Pinky and the Brain

A spin off from the wonderful 'Animaniacs', 'Pinky and the Brain' was one of the funniest and best cartoons of the 90s.

The show followed the exploits of two laboratory mice on a mission to take over the world. The Brain was a super-intelligent megalomaniac, and was assisted by Pinky, an idiot. Each night, The Brain would come up with a highly elaborate plan to overthrow the worlds leaders and assume control, but was always foiled at the last minute and sent back to the drawing board.

Even though the plot was the same every episode, 'Pinky and the Brain' managed to be consistently fresh and funny. The great writing was backed up by superb voice performances, particularly by Rob Paulson (Pinky) and Maurice LaMarche (Brain). The humour works on enough levels to appeal to kids and grown-ups alike, and if you've never seen an episode of this, I suggest you seek it out!

This was one of the best animated shows ever. This show isn't just for kids. The humor of the show can be enjoyed by all ages, much like the classic Warner Brothers shorts. Pinky & the Brain also has great dialogue. The plans to take over the world are also a hoot. Many of the episodes are classic.

Pinky and the Brain has got to be one of the funniest cartoon shows ever. Steven Spielberg himself co-produced this film, and once and a while actually would do a cameo on the show. If you want to see two lab mice, every week trying to take over the world, doing some of the most ridiculous, outrageous things ever see Pinky and the Brain. Just not the spin-off Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain. Yuck, talk about a bad show. The voice talents were great in the show and I loved both the characters. Especially Pinky, the stupid but of course humorous one. Then there's Brain, the brainy idea expert. Together, these two caged lab mice have a great time letting us have a good time. I was so sad when the show stopped airing after three years. I can't find it anywhere now and it makes me mad. I hope someday they do the re-runs on WB because this show is not just for kids, it's got great adult humor too. One of which like I said before, when the mice run into Steven Spielberg. But anyway, if you can find this show on your local listings, watch it. It's an instant classic. NARF!

When I discovered that Pinky and the Brain had spun off from Animaniacs and received their own show (the first step towards world domination, no doubt), I was thrilled. The show quickly became a favorite of mine. Now that I have it on DVD many years later, I realize just what a spectacular piece of work it really is.

Children can watch this show, sure. They'll think Pinky's ridiculous remarks, physical humor, and nonsensical catch phrases like "poit!" and "narf" are hilarious. Sometimes they are. Yet I am amazed that so much of the humor is for adults. There are multiple references in every episode to pop culture (I just watched an episode with a sly Pulp Fiction allusion), politics (the same episode included caricatures of Bill and Hilary Clinton), and general observations about the world that will definitely go over kids' heads. It just makes the show all that much funnier to me now. It's definitely an experience with multiple layers. Not to mention the people writing Brain's dialog have done some research. His vocabulary is years beyond what grade school children comprehend, let alone use. Sure, there's lots of fuzzy science just for the sake of making him sound smart, but many times there are legitimate uses of math, physics, chemistry, astronomy, anatomy, etc. Heck, there's even a song that tells you the parts of the human brain. The show's downright educational.

Don't let that scare you, though. It's also consistently zany. There's plenty of the comic falling and maiming that comes standard in most cartoons. Of course a good portion of the humor comes from the concept of Pinky's stupidity as a foil for Brain's genius, and Pinky's unwittingly stumbling on the best ideas. Yet, for me, the comedy in this show comes mostly from Brain. I love the way he vents his frustration with his dense but loyal accomplice, and the way he flatly tells people his mission knowing they will never believe him. "Actually I am lab mouse involved in an elaborate scheme to take over the world" is usually greeted with laughter from the unsuspecting buffoons that populate his universe.

Well animated and superbly voiced, Pinky and The Brain entertains with the fearless abandon of the classic toons and the sharp wit of a modern satire. I highly recommend this for kids, but even more so for older teens and young adults.

I remember watching this show in high school and loving it. It had brilliant characterization; for some reason, combining a cruel super-intelligent mouse with a silly free spirited mouse worked. Their non sequitur running joke, in which Brain would ask Pinky about his thoughts and time and again would find Pinky's mind had wandered far off, were priceless. Brain was mean to Pinky, but part of what made Pinky great was that he loved that, he even withstood Satan's torture. These characters could carry even the weaker story lines. It was such a silly premise, with the two mice trying to take over the world, but it was an original one, and setting the story in a dark laboratory really worked.

I'm proud that this won an Emmy. This is right up there with The Simpsons and Rocky and Bullwinkle for great animation. Adding Elmyra was a huge mistake, I particularly missed the lab.