Animaniacs: Wakko's Wish

Wakko's Wish does what Animaniacs fans have come to expect, and in fact demand. The story is entertaining at multiple levels, from the purely visual, to the slapstick, to clever wordplay, to subtle cultural references that surface on watching for the second or third time.

It may look like it is a Disney-esque thing. If you expect that, you may be uneasy when Wakko's Wish gives it what-for and does what Warner Bros. cartoons have always done: had fun with things and not let anyone or anything off the hook.

Just saw this on HBO, did anyone catch the not-so-hidden reference to the Time-Warner merger of 1996? In the opening sequence, the town of "Warnerstock" (not-so-subtle) was all happy and prosperous until the king passed away and the evil king of "Ticktocia" (tic-toc...Time maybe?) took control through a hostile takeover. the people of Warnerstock were forced to turn a profit...and so-on and so-on. The show was always full of obscure and adult references cleverly and tastefully hidden and mixed with the kiddie humor. Maybe an expression of some internal riff with the whole merger, 'cleverly' displayed in Animaniac fashion.

This was a great movie from a great cartoon series. The animation was top notch. This movie had the same quality of humor as the series. The premise was pretty good and fitting for the characters. All the characters from the show are used in some form and are just as hilarious as they are in the show. Thumbs up on this one.

I can't call this a bad movie, because I'm a sucker for anything with "Animaniacs" in the title. Somehow, the novelty of just seeing all the characters in one place is enjoyable enough for me. Unfortunately, the charm wears off really fast.

The plot holes are gigantic! I know it's Animaniacs, and I shouldn't be asking for logic, but usually things make just a little bit of sense. This movie tries to be a Disney flick, and it's just not working for it. I compaire this story to fanfiction. The characters are out of character, even for them, and for a movie called "Wakko's Wish", Wakko dosn't get a whole lot of screen time. That really makes me mad, because that's my favorite character!

I can't say the movie is terrible; it's decent Animation, the voice acting is pretty good, and even the plot, as cliché'd as it is, is very entertaining. I just fall in love with it every time I see it. It's so bad that it's good. As an Animaniacs fan, I love to pick apart everything that's wrong with it. For an non-Animanics watcher, I'd skip this movie. If you don't know the characters, it won't make much sense, and you'll turn it off before it reaches the ten minute mark.

For little kids, they'll love it. I know I used to. (I bought five copies of the original VHS version when it first came out. One was eaten by the VCR, I lost one, I have two in my video collection, and one is still unopened.) It's a very nice movie for kids, and it keeps them quiet for an hour. Then again, I guess kids love anything animated, so that's not much of an accomplishment.

"Animaniacs" was a cartoon that always struck me as good but highly inconsistent. At any given time there were at least two dozen characters on the show. Each of them starred in their own segments. Some of them worked, some of them didn't. And some of them fell flat.

This problem is finally eliminated in "Wakko's Wish". All of the characters, good (the Warners, Pinky and the Brain), bad (the Goodfeathers, the Hip Hippos), and pointless (Chicken Boo) are involved in this one major story. The story is a tad sentimental for an "Animaniacs" movie but they have a lot of fun parodying the expected cliches as they go along. Check it out, it's a lot of fun. And it's got "Tiny Toons: Summer Vacation" beat by miles.