#animaniacs analysis

[cf56]

Yes I’m still thinking about this.

You know when the Warners are thrown in the tower by Nora at the beginning of season 3? Where I previously pointed out that they have all their belongings taken away and the tower becomes completely unfurnished?

Well, this is a screenshot of the first moment they’re thrown in.

They hadn’t been locked in the tower before this moment since the 90’s.

And yet…

Those scratch marks were already there.

[cringetownusa]

Yax, the How and Why:

Part 1: Why do people ship them?

Decided it was time I put together all my thoughts about why I think Yax works particularly well as a ship, and what they all bring to the table.

There's a lot to talk about here, and I'm going to try and hit at least all my big points. I'm also going to be looking at them from the standpoint of Goof Troop, and A Goofy movie, as well as the Og Animaniacs and reboot, Wakkos Wish, (even though that's out of universe for animaniacs) comics, and even the toys.

This is about to get really long, so I'll put it under a read more.

From a personality standpoint, they compliment each other's strengths and weaknesses so well.

Max is earnest and honest. He always has been.

From Goof troop where he wants so badly to do good things, and goes immediately to an adult when he messes up, to A Goofy Movie, where he goes so far to impress the people around him, to his want to do a good job in House of mouse. It's a constant whenever we see him on screen.

Max has seen a lot of growth through his shows and movies, but he's also been consistent. Goofy has clearly done an incredible job raising Max. Max is pretty open about his emotions. He doesn't hide them from his friends or family. There's a level of vulnerability that comes from that, and despite being bullied and picked on, he knows who he is, it only become a matter of insecurity getting other people to see that.

In A Goofy Movie, he doesn't worry about being good enough for roxanne. He says with conviction that "after today, she'll be mine". He doesn't doubt his own abilities. He's confident in what he does, and what he knows he's good at, like skateboarding.

Max is dramatic, he's flamboyant and a show off. He has made himself the center of attention on purpose before; as long as it's something he's well versed in and is confident he can impress with, he thrives. He loves to have that positive attention from big crowds. It pushes him forward.

He is also, and this is very important, a troublemaker.

He always has been, and not just in a well meaning sense.

In Goof Troop, he shows that he's the scheming type, he's the type to cause problems on purpose, just because it's fun. It's often the problem or the solution to several episodes.

Just like the Warners.

Now, these are never super harmful, he's a good kid at his core. He's kind and patient and understands his mistakes, but he's an absolute menace. He would have no trouble fitting in with patented Warner antics.

This next point is talked about a lot.

Max's issues and insecurities make for a fantastic story of growth with Yakko and his siblings. He's worried about being laughed at, at people hearing his laugh (something that is the best part of individuals and their expression of self) and worries about what other people think of it. This issue of his hits against Yakko's need to make people laugh.

They're complimentary. They're foils to each other.

Yakko is similar, but because of how he grew up, and the role he was forced into, he mirrors Max's traits as well.

Yakko is sarcastic, he undercuts a lot of sincerity with humor or hides it behind a veil of snark. He hides his feelings for fear of backlash. Unlike Max, who has his emotions on his sleeve, and has been encouraged to feel them openly from a young age.

Yakko's not able to be so open emotionally, because doing so has gotten both him and his siblings hurt.

Yakko is smart. He's tactical where Max is emotional. He schemes as well, as the spearhead and leader of the zany trio, but he sees more angles than Max does.

He does it out of self preservation in ADDITION to doing it to be a menace and for fun. He's the mastermind of the group, just like Max is to his own group. They're both the snarky personas. Yakko wants, NEEDS to make people laugh, his self worth is tied to it, it's what he was made to do. It's a source of anxiety for him, but also a source of joy. We've seen several instances of moments where Yakko falls back on his "Nations of the World" song, because he wants to make a good impression. We also have evidence of him stressing about his ability to perform in his sleep.

Being able to tell exactly how others are feeling helps Yakko pivot his plans and react in line to the antagonist. He has a hard time being sincere sometimes, prefers to keep himself protected.

But he also craves attention. Loves to be at the center of it, loves it more when it's something he's passionate in or prides himself with.

His jokes, his wit, his singing. His ability to sing and speak tongue twisters that nobody else can. All things he's confident in.

Yakko's strengths lie more in his mind, as opposed to Max's physical capabilities.

Together, they create a dynamic duo of mischief, being people with similar senses of humor, (we have seen both Yakko and Max tell almost identical jokes)they make each other laugh.

With strong senses of justice, they both aren't afraid to bring out the schemes on "special friends", or on people who deserve it; we see that a lot in Goof Troop.

