Favorite Warner Bros. Animation show (1990-1994)

D

Dylan Calvert

New member
Man, am I feeling kinda Looney today. Okay, this is the thread of WB Animation's very first shows (Like Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures (1990), Taz Mania (1991), Batman: TAS (1992), Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs (1993), and in continuation from B:TAS, The Adventures of Batman and Robin) and I want to know what's your favorite show from the first four years.

My favorite show(s) are tied up between Tiny Toon Adventures, Batman: TAS and Animaniacs (Although the last few seasons of Animaniacs didn't get me to laugh much). For Tiny Toons, I mean C'Mon, it has some of the best comedic moments no other WBA show could touch (The Looney Beginning, How I Spent My Summer Vacation DTV, any episode of Elmyra getting hurt, etc.).

For Batman: TAS it's these episodes (I Am The Night, Blind as a Bat, Christmas With The Joker, On Leather Wings, Pretty Poison, both Two-Face parts, Heart of Ice, Bewaree of The Gray Ghost, The Clock King, Zatanna, etc. again) that got me interested in the series.

Animaniacs did have a number of good segments (Yakko's Universe, Yakko's World, The Monkey Song, I'm Mad, Lookit The Fuzzy Heads, any segment with Baloney, Dot The Macadamia Nut, both Minerva Mink shorts, any Slappy short and Pinky and The Brain). The rest (Chicken Boo, The Hippos, Rita and Runt) are atrocious to sometimes look at.

For Taz Mania, it was easily hit or miss for me. I mean, why give Taz a family? On the other hand, Bill Kopp (The Schnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show, Mad Jack The Pirate, Eek! Stravaganza) wrote episodes that I liked.
 
The Adventures of Batman and Robin is not a continuation of B:TAS, It's the exact same show. The only differences are Name Change, Different Intros and End Credits, and Robin is in every episode. Other than that, it's same exact show. So their no point of having a poll option for both.

The New Batman Adventures is the Continuation of B:TAS.
 
satam55 is right, it is hard to choose. I went with Animaniacs because it was the show I watched most. The others are equally as good, even Taz Mania, which was still being broadcast the last time I was home believe it or not!
 
Of the pick, I'd instantly take off New Adventures of Batman & Robin. Although a good handful of great episodes came from this era, it's basically seasons 2 and 3 of B:TAS with a different intro and with Robin at a higher focus.

After that I'd cut off Tza-Mania, since I could never really get into it at all. I never liked Taz in his original cartoons, and his own show never did much for me, nor did his family. I tried to watch some of it again on In2TV, and I still don't find much of it funny. Not a TERRIBLE show, but rather something that's not for me.

So now that I cut off a title that shouldn't really be here and another that I don't really care, I have three series that I particuarly enjoy and would be tough to choose from. In the past few years, I had a chance to rewatch these three shows, and can appreciate them even more now than I did as a kid.

If I had to eliminate one first, though, it'd have to be Tiny Toons. I still actively enjoy it, but for the most part, I find TTA to miss the mark more often than not. There are some really good episodes to watch time and time again, but I find most of the segment stories to be below the mark, and Buster and Babs to be uninteresting and preachy characters, but even then I can name various examples where I disagree with both stated opinions. But at the end of the day, I find the show to be at it's best with Plucky and Hampton and in a solitary story format.

Now Animaniacs and Batman I was able to collect on DVD not long ago, having the first 3 volumes of both shows, and I loved them both. They have their lows, but their highs are what highlight a brilliant revitalization of Warner Bros animation department. With Animaniacs, as well as Tiny Toons, Pinky & the Brain, and Freakazoid!, the humor of the classic Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies were finally updated for modern times, now spoofing modern pop culture, trends, and events, with new creative talent to put their best in it; while Batman: TAS, as well as Superman: TAS, Batman Beyond, and Justice League were able to tell intelligent, character-driven stories that were able to not talk down to adult fans as well as entertain kids, and contain fight scenes on par with the best of cinema's. Two entirely different entities, and while I love all 8 of these shows, the two in question are my favorite examples of each.

That said, I'll go with Batman as my pick of the litter. As I said earlier, both shows have their lows, particuarly bad episodes in B:TAS's case and poor characters and off segments in A!'s, but I think B:TAS's good episodes best A!'s. Still a close race, though, and admittingly both are day and night in terms of how they try to entertain.
 
I said Tiny Toons but Animaniacs was nice too. I was never into Batman and I don't remember much of Taz-Mania.

EDIT: Shouldn't this be in the Warner Bros. board?
 
My favourite was Tiny Toons. I never saw it on a regular basis as a kid, so I don't remember most of the bad episodes that give it that hit-or-miss reputation. I definitely remember Animaniacs being like that though. About half the cast didn't really interest me (although because I never knew how long each segment would be, I would always watch to the end anyway in the hopes of seeing my favourites). I did find a lot of it pretty funny though. I have to give Tiny Toons the edge though, because it was more ground-breaking, and the characters were less annoyingly smug about how 'wacky' and hilarious they were supposed to be (*cough*warner-brothers-and-sister*cough). I mean, the Tiny Toon leads could get pretty smug, but there were other aspects to their personalities. The Warners' whole gimmick was "we're wacky and we annoy people".

And I wasn't really interested in the action shows.
 
animaniacs won my vote becuase its clever lines and characters and the theme song , but tiny toons and batman TAS are among the favorites and i really didnt watch taz-maina to much ( thank goodness for youtube) and i dont remember the batman and robin adventures :sweat:
 
*Comes within a hair's breath of voting for Batman: TAS*


But, seeing that I'm actually named for a character on TTA.... I have to go with that. :)
 
I can't decide between "Tiny Toon Adventures" and "Animaniacs!" Both of those shows work on so many levels, with their "Rocky and Bullwinkle"-esque humor, well-developed characters, the great varieties of background music and how they could be educational at times (hey, I learned all our state capitals and our past presidents thanks to "Animaniacs!")

If they ever decided to do a new animated special or something featuring the Tiny Toons or Animaniacs cast, combine them both into the same special! It could work.
 
Animaniacs for me. Tiny Toons comes close, but A! edges it our for me for not having any "save the day" and "stick up for the little guy" plots like TTA often did. (In fact, A! poked fun at these types of shows whenever they could.) Taz-Mania at its' very best was just "eh" to me. I think part of the problem was that Taz himself was too one-dimensional to carry an entire show.

I didn't include Batman: TAS here because it's an action show, and I can't--and don't--judge action shows by the same standards as comedies. Plus, I liked DC/WB's later superhero shows much better than B:TAS, since I'm not a big Batman fan.
 
Oh damn.

For me, asking this question is like asking me if Picard is better than Kirk or chosing between Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel as the lead singer of 'Genesis'. I like them all, so it's very, very, very hard to decide.

However, if I HAVE to pick one... it'd be Tiny Toon Adventures.

And believe me, that was a tough choice to make.
 
Batman the Animated series. I can easily hold this up as an example of one of the finest action cartoons ever made.

I tried to get into Animaniacs, but only the Warners and Slappy Squirrel were even amusing to me. The rest of the material seemed pretty forgettable. Taz-Mania was ok, but nothing special IMO. As for Tiny Toons... eh...I only watch it for Plucky. He was my favorite.
 
I voted for Batman TAS. I love the DCAU. I don't get why The Adventures Of Batman And Robin is a choice too, its the same as BTAS and a vote for BTAS counts for that show too.
 
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