Pinky and the Brain

Pinky and the Brain are genetically enhanced laboratory mice who reside in a cage in the Acme Labs research facility. Pinky is good-natured but feeble-minded, while Brain is highly intelligent but arrogant, devious, and bitter. In the bulk of each episode, Brain devises a new plan to take over the world with Pinky's assistance, which ultimately ends in failure, usually due to the impossibility of Brain's plan, his own arrogance and overconfidence, an oversight on his part, Pinky's bumbling, circumstances beyond their control, or a combination thereof. This formula has some exceptions. One centers on Snowball's plan to take over the world using Microsponge (a parody of Microsoft). In common with many other Animaniacs shorts, many episodes are in some way a parody of something else, usually a film or novel. Many of the Pinky and the Brain episodes occur at Acme Labs, located in a large American city underneath a suspension bridge. Several episodes take place in historical times, with Pinky and Brain in the laboratory of some scientifically minded person, including Merlin, H. G. Wells, Ivan Pavlov, and Johannes Gutenberg. There is very little continuity between episodes, outside of the common fixtures of the two mice. Though some plans for world domination from early episodes are subsequently referred to in later seasons; for example, Brain's mechanical human suit that was first used in "Win Big" Although Pinky and Brain plan to conquer the world, they do not show much animosity. In a Christmas special, Pinky even wrote a letter to Santa Claus saying that Brain had the world's best interests at heart. == Episodes ==

The Brain The Brain or "Brain" for short (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) looks and sounds like Orson Welles. In "What Ever Happened to Baby Brain", Brain actually crosses paths with Welles, who is working as a busboy in a Hollywood restaurant, and they find themselves inadvertently yelling in unison, "Things will be different when I take over the world!" In "Project B.R.A.I.N.", Brain's name is the backronym for the eponymous project: "Biological Recombinant Algorithmic Intelligence Nexus". His tail is angular and bent – he often uses it to pick the lock of the cage door – and his head is large and wide, housing his abnormally large brain. He is highly intelligent and develops complex plans for global domination using politics, cultural references, and his own inventions toward his goal. He seems coldly unemotional, speaking in a snarky deadpan voice. Nevertheless, Brain has a subtle sense of humor and has even fallen in love, with Trudie in the episode "The Third Mouse" and with Billie in "The World Can Wait". Due to his stature and megalomania, Brain has been compared to Don Quixote and has been called a pop culture depiction of Napoleon Bonaparte. Many of the Brain's plots have the endgame of winning over the people's hearts and then having them make him their ruler. However, his motives are pure. He sees his inevitable rise to power as good for the world and not as mere megalomania. According to the creators, Brain wants to take over the world not for the sake of being a dictator, like his rival Snowball, but because he believes that he could do a much better job of it than the people currently in charge. Brain has even helped save the world by doing everything in his power to prevent Snowball's evil schemes, knowing that a world under Snowball's rule would be a worst-case scenario. In ''Animaniacs: Wakko's Wish'', he said to Pinky "We're on our way to fame, fortune and a world that's a better place for all." In one episode, Brain finds himself hypnotized by a psychologist whom he had planned to manipulate for one of his schemes, who turns out to be none other than Sigmund Freud. There, Brain reveals that he originally lived with his parents in a tin can at the base of a tree in a large field. When he was young, ACME researchers captured Brain and took him from his home, and the last he saw of it was a picture of the world on the side of the can. Dr. Freud speculates that Brain's hunger to take over the world is misplaced, and that all he really wants is to go back home to his parents. In the 2020 Animaniacs reboot, Brain gains a new rival in taking over the world in the form of his wife, Senator Julia Brain, after his attempts to mind-control her into becoming a puppet ruler for him led to her becoming insane. Pinky Pinky (voiced by Rob Paulsen) is a genetically modified mouse who shares the same cage as Brain at Acme Labs. Pinky is an extremely unstable and hyperactive mouse. He has several verbal tics, such as "Narf", "Zort", "Poit", and "Troz", the last of which he started saying after noticing it was "Zort" reflected backwards in a mirror. Pinky's appearance contrasts with Brain's – while Brain is short, has a crooked tail and pink sclerae, and speaks in a deeper, more eloquent manner, Pinky is tall, has a straight tail, blue sclerae, and a severe overbite, and speaks in a high-pitched voice with a Cockney British accent. Pinky's name was inadvertently given to him by Brain himself: when insulting the two scientists responsible for their gene splicing while talking to himself, Brain claimed the scientists had "less knowledge in both their heads than I do in my...pinky!" Pinky then responded with "Yes?", believing that Brain was referring to him. • Billie (voiced by Tress MacNeille) is a female white mouse and yet another result of gene splicing. She is smarter than Brain and also has the goal of world domination. Pharfignewton is a reference to a slogan from a Volkswagen ad from 1990: "Fahrvergnügen", which means something like "the enjoyment of driving". • Larry (voiced by Billy West) is a white mouse who was created as a response to demands from Kids' WB executives to include additional characters on the show. and Pinky's parents and the duo's "son", "Roman Numeral I" (Romy for short) another white mouse who was the result of a cloning mistake. Episodes also include recurring caricatures of celebrities, including both Bill and Hillary Clinton, David Letterman, Dick Clark, Drew Carey, Ryan Stiles, Kathy Kinney, J. D. Wilkes, Paul Gilmartin, Annabelle Gurwitch, Don Rickles, Michael Keaton, Eric and Donny from Too Something, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, The Allman Brothers Band, David Cross, Jack Black, Chris Shiflett, Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle, and Christopher Walken, as was common on other Animaniacs cartoons. == Creation and inspiration ==

