Pinky and the Brain
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| Pinky and the Brain | |
|---|---|
 Pinky (right) and The Brain |
|
| Genre | Animated series |
| Creator(s) | Tom Ruegger |
| Starring | Maurice LaMarche Rob Paulsen |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 65 (plus 13 episodes of Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain) (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 0:11 or 0:22 (depending on the episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | The WB Television Network |
| Original run | September 9, 1995 – September 28, 1998 |
Pinky and the Brain are cartoon characters from the animated television series Animaniacs. Later, they starred in their own animated spinoff called Steven Spielberg Presents Pinky and the Brain, and even later in Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain. These later series were produced by Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros. Animation, and aired from 1995 to 1998 on The WB Television Network, running for 65 episodes.
The two are genetically enhanced lab mice who reside in a cage in the Acme Labs research facility. Each week sees Brain come up with a new plan for the two (led by him) to take over the world, which ultimately ends in failure. In common with many other Animaniacs shorts, many episodes are in some way a parody of something else—usually a film. The cartoon's famous tagline is: "Gee, Brain, what'd you wanna do tonight?" "The same thing we do every night, Pinky — Try to take over the world!"
Although they plan to conquer the earth, there isn't a lot of antagonism seen in them, and in a Christmas special Pinky even wrote to Santa that Brain had the world's best interests at heart. This is reinforced by Brain's promises that he will provide more funding for law enforcement and the like.
The series won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class—Animated Program in 1996.
Contents |
[edit] The Brain
The Brain bears a resemblance to Orson Welles, particularly in his vocal characteristics (voiced by Maurice LaMarche). LaMarche won an Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Television Program Production for this role in 1998. Series producer Tom Ruegger initially based Brain on a caricature of WB animation staffer Tom Minton, a long-time cartoonist. The Welles connection comes from LaMarche, who is a big fan of the actor/director. LaMarche describes Brain's voice as "65% Orson Welles, 35% Vincent Price". Brain is highly intelligent and develops Rube Goldberg plans for global domination. His tail is bent like a staircase (which he often uses to pick the lock of the cage), and his head is large and wide, supposedly housing his abnormally large brain. He appears to be coldly unemotional and speaks in a deadpan manner. Nevertheless, Brain has a very subtle sense of humor, and has even fallen in love once, with Billie (voiced by Tress MacNeille), an initially rather dippy girl mouse with a Queens accent (perhaps based on the Citizen Kane character Susan Alexander, in another Welles connection), Later, Billie became even more brilliant than Brain, but showed no interest in either him or the idea of planetary conquest. Intellectually, Brain sees his inevitable rise to power as beneficial to the world rather than mere megalomania.
The characteristics of Brain would lead one to believe that he is more suited to be an antagonist rather than a protagonist (in fact, he was a major boss character in both the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo versions of the Animaniacs video game), but the series tends to present him as a quixotic fellow striving for greatness against the odds, evoking sympathy from the audience and causing viewers to like him, despite his seemingly evil plans for world domination. Such a thing is typical of an anti-hero, which many consider Brain to be. The absurdity of a normally insignificant creature hungering for world dominance adds to the comical effect, and one senses a Napoleon complex within him, despite the gravitas of his Wellesian diction — highlighted when other characters inadvertently become as smart as or smarter than he. Unfortunately for the Brain, his schemes are inevitably doomed to failure by reason of one or more of a few common mishaps: Pinky doing something idiotic to ruin the plan, Brain gravely under/overestimating the masses' intelligence, or, simply, bad luck. In many of Brain's plans, he plainly says to one of the people he is trying to fool that he is actually a genetically altered lab mouse bent on world domination, but the person usually takes it as a joke. That habit has been the reason one of his plans failed. A possible reason he keeps doing this is that he is testing the humans' intelligence. Brain is more compassionate than many give him credit for: he rarely seeks to do anybody direct harm, and in many episodes he rescues Pinky and other mice from being killed, and defends the world from those who seek world domination for their own evil ends.
Brain's similarity to Orson Welles was made explicit in the Animaniacs episode "Yes, Always", which was based upon an outtake from one of Welles' television commercials, colloquially known as Frozen Peas, in which he ranted about the poor quality of the script. This cartoon was described by writer Peter Hastings as "a $250,000 inside joke": LaMarche used excerpts from it as sound check material, and Hastings took it to its logical conclusion. Strengthening the Welles connection was 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 episodes alluding to Welles included an episode entitled "The Third Mouse," a parody of The Third Man in which the Brain played the part of Welles' character Harry Lime (with Pinky as Holly Martins), and an episode, "Battle for the Planet," in which Brain, inspired by Welles' infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast and the hysteria it provoked, stages an alien invasion on television, believing that this will cause humanity to erupt in mass panic, allowing him to seize power.
