It feels like, at this point in time, we have hit peek 90s nostalgia. I can recall when it felt like 70s nostalgia hit pretty hard and then the 80s arrived not too far after. It’s inevitable whenever a generation that spent much of their adolescence in a given decade hits adulthood. And by adulthood I mean post-grad, rank and file, done with my 20s, sort of adults. They’re usually folks with some disposable income to spend on things that take them back or they’re willing to just sink time into old TV shows. And that’s where a lot of nostalgia used to reside. Programming blocks like Nick at Nite would literally air old television shows its target audience likely enjoyed when they were younger and a whole bunch of small television stations picked up similar shows to fill their programming schedules. Now, with an abundance of television and streaming platforms, the same still takes place, but now more than ever it seems companies are turning to new content with old IPs and that’s fueled a different kind of nostalgia-boom for 90s kids.

Netflix is partly credited (blamed?) for this rise in nostalgic programming as when the platform pivoted from DVD on-demand to streamer it needed a lot more content to pad things out. And when the network found certain things were popular, it was used as a springboard into new content. That is how we ended up with a brand new Animaniacs in 2020. The old episodes were popular enough on Netflix that it convinced Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros. to explore bringing the show back. Either Netflix wasn’t interested, or they were simply outbid, because the show would come back as Hulu’s first original programming for families. The funny thing is, when Hulu made that announcement way back in 2018, a large portion of the company was owned by 20th Century Fox. Fox would famously sell that entire sect of its business to Disney in the ensuing years giving the company majority ownership of Hulu making it a de-facto Disney+ for broader audiences (and they’ll apparently be merging in 2024). Suddenly, Disney was financing a Warner cartoon, and for animation nerds that was kind of amusing. And not only was a new version of Animaniacs bound for the platform, the legacy Warner cartoons were added to Hulu where they resided for a few years before the agreement eventually expired.

Now, if you’re a regular reader of this countdown, you may be thinking “Didn’t we already do Animaniacs this year?” We did, back on the 3rd, but the recent shakeups with Warner have made me a bit uneasy. Since those classic cartoons were dropped from Hulu they’ve failed to show up elsewhere. HBO Max has become just Max and it’s been dropping shows left and right. I don’t know how long Hulu has the Animaniacs reboot for, but I assume it’s not indefinitely. Once it’s removed from Hulu it may be gone for awhile, maybe even forever. Do I want to chance that Animaniacs (2020) will be around next year? Nope, so I figured we might as well double-up on the brand this year. And since we did look at the first iteration of the show early in the countdown, it feels like a nice bookend to come back to it on Christmas Eve. Plus, this episode is more of a Pinky and the Brain episode that feels like an unofficial sequel to the fantastic A Pinky and the Brain Christmas. In short – who cares? This is worth looking at in 2023 just as it would be in any year.

If you haven’t caught up on this new version of Animaniacs, it’s essentially the same as the old, just slimmer. The original Animaniacs was an ensemble and much of that ensemble has been left in the 90s. Some of that makes sense – do we really need a Goodfellas parody or a Rainman one in 2023? Probably not. On the other hand, a character like Slappy Squirrel, who was basically a retired Golden Age character in the original show, could have worked in this show as well, but she wasn’t returned. Imagine if she had been updated to be a retired 90s toon? Or better yet, Slappy got older, but now Skippy was a 90s toon out of his era? At any rate, outside of some cameos basically the only characters brought back were the Warner siblings and Pinky and the Brain. There were a few new segments added, the most prominent being Starbox and Cindy, but that one was limited to only 5 segments across 36 episodes and was still the most frequent outside of the returning characters. Also not returning is series creator Tom Ruegger. No reason was given for it, it seems he just wasn’t asked to come back. I get the sense that Spielberg and others at the company viewed their involvement as the most important essentially slighting Ruegger in the process, be it intentionally or not. He was asked to contribute as a writer, but he turned it down claiming it felt like he was auditioning for the show he created.

