‘Animaniacs’ rumored for Spielberg reboot, says report

Image: Amblin Entertainment via AFP Relaxnews

The 1990s cartoon series “Animaniacs” is in line to return with Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros. exploring the possibility of a reboot, according to a new report.

Steven Spielberg production company Amblin Television and Warner Bros. Animation are discussing a potential reboot of “Animaniacs”, a mid-90s cartoon series starring Yakko, Wakoo and Dot, three oddball siblings only recently released from the iconic Warner Bros. water tower after a 60-year internment.

They presided over 99 episodes of variety show format broadcasts which, though directed at children, regularly lampooned films and shows familiar to an older audience.

Segments featured original characters such as Slappy Squirrel, Buttons and Mindy, and, most famously, Pinky and the Brain, a clever-stupid cartoon mouse pairing that succeeded the first “Animaniacs” run in the same way that “Animaniacs” had taken the baton from Amblin and Warner’s earlier “Tiny Toon Adventures”.

Though Steven Spielberg is most famous for a feature film career that spans “Jaws”, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and “Indiana Jones” through to “Saving Private Ryan”, “Bridge of Spies” and “The BFG”, Amblin’s TV division has overseen production of everything from “Animaniacs” and “Tiny Toon Adventures” to “Seaquest DSV”, “ER”, “The Borgias” and “The Americans”.

A broadcaster for the new “Animaniacs” is not yet tied down, according to IndieWire’s report, which notes that the original series has “experienced a new surge in popularity” after landing on Netflix in 2016.

The digital on-demand service has already taken Warners’ previous 1990s reboot, “Full House” revisitation “Fuller House”, not necessarily an indication of collaboration where a revived “Animaniacs” outing is concerned, but at the least underlining the viability of new adventures with Yakko, Wakoo and Dot. JB

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