Max is used to havoc. He's closely acquainted with it, he's been doing Goof Luck damage control since he was a small child, constantly being pushed to take the wheel of his dad's mishaps, sometimes very literally.

He would fit in seamlessly to the Warner's adventures, egg them on or do damage control. He's perfectly suited to fill in the space where he's needed, like a liquid changing shape to its container.

They're two sides of the same coin. They are opposites but they support each others weaknesses.

The emotional openness vs. The guarded emotions.

The need to make people laugh vs. The need to not show his laugh.

The physical vs. mental strengths.

Together, they gain inner and outer strength. They'll have someone to confide in, someone with much different upbringings and experiences than their own. Both in and out of universe.

But that's not really all there is to it, is there?

No, because family is so integral to both of their characters, we can't really talk about how good Yax is, and why it works, without talking about Goofy, Wakko, and Dot.

Yakko would never date someone, or even be friends with someone if they didn't like his siblings. Not just get along, like.

The Warners are "All for one, and one for all times 3". There is no talking about such a major change to the Warner dynamic without addressing every Warner, because they're affected too.

Dot and Wakko need someone to be friends with outside of themselves. They need familiarity and kindness.

Who better to open the Warner's to a kinder life, than a toon from a company all about the power of familial and romantic love? The themes that surround Max and Goofy(as well as many other Disney's), are exactly the kind of thing that those kids need the most.

Wakko and Dot need to have love that comes from the outside. Love from a parental figure who isn't their older brother, and love from a real friend, someone who cares about them who they aren't related to and can talk through issues they may otherwise be uncomfortable talking to their siblings about. The Warners are closer than any siblings that have or will ever exist, but there's still some things that are easier to talk about with a third party.

With Goofy, (someone who knows how to raise a kid, and what they would need to thrive) the Warners can finally, just be kids.

Yakko being happy is a the big part, but having the Warners brought into the Disney family by Goofy Goof, the man with so much understanding and love to give, who GETS kids, and has always let Max be a kid and help him through it?

It would help all three of them lean on outside help.

His appearance through Yakko and Max knowing each other, gives the Warners a positive adult figure in their lives who will be there to support them instead of criticize them for being "too much".

Yax isn't JUST about Yakko and Max, it's about the connections these kids make beyond the studio lot.

The connections that start with the eldest himself opening up. Start with Yakko overcoming that fear of rejection and letting people in.

It's about learning the world around them isn't just filled with people who want them locked up.

It's also about Max having someone who can match his energy. Max already has some friends who let him be himself and are wonderful people , but The Warners open up a different side of Max that can allow him to show that freer, mischievous side and have fun in that same way he had enjoyed in Goof Troop. He's allowed to revel in it, instead of worrying about stressing out his friends by getting them in on the antics.

The world is also filled with people who embrace their weirdness and energy, and who will guide them.

Even if you just like yax as friends, it's easy to see the potential and benefits

The Warners and the Goofs, to have lives grow richer.

And more, with them being from separate companies, their worldview would be able to grow to incorporate new ideas and thoughts.

The Warners aren't very open with their emotions, so a father son duo who have always been open and communicative would be able to show them the benefits of doing so themselves.

Plus, watching the Warner Siblings wreak havoc with a smile, hurting no innocents, would be exactly the type of thing to make Max smile in turn.

They deserve each other, deserve kindness and acceptance. ALL of these kids do. And every single one of them get that through Yax.

Plus, through Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Yakko and Max exist within the same universe. They're so close. It's not a stretch to see them interact and understand each other.

Now, there's a lot more to talk about. How it came to be, and how the shipping climate and the timing of the original shows allowed for this to line up to happen.

So look out for that in Part 2, featuring an interview with the person who started it all.

[cf56]

It is incredible how much the creators of Wakko's Wish were able to tell us about the Warners' parents with just a tiny, tiny bit of direct screen time. Have you ever noticed how most of the fandom characterizes the Warner parents the same way, as if they're established characters, even though they've never actually appeared outside of a painting? It's no accident.

In Wakko's Wish, this is all the information we get on the Warner parents:

-William was a good and kind king who was violently overthrown by Salazar

-As told in Yakko's story, William was a strong knight and his wife was a beautiful princess. They wanted a daughter.

-The painting above.

That's all. And yet, their characterization is so incredibly strong. From the painting alone, what can we glean? The king more resembles Wakko while the queen more resembles Yakko and Dot. We can extrapolate that the king had more of Wakko's personality, loyal and strong and true, but also a little goofy. The queen likely had more of the natural inquisitiveness and confidence that characterize Yakko and Dot.