Ruegger may not have come back, but the original voice cast did. Which was definitely the right move as it’s hard to imagine Yakko, Wakko, and Dot being voiced by anyone other than Rob Paulsen, Jess Harnell, and Tress MacNeille, respectively. Maurice LaMarche also returns as Brain. And I’m happy to say, that despite the 30 year lay-off, everyone sounds pretty damn great. Paulsen is a wonder as a voice actor as he’s seemingly ageless. I wasn’t surprised his Yakko sounded basically unchanged, but was floored by how he can still handle the manic Pinky with apparent ease. Harnell sounds largely the same as Wakko, while LaMarche will probably be able to execute his Orson Welles impersonation flawlessly from his deathbed. The only one who sounds different is MacNeille, but she also had the hardest task voicing the very high pitched Dot. She seems to play Dot with more of a low voice that’s closer to her natural speaking voice. Sometimes Dot would go low for emphasis in the original run, but she mostly stayed pretty high. Now, it’s more like the opposite and it’s most noticeable with the singing portions. I’m not blaming the actress for getting older or anything, it’s just something that’s likely to stand out for those who watched the show in the 90s.

The penultimate episode for the series is the one devoted to Christmas. Hulu originally ordered a batch of 26 episodes spread over two seasons which began airing in November of 2020. A second order was then placed for a 10 episode third season which is apparently the end for Animaniacs. A lot of these direct-to-streaming shows seem to include a Christmas episode, so I was a little surprised (and disappointed) when the first two seasons did not feature one, but at least we had the third season to pick us up. Though it did arrive in the unseasonable month of February meaning a lot of viewers have probably used this holiday season as an excuse to watch it for the first time or revisit it. The other two seasons dropped in November which would have made so much more sense. And one of them featured a Halloween episode after Halloween. Go figure.

The show begins with its version of the classic Animaniacs opening. The song is almost unchanged, but it was re-recorded by the voice actors for this one. Some lyrics have been altered, most notably Dot is no longer defined by cuteness but by her wit, they’re gender-balanced, pronoun neutral, and their careers have made comebacks! And in keeping with the holiday tradition, there’s snow falling over the opening and there’s some subtle chimes added as well. The animation is obviously no longer ink and paint, but what they created looks pretty good. This is probably as good as Animaniacs could possibly look in 2023, and the character designs are basically unchanged. They’re a little less rounded, the Warner faces are slightly off-white instead of pure white, and that’s pretty much it. For you kids reading this, these basically are your father’s Animaniacs. Credit goes to Titmouse, Inc. for making the show look as good as it does.

After Dot discovers she’s getting “Socks a-gainy,” we go right from the title into the title card of the first segment: How the Brain Thieved Christmas. It’s obviously a Pinky and the Brain segment and basing the title off of the best Christmas special is definitely a promising start. We forego the usual Pinky and the Brain opening and jump straight into the plot. At Acme Labs, a holiday party is underway and all of the researchers are singing “Deck the Halls” and getting toasted on eggnog. The Brain is soon seen lurking behind the water cooler and he whips out a grappling hook and pulls himself towards the door to the lab and a sleeping security guard. The door is locked with a palm reader, and Brain has to struggle to lift the guard’s hand up to the scanner. When he realizes he can’t do so without assistance, he calls out “Who wants eggnog?” and the sleepy guard raises his hand in the affirmative allowing Brain to slap it on the palm reader granting him access to whatever is hidden inside.

As Brain enters a long corridor, we see another researcher show up in the background and promptly pass out. Clearly, by making this show direct-to-streaming it allowed them to bypass the usual censors that probably would not have allowed for such flagrant drunkenness to exist in a kid’s show. Brain makes his way to a pedestal containing some form of anti-matter that he desires. It’s basically a small, floating, ball of light and he apparently needs to extract it from its confines in a very delicate manner to avoid total annihilation. He plays it up for dramatic effect, but seals the ball in a jar with relative ease.

As Brain stands and basks in his success, he ponders aloud why something hasn’t suddenly startled him to foil his plans as so often happens? On cue, Pinky emerges from basically out of no where singing very loudly his own version of “Deck the Halls,” “Check the stalls for hanky-panky. Narf-narf-narf-narf-narf, narf-narf-narf-poit!” Again, more stuff the Fox censors definitely wouldn’t have allowed. Pinky does indeed startle Brain with his singing thus causing him to drop his jar and spoil his plans for world conquest once again. Brain is understandable angry, but as he tries to articulate what Pinky has just done he fails to grasp at the words he’s looking for because Pinky (and the other lab denizens) have started singing “The Twelve Days of Christmas” which is essentially breaking Brain’s brain.

All of this leads Brain to the conclusion that Christmas is an obstacle for his ambition, and when he asks Pinky the question, “Are you pondering what I’m pondering?” Pinky gets to come back with “Yes, but where I’m going to get you – FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!…in this economy?” Brain has to correct him and inform Pinky that he must thieve Christmas, and we have our plot. I was sort of wondering how stealing Christmas was going to factor into Brain’s larger goal of global domination, and now we have our answer. We’re basically taking a night off from the usual in order to setup another quest for conquest that will have to wait until Boxing Day, at the earliest.