A breakdown of the Brain's voice: [Orson Wells] [Vincent Price]
[edit] Pinky
Pinky (voiced by Rob Paulsen) is another genetically modified mouse who shares the same cage at Acme Labs but is substantially less bright. He speaks with a heavy Cockney accent (though English people familiar with genuine Cockney accents may well dispute this). He frequently says nonsensical interjections such as "narf", "zort","poit", and "troz" (the last of which Pinky started saying after noticing it was "'zort' in the mirror"). He also used "fjord" and "gnurf" on unique occasions, and "natch" in an episode set in the film noir era, as well as "hark" in an episode that was partially set in the medieval ages. Rob Paulsen won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for this role in 1999. Senior producer Tom Ruegger based Pinky on former Tiny Toon Adventures writer and director Eddie Fitzgerald (who has also worked on Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures and Ren and Stimpy) who is said to have constantly said "Narf" and "Egad" around the Tiny Toons production office. Series producer Peter Hastings described Eddie by saying, "He always greeted you like you were wearing a funny hat - and he liked it."
Although Pinky is also an albino lab mouse like the Brain, he has a straighter tail, a severe overbite, and is taller than the Brain. Pinky is more open-minded than the Brain (evidenced best, perhaps, by his crush on a similar-looking horse named Phar Fig Newton), and much more up-beat. He doesn't let troubles ruin his day, mostly because he's too scatter-brained to notice them. Pinky also works with Brain despite the fact that Brain insults him constantly and often beats him over the head. However, Pinky actually seems to enjoy this, laughing after every hit. Pinky is just happy spending time with his best friend.
Pinky has a number of unusual special abilities, something like 'magic' but caused by his genetic engineering. Most notably, he occasionally levitates, but also has been known to come up with incredible insights on the scale that one would expect from Brain, contrasting with his otherwise stupid appearance. This was also demonstrated in another episode where we get a 'Pinky-Vision' of one of the typical night's activities (i.e. taking over the world), and discover that Pinky is in fact extremely intelligent, but in a totally different way to what was expected — he in fact has a great imagination coupled to a very highly developed level of extrapolation. His seemingly random statements actually arise from an observation, tempered by a whimsical imagination, which then are extrapolated to an absurd conclusion. For instance, on seeing the Brain in a distorting mirror, imagines him fatter, and then 'what if the Brain looked like a Hippopotamus?' leads to thoughts about the "unmentionables" a Hippopotamus would wear, and finally the utterance — 'Yes Brain, but what if the Hippopotamus won't wear the thong?' Pinky also tends to take things very literally, as seen by his response when Brain ends a sentence with; "...and there the genius lies!" Pinky responds, "Having a nap is he?"
Another example of his hidden intelligence was shown when the two mice were placed into an elaborate maze by a group of scientists. One particular obstacle which the pair had to overcome was a holographic projector which would tempt them by showing them whatever they most desired, initially showing them the piece of cheese which marked the exit. Pinky amazed the Brain by approaching the device, against the Brain's advice, at which point the hologram displayed a complete map of the maze as Pinky's most pressing desire was to wish for a map that would lead them to the maze's exit.
The viewer might consider that Brain should be frustrated by the success that could have been possible if he'd listened to or asked Pinky about the situation and/or plan, but Brain rarely shows anything more than a confused or sarcastic face and sometimes a comment, and usually near the end of the episode.
The show's theme song informs us that "One is a genius, the other's insane." Taken at face value, the Brain is supposed to be a genius and Pinky is supposed to be insane. Pinky's unpredictable and startling insight versus Brain's rather more plodding and stubborn approach to "taking over the world" has led more than one fan to suggest that Pinky is, in fact, the real genius rather than Brain. Other elements suggesting Pinky's mental superiority can be noticed throughout all episodes. Watching the cartoon through this perspective makes the viewer aware of human behavior that isn't logical. One example is figures of speech which the Brain uses to give Pinky commands. Pinky carries out actions based on the literal meaning of the commands.
In at least one instance, Pinky had much of an episode centering around himself wherein he took on some of Brain's motivation for taking over the world. This episode has Pinky becoming extremely successful at ruling at least a town, but of course the whole thing is put through the wringer of Pinky's 'clockwork orange' view of things, hence Pinky's choice of naming the town: "I think I'll call it 'Shiny Pants', because everyone in there will want to wear shiny pants..." and goes on to describe his ultimate goal and the path to get there. Seeing Pinky's unexpected success, Brain is understood to wonder questions similar to many that have been asked for centuries: "Why do people with such capacity for power seem to waste it on crazy things that work out somehow, but shouldn't?"