In addition, they don't look like the traditional, arrogant, stoic royal family. The king and queen have kindly eyes. The children are all smiling and relaxed. Wakko and Dot are comfortable in their parents' arms- their parents haven't neglected raising them just because of their royal duties. Yakko beams with pride, likely wanting to live up to his parents' regal image. Overall, we can see that they appear to be a close and genuinely loving family. This is a royal couple who cared about their children as more than just heirs.

Finally, their usually accepted names of William and Angelina. William's name is directly stated in the movie, while Angelina is extrapolated from Dot's full name of Princess Angelina etc. the Third. If she is the third, there were others who came before her. It makes sense that her mother was also a Princess Angelina. While not official, it's another thing that just seems to make sense.

Like in the main show, there in an unsaid story of tragedy unfolding in the background of the main characters. The Warners are orphans, their parents are gone. Salazar violently took the kingdom. In the painting, Yakko looks probably 4 or 5, old enough to remember. He remembers enough to craft an accurate bedtime story about his parents' backgrounds. Dot thought it was just a story, but it likely isn't to Yakko. The events he described did loosely happen. His parents really were the sort to dote on their daughter and nuzzle her and call her cute and tickle her to sleep. They were likely the sort to do so for all of their children. It's a tight knit, extremely loving family that the Warners lost. You can see their tightness reflected in the mutually supportive relationship of the Warners. They would do anything for each other, and their parents would have done the same for them. Yakko's parenting style came from them. You can easily imagine a Warner family that got the chance to grow up together with loving parents and a nice home life. The kids turned out great anyway, but imagine what else they could have gotten up to if they weren't occupied with scraping by in a bleak, orphaned existence.

It's really impressive to me. Just a few nuggets form a natural, compelling picture of a loving family and a tragic backstory. Just a few nuggets form two strong new characters who never actually appear. You can easily imagine them because they are essentially reflections of the very well established characters/dynamics of the Warner siblings.

The last thing I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't have differing interpretations of the Warner parents, or that other versions are any less valid! But I still love how one version of the parents has become the most common because of how naturally it fell into place. They are almost official characters without being so.

[cf56]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it just occured to me that Yakko's the least "personal" one among the three Warners. I'm mostly referring to the 90s version, but we see glimpses of Wakko's daily life without his siblings several time in the show (ten short films about Wakko Warner, bingo, ups & downs, etc) and Dot has her little poetry corner and songs about herself (I'm cute, Dot's quiet time, etc). Meanwhile, it's as if Yakko never drops his "persona": he never sings about himself, we never see him alone unless it's for an educational song or a sketch where he's speaking to the "camera". The only exceptions are his therapy sessions with Scratchy, but even then, those typically end with him introducing the next cartoon. Am I missing some moments? (I know this is probably to highlight he's the "spokeperson" of the group, but it feeds into the fanon idea that he never lets his guard down)

You're very right! This plays a big part in where that fanon idea comes from- you never feel like you're seeing the real Yakko, at least not all of him. His entire life seems to just be his siblings and his show. He talks a lot, but it's always about others, rarely revealing anything about himself or his inner thoughts. I don't recall a time in the original show where we saw any of his personal hobbies, except like, playing paddleball? Meanwhile, like you alluded to, we know Wakko and Dot's hobbies pretty well. This leads to his characterization in fan works as being someone who puts almost all of his time into his "work"- writing songs and taking care of the sibs.

He didn't really have any individual segments in the original show, as you said. I guess because he was already seen as the face of the show, the one who got the most focus by default, so they didn't feel the need to carve out time to specifically focus on him. There is one personal activity I'm remembering right now- sometimes we see him reading newspapers by himself. That's about it.

Yakko is also a very social creature. He probably has a hard time having fun if there's no one around to enjoy it with. Wakko and Dot have solitary activities they do, but he always prefers to spend time with his siblings, or pick on some stranger, because silent alone time is probably boring for him. This is why he can sometimes be portrayed as clingy or overly protective of his sibs- without them constantly around, he doesn't see much fun in life. Besides the fact that he canonically deeply loves them, of course.

We get a more personal glimpse of Yakko in Wakko's Wish. Even then, his life pretty much just seems to revolve around caring for his siblings. So yeah. That's pretty much just how he is. In the reboot he still watches the news and also watches very long educational documentaries by himself.

You could pretty much say that when it comes to his rare alone time, he prefers to consume chill content that makes him learn something. That's about it.

I enjoyed thinking about this ask, thank you!

[cf56]

Like most things Animaniacs, I think about the Warners' ears way too much. Mostly because they're weird, even by toon standards:

As seen on Bugs Bunny, ears are typically concave, indented to better focus sound to the ear holes. The Warners' ears, on the other hand, are more like solidly round clubs. They do seem to hear sounds through them, most of the time.