We next find Brain and Pinky back in their usual spot in the lab where Pinky is enjoying a thimble full of popcorn while Brain details his plan. In order to steal Christmas, Brain intends to create a toy so popular that it will end up under every Christmas tree. On Christmas Eve, he will activate the toys which will then steal all of the presents under the tree and bring them to he where they will be destroyed. The obstacle before them is how to create a toy of such popularity? Brain then decides he must examine the most popular toys of all time: the Slinky, Silly Putty, the yo-yo, hula hoop and the fidget spinner. As he runs them all down, he demonstrates their simplicity and most also harm him in some way in the process.

Brain concludes that all of these toys share three things in common: they are simple, pointless, and incredibly irritating. I’m not sure I agree on the irritating thing as I can think of a lot of toys far more irritating than these, but we’ll go with it as it leads him to the next plot point. As Brain ponders what embodies those three attributes, Pinky continues to eat his popcorn but in a very loud, irritating, manner. As Brain paces back and forth trying to devise a toy that includes all of the features he identified, he grows more and more frustrated with Pinky before eventually shouting at him to chew with his mouth closed! Pinky then chokes, gags, and spits out the popcorn in his mouth all over Brain. Brain is about to blow a gasket when he has his eureka moment and declares that Pinky is by far the most simple, pointless, and irritating thing in all existence! Pinky thinks this is a compliment and Brain gets right into the design phase of his toy.

Now, I had mentioned this episode felt a bit like a sequel to A Pinky and the Brain Christmas and this is partly why. In that episode, Brain created a doll that looked like him that was supposed to hypnotize the world into viewing him as its leader. This time, Brain is creating a Pinky doll that he’s hoping will carry out his plan. We head into a bit of a musical number featuring Brain designing the toy. It’s a bit of a pseudo-montage as the characters are going to pause to speak and make jokes during this otherwise quick passage of time. Brain is first shown drawing the toy, but has to scold Pinky for posing too seductively. We’ll also see Brain working at a sewing machine, much like the Grinch did before him, but instead of catching Pinky’s tail in the device, he picks up a ratty looking garment and discovers that Pinky is chewing on his finished work. We also get to see Brain inspecting his handiwork, but he’s irate when he finds the Pinky doll he designed has the body of a world class body builder. Pinky was apparently in charge of inserting the stuffing and Brain demands he “De-swolify” the doll immediately causing Pinky to lament “Hot Mouse Summer ended before it even started.” Pinky has become quite the sexual being in this reboot of the show.

Brain then moves onto the programming stage. He beams the program over a modem to the first doll and tests it by asking him the fateful question, “Are you pondering what I’m pondering?” The doll returns with a “I think so, Brain, but perhaps try Javascript for my base code?” causing Brain to conclude, “Too smart.” He then makes a modification and the Pinky doll responds with, “I think so Brain, but if we evolved from monkeys how can there still be monkeys?” This is apparently too stupid and Brain gives it another try, “I think so, Brain, but didn’t we already do a Christmas-based plot in the Emmy Award-winning special A Pinky and the Brain Christmas?” Brain looks at the camera and concludes, “Too meta” following that one. And there’s the acknowledgement I needed.

Frustrated and out of options, Brain unplugs the doll and does something he never expected to do: call for Pinky’s help. Pinky does as he’s told and we soon find him getting plugged into some sort of brain scanning device. Brain tells Pinky to prepare for a long, arduous, process as scanning a rodent’s brain can take months, but before he can even finish his sentence the computer beeps to indicate it’s done. Chalking that one up as a “freebie,” Brain uploads the scan of Pinky’s brain to the doll and asks it once again what he’s pondering. Both Pinky and the Pinky doll come back in unison with, “I think so, Brain, but if love is all we need then why do I still have to go to the bathroom?” Brain smiles a somewhat menacing grin and simply responds with “Yes, why indeed?” as he launches into a fit of maniacal laughter complete with lightning strikes in the background. Pinky then claims he “gets it” and starts laughing too and is soon joined by his duplicate. Brain can only stare dumbfounded so he unplugs the doll from the computer which shuts it down. Pinky looks at it a moment, then agrees that this is a good idea as Santa won’t come if they’re awake. He then wraps himself in the power cord and puts himself to sleep. Brain saunters over and declares they have a Christmas to thieve as he grabs Pinky by the snout and drags him off somewhere. We close with an iris shot of the deactivated doll ending part one of this two part story.