In one episode, Pinky addressed a group of world leaders, lauding Brain's talents and intelligence to them, and convincing them to give Brain control of their countries. Brain, who was very upset at the time, repulsed the leaders with his anger and rudeness, leading them to rescind their offer. A mortified Brain later realized that Pinky had delivered the world to him on a silver platter, and he himself scuttled the deal. The supreme irony is that the apparently stupid Pinky nearly took over the world using honest and open discussion and talk, as opposed to the overly complicated and Machiavellian strategies Brain himself typically uses, and that Brain himself prevented the conquest from taking place. Pinky has a great heart, and he always tries to agree with Brain, until he's placed in a situation where he has power, and realizes that Brain's plans are morally wrong. At these times Brain is usually left in danger with Pinky coming to his rescue at the expense of his power. In "The Pink Candidate" Pinky ends up as the President of the United States with only minor help from Brain, and gave up his position of power to save Brain from being "Stoned" by the Senators.
Brain often asks Pinky about famous people when needed, for example when a basketball player was receiving attention, Brain asks why, which concludes in him using basketball to attempt to take over the world. The reason for Pinky's knowing so much about famous people is because he, according to Brain, "watch[es] too much TV," while Brain himself is usually too preoccupied with his plans of world domination to do so.
In an episode surrounding the origin of their receiving their intelligence, it is revealed that it was actually Pinky's idea for Brain to attempt to take over the world.
[edit] Snowball
A recurring character in the series is Snowball the Hamster, Brain's former friend (voiced by Roddy McDowall). The two were both subjected to genetic splicing, and thus both became super-intelligent. Snowball builds a gigantic robotic body (similar to the Brain's robotic body, except Snowball's robot body has a mask), Bill Grates (a play on Bill Gates), and takes control of Microsponge (a take-off of Microsoft). Snowball uses Microsponge to buy 51 percent of the world and its institutions, and thus, to Brain's limitless horror, Snowball actually succeeds in taking over the world. Brain retaliates by reactivating his own robot body, and fights Snowball. In the process, Snowball's robot body, i.e. Bill Grates, explodes, resulting in the downfall of Microsponge and the end of Snowball's reign.
While Brain's wish to rule the world is more or less benign (he seems to think he can run the world better than it currently is), Snowball's desire to rule the world is inherently evil and if he were to gain long-lasting dominion over the planet, he would probably destroy it. When Brain derailed Snowball's attempt to take over the world via the Microsponge plan, Brain actually considered this "saving" the world.
Snowball is also truly notable in that he is the only Warner Bros. cartoon character to be permanently "killed off" onscreen; during the series finale "Brainwashed", he accidentally runs through the mutation machine, causing him to lose his own intelligence.
[edit] Other characters
- Billie: A female mouse voiced by Tress MacNeille who seems to have the traits of Pinky, yet is actually very intelligent. Both Brain and Snowball are in love with her because of her intellect (Brain actually loved her before she became intelligent); however, she has a crush on Pinky because she likes his easygoing personality. She ponders why Pinky remains loyal to Brain and tries to separate Pinky from him. While Billie's shrill voice and manner of speech was thought to be a play on the Susan Alexander character from Citizen Kane as a complement to Brain's Orson Welles-like portrayal, Billie is actually a reference to the character of the same name from the film (and stage play) "Born Yesterday" as played (in both) by Judy Holliday. The character is a dim-wit who falls for her brainy tutor played by William Holden. Although initially stupid like Pinky, after experiments she became even smarter than the Brain. He gives up trying to date so he can conquer the world before she beats him to it.
- The Circle: An Illuminati-like organization that wants to use Brain to take over the world. Their leader is a direct parody of Casper Gutman from Maltese Falcon and one of its agents, named Wally Faust, has a striking resemblance to Christopher Walken. Brain continues to flee from them, while planning his attempts to take over the world. The chorus in the group's theme says the word "lactose" repeatedly.
- Phar Fig Newton: A horse version of Pinky, Phar Fig Newton is a race horse with a long losing record and is the underdog at the track. When Brain races as a jockey to raise money for one of his plans, he decides to ride the top-rated horse in the race after getting rid of its jockey. However, Pinky chooses Phar Fig Newton as the racing horse of choice, much to Brain's annoyance. Nevertheless, after being motivated to rescue Pinky from being trampled after falling on to the track, Phar Fig Newton wins the race. Phar Fig Newton's name is a pun on "Fahrvergnügen", Volkswagen's marketing slogan of the 1980s, as well as a reference to the race horse Phar Lap, and the well-known US cookies Fig Newtons. She is ugly and fat. She made two cameos in the Animaniacs episode Wakko's Wish, during which Dr. Scratchansniff referred to her as "Phar Fig Newton horsie girl."
