CD Giveaway - Sam Shrieve, "Bittersweet Lullabies"
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The current student at Berklee College of Music has a rock 'n' roll pedigree, but delivers a pleasing and diverse collection of soft pop on his debut record. Enter our contest for your chance to win!
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Rating: Country: USA Release Date: July 25, 2006 Distributor: Warner Home Video Cast: · Rob Paulsen · Jess Harnell · Tress MacNeille · Maurice LaMarche · Sherri Stoner Related Sites: ·IMDb: Animaniacs
Grade: A+
God bless Steven Spielberg! Sure, he brought us "E.T." and "Close Encounters" and a host of other high profile films -- but his greatest accomplishment was, for too brief a time, resurrecting the spirit of the American classic cartoon.
Meet the Warner Brothers -- Yakko and Wakko -- and the Warner Sister, Dot. The series opens introducing the siblings as the creation of Warner Bros. cartoonists back in the 1930s -- but who were two wacky to deal with, and were locked inside the WB water tower. But now they've escaped, and they're wreaking lunacy wherever they go.
Animaniacs hit all the right notes from the opening bell. Unabashedly satirizing modern pop culture, it also sank its fangs into classical music, history, and geography, with non sequiturs and clever double entendres that would make Groucho Marx's head spin. Whether helping Einstein figure out relativity, putting the countries of the world to song, belching the "Blue Danube", or simply wreaking havoc with WB studio franchises, the Warner sibs delivered laughs with a needle-sharp wit.
Pablo Picasso ushers Wakko, Dot and Yakko out of his studio.
Yakko, Wakko and Dot were the stars of the show, to be sure. The full cast included the Goodfeathers (a trio of pigeons done up mobster style), Slappy the Squirrel (a retired former cartoon star), Chicken Boo (a giant chicken who dressed up in human clothes to fool people), and the Hip Hippos (a rather self-explanatory name.)
And there was Pinky and the Brain -- two white lab mice, who had adventures every night in their endless attempt to take over the world! This pair was such a wildly popular pair that they eventually were spun off into their own series. Whether trying to win a fortune on "Gyp-Parody" or attempting to make off with the Czar's crown jewels, this mouse-sized Orson Wells and his reality-challenged sidekick conquered viewers' hearts, if not the Earth.
Prepare for parody! Stick around for slapstick! Find out if Bumbie's mother really died! Claim it's all culture with renditions of "West Side Story" and "La Boheme" that you've never seen performed on stage! These off-the-wall toons are just what the doctor (and Helloooooo Nurse!) ordered for the terminally sane and sober.
As a bonus feature, this set includes a featurette where Maurice LaMarche (voice of Brain and burper par excellence) interviews Rob Paulsen, Jess Harnell, and Tress MacNeille over their being cast and finding their voices. Finishing that segment, LaMarche moves on to chat with casting director Andrea Romano, Sherri Stoner (who voiced her creation, Slappy), and musical composers Steven and Julie Bernstein.
So let's give the Wheel of Morality a spin and see what the moral of this review is...
This set is officially "Faboo!"
Animaniacs Volume One
Disc 1
Disc 2
01. De-Zanitized / The Monkey Song / Nighty Night Toons 02. Yakko's World / Cookies for Einstein / Win Big 03. HMS Yakko / Slappy Goes Walnuts / Yakko's Universe Song 04. Hooked on a Ceiling / Good Feathers 05. Taming of the Screwey Parts 1, 2 and 3
06. Flipper Parody / Temporary Insanity / Operation Lollipop / What Are We? 07. Piano Rag / When Rita Met Runt 08. The Warner's Lot Song / The Big Candy Store / Bumbie's Mom 09. Wally Llama / Where Rodents Dare 10. King Yakko
Disc 3
Disc 4
11. No Pain, No Painting / Les Miseranimals 12. Garage Sale of the Century / West Side Pigeons 13. Hello Nice Warners / La Behemoth / Little Old Slappy from Pasadena 14. La La Law / Cat On A Hot Steel Beam 15. Space Probed / Battle for the Planet Special Feature: Animaniacs Live! (29:21)
16. Chalkboard Bungle / Hurray for Slappy / The Great Wakkoratti: The Master & His Music 17. Roll Over Beethoven / The Cat and the Fiddle 18. Pavlov's Mice / Chicken Boo-Ryshnikov / Nothing But The Tooth 19. Meatballs or Consequences / A Moving Experience 20. Hitchcock Opening / Hearts of Twilight / The Boids
Disc 5
21. The Flame / Wakko's America Song / Davey Omelette / Four Score and Seven Migraines Ago 22. Guardin' the Garden / Plane Pals 23. Be Careful What You Eat / Up the Crazy River / Ta Da Dump 24. Yakko's World of Baldness / Opportunity Knox / Wings Take Heart 25. Disasterpiece Theatre / Hercule Yakko / Home on De-Nile / A Midsummer Night's Dream