The show is going to take a break from the main plot with what could basically be described as an intermission. “Santamaniacs” is a lot like the Christmas special we looked at earlier this year. It’s a parody of A Visit from Saint Nicholas/‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and uses a narrator (Lesley Nicol) who informs us it’s the day before Christmas at the WB lot. Everyone is working because the company slashed vacation days in a bid to raise productivity. There’s not much to detail as the narrator admits it’s all boring, so we pivot to see what’s going on in the Warner Tower. There we find the Warner siblings all a snooze in their bed…at quarter past 1 in the afternoon. Yakko interrupts the narrator to explain that they’re trying to sleep as much as possible so that Christmas Day arrives faster. The narrator offers to whisper to accommodate their sleeping and Dot pops up to indicate that’s fine as long as she doesn’t get “too ASMR” with it.

The clock then moves faster to indicate the rapid passage of time and we find the Warners waking up at the dark and early time of 2:23 AM. They spring from their beds to find…nothing under the tree. Wakko is confused as he confesses they’ve been naughty before and always got presents. Yakko adds they’ve been exceptionally less naughty of late due to the disappearance of Hello Nurse and Minerva Mink. He holds up 8x10s of both for emphasis (they weren’t brought back for this series). Dot grabs the pictures and crumples them up indicating she knows what they must do now. Wakko tries to finish her thought by suggesting they need to learn that the true meaning of Christmas isn’t presents, but love, generosity, and good will to all. Yakko and Dot stare at each other a moment with confused expressions before all three Warner siblings collapse in a fit of laughter indicating that Wakko’s suggestion is preposterous and meant as a joke. Dot then decides to get serious and informs her brothers that they’re going to go annoy Santa until he gives them presents.

Stuffing themselves into an envelope, the Warners mail themselves to the North Pole with tremendous speed and arrive at Santa’s work shop. There they find a mailbox overflowing with letters that are apparently being ignored. They knock on the door of the home and a gruff voice inside tells them to go away unless they’re the mailman with his reindeer wee-wee pads. Dot wonders what’s stuck up his chimney as the three peer in to investigate. There they find a Santa (John DiMaggio) that’s absolutely jacked and downing peppermint whey protein shakes to generic sounding heavy metal music. The room is being heated by burning Christmas letters, but as Santa sits down to read from an old man magazine, he soon finds himself accosted by the relentless Warner siblings.

They go through a “better not pout,” routine ending with Dot asking if he wants to tell them why he’s about to cry? He relents and tells them he’s basically depressed because for centuries he puts in all of this work, but gets nothing but complaints in return. He dumps a bag of letters on the Warners for emphasis as he rattles off some of the complaints he gets. When Dot points out they’re just the complaints of dumb, entitled, kids he responds with “That last one was from you!” He’s done, but when Wakko asks who is going to deliver all of those presents (an elf peeking from behind the door to the work shop proper closes it in a creepy sort of way) the big man just mutters “I don’t know. Why don’t you do it?”

The Warners look at themselves for a second and then Yakko decides to use this opportunity to launch into a song. The premise of which is that without Santa’s magic they couldn’t possibly hope to accomplish what he does in a single night. Yakko, through song, points out how long it would take to travel around the world and points out they’d need to move at 12 miles per second which would obliterate the reindeer’s bodies in the process. As he sings, he loads Santa into a sleigh and they all fly as the lead reindeer’s nose catches fire. There’s only five reindeer, which is a damn shame.

There’s a break in the song where Santa resumes sitting in his chair and tells the Warners that exploding reindeer is a risk he’s willing to take. We then get a callback to the wee-wee pad remark as Prancer is fixing to piss all over Santa’s tree and he has to jump up to stop him from doing so (I realize the reindeer are supposed to be female, but he was clearly about to pee like a male dog would). Wakko then takes over song duties from his brother and his portion of the song is focused on all of the milk and cookies they’d have to consume throughout the night. The end result of such a caloric intake would make them larger, and denser, than the sun and would destroy the Earth itself. That doesn’t seem possible since the milk, cookies, and the Warners have to exist at the same time to begin with and matter can neither be created nor destroyed, but I’m probably thinking about this too much.