- Larry: A white laboratory mouse who only appeared with Pinky and the Brain once. He's an obvious parody of Larry, one of the Three Stooges — they share similar hair styles, and like his human counterpart, he acts as a middle man between the Brain's intellect and Pinky's stupidity. There's also an original theme song for the group, "Pinky and the Brain (and Larry)," which has Larry's name hastily spliced into key parts of the show's normal jingle — for example, "They're Pinky and The Brain (and Larry), yes Pinky and The Brain (and Larry), one is a genius, the other's insane (and the other one's Larry)". The recurring theme of the episode is the acknowledgment (or lack thereof) of Larry's existence, just like in real life, where Larry is deemed the most underrated of the Three Stooges. Absolutely no explanation is given for Larry's presence — Pinky and the Brain act as if he has always been there, even though the viewer has never seen him before (and will never see him again), which could be another reason why his existence is constantly being pointed out. He was voiced by Billy West, and his lines consisted solely of greetings and reminders that he is a part of the episode. At the end of the episode, when the Brain realises that they don't actually need Larry, Larry decides to change his name to Art (a reference to Art Garfunkel, whose hair is similar to that of the Three Stooge's Larry) and start a new career as a folk singer, singing "The Smells of Loudness" (a parody of The Sounds of Silence) with Paul Simon. Just as the Brain declares that he and Pinky will continue to attempt to rule the world without Larry, they are almost immediately joined by a mouse named Zeppo (a parody of Zeppo of the Marx Brothers), and the episode's closing song splices in Zeppo's name like it did with Larry in the opening theme. Although never seen onscreen again, Larry is referred to by both Pinky and the Brain in subsequent episodes. Larry's appearance seems to parody adding new characters to an already established cast. It also foreshadows Elmyra seemingly being forced into the show in the final season.
- Roman Numeral One (Romy): Brain attempted to clone himself in the episode Brinky to create an army of Brains to take over the world. However, an errant toenail clipping from Pinky got into the machine’s tissue sample. As such, the resulting mouse [voiced by both Maurice LaMarche (baby Romy) and Rob Paulsen (teenaged Romy)] ended up as a mix of both Brain's and Pinky's traits; he possessed Brain's somewhat large head and a good portion of his intellect, but he also had Pinky's teeth and propensity to utter "Narf" and "Poit." Effectively the offspring of both mice, Brain calls him "Roman Numeral One" (implying that more clones were to follow), which Pinky shorts to "Romy" (pronounced ROH-mee). (Later in the episode, Brain occasionally refers to him simply as Roman.) While Brain continues to try to groom Romy to assist him in taking over the world, Pinky overly mothers him in Pinky's own ways (including following the advice of Dr. Spock); the "parenting" conflict causes Romy to run away to become a ventriloquist and "to follow the Grateful Dead" for a year. In that episode, Romy also gets a human girlfriend named Bunny.
- Brain's Parents: Brain's parents (voiced by Ernest Borgnine and Tress MacNeille) are average non-anthropomorphic white field mice in the wild; when Brain realizes that he has found his parents through DNA testing during part of a plan, he creates a special wearable intelligence device for the two that makes them anthropomorphic and gives them the ability to communicate. They turn out to have somewhat Midwestern accents and are highly critical of Brain's position and lack of success in life as if he was a live-at-home teenager, though they dote on Pinky and his friendship with Brain.
- Pinky's Family: In accordance with Pinky's wishes to find his family (Pinky's mother, father and "sister" - his sister is in actuality an empty spool of thread), both he and Brain find and bring them back to Acme Labs. Using the same device that gave himself and Pinky their intelligence, Brain sends Pinky's parents through the machine. Pinky's parents turn out to have a heavy English accent (both are voiced by Eric Idle, similar to his acting on Monty Python's Flying Circus), and generally share the same wit and nonsensical humor that Pinky does. Surprisingly (or not) to Brain, Pinky and his parents all seem to be able to communicate with Pinky's "sister", though the spool does not ever move or act on its own.
- Precious is a genetically inhanced cat. In the three part Episode Brainwashed she tries to take over the world, a move that Brain initially mistakes as the work of Snowball. She is voiced by Nora Dunn
- Bill Clinton: Brain often encounters the then-president and other political figures in his conquests to take over the world. Clinton is usually listed in the end credits simply as "Mr. President" and is voiced by Frank Welker.
