I just watched the first episode of the Animaniacs reboot.
When the theme song went into "Ethnically diverse, gender neutral" and all that jazz, I was like "Oh no..."
If there is anything Animaniacs shouldn't be, its a tool for pandering. And sadly, the first Warner short was filled with it.
Hell, the old show did an entire cartoon mocking that very concept of pandering for ass pats and "awards" and it was one of my favorite episodes as a kid.
I was already disappointed that the show was primarily just going to be The Warners and Pinky and the Brain. Yes, they are the best and most popular characters, but I liked the Goodfeathers and Slappy Squirrel too. But to use Animaniacs to pander to mental and emotional midgets...its just upsetting.
And I'm fine with them poking fun at Trump...they reamed into Clinton pretty good in the old show, and the sad truth is, if comedy wasn't just a dead artform at this point, Trump would be a goldmine of comedic possibilities. But now, when you present Obama and Hillary as heroes and then make Trump into a monster, it removes the fun "No limits, everyone is a target" feel of the old show, and it just feels like more propaganda....you know, like almost everything else. The 2nd Warners part with the reboot song was cute though its weird to see them be like "Yeah, reboots suck, and we're doing it too, but we're honest about it, lolz".
Now that said, the Pinky and the Brain short was MUCH better. That felt like a standard, if not great, P&B cartoon for the modern age and they trashed Seth Meyers. Its nice to see celebs get mocked again (something that has become weirdly taboo in the last few years).
I'm worried about watching the rest of this as I can already tell certain things are going to be left out. No way in hell Hello Nurse gets in this, and with her departure, also goes Yakko and Wakko's flirty-ness (which again, yielded some of the old show's best jokes). The old show worked because it was zany and wacky, but also because it was a little naughty and it made kids feel like they were watching something a bit more advanced. You can't subtract from the series, dull the edges, and expect it to work. You can't give us less, call it the same thing, and expect universal praise.
Also why was there no Water Tower stinger at the end of the end credits? It was nice to get one last gag at the end of the old show. I guess they figured most people will just skip the end credits.