Serie - Animaniacs : Julie & Steven Bernstein return to score the reboot after 22 years

By Mulder, 16 november 2020

Animaniacs is an American animated comedy musical television series created by Tom Ruegger for Fox Broadcasting Company's Fox Kids block, before moving to The WB in 1995 until the series ended in 1998 as part of its Kids' WB afternoon programming block. It is the second animated series produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment in association with Warner Bros. Animation, after Tiny Toon Adventures. It initially ran a total of 99 episodes, along with a feature-length film, Wakko's Wish. Animaniacs is a variety show, with short skits featuring a large cast of characters. While the show had no set format, the majority of episodes were composed of three short mini-episodes, each starring a different set of characters, and bridging segments. Hallmarks of the series included its music, character catchphrases, and humor directed at an adult audience.

A revival of the series was announced by Hulu in January 2018, with at least two seasons to be produced in conjunction with Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation, with producer Steven Spielberg, songwriter Randy Rogel, and many of the main voice actors returning, set to premiere on November 20, 2020, with a second season expected to premiere in 2021.

After a 22 year hiatus, the beloved cartoon series is making a glorious comeback on Hulu starting November 20th, and the Warner Brothers are better than ever with an all-new score by original series veteran composers Julie & Steven Bernstein.

Things certainly have changed in the past couple decades, and while the Bernsteins may not have to hand-write their score for the show anymore (seriously, they have every classic episodes’ hand-written score archived in their home), they’ve still managed to capture that nostalgic, orchestral Warner Brothers cartoon feel while updating the show’s music to be more modern, more irreverent, and more of everything we love about Animaniacs.

While all the most memorable themes are back, every episode has all-new music that provided unique challenges for the Bernsteins to conquer. But, even after 22 years, it feels like they never left. The Bernsteins wrote the cartoon score only - not the songs.

Synopsis :
The Warner siblings live in the water tower on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, California. However, characters from the series had episodes in various places and periods of time. The Animaniacs characters interacted with famous people and creators of the past and present as well as mythological characters and characters from contemporary pop culture and television. Andrea Romano, the casting and recording director of Animaniacs, said that the Warner siblings functioned to "tie the show together," by appearing in and introducing other characters' segments. Each Animaniacs episode usually consisted of two or three cartoon shorts. Animaniacs segments ranged in time, from bridging segments less than a minute long to episodes spanning the entire show length; writer Peter Hastings said that the varying episode lengths gave the show a "sketch comedy" atmosphere.

Animaniacs
Created by Tom Ruegger
Voices of Rob Paulsen, Jess Harnell, Tress MacNeille, John Mariano, Chick Vennera, Maurice LaMarche, Frank Welker, Bernadette Peters, Nancy Cartwright, Julie Brown, Laura Mooney, Sherri Stoner, Nathan Ruegger, Paul Rugg, Luke Ruegger, Cody Ruegger, Jim Cummings, Tom Bodett, Jeff Bennett
Theme music composer ! Richard Stone
Composers : Richard Stone, Steven Bernstein, Julie Bernstein, Gordon Goodwin, Carl Johnson, J. Eric Schmidt
Executive producer : Steven Spielberg
Producers : Rich Arons, Sherri Stoner, Rusty Mills, Peter Hastings
Production companies : Warner Bros. Animation, Amblin Entertainment
Distributor : Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Original network : Fox Kids (1993–1995), Kids' WB (1995–1998), Hulu (2020–)
Running time 22 minutes

(Source : press release)