- Hillary Clinton: voiced by Tress MacNeille will often appear with Bill. She is usually listed as the First Lady.
- Steven Spielberg: The executive producer of the show is often caricatured, as he is on Animaniacs. In the cartoon "Megalomaniacs Anonymous", Steven is seen as one of the other members of the support group. Brain also builds a robotic Spielberg clone--the "Spiel-Borg 3000". He is voiced by Frank Welker.
- Christopher Walken: Often impersonated by Jeff Bennett in a number of roles, including the lawyer in "Of Mouse And Man" and the Christopher Robin parody in "Brainy the Poo".
- Mr. Sultana Sultana: voiced by Paul Rugg in a manner similar to Rugg's Freakazoid, Mr. Suntana is neighbor to Acme Labs, and is a packrat and a loner. In order to obtain a package for himself but left at Mr. Sultana's house, Brain is forced to dress Pinky and himself up as a married couple, with Pinky as the housewife. From that point, Mr. Sultana seems to have a small crush on Pinky in his housewife costume.
- Maurice was a carrot voiced by Frank Welker who became bests friends with Pinky. he was so much like Pinky that Brain mentioned that he had created another Pinky. In the end they had to plant Maurice in the ground to keep him from dying.
- Baloney is a big orange dinosaur that is a parody of Barney the Dinosaur. He is voiced by Jeff Bennett and appears in all of the cartoons by this group including, Animaniacs, Pinky Elmyra and the Brain, and Even the Mask.
- Bobby Bob Yokel was a character who appeared in the three part episode Brainwashed. He along with Pinky was one of the few people not to be effected by a song dumming down the world, a parody of the Macarena. Bobby Bob was plaed by Townsend Coleman.
[edit] Brain's plans
Brain has had many, many plans to take over the world. Following are just some of them.
- He goes on the gameshow Gyp-parody (an obvious parody of Jeopardy!), and attempts to win enough money to buy a "super-conductive magnetic infindibulator" to take over the world. At Final Gyp-parody, Brain can win the money he needs if he bets all his winnings and gets the Final Gyp-parody answer correct. Ironically, the Final Jeopardy requires Brain to identify a quote that Pinky was constantly using that episode. But because he paid no attention to Pinky, Brain loses everything. This episode is a dual parody; beside being a parody of the game show, the plot is a blatant and direct lift of the classic Honeymooners episode where Ralph goes on "The $99,000 Answer" Pinky's quote "Bang! Zoom! Right in the kisser!" is the tip of the hat to that fact. Also, some may see the loss as a reference to the Cheers episode "What is...Cliff Clavin?", also set on Jeopardy!. This was the very first Pinky and the Brain script written during the development of Animaniacs (by Peter Hastings) and unintentionally contained many bits that became conventions of the entire series: "Are you pondering what I'm pondering", Pinky saying "Oh wait...but no..." in response to a plan, and ending every story with "What are we doing tomorrow night? (etc.)" among others.
- Brain becomes a country singer who plays a hypnotic message in his video. His stage name is 'Bubba Bo Bob Brain', which Pinky cannot pronounce. Brain becomes the country's most popular singer (since he hypnotises his audiences to buy all his records), and on the night he does a nation-wide show, he plans to give the hypnotic command to obey him as the country's leader. But when set to give the command, Pinky once again calls Brain by the wrong name. A frustrated Brain snaps 'Just forget my name. And while you're at it, forget you ever knew me!'. The crowd obeys the command and forgets about Brain altogether, foiling his plan once again. This episode is always at or near the top of any P&B fan's favorites list, and was the only one written by Animaniacs producer Sherri Stoner.
- Brain runs for President of the United States. His running mate is Admiral Pinky (parodying Admiral Stockdale), who in his only television appearance states, "Zort, what am I doin' here?" Appearing to be charismatic and lovable, Brain rises in the polls, but never makes a public appearance. When he finally does the night before the election, the public is shocked to discover that Brain resembles a mouse because he is a mouse. Brain promptly loses the election.
- Brain plans to use a "growing ray" to grow Pinky into super-size while dressed up as Gollyzilla, whilst Brain would stop him in exchange for world domination. However, the real Gollyzilla emerges from the ocean and starts to rampage, making Brain think that the lizard is Pinky. The episode ends with the ray making everything on Earth grow, including the Earth itself, to the point that Pinky, the Brain, and even Gollyzilla are mouse-sized by comparison again.
