Plus, I don't even like how Slappy sings in that 'Never Give Up Hope' song while Skippy does an adult innuendo on us while he says his nuts are frozen. And I know Slappy "talk-sings" later on in the movie but how she sang in the beginning of the movie just ruin the joke that I was supposed to laugh at and Slappy's singing is just cringe in my opinion. I mean, isn't she supposed to be not a fan of musical stuff like in the show on how she got annoyed with the singing in the end for her theme song? So, I'll be showing what's the best, what's the worst, and what's the mid when it comes to these songs since I tend to be mixed on the songs rather than just the characters alone whenever they're not singing for the time being.
The Best
"Twinkle, Twinkle Wishing Star" followed by "If I Can Have My Wish Then I'd Be Happy".
The Mid
"Hungarian Rhapsody", "The Wishing Star", "I've Got an Ha'Penny" followed by "Never Give Up Hope".
The Worst
"A Wind-Blown Wagon Sled" followed by "Train Bringing Wakko" alongside with every single reprise towards to some of the songs getting that treatment such as "The Wishing Star", "I've Got an Ha'Penny" and "Never Give Up Hope".
If you're wondering why I put that "A Wind-Blown Wagon Sled" song as one of the worst songs is because, that's like the worst version of 'Jingle Bells' I've ever heard and I also kinda agree with Dot despite she didn't need to sing that part though. Aside from the songs, I'll be talking about some specific scenes that'll also be broken down into three sections that will be counted as the best, the mid and the worst about this movie in my opinion.
The Best
"The Story of Dot" followed by whenever Pinky and the Brain have their scenes in the movie for the most part (excluding the songs). And when it comes to that scene that Yakko tells the story to Dot though, I thought it was fine and also cute but not I'm not saying it in a gushing way unlike someone out there in the Animaniacs fandom might do.
The Mid
The Warners getting to know King Salazar outside and inside of his castle while doing their usual antics around him (despite being toned down in a way that I see it).
The Worst
"Dot's Death" (I'll get into that infamous scene later on) followed by "The Cave of Your Worst Nightmares" since I feel like that scene should've been better if the Warners weren't screaming "AAAAHHH!" whenever they stumble upon some of their old foes... Including that gas station attendant dude from that "Potty Emergency" cartoon? 🤨 I mean, how in the hell did he end up there alongside with Baloney the Dinosaur and Mr. Director? I guess we'll never know. 😔🤷♀️
Not only that I'll be doing those three sections that I've already done but, I'll be doing two more sections on more details on what I like and don't like about the movie.
Here's Other Stuff on What I've Liked About the Movie
⭐ Dot and Mr. Crazy Person (or "The Captain of the Guard" in this movie) do their thing together on how he can't stand Dot's cuteness just like in "Hearts of Twilight" and "Cute First (Ask Questions Later)" but with the other guards commenting on her cuteness like: "You're too cute!" in the end rather than just the other guy alone.
⭐ Skippy Squirrel saying: "Squirrel chicks, yowza!" along with meeting his possible future love interest in the end.
⭐ Rita and Runt finally getting adopted by someone in which that was Dr. Sratchansniff in the end.
⭐ Buttons finally gets rewarded in the end instead of the usual unnecessary punishments that Mindy's parents used to do on him.
⭐ I guess the voice acting's alright here? At least many of them were trying their best despite some of the flaws that they gotta work around.
And here's where I get into the other stuff that I don't like... And spoilers! It's gonna outweigh the good unfortunately. 🫤
Here's Other Stuff on What I've Did NOT Like About the Movie
💔 The way that the Warners were treated in this movie... Look, I'm not saying that they suffered from pretty bad character writing in this movie but, it feels like their characterization was stepped backwards rather than forward from the show that it was based off of. On what I'm trying to say here is that I feel like the Warners themselves feel ironically one-dimensional than they should be in this movie. I mean, you got Wakko as the optimistic one, Yakko who's basically the caring eldest brother out of the bunch and we have Dot whose still cute like in the show but she's also a plot device within the movie (more onto her later as I talk about that infamous scene).
💔 Wakko's ha'penny is just a dumb thing in my opinion. I mean, why would the townspeople care if ever you had a single ha'penny in your life? Especially if you worked all year round with no play it all.
