Where to begin… where to begin… A little over ten years ago, director Steven Spielberg decided that the world was ready for a good cartoon or two. He was tired of seeing the crappily animated shows that were merely commercials in disguise. Bad scripts, bad animation, all of it was giving the world of animation a bad name. Remembering the Golden Age of the Warner's Brothers cartoons where the characters actually 'acted' through the animator's drawings and the scripts were written just as much for adults as it was for children, Spielberg began by introducing us to the world of the "Tiny Toons Adventures." This series was such a hit, that Spielberg knew he had found a need in the modern animated world and filled it. "Tiny Toons Adventures" delivered jokes in a fast and furious manner and threw in pop culture references from every era imaginable. No matter if you were 9 or 90, there were jokes in it for you. Spielberg followed up this success with the "Animaniacs", which featured the characters Yakko, Wakko and Dot.

They were introduced as cartoon characters so out of control that the Warner Brothers suits banished then to live in the infamous water tower on the studios lot.

But if anyone thought making them live in the water tower was going to rein them in, the Animaniacs were out to prove them wrong. Most of the episodes of the series were broken up into segments, each one a different story. Occasionally one story would run the full episode, but either way you were guaranteed a half hour of laughs, again no mater how old or young you were. The main characters were wackier than Bugs Bunny in his early days and there was no famous person (living or dead) and no celebrated story to illustrious to parody. There was even an episode that spoofed "Les Miserables", called "Les Miseranimals", music and all.

The series became popular for a number of reasons. First of all, it was just that darn funny. The animators took the time to carefully draw every frame, even the in-betweens, so that the action was smooth. The scriptwriters outdid themselves episode after episode making sure that every joke was in place, and peppering the series with all the cultural references that made "Tiny Toons" such a hit. Half the time it was fun to watch episodes over and over just to see if you could catch them all.

"Animaniacs" ended after a 99 episode run, but not before it gave birth to a spin-off of its own. "Pinky & the Brain" were two laboratory mice that were introduced in "Pavlov's Mice", but were so popular themselves that a show of their own hit TV two years after the debut of "Animaniacs." The Brain was a super intelligent mouse who was a complete megalomaniac bent on taking over the world. Unfortunately he was saddled with Pinky, another lab mouse who had been a part of one two any experiments, leaving him a little too dumb to even be considered dumb.

Their series ran from 1995 to 1998 and are still amongst the most favorite of the characters to come out of the Spielberg animation camp. Even my father-in-law, the toughest ex-marine you ever met, loves the characters enough to still occasionally wear T-shirts emblazoned with their image. The series was every bit as fast and funny as "Tiny Toons" and "Animaniacs", and again hit constant home runs when it came to cultural references.

I used to have a lot of these episodes on video, but I am now ready to toss them out in celebration of the release of two 'Volume 1' sets each of "Animaniacs" and "Pinky and the Brain" ("Tiny Toons" is still mysteriously absent on DVD). The "Animaniacs" set offers up 25 episodes (two more volumes will follow if sales are good) while the "Pinky and the Brain" set has 23.

Warner Brothers was fairly sparse on the extra features, but what the sets do have are perfect. The "Animaniacs" set has a featurette with Maurice LaMarche interviewing some of the Animaniacs characters (via satellite of course…). LaMarche is extremely well-known in the world of voice over actors and is the talent behind a good portion of the characters in both series. The "Pinky & the Brain" set also has its own featurette in the form of a 25 minute retrospective about the series. Again we get to see and hear from LaMarche (Brain), as well as the great Rob Paulson (Pinky) and Warner Brothers voice director Andrea Romano. (If you've ever watched any of the Warner Brothers Animated series from Batman to Superman, then you have to be familiar with Romano's name.)

Both of these featurettes are worth the price of the sets, at least for me. I love the work that these people do, and we rarely have the opportunity to see the voices behind the characters. I love the fact that we finally get to see these guys in front of the camera!

I cannot recommend both "Animaniacs: Volume 1" and "Pinky and the Brain: Volume 1" enough. Both animated shows are amongst the funniest that Warner Brothers have had to offer since the days of the old Termite Terrace gang.

ANIMANIACS: VOLUME 1
Episodes:
De-Zanitized, The Monkey Song, Nighty Night Toon
Yakko's World, Cookies For Einstein, Win Big
HMS Yakko, Slappy Goes Walnuts, Yakko's Universe Song
Hooked on a Ceiling, Good Feathers (pilot episode)
Taming of the Screwy
Flipper Parody, Temporary Insanity, Operation Lollipop, What are We?
Piano Rag, When Rita Met Runt
The Warner's Lot Song, The Big Candy Store, Bumbie's Mom
Wally Llama, Where Rodents Dare
King Yakko
No Pain, No Painting, Les Miseranimals
Garage Sale of the Century, West Side Pigeons
Hello Nice Warners, La Behemoth, Little Old Slappy From Pasadena
La La Law, Cat On a Hot Steel Beam
Space Probed, Battle For the Planet
Chalkboard Bungle, Hooray for Slappy, The Great Wakkoroti: The Master & His Music
Roll over Beethoven, The Cat and the Fiddle
Pavlov's Mice, Chicken Boo-Rhyshnikov, Nothing But the Tooth
Meatballs or Consequences, A Moving Experience
Hitchcock Opening, Hearts of Twilight; The Boids
The Flame, Wakko's America Song, Davey Omelette, Four Score and Seven Migraines Ago
Guardin' the Garden, Plane Pals
Be Careful What You Eat, Up the Crazy River, Ta Da Dump
Yakko's World of Baldness, Oppurtunity Knox, Wings Take Heart
Disasterpiece Theatre, Hercule Yakko, Home On The Nile, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Extras: Animaniacs Live! Comic Maurice LaMarche hosts an in-studio-style interview via satellite big-screen TV with Animaniac friends
Specifications: Full Screen
Studio: Warner Brothers
Release Date: 7/25/2006
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

PINKY & THE BRAIN: VOLUME 1
Episodes:
Das Mouse
Of Mouse and Man
Tokyo Grows, That Smarts, Brainstem
Pinky and the Frog, Where No Mouse Has Gone Before, Cheese Roll Call
Brainania
TV or not TV
Napoleon Brainaparte
A Pinky and the Brain Christmas
Snowball
Around the World in 80 Narfs
Fly
Ambulatory Aide, Mouse of La Mancha
The Third Mouse, The Visit
It's Only a Paper World
Collect 'Em All, Pinkasso
Plan Brain from Outer Space
The Pink Candidate
Brain's Song
Welcome to the Jungle
A Little Off the Top, Megalomaniacs Anonymous
The Mummy, Robin Brain
Two Mice and a Baby
The Maze

Extras: Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering? --featurette with the voices of Pinky and the Brain stars, Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche, and voice director Andrea Romano
Specifications: Full Screen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Sound
Studio: Warner Brothers
Release Date: 7/25/2006
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give both Animaniacs: Volume1 and Pinky & the Brain: Volume 1 an A.