- Brain decides to go on a childrens show with Pinky to become extreamly popular with children. He then planned to freeze himself until the children who loved him were legal voting adults and they can then vote him as President. The plan does work as the children do love them. However when they froze themselves and woke up in the future to appear on TV again, the now adult fans go to the studio in order to fight them for leaving them alone as children.
- Pinky and the Brain use a time machine to go back to prehistory and give mice rather than humans the evolutionary edge. They ultimately succeed, but once they return to the present, Brain is horrified to discover that the newly-dominant mouse race is composed of individuals similar to Pinky rather than himself. As it turned out, the prehistoric mice that Brain helped were a tribe of Pinky-like cavemice. When Brain prepares to return to the past to undo his work, Pinky notes how simple it would be to rule such a timeline, to which Brain replies "Yes, but who would want to?"
- Brain builds a toy based on him called a 'Noodle-Noggin Doll', which had the power to hypnotise people. Taking a job as one of Santa's elves, he puts the doll on every Christmas list in the world, so that every household receives a doll. Brain plans to use his hypnosis machine to order the world to obey him. But upon reading Pinky's letter to Santa (which sings his praises despite the fact he can't succeed, and asks Santa to give all of Pinky's presents to Brain), Brain burst into tears and orders the world to have a merry Christmas, after which he smashes the machine. This episode won a Primetime Emmy award in 1996, beating The Simpsons, among others.
- Brain hears the offer that the man to travel around the world in 80 days will become the Prime Minister of Britain. Due to Brain's genius travel methods and Pinky's multi-lingual guidebook (one of the few episodes where Brain acknowledges Pinky's input on the plan), the two travel east around the world and reach New York, and only need to take an already scheduled ship to Britain to secure Brain's position as Prime Minister. But upon catching a cab to the pier, the driver only speaks 'New York Cabbie', the one language that Pinky's guidebook does not contain. Because the driver does not understand 'Take us to the pier', Brain is foiled again.
- Brain makes a television programme similar to Welles' radio broadcast of 'War of the Worlds' (directly referencing and crediting Welles), hoping that, as happened in the radio broadcast, the country will panic and ensuing chaos would give Brain control over the world. The plan backfires simply because Brain's attempt to stage a televised alien invasion is incredibly cheesy, and the country is amused rather than scared.
- Brain attempts to use a tobacco company to take over the world by selling cigarettes to children. However, Pinky becomes disgusted at the sight of children smoking and convinces Brain to double cross the tobacco company. The episode, Inherit the Wheeze, later won a PRISM Award for Best Children's Animated Television Episode, for its anti-smoking message.
- One episode starts out as what could feasibly be considered a clip show hosted by Steven Spielberg himself, which covers such aspects of the series such as the intelligent writing (followed by a montage of "poit!"s from Pinky), the characters, and how much Steven, himself, loves his creation. Steven gets up and walks through a brick wall out into a grassy field, and is revealed to have actually been a robotic creation of Brain's called "Steven Spielborg" which he was to use to take over the world. Brain decides he'll try again with the "Ted Turnerator"
- The episode Brainie The Poo parodies Winnie The Pooh. "Cameos" include Jagger instead of Tigger and Al Gore instead of Eeyore. Al Gore is "full of hot air", 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 authored by "A.A. Meeting."
- Pinky actually succeeds in talking certain powerful world leaders (including Yasser Arafat) into handing over control of the world, but when Pinky hands over the "key to the world" to Brain, Brain botches it up.
- Brain uses a machine that can increase or decrease intelligence, and uses it so that Pinky can become smart enough to understand that he is the cause of Brain's failures, due to research Brain conducted. (Brain will later discover he miscalculated his research, and that he himself is the cause of his failures.) Pinky, depressed over the fact that Brain doesn't like him when he is smart, uses the machine to make himself stupid, so Brain will like him again. However, Brain, realizing he has botched his own plans, and believing both of them to be better off with Pinky as the genius and Brain as a moron, uses the machine on himself as well. In the end, both of them are idiots, and thus, are too dumb to operate the machine and restore either of them to their intelligent selves. This is reflected in the episode's final lines.
Pinky: What are we going to do tomorrow night, Brain?
Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky.
Pinky: What's that?
Brain: ...I have no idea.
Pinky: Poit.
Brain: Narf.
- In an episode entitled Pinky Suavo, the Brain uses the Personalitron to inherit the world's most attractive personas (i.e., Orson Welles and Adam West), simply by scanning their photos into the machine and then stepping inside it, but Pinky ends up going into the machine instead. He is then transformed into "Pinky Suavo", a more suave version of Pinky, as the name implies. Pinky gains control of people's attention instantaneously, and the Brain finds a way to use it to his advantage and puts Pinky on a talk show. But he discovers that the effects don't last long and Pinky is transformed into his old self again. Brain asks for a break and takes Pinky back to the Personalitron. Pinky looks changed but, at the end, it is discovered that the Brain put in a picture of The Unknown Comic instead of the celebrities.
