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SYFY WIRE NYCC Metaverse

The Animaniacs get resurrected in first Spielbergian footage from Hulu's reboot at NYCC 2020

By Josh Weiss
animaniacs_nycc_2020

Helloooooooooo, NURSE! Ahead of the long-awaited Animaniacs return next month, the voice cast and producers popped by New York Comic Con to do what they do every night ... try to take over the world! Well, not exactly — NARF! They actually talked about the upcoming Hulu reboot, which executive producer Wellesley Wild (Family Guy) hopes will deliver on "some nostalgia, some comfort, and some silliness" in these difficult and uncertain times.

The Metaverse panel unveiled the very first footage from the show: a cold open inspired by the iconic scene in Jurassic Park where Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm see the Brachiosaurs for the very first time. Instead of freaking out over a herd of dinosaurs, however, the two paleontologists marvel at the resurrected Warner siblings: Yakko (Rob Paulsen), Wakko (Jess Harnell), and Dot (Tress MacNeille). Steven Spielberg, who returns as a producer, shows up as the John Hammond character. Never shy about delving into topical satire, the Animaniacs turns Donald Gennaro into a greedy Hulu executive. And since Spielberg is involved ("he's incredibly hands-on," according to Wild), they were even able to use some of John Williams' famous score.

Check it out:

While the COVID-19 health crisis did deal an unexpected blow to some of the episode narratives, Wild promised that the classic and adaptable comedy of the original show remains intact.

"The first thing the writers and I did was [compile] a list of events and notable happenings coming in 2020," he said. "We wrote a whole segment about the Olympics and lots of things that won't happen now. We got extra [f***ed] by the coronavirus. Knowing that these episodes weren't gonna air for at least a year and a half to two years, we had to get ahead of things. You'll see all of the parodies and the satire and the pack of jokes in every segment."

"I was really attracted to the variety-show aspect of it," added executive producer Gabe Swarr. "Like putting a bunch of different ideas in and jam-packing it full. I think Wellesley and I like a lot of shows that are visually diverse, so we tried to bring that into the show. It felt like the original show was drawn the same way, and our show really breaks that. We try to go to visually different places, and it kind of updates it."

Watch the full panel below:

In addition to those lovable and zany Warners, the reboot will also bring back Pinky (Paulsen) and the Brain (Maurice LaMarche) segments. The two lab mice are still trying to take over the world, but the situations they now find themselves in are a little different after 22 years.

"What would the Warners say about DNA testing, or [what] would Pinky and the Brain say about internet privacy?" Wild added. "We could just drop these familiar, timeless characters into these scenarios and see where it went. But our main goal was to make something that kept the original show's DNA, which is that perfect balance of sophisticated jokes that [goes] a little over your head if you're a kid, maybe, and then characters getting smashed on the head with a hammer."

The Animaniacs reboot bursts out of the water tower and onto Hulu on Friday, Nov. 20.

Click here for SYFY WIRE's full coverage of New York Comic Con 2020.