Pinky and the Brain

Pinky and the Brain are cartoon characters from the American animated television series Animaniacs. Later, they starred in their own spin-off animated television series called Steven Spielberg Presents Pinky and the Brain, and even later in Pinky, Elmyra and The Brain. These latter series were produced by Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros. Animation, and aired from 1995 to 1998 on The WB Television Network, running for 65 episodes.

The two are genetically enhanced lab mice who reside in a cage in the Acme Labs research facility. Each week sees Brain come up with a new plan for the two (led by him) to take over the world, which ultimately ends in failure. In common with many other Animaniacs shorts, many episodes are in some way a parody of something else - usually a film. The cartoon's famous tagline is: "Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?" "The same thing we do every night, Pinky: Try to take over the world!"

The series won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class - Animated Program in 1996.

The series will re-run on Warner Bros. and AOL's new broadband internet channel Toontopia TV.

The Brain

The Brain bears a resemblance to Orson Welles, particularly in his vocal characteristics (voiced by Maurice LaMarche). Series creator Tom Ruegger initially based Brain on a caricature of WB animation staffer Tom Minton, a very dry wit of the writing crew. The Welles connection comes from LaMarche, who is a big fan of the actor/director. LaMarche describes Brain's voice as "65% Orson Welles, 35% Vincent Price". Brain is highly intelligent and develops Rube Goldberg plans for global domination. His tail is bent like a staircase (which he often uses to pick the lock of the cage), and his head is large and wide, supposedly housing his abnormally large brain. He appears to be coldly unemotional and speaks in a deadpan manner. Nevertheless, Brain has a very subtle sense of humor, and has even fallen in love once, with Billie (voiced by Tress MacNeille), a rather dippy girl mouse with a Queens accent (perhaps based on the Citizen Kane character Susan Alexander, in another Welles connection). Intellectually, Brain sees his inevitable rise to power as beneficial to the world rather than merely being greedy for power.

The characteristics of Brain would lead one to believe that he is more suited to be an antagonist rather than a protagonist, but the series tends to present him as a quixotic fellow striving for greatness against the odds, evoking sympathy from the audience and causing viewers to like him, despite his seemingly evil plans for world domination. Such a thing is typical of an anti-hero, which many consider Brain to be. The absurdity of a normally insignificant creature hungering for world dominance adds to the comical effect, and one senses a Napoleon complex within him, despite the gravitas of his Wellesian diction - highlighted when other characters inadvertently become as smart as or smarter than him. Unfortunately for the Brain, his schemes are inevitably doomed to failure by reason of one or more of a few common mishaps: Pinky doing something idiotic to ruin the plan, Brain gravely under/overestimating the masses' intelligence, or, simply, bad luck.

Brain's similarity to Orson Welles was made explicit in the episode "Yes, Always", which was based upon an outtake from one of Welles' television commercials, colloquially known as Frozen Peas, in which he ranted about the poor quality of the script. This cartoon was described by writer Peter Hastings as "a $250,000 inside joke": LaMarche used excerpts from it as sound check material, and Hastings took it to its logical conclusion. Strengthening the Welles connection was an episode in which Brain took on the mind-clouding powers of a radio character called "The Fog": a parody of The Shadow, a popular radio character for which Welles once provided the voice. Other episodes alluding to Welles included an episode entitled "The Third Mouse," a parody of The Third Man, in which Welles appeared, and an episode in which Brain, inspired by Welles' infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast and the hysteria it provoked, stages an alien invasion on television, believing that this will cause humanity to turn itself over to his rule.

Pinky

Pinky (voiced by Rob Paulsen) is another genetically modified mouse who shares the same cage at Acme Labs but is substantially less bright. He speaks with a heavy Cockney accent (though English people familiar with genuine Cockney accents may well dispute this). He frequently says nonsensical interjections such as "narf", "zort","poit", and "troz" (the last of which Pinky started saying after noticing it was "'zort' in the mirror"). He also used "fjord" and "gnurf" on unique occasions. Rob Paulsen won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for this role in 1999. Series creator Tom Ruegger based Pinky on former Tiny Toon Adventures writer and director Eddie Fitzgerald (who has also worked on The New Adventures and Ren and Stimpy) who is said to have constantly said "Narf" around the Tiny Toons production office. Although Pinky is also an albino lab mouse like the Brain, he has a straighter tail, a severe overbite, and is taller than the Brain. Pinky is more open-minded than the Brain, and much more up-beat. He doesn't let troubles ruin his day, mostly because he's too scatter-brained to notice them. Pinky also works with Brain despite the fact that Brain insults him constantly and often beats him over the head. However, Pinky actually seems to enjoy this, laughing after every hit. Pinky is just happy spending time with his best friend, The Brain.