- In the Animaniacs episode Star Warners (a parody of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope), Pinky and the Brain (as 3-PinkEO and Brain2-Me2) plan to use the Mega Star for their world domination plans. A running gag involves Brain2 being mistaken as a refrigerator.
A few rare episodes involve no attempt on the Brain's part to take over the world. One centers on his rival Snowball's plan (see above) to take over the world using Microsponge. Another episode features Brain's single day where he tries to do anything but take over the world, but in the end, a group of a people vote that he should take over the world on the one day he is not wanting to.
[edit] "Are You Pondering...?" speeches
The following exchange occurs in all but one episode:
Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but...
- (The exception to the rule occurs in the episode "Pavlov's Mice", where Brain uses "thinking" in place of "pondering".)
- (In the Movie Wakko's Wish, which included Pinky and the Brain, there is an extra word. "Pinky, are you pondering exactly what I'm pondering?")
The ellipsis is filled in each time with a unique non-sequitur such as, "we're already naked," "isn't a cucumber that small called a gherkin?" or "but if they called them sad meals kids wouldn't buy them." The result is always utterly nonsensical in the context given, indicating that Pinky was in no way pondering what Brain was pondering. Often this resulted in a quip from Brain, like 'the fact that your mind is not clouded by medication only fills me with pity.' In one episode, the viewer sees from Pinky's perspective and witnesses his train of thought as Brain speaks to him. The picture begins as Brain and his speech, but the dialogue fades out and the picture morphs into a whimsical fantasy. When Brain asks Pinky the usual question, Pinky responds with a query regarding the last thing he saw.
In the episode "Napoleon Brainaparte," Pinky's non-sequitur actually refers to an exchange earlier in the episode. As Pinky and Brain are riding through the streets of Paris they pass the Louvre, and Pinky remarks that they should build a giant glass pyramid in the courtyard, to which Brain sarcastically replies "Yes, and then they'll send the London Bridge to America." Later, when Brain asks Pinky "Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" Pinky replies "I think so Brain, but then they'd have to take the bridge apart and send it over in pieces."
In one rare instance, Brain's ponderance ("We shall disguise ourselves as a cow!") was exactly what Pinky was pondering, except Pinky ironically thought the ponderance too stupid to voice.
In the episode "Brain Food", Pinky finally admits that he almost never is pondering what Brain is pondering. Ironically, it turns out that Brain was thinking that exact same thing.
Another rare instance occurred in the episode "That Smarts", in which Brain uses a device to increase Pinky's intelligence. Brain asks Pinky, "Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" and Pinky, now being a genius, responds, "Yes, I am."
[edit] Incarnations
[edit] Television
| 1993 – 1995 | Fox Kids (Animaniacs) |
| 1995 – 1998 | Kids' WB! (Animaniacs) |
| 1998 – 2000 | Cartoon Network (Animaniacs) |
| 2001 – 2002 | Nickelodeon |
| 2002 – 2005 | Nicktoons Network |
Pinky and the Brain originally appeared as a segment on Animaniacs, another show produced by Steven Spielberg and shown on first Fox and then the WB. On September 1, 1995, Pinky and the Brain were spun off into their own half-hour series, each consisting of one or more segments, including some of the segments from Animaniacs. Initially, the show was scheduled in a prime-time slot, and as a result, tended to have more jokes and humor aimed to adults rather than children. However, due to poor ratings, it was later moved to Saturday mornings as part of the Kids WB programming block.
On September 1, 1998, the series was retooled to the overly-reviled Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain, in which Pinky and the Brain were owned by Tiny Toons character Elmyra Duff, and is considered to be the reason for the show's cancellation. The show lasted for 13 episodes, 5 of which were shown whole and 6 of which were chopped into segments and aired as part of The Cat&Birdy Warneroonie PinkyBrainy Big Cartoonie Show. All 13 episodes were shown in their original format as part of CITV in the UK during 2001.
After the show was canceled from the Kids WB, Cartoon Network aired it from 1998 to 2000. Nickelodeon acquired syndication rights to broadcast Pinky and the Brain when it was still running in 1996 on Nickelodeon and later Nicktoons Network. While the episodes aired unchanged, Nickelodeon altered the opening sequence, masking various items such as beakers with the orange Nickelodeon logo in the same shape and the Acme Labs sign changing into a Nickelodeon logo. During 2003 Pinky and the Brain aired on Boomerang with the theme song unaltered. It continued to air on Boomerang and Nicktoons Network until 2005 when they were taken off both channels and has not aired on television since.