Santa then concedes they may have a point, but he’s not allowed to come around just yet because Dot still has to sing her part! She hops on his lap and goes into her part which concerns trying to figure out which kids were naughty and which were nice. She concludes they would need to create a system of mass surveillance, but the load would be intense since 5 moms give birth per second in the world. She determines this whole thing would run afoul with the FBI and they’d likely wind-up with an elf version of Edward Snowden who would find asylum in Russia and the Warners would land in prison making their conclusion “We could try to do it Santa, but we’re not the NSA!” It ends with the Warners now in festive Christmas attire singing in front of a massive Christmas tree with dancing elves, presents, and agents in reindeer costumes.

The top of the tree opens up and presents start blasting out which land all around Santa standing in front of the remnants of his home. Apparently, the events of the song destroyed it at some point. Santa then asks the Warners if he agrees to deliver the presents will the three of them shut up? Yakko offers no promises, then adds they need a ride home. Santa pulls a lever causing a large pedestal to arise from the ground with his sleigh atop it. The Warners cheer and run for it as Santa drags behind them. The narrator returns to wrap the story up and in the process lets us know (through rhyme) that Prancer still needs to pee. They take to the sky and we get ourselves a Santa moon shot while an “S” searchlight shines overhead. The narrator sets Santa up for the fateful closing line of the poem, but he goes off-script with a “Happy Christmas to all and will you three stop singing?!”

Thus ends “Santamaniacs” returning us to “How the Brain Thieved Christmas.” A massive assembly line is underway assembling Poity Pinky dolls for consumption. Pinky tries to convince Brain to let him keep one for himself, but Brain just takes the box from Pinky and chucks it down a chute while the doll, and rat, declare they’ll never forget “me.” This cuts to a news broadcast and it would appear that Brain did succeed in creating a toy that everyone wants. And it’s in such demand that the reporter (Kimberly Brooks) on TV gets jumped because she happens to be holding one of the dolls.

Brain is mighty pleased at what’s unfolding. He goes into his own rendition of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, which feels a bit redundant after the last segment if I’m being honest. His version is just to setup the realization that 122 million of his inventions are stirring this night ready for action. He holds a remote control to the heavens and sends out the signal, presumably to the other side of the world where Christmas has already settled under the tree. The dolls rise out of their boxes like zombies and begin stealing everything in sight to the sound of “Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairy.” One doll is spotted by a toddler, a very poor one it would seem since her tree makes Charlie Brown’s look nice, and when she asks “Santa?” it almost ruins the whole thing as the doll starts looking for the jolly, old, elf, but another blast from the remote and it resumes its mission.

A whole army of dolls are marching on ACME Labs and Brain is looking on with glee. He gets to parody the Grinch now with, “All those fools soundly slept while their gifts, I retrieved. Hark, Pinky! They’re about to learn Christmas is thieved!” He looks at his partner rather smugly and waits for the reception. You can probably guess how this is going to go. At a nearby tree, not unlike the one erected in Who-Ville, a little girl approaches. To the cries of people (Kari Wahlgren, Danny Jacobs) realizing Christmas was stolen, the girl begins to sing “Silent Night.” Pinky declares this to be his favorite carol while Brain looks on curiously. He opines that this could be bad if it leads to some anti-commercialism sing-a-long, but the shouts of others witnessing this act of “It’s choir or bust for me,” gives Brain some confidence that this will go no where. Of course, then the girl is joined by another – Pinky!

With both Pinky and the girl singing, Brain looks a bit concerned. Then he spies the Poity Pinky dolls returning and a smile spreads across his face. With the dolls there to destroy what has been thieved the singing will be rendered moot. As the dolls approach a burning furnace, they hear the singing, and since they’re all copies of Pinky, they can’t resist. Despite the protests of The Brain, the dolls all stop what they’re doing and run to join in on the sing-a-long. All Brain can do is watch as soon other people join in. His attempt at thieving Christmas went as well for him as it did for the green guy. “I stole all of their presents. I robbed them of cheer! I ruined the happiest day of the year! But now thanks to Pinky’s pig-ignorant brain, they’re caroling louder, and Christmas still came!”

Brain starts angrily disposing of the gifts himself. As he does, he makes mention of the name on the gift and basically taunts the poor kid as he burns their desires away. He then gets to one that is to “The Brain.” Brain pauses and mutters it’s probably another mug with Pinky’s face on it, but his curiosity gets the best of him and he opens it up. It’s not, and instead Brain is shocked to find a perfectly stable particle of antimatter, the very same he destroyed at the beginning of the story. It’s a gesture that moves the mouse to tears.

