Animaniacs (2020)

If there’s anything we need right now is something reliable to make us laugh. And Animaniacs fills that bill, just about as well as it did in the go-go ’90s.

This reboot of the Animaniacs is still a ton of fun. While it stumbles at times and doesn’t quite capture the magic of the original, there is enough wit to remind fans of the heyday of Saturday morning cartoons.

The reboot strives for the same mix of satire and silliness, but the balance is off in the five episodes (of 13) screened for critics. Just as in the original, nothing is off limits for sending up, but this reboot is fairly itching for a fight. Pinky and the Brain, the only other Animaniacs characters to return (sorry, no Chicken Boo), end up mired in a toothless social media riff and some election satire. ... When Animaniacs remembers to have fun, it makes for lively, occasionally impressive, viewing.

Unfortunately, the first episode is as good as this reboot of Animaniacs gets. What follows in the five episodes from the season cherrypicked and sent to critics is an innocuous disappointment. ... The new Animaniacs is just the sort of minor disappointment that makes you go, "I know I used to enjoy this show … Heh, that was kinda funny … Now why aren't I laughing more?"

Occasionally, it hits on a smart way to update the old sensibility in a way that makes perfect sense, particularly when it switches up the animation style to explore a different world. But more often than not, its focus on how messed up the world is now gives 2020’s “Animaniacs” more of a sour aftertaste that keeps it from being as effervescent as it once was, and could be.