Pinky and the Brain was inspired by the peculiar personalities of two producers of Tom Ruegger's earlier show Tiny Toon Adventures, Eddie Fitzgerald and Tom Minton, respectively. Series producer Peter Hastings described Eddie by saying, "He always greeted you like you were wearing a funny hat – and he liked it." During the development of Animaniacs, animator Bruce Timm drew caricatures of Minton and Fitzgerald, and Ruegger then added mouse ears and noses to the drawing, cementing the concept for Pinky and the Brain. The Fitzgerald/Minton connection to Pinky and the Brain is shown in the episode "The Pinky and the Brain Reunion Special". While Ruegger initially based the Brain after Minton, the Welles connection came from Maurice LaMarche, a big fan of the actor/director, who had supplied the voice for Orson Welles in the 1994 movie Ed Wood. LaMarche stated that on coming in to audition for the character of the Brain, he saw the resemblance to Welles and went with that for the voice, and he was given the role on the spot. LaMarche describes Brain's voice as "65% Orson Welles, 35% Vincent Price". Brain's resemblance to Orson Welles was made explicit in an Animaniacs episode parodying Welles' infamous Frozen Peas ad outtake. This cartoon was described by writer Peter Hastings as "a $250,000 inside joke": LaMarche used excerpts from it as sound check material before recording episodes, and Hastings took it to its logical conclusion. The writers developed the script in secret playing off these test lines and the Frozen Peas outtakes, and arranged to have recording on the same day as Sam Kinison's funeral, whom LaMarche was a close friend of. Prior to LaMarche's arrival, the other voice actors, including Paulsen, recognized the humor of the script after they started reading it. According to Paulsen, when LaMarche arrived, he had originally kept his professionalism after the funeral, but broke down in happiness as he recognized the script for what it was. The series also alluded to Welles with an episode in which Brain took on the mind-clouding powers of a radio character called "The Fog": a parody of The Shadow, a popular radio character for which Welles once provided the voice. Other Welles allusions include "Battle for the Planet", in which Brain, inspired by Welles' infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast and the hysteria that it provoked, stages an alien invasion on television. A caricature of Orson Welles appears in a late episode of the series ("What Ever Happened to Baby Brain"), echoing a rant of the Brain's and introducing himself afterwards. One episode is a full parody of the film noir film from 1949,The Third Man. Paulsen had already been selected to voice Pinky as he was already voicing Yakko Warner for Animaniacs. was the first Pinky and the Brain segment. It was developed for Animaniacs, written by Ruegger with a script by Peter Hastings, and directed by Rusty Mills. According to Ruegger, most of the elements that would become part of Pinky and the Brain can be found in Hastings's original script. It held many dialogue bits that became conventions of the entire series, including Brain's "Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?", Pinky's "Oh...wait, no." in response to a plan, and Pinky's final question, "Why, Brain? What are we going to do tomorrow night?" == Production ==

