The ’90s were considered the golden era for movies, which is still true, however, some people forget that it was this was the golden era for tv shows such as, “SpongeBob,” “Rugrats,” “Pokémon,” and many more but out of all of them, no other show was as unique as “Animaniacs.”

“Animaniacs” was a 1993 show following The Warner Siblings Yakko, Wakko, and Dot. This show did everything tv shows didn’t do at the time; they referenced real-world issues and sometimes had episodes dedicated to them. The fourth wall was broken hundreds of times and made jokes that were not very appropriate, however, since the show’s demographic wasn’t children, it was fine. In 1998, the beloved show would say goodbye for 20 years. Flash forward to 2018, some hope was given that the show would’ve returned after a small cameo in “Teen Titans Go To The Movies.” The reason that this gave the idea that the show would return is because the original voice actors did the lines for the cameo and the animation changed when they appeared. While everyone was trying to figure out the truth, the script for the show was being written in secret. Then, 2019 followed the continuation of the show by beginning the animation. Finally, in 2020, the show was announced and the “Animaniacs” became more popular than ever after two months since the announcement for the show was released. The day had arrived; November 20th will be remembered as the day the “Animaniacs” returned.

The creators of the show put a lot of time and effort into this show and it is very noticeable in the final project. The voice acting is perfect and the animation is one of the best ever seen. The animators combined 3D animation with hand-drawn animation and this type of animation is the best looking; it’s the animation that allowed 2018’s “Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse” the best-animated feature win.

Both are great segments, but after watching the original and then the new one, there is quite a bit that could be added to make the show even better. Other than the show lacking some of the great parts of the previous seasons, there is nothing really bad about it. The writing is incredible and it is continuing what was great about the original: making the show for adults first and then children.

Sadly, it is not the ’90s anymore and everything anyone does or says can offend someone so of course, this show got some hate due to some of its jokes. Most of it is because of the first song of the show and its lyrics about politics. The song is called “Catch Up” and it’s the Animaniacs learning about what has happened since the ’90s.

The lyrics that get some controversy are political.

“Al Gore lost bad cause of one hanging chad Dubya hunted for WMD’s, Obama brought hope, so Clinton thought dope 2016 should be a real breeze.”

“The country is cut into two: the red and the blue. Facebook’s a toxic waste dump, Fox friends are doting, the Russians are voting, and now there is a President Trump.”

People who are very political have had a field day with all these lyrics and the reason they are complaining is because it’s making fun of the President, Facebook, and all that but once more, the “Animaniacs” have always done that and back in the ’90s. No one used to complain and just laughed at the jokes but now everything that has some kind of political-related substance in it is taken extremely seriously.

This isn’t where the whole political controversy ends; it continues in episode two and three. In episode two, Dot explains how women got the right to vote 100 years before 2020, and that turned into a song about cartoons having a right to vote too. The people who complained about this online were complaining that women can vote, so this just shows how bored everyone must be to watch an animated show for mature audiences; they get through multiple episodes and complain when something mature happens.

Episode three had a Greek Mythology theme and the Warner’s wanted to get rid of a mortal from their vacation island, so they sent the mortal to another island with a cyclops, who was Donald Trump, as a punishment. The character then said, “I get it. People are always trying to come to my island because it’s a very nice island, one of the best islands in the world.” “I’m very rich and a great brain and two very excellent eyes that I can see things very well with.”

Maurice LaMarche did the voice impression for Trump and tried to copy his way of speech since sometimes Trump is his own “hype man.”  Of course, this scene was controversial since Cyclops-Trump was talking about how amazing his “island” is and how everyone wants to come to it. However, everyone is missing context. Cyclops-Trump is alone on the island and bragging about how everyone wants to go there. The joke isn’t about America or anything political, the joke is Trump is wanting to make himself seem more than what he is and that is why he is wearing ripped clothes and claims to be rich. He also has one eye instead of the two he claimed he had.

The last bit of controversy isn’t political but it is a lot to unpack. The Warner’s sing a song called “Reboot It” where they sing about how Hollywood is unoriginal.

“We ran out of ideas for a fresh new show so Hollywood did the only thing it knows. “Murphy Brown,” “Melrose Place,” “Gilmore Girls,” “Lost in Space,” “That’s So Raven’s” what they’re cravin.”

Most people take a look at the lyrics and just enjoy the song for what it is, but others are taking very literally and now are complaining about how Hollywood is unoriginal and produces nothing good since they just want to make sequels and reboots. Also,  people complain that the creators of “Aniamniacs” are saying that this show is bad because Hollywood is bad.

“Take something foreign and translate it, shamelessly appropriate it. Even if the old fans hate it, GET THE SCRIPTS RIGHTS CLEARED. You’ve done sequels, try for prequels.”

Normally, lyrics like that would spark anger due to the fact the line written was, “Shamelessly appropriate, even if the old fans hate it,” but no one cares about that line and the real anger comes from animation. When the lyrics, “You’ve done sequels, try for prequels” is sang, an animated poster for a Johnny Depp movie shows up and it sparked a mass amount of rage through the entire internet. Recently, Johnny Depp has been kicked off of most upcoming movie projects due to Amber Herd making allegeded claims of abuse. The trial is still going on and because of that, Depp will not be in any movie projects. This show was talking about movies with Johnny Depp on the screen so of course, this has caused some anger and the viewers are blaming the writer and director of the show for allowing this to appear on screen. This is no fault of the creators since the show was written two years ago and was released right as Johnny’s trial had gone public. The writers have no fault in this; the show release was already announced and they didn’t want to push back the release since the trial had gone public by then and Depp was already kicked off of some movie projects. All the variables were at place and the show was having to deal with the aftermath of it all. Thankfully, it is beginning to calm down since it was just a five second part of a 22 minute episode in a 18 episode season.

At the end of the day, it’s a really good show and if people love amazing animation, writing, jokes, and musical numbers, this show is for them and even if they do not believe they will enjoy, give it a watch; it’s honestly one of the best additions to 2020.

If fans want to give the show a watch, it is on and only on Hulu, which is $5.99 a month for one of the greatest shows of all time. If fans do not have Hulu, then the show is available to just watch the clips of it that are posted on YouTube. It is an amazing show and everyone should give it a watch.