Pinky has a number of unusual special abilities, something like 'magic' but caused by his genetic engineering. Most notably, he occasionally levitates, but also has been known to come up with incredible insights on the scale that one would expect from Brain, contrasting with his otherwise stupid appearance. The viewer might consider that Brain should be frustrated by the success that could have been possible if he'd listened to or asked Pinky about the situation and/or plan, but Brain rarely shows anything more than a confused or sarcastic face and sometimes a comment, and usually near the end of the episode.

The show's theme song informs us that "One is a genius, the other insane." Pinky's unpredictable and startling insight versus Brain's rather more plodding and stubborn approach to "taking over the world," has led more than one fan to suggest that Pinky is, in fact, the real genius rather than Brain.

In at least one instance, Pinky had much of an episode centering around himself wherein he took on some of Brain's motivation for taking over the world. This episode has Pinky becoming extremely successful at ruling at least a town, but of course the whole thing is put through the wringer of Pinky's 'clockwork orange' view of things, hence Pinky's choice of naming the town: "I think I'll call it 'Shiny Pants', because everyone in there will want to wear shiny pants..." and goes on to describe his ultimate goal and the path to get there. Seeing Pinky's unexpected success, Brain is understood to wonder questions similar to many that have been asked for centuries: "why do people with such capacity for power seem to waste it on crazy things that work out somehow, but shouldn't?"

In another episode, Pinky and the Brain use a time machine to go back to prehistory and give mice rather than humans the evolutionary edge. Quite by accident, Pinky ends up giving mice the needed technology; once they return to the present, Brain is horrified to discover that the newly-dominant mouse race is composed of individuals similar to Pinky rather than himself.

Brain often asks Pinky about famous people when needed , for example when a basketball player was receiving attention, Brain asks why, which concludes in him using basketball to attempt to take over the world. It is unexplained how Pinky knows about famous people, probably from T.V. (which we know they have as they have a remote control).

Snowball

A recurring character in the series is Snowball the Hamster, Brain's former friend (voiced by Roddy McDowall). The two were both subjected to genetic splicing, and thus both became super-intelligent. Snowball builds a gigantic robotic body, Bill Grates (a play on Bill Gates), and takes control of Microsponge (a take-off of Microsoft). Snowball uses Microsponge to buy 51 percent of the world, and thus, to Brain's limitless horror, Snowball actually succeeds in taking over the world! Brain retaliates by reactivating his own robot body, and fights Snowball. In the process, Snowball's robot body, i.e. Bill Grates, explodes, resulting in the downfall of Microsponge and the end of Snowball's reign.

Other characters

Billie--A female mouse who seems to have the traits of Pinky, yet is actually an intelligent mouse. It's implied that her intelligence surpasses those of both Brain and Snowball and could easily take over the world if she wanted to. However, she's pretty easy going and fun loving. Both Brain and Snowball are in love with her because of her intellect; however, she has a crush on Pinky because she likes his easy going personality. She ponders why Pinky remains loyal to Brain and tries to separate Pinky from him.

The Circle--An Illuminati like organization who wants to use Brain to take over the world. Their leader is a direct parody of Fatman from Maltese Falcon and one of its agents has a striking resemblance to Christopher Walken. Brain continues to flee from them, while planning his attempts to take over the world.

Phar Fig Newton--A horse version of Pinky. Phar Fig Newton is a race horse with a long losing record and is the underdog at the track. When Brain races as a jockey to raise money for one of his plans, he decides to ride the top-rated horse in the race after getting rid of the jockey. However, Pinky chooses Phar Fig Newton as the racing horse of choice, much to Brain's annoyance. Nevertheless, after being motivated to rescue Pinky from being trampled after falling on to the track, Phar Fig Newton wins the race. Phar Fig Newton's name is, a pun on "Fahrvergnügen", Volkswagen's marketing slogan of the 1980's, as well as a reference to the race horse Phar Lap.

Larry--A brown rat who only appeared with Pinky and the Brain once. He's an obvious parody of Larry, one of the Three Stooges; as he has the hair style of the Three Stooges Larry, and like his human counterpart, he acts as a middle man between Brain's intellect and Pinky's stupidity. There's also an original theme song for the group, "Pinky and the Brain.........and Larry," with Larry's name being hastily spliced into key parts of the show's normal jingle. The recurring theme of the episode, is the acknowledgment of Larry's existence, just like in real life where Larry is deemed the most underrated of the Three Stooges. Absolutely no explanation is given for Larry's presence - Pinky and the Brain act as if he has always been there, even though the viewer has never seen him before (and will never see him again) which could be another reason why his existence is constantly being pointed out. He was voiced by Billy West, and his lines consisted solely of greetings and reminders that he is a part of the episode. Although never onscreen again, he is referred to by both Pinky and Brain in subsequent episodes. Larry's appearance seems to parody adding new characters to an already established cast. It also foreshadows Elmyra seemingly being forced into the show in the later seasons.