Producers As with Animaniacs, Steven Spielberg was the executive producer during the entire run, Tom Ruegger was the senior producer, Jean MacCurdy was the executive in charge of production, and Andrea Romano was the voice director. Peter Hastings, Rusty Mills and Liz Holzman produced the series when it was spun off from Animaniacs, as well as the season it ran primetime on the WB. After the first season Hastings left the show and Mills took over as the supervising producer. Writing The original Pinky and the Brain shorts on Animaniacs were written primarily by Peter Hastings. Upon moving into its own series, the writing staff included Gordon Bressack, Charles M. Howell IV, Earl Kress, Wendell Morris, and Tom Sheppard. Comedian Alex Borstein was also a staff writer, years before her fame on MADTV and Family Guy. Classic Warner Bros. cartoon director Norm McCabe also wrote for the series. Voice actors and Maurice LaMarche together at the 34th Annie Awards red carpet. Pinky and the Brain were voiced by Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche, respectively. The series also used the work of many of the same voice actors for Animaniacs, including Tress MacNeille, Jess Harnell, Frank Welker, Nancy Cartwright, Janet Waldo, and Jeff Bennett. Celebrities such as Roddy McDowall, Nora Dunn, Townsend Coleman, Ernest Borgnine, Eric Idle, Dick Clark, Ed McMahon, Steve Allen, Joyce Brothers, Gavin MacLeod, John Tesh, Michael McKean, Garry Marshall, Mark Hamill, James Belushi, and Steven Spielberg have all performed guest voice work for the series as well. Cree Summer has also voiced characters in Pinky and the Brain and reprised her role as Elmyra Duff during Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain. Music As with Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain was scored by a team of five composers, led by Emmy Award-winning composer Richard Stone. This team included Steven Bernstein and Julie Bernstein, who also orchestrated and sometimes conducted the 40-piece orchestra. It was recorded at the Eastwood Scoring Stage, which was used by Carl Stalling for his work on Looney Tunes. The theme song for Pinky and the Brain was composed by Richard Stone with lyrics by Tom Ruegger. The episode Napoleon Brainaparte makes frequent reference to the French anthem, La Marseillaise, Animation Pinky and the Brain was key frame produced by Warner Bros. Animation under contract with Animated F/X systems in Sherman Oaks California. All individual episode scene backgrounds were created by Warner Bros. background artists, then digitally scanned and color corrected. All characters and scene props were ink and painted digitally then sent abroad for final animation and filming at the following offshore studios. Like Animaniacs, most of the original Pinky and the Brain segments used a variety of animation studios, including Tokyo Movie Shinsha, StarToons, Wang Film Productions, and AKOM. The bulk of the episodes created outside of Animaniacs (seasons 2 and beyond) were produced by Rough Draft Studios, Wang Film Productions and AKOM. The only episode that was animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha on the spin-off series was A Pinky and the Brain Christmas. Humor Like Animaniacs, much of the humor in Pinky and the Brain was aimed at adult audiences. Parodies of pop culture icons were quite common on the series, more so during the original episodes developed for the WB prime time slot. In addition to previously mentioned political and actor caricatures, some episodes included complete parodies like those in Animaniacs. The episode "The Megalomaniacal Adventures of Brainie the Poo" parodies Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise. "Cameos" include Jagger instead of Tigger and Algore instead of Eeyore. Algore is "full of hot air", and shown floating like a balloon. Other parodic elements include Christopher Walken in place of Christopher Robin and the "Brainie the Poo" book appears to have been written by "A. A. Meeting." The three-part episode "Brainwashed" included several allusions to the television show The Prisoner, though everyone in this version of the Village was identified by the hat that they wore, and not by a number. Three songs resemble the musical segments in Animaniacs, matching existing music with new lyrics. Pinky sings "Cheese Roll Call" to John Philip Sousa's march "Semper Fidelis" praising his love for all cheeses from around the world. To the music of "Camptown Races", Brain lists the major parts of the human brain, with Pinky jumping in at the chorus to shout "Brainstem! Brainstem!". "A Meticulous Analysis of History" is set to "When I Was a Lad" from Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, and sung by both Brain and Pinky, with Brain reciting the rise to power of such historical leaders as Napoleon and Cleopatra, while Pinky mentions how they all fell. In addition, "Brainwashed" featured a song called the Schmëerskåhøvên, a parody of the Macarena, which would brainwash people if it was done correctly. The song includes such odd lyrics as "Put your fingers in your ears, then stick them in your belly" and "Bop yourself on the head and cross your eyes." Another common element in nearly every episode is the following exchange (often referred to by the acronym "AYPWIP"):Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?Pinky: I think so, Brain, but... Pinky's response ends with a non sequitur such as, "we're already naked", "isn't a cucumber that small called a gherkin?" or "if they called them Sad Meals, kids wouldn't buy them." Brain would then become furious, often bashing Pinky on the head. A few times in the series Pinky and Brain indeed pondered the same thing, though in one of these Pinky dismissed his idea as being too stupid. Just one time the answer was "Yes I am!", when Pinky's intelligence is elevated to match Brain's. In another episode, it turns out that what Pinky was pondering was that he and Brain never ponder the same thing, which turned out to be part of what Brain was pondering as well. In a short episode ("Pinky's P.O.V.") the spectator sees everything Pinky sees (including his imaginations) and hears his thoughts. His brain seems to censor a large portion of Brain's dialogue, leaving Pinky to wander into random internal tangents until Brain asks the question. Pinky then responds with whatever was on his mind at the end of the tangent. == Reception ==