All of this has led some people to identify the ears as antennas, and the Warners as bugs. While I do believe they are bonafide ears, what if they are also antennas? What if these antennas allow the Warners to have some level of telepathic communication with each other, explaining how they're able to be so in sync all the time, how they're always able to know each other's next move without even discussing their plans out loud?

[cf56]

Maybe you know the answer to this silly question that has been bugging me for a while, but are the Warners supposed to be royals even in their "real" universe? We have Wakko's wish and a bunch of episodes set in "royal aus" like King Yakko and Cutie and the beast obviously, but if I'm not mistaken, the first time Dot says her full royal name is in Hot, bothered and bedeviled. When I first watched that episode, I already knew about Wakko's wish so it made sense to me, but a fan watching it in 1993 must've been a bit confused. Was it supposed to be a hint for Wakko's wish (I don't know when they started planning the movie but I suppose way later)? Because King Yakko being canon to the Warners' lore doesn't make sense either. Or maybe Dot reveals her name in an even earlier episode and I just forgot. Or maybe it was just a gag and that's it lmao

This is both an easy question and a hard question! I can firmly say that the Warners are not, in fact, royalty in their base universe. They have no family and certainly aren’t treated regally. At the same time, they are often implied to have a royal background. Since they’re also cartoon characters in-universe, could they have been given a royal backstory that doesn’t actually exist? And Wakko’s Wish could show this.

Dot’s name is a gag but it also is her real name. In-universe we could think that either she was given this name when she was designed, again as a joke, or that she made it up. She does have trouble saying it in Cutie and the Beast, but that doesn’t indicate anything itself. I can sometimes have trouble saying my own Finnish last name!

Realizing that I haven’t added much clarity. I think the answer you’re looking for would be that her name is just a gag and not a hint towards anything in particular. But it could still indicate something royal about the Warners’ characters.

[cf56]

Do you think in the Toonverse in general, that a lot more regulations on Toon-Creation were implemented due to the Warners being drawn?

In order to avoid more too-zany toons.

My goodness, really didn't think this ask was nearly a year old. Sorry.

I definitely do think so! I've long viewed the Warners as the product of a "wild west" period of animation when the first toons were being created and people didn't know what they were doing. They didn't know how to control the product of what they drew, especially not a literally insane person like Lon.

I don't think there were more regulations on how many toons could be created, but rather how. We see in the reboot that they still create toons willy nilly as a concept and throw the resulting living being on the street. No reason to think this isn't an accurate portrayal of what would happen.

The regulations would instead be who is allowed to- probably only trained/licensed animators working for the big Hollywood studios. (I think the studios must have the only means of creating toons, otherwise there would be countless characters coming to life off the drawings of kindergartners and such.) There is probably a defined process. You have to be really specific about the traits and personality of the character you are creating, to prevent them from instantly going haywire and causing mass destruction. These are essentially unpredictable godlike beings that you're unleashing here. You better know what you're doing.

And in a meta sense, we see that a lot of the brand new cartoon characters created in recent decades are just regular people for the most part. They aren't the type to do crazy toon antics, they're rational people, unlike the earlier toons.

(Maybe a bad example, what kind of shit would Bill be up to in the real world? 😳)

What would be even more likely as a result of the Warners' creation is better toon control methods, as dark as that possibility is. Disaster response teams, better methods to reign in or even eliminate rogue toons. But then again, maybe not. The Warners are still alive after all.

[cf56]

The Warners’ species is famously undetermined. What I notice is that they’re always very adamant about what they’re not. It’s possible that they don’t know what species they’re supposed to be, or they’re hiding it from everyone for some reason. It could be something more though.

I can hear Dot’s cute little quote- “we’re not dogs.” Asserting it in a matter of fact kind of way. They don’t want to be called dogs, or cats, or bugs, or anything like that. Dogs don’t walk and talk and think- they do. The thought of being called a mere animal is offensive and demeaning to them.

They look furry and animalistic, but they’re not really. They’re clearly intelligent, although humans have always tried to diminish this and their autonomy as a whole. Maybe they’re trying to assert that they are not any kind of animal. They’re people.

I read a fic once about the Warners grappling with a mixed race identity, not clearly being any one thing and experiencing social problems because of that. They resolve that their mixed identity is an identity unto itself. I think it’s a very nice thought.

What animal are they closest to? Out of all the debate, there’s one that’s never thrown out there but is probably the most correct. They’re closest to humans.

But maybe we’ve been asking the wrong question from the start. Maybe, to the Warners, they just are what they are. They’re just the Warners. They’re just Yakko Wakko and Dot. That identity is good enough for them.