Brain's plans

Brain has had many, many plans to take over the world. Following are just some of them.

He has gone on the gameshow Gyp-parody (an obvious parody of Jeopardy!), and attempted to win enough money to buy the world. At Final Gyp-parody, Brain can win the money he needs if he bets all his winnings and gets the Final Gyp-parody answer correct. Ironically, the Final Jeopardy requires Brain to identify a quote that Pinky was constantly using that episode. But because he paid no attention to Pinky, Brain loses everything. This episode is a dual parody; beside being a parody of the game show, the plot is a blatant and direct lift of the classic Honeymooners episode where Ralph goes on "$99,000 Answer" target="_blank" >^*" Pinky's quote "Bang! Zoom! Right in the kisser!" is the tip of the hat to that fact.
In another attempt, Brain becomes a country singer who plays a hypnotic message in his video. His stage name is 'Bubba Bo Bob Brain', which Pinky cannot pronounce. Brain becomes the country's most popular singer (since he hypnotises his audiences to buy all his records), and on the night he does a nation-wide show, he plans to give the hypnotic command to obey him as the county's leader. But when set to give the command, Pinky once again calls Brain by the wrong name. A frustrated Brain snaps 'Just forget my name. And while you're at it, forget you ever knew me!'. The crowd obeys the command and forgets about Brain all together, foiling his plan once again.
Brain has run for President of the United States. His running mate is Admiral Pinky (parodying Admiral Stockdale), who in his only television appearance states, "Zort, what am I doin' here?" Appearing to be charismatic and lovable, Brain rises in the polls, but never makes a public appearance. When he finally does the night before the election, the public is shocked to discover that Brain resembles a mouse because he is a mouse. Brain promptly loses the election.
In one episode, Brain plans to use a "growing ray" to grow Pinky into super-size while dressed up as Godzilla, whilst Brain would stop him in exchange for world domination. However, the ray makes a lizard grow, making Brain think that the lizard is Pinky. The episode ends with the ray making EVERYTHING on earth grow, including the Earth itself.
In a Christmas Special, Brain built a toy based on him called a 'Noodle-Noggin Doll', which had the power to hypnotise people. Taking a job as one of Santa's elves, and putting the doll on every Christmas list in the world, every household receives a doll. Brain plans to use his hypnosis machine to order the world to obey him. But upon reading Pinky's letter to Santa (which sings his praises despite the fact he can't succeed, and asks Santa to give all of Pinky's presents to Brain), Brain burst into tears and orders the world to have a Merry Christmas, after which he smashes the machine.
In a historical episode, Brain hears the offer that the man to travel around the world in 80 days will become the Prime Minister of Britain. Due to Brain's genius travel methods and Pinky's multi-lingual guidebook (one of the few episodes where Brain acknowledges Pinky's input on the plan), the two travel east around the world and reach New York, and only need to take an already scheduled ship to Britain to secure Brain's position as Prime Minister. But upon catching a cab to the pier, the driver only speaks 'New York Cabbie', the one language that Pinky's guidebook does not contain. Because the driver does not understand 'Take us to the pier', Brain is foiled again.
Brain makes a television programme similar to Welles' radio broadcast of 'War of the Worlds', hoping that, as happened in the radio broadcast, the country will panic and ensuing chaos would give Brain control over the world. The plan backfires simply because Brain's attempt to stage a televised alien invasion is incredibly cheesy, and the country is amused rather than scared.
One episode starts out as what could feasibly be considered a clip show hosted by Steven Spielberg himself, which covers such aspects of the series such as the intelligent writing (followed by a montage of "poit!"s from Pinky), the characters, and how much Steven, himself, loves his creation. Steven gets up and walks through a brick wall out into a grassy field, and is revealed to have actually been a robotic creation of Brain's called "Steven Spielborg" which he was to use to take over the world.
In the episode named Brainie The Poo, it parodies Winnie The Pooh. "Cameos" include Jagger instead of Tigger and Al Gore instead of Eeyore. Al Gore is "full of hot air", acting like a balloon. Other parodic elements include Christopher Walken in place of Christopher Robin and the "Brainie the Poo" book appears to have been authored by "A.A. Meeting."
In one episode, Brain uses a machine that can increase or decrease intelligence, and uses it so that Pinky can become smart enough to understand that he is the cause of Brain's failures, due to research Brain conducted. (Brain will later discover he miscalculated his research, and that he himself is the cause of his failures.) Pinky, depressed over the fact that Brain doesn't like him when he is smart, uses the machine to make himself stupid, so Brain will like him again. However, Brain, realizing he has botched his own plans, and believing both of them to be better off with Pinky as the genius and Brain as a moron, uses the machine on himself as well. In the end, both of them are idiots, and thus, are too dumb to operate the machine and restore either of them to their intelligent selves. This is reflected in the episode's final lines.

