Animaniacs: 1996
Cover
Drawn by: Walter Carzon and Horacio Ottolini
Animaniacs go to France: The cover is a takeoff of a painting by late 19th-century artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, titled Jane Avril. It shows Jane Avril, the subject of the original painting, in a chorus line, with, from left to right, the Warners, Slappy Squirrel, Napoleon Bonaparte, King Louis XVI, Lumiere (the candle, from Beauty and the Beast), Gerard Depardieu, Pepe LePew, Jerry Lewis, Maurice Chevalier, Marcel Marceau, Brigitte Bardot, and Charles deGaulle. The original painting hangs in the Chicago Museum of Art.
Credits
Synopsis
The Warners are, once again, trying to get to Six Flags over Flushing. They don't have any better luck this time than the last - instead of Flushing, they've wound up in Paris, in front of a fancy restaurant. They decide to get some French fries while they're there. The maitre d' tries to ignore them as they yell louder and louder to get his attention, but has to relent when Dot turns on the tears. They're seated at a table, and start looking over the menu.
The maitre d', who winds up waiting on them himself, has to endure an astonishing string of puns when the Warners try to read the menu as though it were in English. They misunderstand hors d'oeuvres, quiche, fondue, escargot, pate, and wine, each time driving the maitre d' crazier. When he brings the wine out, Dot identifies it precisely by its smell, and then goes on to identify several other things, ending up by discovering that the maitre d' isn't from France at all - he's from New Jersey. This embarrasses him to no end, and he offers them a free dessert to keep them quiet.
Wakko picks a Napoleon, and carries it off to the kitchen in search of something to put on it. This outrages the chef, who leaves in a huff. As he leaves, he tells Wakko to make his own pomme frites. Wakko hears this as "bomb freets", and goes looking for a bomb. When he finds one, the restaurant comes out on the short end of the bargain. The maitre d' demands that the Warners pay for the damages, and is interrupted in attacking them by the arrival of the other people the Warners were supposed to meet at Six Flags over Flushing.
Did You Notice...
The Six Flags over Flushing bit refers to the setup of the cartoon Hot, Bothered and Bedeviled, in Animaniacs episode 29. In that story, the Warners try to get to Six Flags over Flushing, only to wind up in Hell. (Despite rumors to the contrary, Flushing is not Hell...JM)- French fries didn't originate in France, and the French tend to get slightly offended when people assume they did.
- Speaking clearly and loudly is a typical American response to someone who doesn't speak English. It usually doesn't work.
- The French in this story is generally quite accurate and idiomatic. In particular, "Zut alors!" is the usual French exclamation, used for just about anything.
- The comment about "our mutual heritage" on page 9 refers to more than Kurtin intended. She wrote that to mean just Americans. The Warners were inspired by the three sons of Animaniacs senior producer Tom Ruegger, who, it turns out, is from New Jersey.
- Wakko's "Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon?" refers to a famous series of commercials for that brand of mustard.
- The Dot Skirt Peek Debate: Generally, Dot's underwear is shown as pink, and without frills, in the cartoons. There are variations, and all combinations of pink and white, and frills and no frills, have been seen - and some shots with none at all. in general, the comic has shown it as a lighter pink than her skirt, which is correct, and with frills, for one particular reason: that way, the colorist is less likely to color it black and thus make it disappear entirely.
Technical nits
This is penciller Omar Aranda's first story with the Warners. As with other artists, he has some difficulty with them. They're generally on-model, and the poses are not stiff at all. His main problem is with their facial expressions: they're almost always showing strong emotion, even when the situation doesn't call for it. There's not one neutral expression in the whole piece.- The Warners' snouts, when seen from unusual angles, tend to look like they're attached off-center on their faces. See, for example, Yakko in the first panel on page 3, and Wakko in the second panel on page 11.
- Coloring error: Dot's underwear isn't colored in in the middle of page 7.
- Au revoir doesn't mean "the end"; literally, it's "until I see you again", and it's a common way to say "Bye!".
Credits
Synopsis
Minerva gets to try on clothes from a series of French designers...well, that's the idea, anyway: the first few designers aren't French, and the rest aren't clothes she'd be caught dead in.
Did You Notice...
- The clothes they show are representative of the designers they're associated with.
- "Haute couture" means "high fashion".
Technical nits
- This time, the cutout outfits aren't exactly the same shape as the Minerva figure they're supposed to fit.
Credits
Synopsis
Slappy and Skippy are arriving in France on the Concorde. Slappy doesn't want to admit it, but she's being awarded the French Medal of Honor for her contributions to comedy. She's unhappy about that because the same award was presented to Jerry Lewis, and she believes this signals the end of her career.
They arrive at the restaurant where she is to receive the award. Slappy explains that she doesn't like the French not because she believes any of the common stereotypes about them; she just doesn't ahve anything in common with them. The discussion is interrupted when the award presenter comes to her table and explains that the award is not the Medal of Honor - it's the Marcel of Honor. She gets to spend a whole day touring Paris with a mime so she can learn about French comedy. Needless to say, this is not calculated to make her any happier.
They set out on thrie tour of Paris. Slappy hates mimes, and so she arranges - either by doing it herself, or by being in the right place at the right time - to have the mime run over by the Tour de France, hit by a mallet, catching a dynamite football, and finally falling from the Eiffel Tower. They return to the restaurant, the mime visibly the worse for wear, and the presenter explains that what makes the French laugh is watching Americans. The mime has learned something, too, and demonstrates his new-found knowledge by using high explosives on the presenter.
Did You Notice...
- Yes, the French really do think Jerry Lewis is funny.
- The French landmarks depicted are all drawn pretty accurately.
Technical nits
- Coloring error: The mime's nose isn't colored in in the next-to-last panel on page 25.
- Slappy's one aside to the audience, in the second panel on page 26, looks like she's looking over the reader's left shoulder.
Other items:
There are three one-page fillers in this issue, all written by Dana Kurtin:
- Good Idea French Idea
- The first of two, on page 15. An adaptation of the cartoon series' Good Idea Bad Idea feature, this shows three Good Ideas, then their French counterparts.
- Good Idea French Idea
- The second of two, on page 31. More Good Ideas and their French counterparts. Both of these were pencilled by WBWP artist Peter Tumminello.
- Dot's French Poetry Corner
- A French adaptation of the cartoon's Dot's Poetry Corner feature, with Dot doing her idea of a French nursery rhyme, Frere Jacques. Pencilled by Cosme Quartieri.
Jay Maynard, jmaynard@phoenix.net
Last updated 21 November 1996