As the song outside builds to a climax, Brain approaches. Pinky encourages him to “Bring us home, Brain!” He seems a bit reluctant for a moment, but then belts out “Sleep in heavenly peace!” much to the delight of Pinky. The rest of the crowd seems confused, but then cheer alongside Pinky and we get a quick glimpse at a swole Pointy Pinky doll that apparently made it through production. This story isn’t over yet though as Brain needs to do as the Grinch and give back all of the presents. He pulls out his remote and activates it. A rumbling can be heard, and then a massive, robot, sleigh bursts through the walls of ACME Labs overflowing with presents. Little robot arms pop out and start tossing presents to the onlookers, some more forceful than necessary, causing Pinky to declare this the best Christmas ever! He credits that to Brain, but Brain corrects him and says it’s thanks to Pinky. As Pinky embraces Brain, it’s time for him to get his present. A taped-up box drops from the sleigh and Pinky approaches it with nervous energy. He unwraps it to find – what else? – his very own Poity Pinky doll!

Brain then decides to share what he’s learned this Christmas, but as he does we see the sleigh has gone haywire and people are running from it screaming. Brain starts to tell Pinky that he’s shared something with him, but the doll he just gifted Pinky bursts from the box and interrupts him causing him to drop his container of antimatter. It shatters upon the ground and is, once again, lost to Brain. The Pinky dolls all break out into song once again, and it’s the same version of “Deck the Halls” concerning hanky-panky in the bathroom. Brain looks positively dejected, but he turns it around quick. Declaring that it wouldn’t be the holidays without depression and feelings of hopelessness, he commands Pinky to return with him to the lab in preparation for tomorrow night. When Pinky and the dolls ask what they’re going to do tomorrow night, Brain responds, “The same thing we do every Boxing Day, Pinkies. Overdo it on the nog before it expires, and then try to take over the world!” Pinky and his buddy laugh as they skip along behind Brain while we get to see a legless doll crawling after them through the snow with “Happy Holidays” written in spent oil behind it.

And so ends this episode of Animaniacs which is perhaps the last holiday episode any of these characters will be a part of. The third season ends with the following episode and as of right now there are no plans for a fourth. It’s likely this is the last of this version of Animaniacs and if another is to come about it’s probably far off and likely to be a true reboot with an all new cast and creative staff. And if that is the case, at least the original group had a nice send-off as the new version of the show was pretty good!

As for this holiday episode, it’s fine, but lives in the shadow of A Pinky and the Brain Christmas. That is one of the best Christmas specials produced so it’s not like it’s a true negative for this one to not be as good. I was surprised at the similar plot though, but that was clearly intentional as a bit of an in-joke. I do think it was a mistake to have Brain once again find the Christmas spirit via a gift from Pinky. It just doesn’t land with any real emotional impact the second time around. I’m curious how it would play to someone who never saw the original special, but I’m guessing it still comes up a bit short because it just isn’t setup in a sincere fashion. We know it’s coming because we’re watching a Grinch parody so there’s no surprise here, no gut punch, no feels.

That doesn’t mean the special is a failure, because it most certainly is not. Instead, this one succeeds as a comedy. Just a straight-forward satirical takedown of Christmas. It doesn’t quite set its fangs into the holiday, but it pokes fun at its expense. The middle segment starring the Warners is solid, but I did think the musical number felt flat. The idea was good, and the animation that accompanied it was entertaining, but the song itself lacked the usual polish the show is known for. It lacked a fun melody and as a result the actors felt like they were just reading off a piece of paper. Were the song’s lyrics too complex? Perhaps, but it’s not up to the show’s usual standards.

It’s a relatively minor critique as the gags still functioned well in telling the story. I’m not sure why Santa was some buff dude as it appeared to be a gag that only existed to subvert expectations that didn’t add any layers. I did enjoy the more “adult” situations and jokes like Pinky’s song about sex in a bathroom stall, his desire to be seductive, and his affection for muscular mice. I guess I just really liked all of the Pinky stuff.

This one may not be as good as A Pinky and the Brain Christmas, but it holds up very well compared to the other Animaniacs Christmas episodes. I’d even entertain an argument that it’s the best one. And if you want to check it out for yourself you can find it on Hulu. It’s also available for rent and purchase via other means if you don’t want to sign up for the service, it’s just too bad the older series isn’t still on there. And if you can’t tell, I think you should! Especially if you’ve ever considered yourself an Animaniacs fan.