Pinky: What are we going to do tomorrow night, Brain?
Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky.
Pinky: What's that?
Brain: ...I have no idea.

A few rare episodes involve no attempt on the Brain's part to take over the world. One centers on his rival Snowball's plan (see above) to take over the world using Microsponge. Another episode features Brain's single day where he tries to do anything BUT take over the world, but in the end, a group of a people vote that he should take over the world on the one day he is not wanting to.

Are You Pondering...?

The following exchange occurs in each episode:

Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but...

The ellipsis is filled in each time with a unique non-sequitur such as, "we're already naked," or "isn't a cucumber that small called a gherkin?" The result is always utterly nonsensical in the context given, indicating that Pinky was in no way pondering what Brain was pondering. Often this resulted in a quip from Brain, like 'the fact that your mind is not clouded by medication only fills me with pity.' In one episode, the viewer sees from Pinky's perspective and witnesses his train of thought as Brain speaks to him. The picture begins as Brain and his speech, but the dialogue fades out and the picture morphs into a whimsical fantasy. When Brain asks Pinky the usual question, Pinky responds with a query regarding the last thing he saw.

In the episode "Brain Food", Pinky finally admits that he almost never is pondering what Brain is pondering. Ironically, it turns out that Brain is always thinking that same thing.

For a list of Quotes of "Are you pondering...? See Pinky and the Brain on WikiQuote

Incarnations

Pinky and the Brain originally appeared as a segment on Animaniacs, another show produced by Steven Spielberg and shown on first Fox and then the WB. On September 1, 1995, Pinky and the Brain were spun off into their own half-hour series, each consisting of one or more segments, including some of the segments from Animaniacs.

On September 1, 1998, the series was retooled to the much-reviled Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain, in which Pinky and the Brain were owned by Tiny Toons character Elmyra Duff, and is considered to be the reason for the show's cancellation. The show lasted for 13 episodes, 5 of which were shown whole and 6 of which were chopped into segments and aired as part of The Cat&Birdy Warneroonie PinkyBrainy Big Cartoonie Show.

Pinky and the Brain were also regulars in the Animaniacs comic book published by DC Comics, and from July 1996 through November 1998, they starred in their own comic book, which ran for 27 issues before cancellation. Following the cancellation of the Pinky and the Brain comic, the mice later starred in stories that took up half of the later Animaniacs issues, which, starting at issue #43, was retitled Animaniacs featuring Pinky and the Brain.

Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon eventually broadcast Pinky & the Brain on their Nicktoons Network. The main difference was the opening, which was the same as the original, except that hundreds of items were replaced with Nickelodeon logos of the same shape.

Trivia

During the opening sequence, The Brain writes "THX=1138" on a chalkboard, referencing the George Lucas film THX 1138.
In an episode that parodies the tale of Samson and Delilah, there is a reference made to Samson's demonstration of power utilizing a donkey's jaw bone. The characters refer to the object in question as "the jaw bone of an ass" numerous times. This in itself is a joke as the word "ass", also a pejorative and a rude word referencing buttocks, is almost never used in children's programming in the United States. It is perhaps because of this that, although the word "ass" is being used in its proper context, the word is given particular emphasis when stated ("jaw bone of an ass!").

DVD Releases

DVD Name	Release Date	Additional Information
Volume 1	July 25 2006	This four disc box set will include the first 22 episodes of the series.
Volume 2	December 6 2006	This four disc box set will include the next 22 episodes of the series.
Volume 3	TBA 2007	This four disc box set will include the final 21 episodes of the series.

Volume 1 of Pinky and The Brain is slated to be released on DVD on July 25, 2006 (volume 1 of Animaniacs is planned to come out on the same day). Second volumes of both Pinky & The Brain and Animaniacs are tentatively planned for December 6, 2006. Each set will contain 22 episodes, and there will be three sets, since the show had 65 total episodes (excluding Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain). ^*

External links

Jaime J. Weinman's article on Pinky & The Brain
Article on Pinky, Elmyra & The Brain
Pinky and the Brain on TV.com
The Pinky and the Brain Christmas Special on the IMDb
Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain on TV.com
Press release detailing Toontopia TV which will feature Pinky & The Brain
The Complete Pondering List, by Richard Watanabe, a collection of answers to Brain's running gag question: "Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
Pinky and the Brain theme song in .wav format from WavSite.com

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