Variety writer Tony Scott was critical of the show after its premier saying "...the plot, the in jokes and the overall concept need retooling." Popularity Pinky and the Brain were popular on Animaniacs, and the popularity continued into their own series. It attracted many of the same fans as Animaniacs, and Internet outreach attracted more. Maurice LaMarche and Rob Paulsen appeared on voice actor tours around the Warner Bros. Studio Stores. In an interview on the third DVD volume, LaMarche and Paulsen noted that Roy Langbord (vice-president of Showtime), Al Franken, and Barenaked Ladies are fans of the shows. Naughty Dog co-founder Jason Rubin was also fond of the series; the character of the Brain served as an influence in the creation of Doctor Neo Cortex, the main antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot video game series. Nominations and awards Pinky and the Brain won several Emmy and Annie Awards. In 1996, the series won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program for the episode A Pinky and the Brain Christmas. Paulsen won the Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for "Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Television Program" in 1996 and 1997, while LaMarche won the same in 1998. Paulsen also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for his role as Pinky subsequently in 1999. The series itself won the 1999 Daytime Emmy for "Outstanding Special Class Animated Program". The episode "Inherit the Wheeze", in which Brain was subject to the effects of smoking by a tobacco company, won a PRISM Award for its anti-smoking message. == History ==

Animaniacs Pinky and the Brain first appeared as a recurring segment on the animated series Animaniacs, another series produced by Steven Spielberg. On September 14, 1993, Pinky and the Brain premiered on television in the episode "Win Big", which aired on the FOX network. The first season was scheduled in a prime time slot from September 10, 1995, through July 21, 1996, on Kids' WB!, with episodes also being repeated within the Saturday morning cartoon block. It had been envisioned for the series to be the WB network's answer to The Simpsons, at that point in its 7th season, which was running on the FOX network. The episode "Pinky and the Brain...and Larry" Following the production of the episode, the network backed off from forcing new characters into the show. A third and final season was ordered, releasing on February 17, 2023. A series of four promotional shorts, starring Pinky and the Brain teaching a MasterClass on world domination, was released on March 17. == Merchandise ==

Pinky and the Brain, along with Animaniacs, aired coincident with the formation of the Warner Bros. Studio Store chain across the United States, and, as a result, numerous T-shirts, coffee mugs, stuffed animals, animation cels, and original artwork from the show were available through these outlets. Other merchandise included comic books, computer games, and videotapes. When Warner Brothers acquired the Hanna-Barbera animation properties in 1998, there was a significant decrease with such merchandise through the store. By the time the series was cancelled, very little merchandise was available. VHS releases Four VHS collections of Pinky and the Brain episodes were released in 1996 and 1997, each with approximately two to four episodes that included shorts from Animaniacs. These collections are now out of print. DVD releases Warner Home Video has released all 65 episodes on DVD in Region 1 over three volumes, as well as a "Complete Series" bundle that was released on September 26, 2023. Comic books Pinky and the Brain were also regulars in the Animaniacs comic book series published by DC Comics. From July 1996 to November 1998, they also starred in their own comic book series (also published by DC Comics), which ran first for one Christmas Special issue and then 27 regular issues before its cancellation. Following the cancellation of the Pinky and the Brain series, the two mice later starred in stories that took up half of the later issues of the Animaniacs comic book series which, starting at issue #43, was re-titled Animaniacs featuring Pinky and the Brain and ran for another 16 issues before the aforementioned series' cancellation. Video games There are two video games based on Pinky and the Brain. The first, a PC game called Pinky and the Brain: World Conquest, was produced by SouthPeak Games and distributed by Warner Bros. The second was Pinky and the Brain: The Master Plan for the Game Boy Advance. The game was produced by Warthog and distributed by SWING! Entertainment in 2002. A third game, titled simply Pinky and the Brain, was announced for the Sega Saturn in 1996 and was planned to be published by Konami, but was later cancelled. The characters have also appeared in several of the Animaniacs video games, such as Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt. Music While Pinky and the Brain does not feature as many songs as Animaniacs, some of the music from the show can be found across the three Animaniacs CDs. An expanded version of the Animaniacs segment "Bubba Bo Bob Brain" presented in a radio drama or audiobook fashion was released as a read-along book and CD in 1997 by Rhino Entertainment. == See also ==