💔 Dr. Sratchansniff's elixir was concerning at some point for me since you got the Warners, Skippy and Mindy drinking that stuff during in the movie when that stuff supposedly has the "you know what" (alcohol) in it but yet again, Disney allowed Dumbo to drink that kind of stuff before the Pink Elephants had their iconic trippy moment during that movie. 🤷♀️ And that was back during the early 40's! Besides, you wouldn't see that happen nowadays!
💔 King Salazar just seems like a generic villain who's the typical arrogant bad guy who basically wants everything and nothing more than that.
💔 I didn't like how Dot was treated like a plot device to motivate the Warner brothers just to "save" her. Especially Wakko was the one that wanted an operation done for her just for a ha'penny's worth. I mean, it's just those acting skills that she's gotta work on or she should've been actually sick rather than just faking it for the entire time.
💔 Speaking of Wakko with his ha'penny, he wished for two in the movie and for the first time, I actually related to Yakko and Dot for the first time in this movie (they were a lot more relatable alongside with Wakko within the original show in my opinion) when they looked at each other...
💔 The reveal of the Warners' royal blood in the movie and whatever happens afterwards related to their royalty that I wasn't impressed by. I mean, aren't they supposed to be 1930's cartoon characters at some point or was this movie meant to be an AU (Alternate Universe)? And some clarification would've been helpful like some kind of canon at least. Besides, piss off Galactic Glamour Girl.
💔 I already know that I talked about "The Cave of Your Worst Nightmares" scene, but I feel like they could've done more than that honestly, like bringing Mr. Clown from 'Clown and Out' back, alongside with Satan who was in 'Hot, Bothered and Bedeviled' and Death who appear like in a few cartoons like the previously mentioned 'Hot, Bothered and Bedeviled' and 'Meatballs or Consequences' cartoons. I also didn't like the aftermath of that scene with the dialogue and King Salazar wanting the secret towards the wishing star while Yakko says this line in a weird way; "It's not what you wish for, it's uh, how you wish for?"
💔 I feel like the mime deserved better at some point, but I wished Yakko had a bit of a slapstick-y fight scene while using the mime like a weaponized ragdoll to knock down the guards! And now that would've been funny to see to have Yakko getting an unusual but still welcoming moment if done right. You know, something like how Rafiki from Disney's The Lion King (1993) did on how he had his own quick battle with the hyenas.
💔 And I'm saving the best for last and my hottest take with this movie is that "Dot's Death" wasn't a good fake-out death scene in my opinion. I mean, I've seen Disney's The Jungle Book (1967) do way better than this and I'm talking about the "Baloo's Death" scene. It also would've been nice if Yakko didn't repeat the same exact story as he told Dot before but as a continuation of Dot's story on how she lived until the present day. And I also 100% agree with Joey.T.Cartoon.P (AKA Joey's Cartoon Palooza) in his review of the movie with this scene that "it doesn't make sense".
Oh, I should bring up the animation here since I feel like that's like a mixed bag as well. In my opinion, the animation can look nice at times while for other scenes (especially in the third act of the movie) can look quite off for me. And as for the jokes that I also forgot to bring up about is that they're just "eh" for most of the time and don't land as well unlike how the original show did it so well.
Anyway, before I would like to end my review off here, I would like to say a few more things... As I already mentioned Joey's review of the movie (since it's on YouTube if you want to check it out), I tended to agree with him for most of the time with his own review alongside with EyeofSol with her review of the movie that I tended to agree as well like both of those reviews that I mentioned were the most relatable the I can find for myself. And you can check out both of them if you ever want to.
Plus, here's this Tumblr post that I've found relatable too.
As harsh as it may sound, I tend to fully agree with toonyfan411 on Tumblr who originally posted this confession back some years ago as I'm writing this... I mean, we could've gotten more slapstick action within this movie that I would've liked to see how the other characters would do it in this kind of movie (if it would ever work in execution). Link: My Share of Animated Interests on Tumblr: Here is my second confession on Animaniacs!
And when it comes to the battle scene if that were ever happen in the movie, it would've something like that one scene from Disney's Robin Hood (1973) with the escape scene (not to be confused with the one in the castle caught on fire that happens later on in that movie as I'm trying to say here) on how I would like to see it but in Animaniacs/Looney Tunes fashion with the cartoon-y slapstick mixed with action as I've stated before in a way. Who knows that I'll be making more reviews on this blog but I'm also trying to do other things like posting fanart and whatnot on here... And I might post more PriPara stuff coming soon. So, see you later next time!
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