On a show like The Animaniacs, where everyone is at least a little bit nuts ('maniac' is right there in the title, after all!), it can be difficult to truly judge a character's intelligence. Still, though, nobody is going around saying Pinky is actually brilliant, so it is possible to make some distinctions.
One of the best parts of the show is that even the "dumb" characters still get development as fully realized characters - and even the smartest characters learn a lesson every now and then!
10 Wakko
Wakko is set up to be the least bright of the siblings, focused mostly on eating and on his “gag bag”, from which he can pull a never-ending pile of nonsensical tools and toys for whatever prank or joke they’re playing.
Like other fan-favorite "dumb" characters, Wakko isn’t stupid by any means; he tends to think very literally as all the Warner siblings do. When he performs solo songs, they are mostly list-based than story-driven (such as the United States Capitals, or when he burps the alphabet).
9 Squit
Sure, there’s a limit to how intelligent a pigeon can be (the phrase ‘bird brain’ exists for a reason, after all), but of the three Goodfeathers, Squit may the brightest of the bunch. Unlike Pesto, who was inspired Joe Pesci's Goodfellas character Tommy DeVito, he’s not fighting first and asking questions never.
Unlike Bobby, the "leader" who was inspired by a variety of Robert De Niro's characters like Travis Bickle and Jimmy Conway, he seems to actually care about things - now that he’s a Goodfeather, he wants to make the most of it, and he regularly assists the Goodfeathers with their various plots and schemes.
8 Dot
The Warner Sister, whose full name is actually Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca III, with the ‘Dot’ nickname possibly coming from the periods in W.B. Studios, is no slouch mentally.
She’s the youngest of the three, and prone to giggly crushes, but she can come up with just as many wacky, wild ideas as her brothers, and sometimes she’s the one who comes up with the genius solution to get them out of trouble.
7 Rita
Although Rita and Runt only appeared in the first season of Animaniacs, Rita was one tough kitten. When she’s taken to the pound for being “too independent”, she meets Runt, who’s taken to the pound for being...well, being a dog.
Opposites do attract, and the two become an unlikely pair when Rita accidentally busts out of the pound and takes Runt with her. Rita’s the brains of the outfit, with Runt just happy to be along for the ride.
6 Dr. Scratchansniff
In spite of being the only character with an advanced degree, Dr. Scratchansniff isn’t the cream of the crop, intelligence-wise. In a normal show, in a normal universe, he would probably be the smartest person in the room as the Warner Brothers Studio psychiatrist, he’s supposed to oversee the mental health of WB employees, but he’s vexed by the Warner siblings and spends his tenure on the show desperately trying to keep them in line.
He is somewhat successful at times - such as when he helped them be ready for a big party on the Warner lot with big donors coming - but inevitably, the Warners are just too zany for him to handle.
5 Buttons
Buttons has a rough go of it, pretty much all the time. As the loyal, exhausted canine babysitter of human Mindy, the expert escape artist who frequently gets out of her baby harness, Buttons has to chase her down and keep the oblivious toddler safe from pretty much the entire world.
He’s longsuffering but extremely determined, and to his credit, Mindy is always returned safely home, and he even puts up with the constant scolding from Mindy’s parents, who never understand what Buttons has done to keep their daughter safe. He's definitely smarter than the average cartoon dog and deserves the credit for taking all sorts of abuse just to keep his human safe.
4 Slappy
Maybe it’s because she’s one of the older characters on the show, or maybe it’s because she has the most awareness of the fact that they’re in a cartoon TV show, but Slappy knows a thing or two about a thing or two. She moves with complete awareness of the fact that she and everyone around her are cartoons, and frequently takes advantage of that fact by leaning into it with big explosions and off-the-wall solutions to problems.
When her nephew, Skippy, is upset about the death of a cartoon movie deer’s mother, and Slappy flies them out to visit the actress, to show that ‘nobody dies in a cartoon’. It’s a good lesson, but a bit lost on Skippy, who’s just as traumatized when they accidentally tune into Old Screamer (The Animaniacs' version of Old Yeller) on the flight back home.
3 Yakko
Yakko is the oldest of the Warner siblings and the de facto leader of the trio - and not just because he happens to be the tallest. He also has the most awareness of the 4th wall and points out innuendos that would go over most kids’ heads.
He leads the siblings with whatever trouble they get into and frequently is the mouthpiece for dealing with adults because he’s clever enough to mimic their tone and knows how to approach them, while his actual actions are just as bonkers as his siblings.
2 Heloise Nerz - Nurse
It turns out that the Warner Studios nurse is more than just a pretty face - and she’s tired of only being judged on her looks, especially because she has a mean IQ of 159, making her the smartest human on the show.
It’s a shame that’s only highlighted in one episode, and that she’s stuck being the object of the Warner brothers’ affection most of the rest of the time.
1 The Brain
With a name like ‘the Brain’, where else could he be except the top of this list? As a mutated lab rat, the Brain really is a genius.
Although he's hardly a genius villain, he is definitely an evil genius all the same, whose plans always end with him taking over the world, but fortunately for the world, not only is he a mouse (with limited physical capability), he’s hindered by Pinky, his insane counterpart who almost always foils the Brain’s plans with his idiocy.
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/3lfNlaH
0 Comments