Saturday, June 16, 2012

Early Wakko

From the Animaniacs Development File:  a pose of Wakko Warner, pre-whiskers, circa 1992, drawn by Dan Haskett.  

6 comments:

  1. That's a lovely picture.
    I like it!

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  2. At what time did the first episode go into production? I assume you can't make 65 fully animated episodes with orchestrated sound in one year.

    I've also always wondered how the Tiny Toons episode "Two-Tone Town" fits into this...was it a hint that Animaniacs was coming, or was it written before the later show started and inspired its development in some way?

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  3. Our "machine" was up and running and functioning at full strength, so moving our crews and artists from "Tiny Toons" to "Animaniacs" was fairly smooth. We started thinking about "the new series" in early fall 1991, and by around October the "Animaniacs" title and concept came into focus. We began production in early 1992. We went on the air 21 months later. So you can see we had quite a healthy lead time.

    "Two Tone Town" was not a preview of "Animaniacs." Rick Gehr at Warner Classics had provided me with copies of most of the very early Warner cartoons. Interest in these early cartoons by me and many of the crew led to "Fields of Honey." "Two Tone Town" was a sort of sequel. I liked the look of both of those "Tiny Toon" episodes, so these segments definitely influenced a desire to pursue something new that smacked of the early days.

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  4. I recall that both "Tiny Toons" episodes were packaged together on video tape that I rented as a child.


    Going off-topic, is there any chance of talking about the dwarves show you are working on for Disney? An image of the show has been released and stuffy historians Amidi and Mayerson (both of whom did some crappy shows) are somewhat overracting about it as they are horrified about the redesign of Doc, Dopey, Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful, and Happy, if they are the same iconic little men. Are these differnt dwarves with different names?

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  5. The Disney Company handles all official press releases for its series productions. I can tell you that I am working on the show and that I'm thrilled to be involved with a series that stems from one of Walt's greatest achievements. All of us involved want to bring honor to Walt and his legacy, while at the same time offering up a brand new take on 7 iconic characters. The 7D are redesigned for this Disney Junior series by Noah Z. Jones; they have new voices and enhanced personalities; and they have the same names as they had back in 1937. It's a new version of the classic characters, and there will be plenty to enjoy once they arrive on the television scene in 2014. Until then, the haters and the naysayers and the pretenders like Amidi and his cohorts can take their potshots and make their unenlightened and uninformed critiques and conjectures, while we'll be busy enjoying the process of making a funny and enduring animated television series that will entertain audiences for years to come. And if anyone thinks any of us plan to do less that a great job on this show, they're sadly mistaken.

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    Replies
    1. Good lord, Amid.....I saw that this morning. Has he ever gone after you before? Try not to take it too personally because he does this to EVERYBODY.

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