Contributed by Panu V.
Some cartoons have gone through a noticeable change in style when entering on their second or later season on TV. By this I don’t mean simple altering of the opening theme or introductions of new characters – there are many examples of a show being turned in a whole new direction, often into what almost seems like a different series. The reasons for this can vary: the producers may want to simply boost the ratings by changing what didn’t seem to them like a good style into something that would attract viewers better, but it also might be the show’s creators placing their characters into new situations/scenarios simply because they want a change of pace from the previous ones and/or they think it would indeed fit better with the show and its characters. It also could be both. Of course, this change is sometimes good, sometimes bad.
One of the best examples I can think of about this are the three WB cartoons produced simultaneously in the mid-90′s: Animaniacs, Pinky and The Brain, and Freakazoid!. Animaniacs, in its first and second seasons (with the 2nd season in fact being “leftover” cartoons from the 1st season), was the only show produced by WB Animation at the time, and pretty much alike to Tiny Toon Adventures, which of course originated from having the same production staff. However, along with its third season came a change. The show basically turned from a slapstick humor series with a few cultural references in each episode into a culture & media satire series with a only bit of slapstick per episode. In detail, while it previously made fun of some older movies and TV series, especially those considered “classics”, it was now completely filled with references to new and latest media happenings. All of these episodes contained at least one parody of some sort, including parodies of the series itself, resulting in quite a lot of metahumor. I think the humor also went into an increasingly darker direction, making several blatant jokes based on death. Seems like the show creators really let their imaginations and wild ideas loose during this time, and quite surely also tried altering the target audience in older direction.
Simultaneously with this third season, WB Animation begun the production of several other cartoons at the same time. These included Pinky and The Brain and Freakazoid!, with the first one leaning almost completely on sophisticated and vocal humor with lots of satire of today’s society, and the second one being more nutty and original in surreal slapstick humor than even Animaniacs on its first seasons. However, after a while of going along with the structure that was successful since its introduction much earlier, Pinky and The Brain‘s style also changed. It appears that instead of being centered on the different plots of two laboratory mice to take over the world, the show in later seasons featured several detailed explanations about their past, their families, feelings and motivations. There now was several cases of self-parodying as in Animaniacs as well. In this change’s case, the authors maybe had run out of original world domination plans, and/or wanted to deepen the characters’ personalities from the flat “genius and insane” scenario.
Now, Freakazoid! may had been canceled after its two seasons without any major changes in it, but it probably launched what could be described as Animaniacs‘ third style change. To put it simply, at the time of Freakazoid!‘s cancellation, Animaniacs gained many “Freakazoidesque” elements that remained for its final seasons, such as those surreal and almost nonexistent plots and single scenes that didn’t make much sense. At this time the series also reverted back into its first seasons’ style for the most part, including the return of animation studios that hadn’t done work for the show since that time.
Another case of wanting a change of pace, and the will to keep the style of Freakazoid! alive, I guess.
