Pinky & The Brain

1990s tv comedy series

Pinky and Brain are genetically enhanced laboratory mice that reside in a cage in the ACME Labs. Every night they try to conquer the world!

Pinky and Brain are the genetically enhanced laboratory mice that each night plot to take over the world. Of course being so small and lack the power it would seem impossible, but Brain’s powerful mind and Pinky’s... well, he didn’t really had a special abilities... Nevertheless Brain’s schemes to become ruler of the Earth were always original, surprising and most unrealistic, but often came close to reaching the target.

Devised as part of the Animaniacs series Pinky and the Brain were original idea, but had exactly the same problem as the whole Animaniacs series - no target group. While most of the stories were simple, were using slapstick or silly jokes the whole thing seemed like production of middle-aged men trying to be hip, fresh and appeal to the "young folks". Unfortunately it failed on many levels - on one hand it was suppose to appeal to teenagers, but most of the stories involved politicians (f.e. Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bob Dole), journalists, parodied old movies (f.e. Double Indemnity, Jaws, Plan 9 from Outer Space, The Third Man) or themes like musicals, theatre or hippie culture. So the stories would suggest that 30 or 40-years-old were the target group, but to them the slapstick and childish jokes would not be that attractive, but at the same time the teenagers would hardly be interested in the format that involves musical numbers and political jokes.

Overall a very original idea that had potential, but failed to find a target group (most likely due to connection to Animaniacs), of course with time the format got overused and lost the appeal, the creators even tried to mix it with another segment from Animaniacs, called Pinky, Elvyra & the Brain, which was a complete failure.

Rating	7.2
Funny	6 / 10
Entertaining	5 / 5
Characters	4 / 5
Nonrepetitive	3 / 5