Pinky and the Brain episodes are now available on the WB's on-demand video service, In2TV.
[edit] Home Video
[edit] VHS Releases
Five VHS collections of Pinky and the Brain episodes were released from 1993 to 1995, each with approximately 4 episodes:
- A Pinky And the Brain Christmas
- Cosmic Attractions
- Mice of the Jungle
- World Domination Tour
- You Will Buy This Video!
[edit] DVD Releases
| Cover Art | DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Volume 1 | 22 | July 25, 2006 | Pinky and the Brain: Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering? — Featurette with Tom Ruegger, Peter Hastings, Rob Paulsen, Maurice LaMarche, Andrea Romano as they discuss why they had so much fun working on the show. |
 |
Volume 2 | 22 | December 5, 2006 | The Return of World Dominating Extras- Featurette with Mark Hamil and Wayne Knight as they answer a casting call to do the voices of Pinky and The Brain and get coached by Maurice LaMarche and Rob Paulsen. |
| Volume 3 | 21 | June 19, 2007 |
Volume 1 of Pinky and the Brain was released on DVD on July 25, 2006. The second volume of Pinky and the Brain was released on DVD on December 5, 2006 [1]. Each set of Pinky and the Brain contain 22 episodes. A third set will be forthcoming, completing the 65 episodes (excluding Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain). [2]
[edit] Print
Pinky and the Brain were also regulars in the Animaniacs comic book published by DC Comics. From July 1996 through November 1998, they starred in their own comic book also published by DC Comics, which ran for 27 issues before cancellation. Following the cancellation of the Pinky and the Brain comic, the mice later starred in stories that took up half of the later Animaniacs issues, which, starting at issue #43, was retitled Animaniacs featuring Pinky and the Brain.
[edit] Computer Games
There has been one computer game dedicated to Pinky and the Brain, called Pinky and the Brain: World Conquest for the PC, produced by SouthPeak Interactive and distributed by Warner Bros. However, the characters have appeared in several of the Animaniacs games, such as Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt.
[edit] 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 episode "Bubba Bo Bob Brain" presented in a radio drama or audiobook fashion was released as a CD in 1997 by Rhino Entertainment. As was "Animaniacs", Pinky and the Brain was scored primarily by Richard Stone, with assistance from Steve and Julie Bernstein who also orchestrated and sometimes conducted the 40 piece orchestra. The recordings we done on Stage A on the Warner Bros lot, the same stage (and with the same piano) where Carl Stalling recorded his Looney Tunes music. Countless other Warner Bros. films have also been recorded on that stage. After Richard Stone's death in 2001, at the age of 47, a memorial service was held on this very stage.
The musical score for Pinky and the Brain will frequently contain veiled musical references--for example, in the episode where the Brain builds a new paper mache Earth, the theme from the 2nd and 4th movements of Dvorak's 'New World Symphony' can be heard throughout the episode. The episode "Napoleon Brainaparte" makes frequent reference to the French anthem, La Marseillaise.
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Trivia
- During the opening sequence, The Brain writes "THX=1138" on a chalkboard, referencing the George Lucas film THX 1138. Also on the chalkboard is written the square root of BH 91210, which probably is an indirect reference to Beverly Hills 90210.
- The start of Clive Bull's show on LBC features the opening lines of Pinky and the Brain.
- The plot of the three-part episode "Brainwashed" (Brain, Brain Go Away/I Am Not A Hat/Wash Harder) revolves mainly around an evil plan using a mindless dance called "the Schmeerskahoven" (probably a parody of the Macarena), which is performed by the unwitting band BAAB, an obvious parody of ABBA.
- The end credits of every episode contain the definition of an obscure word. In Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain, Elmyra gives her own definition of a word.
[edit] External links
- Pinky and the Brain at the Internet Movie Database
- A Pinky & the Brain Christmas Special at the Internet Movie Database
- The official DVD website
- The Complete Pondering List, by Richard Watanabe, a collection of answers to Brain's running gag question: "Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
- Pinky and the Brain theme song in .wav format from WavSite.com
- Watch the intro on Youtube
Categories: Articles lacking sources from December 2006 | All articles lacking sources | Animaniacs characters | Fictional mice and rats | Fictional sidekicks | Kids WB shows | Animated television series | Television spin-offs | 1990s American television series | Television series by Warner Bros. Television | DC Comics titles | Fictional Presidents of the United States | Television programs featuring anthropomorphic characters | Fictional English Americans | Fictional time travelers
