Wakko's Wish

Infobox Film
name = Wakko's Wish


image_size = 250px
caption = "Wakko's Wish" VHS cover
director = Liz Holzman
Rusty Mills
Tom Ruegger
producer = Liz Holzman
Rusty Mills
Tom Ruegger
writer = Charlie Howell
Earl Kress
Tom Ruegger
Randy Rogell
Kevin Hopps
narrator = Tom Bodett
starring = Rob Paulsen
Jess Harnell
Tress MacNeille
Maurice LaMarche
Sherri Stoner
Nathan Ruegger
Nancy Cartwright
Frank Welker
Chuck Vennera
John Mariano
Bernadette Peters
Paxton Whitehead
Ben Stein
Jeff Bennett
Paul Rugg
Julie Brown
music = Richard Stone
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Warner Bros.
released = December 21, 1999
runtime = 80 minutes
country = United States
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0164226

"Wakko's Wish" is a 1999 direct-to-video animated tragicomedy film based on the Warner Bros. 1993-98 animated series, "Animaniacs". The film relocates all the "Animaniacs" characters to a quasi-medieval fairy tale world and portrays their race to find a shooting star that will grant them a wish. Although "Wakko’s Wish" had been rated highly amongst children and adults in test-screenings,cite web | url =http://news.toonzone.net/1999/feb/| title = Toon Zone News Archives: February 1999| accessdate = 2007-05-11| date=February 12, 1999 | year = 1999| month = February | work =Toon Zone News| publisher = Toon Zone | language = English| quote = ...97% of kids and parents gave it a review of "highly positive"...] Warner Bros. decided to release it direct-to-video rather than spending money on marketing a wide release.cite web | url =http://news.toonzone.net/1999/feb/| title = Toon Zone News Archives: February 1999| accessdate = 2007-05-11|date=February 18, 1999 | year = 1999| month = February | work =Toon Zone News| publisher = Toon Zone | language = English| quote=] cite web | url =http://www.timewarner.com/corp/newsroom/pr/0,20812,667512,00.html | title =First-ever "STEVEN SPIELBERG PRESENTS ANIMANIACS" feature-length spectacular unveiled | accessdate = 2007-04-30|date=October 26, 1999 | year = 1999| month = October | work =TimeWarner.com Newsroom | publisher = TimeWarner | language = English| quote =] While the film is most often broadcast during the Christmas season, the holiday is not a factor in its plot.

Voice cast

* Rob Paulsen - Yakko Warner, Pinky, Dr. Otto Scratchansniff
* Jess Harnell - Wakko Warner
* Tress MacNeille - Dot Warner, Marita Hippo, Hello Nurse, Mindy's Mother
* Maurice LaMarche - Brain, Squit
* Sherri Stoner - Slappy Squirrel
* Nathan Ruegger - Skippy Squirrel
* Nancy Cartwright - Mindy
* Frank Welker - Buttons, Ralph, Baron von Plotz, Runt, Flavio Hippo
* Chick Vennera - Pesto
* John Mariano - Bobby
* Bernadette Peters - Rita
* Paxton Whitehead - King Salazar
* Ben Stein - Desire Fulfillment Facilitator (aka, "Pip")
* Jeff Bennett - Baloney, Captain of the Guard
* Paul Rugg - Mr. Director
* Julie Brown - Minerva Mink
* Tom Bodett - The Narrator

Main plot

The movie takes place in the fictional town of Acme Falls within the fictional kingdom of Warnerstock, where all the "Animaniacs" characters live happily together. However, upon the death of the king (the Warners' father), William the Good, Warnerstock enters a state of civil war. Taking advantage of the situation, the neighboring fictional kingdom of Ticktockia takes over Warnerstock, and makes all its people poor and miserable due to overtaxing. In the film, the invasion of Warnerstock by Ticktockia references the real world merger between Warner Bros. and Time Inc.. An animated map scene depicting the invasion sets the two countries roughly where Luxembourg would be in the real world.

As the years pass, the citizens of Acme Falls begin to lose hope, until finally they send Wakko to The City by train to seek his fortune. Wakko returns the following year with a ha'penny and sings as he considers spending it on repairing the water tower he and his siblings live in, underwear for Yakko, "burgers at the butchers, blintzes at the bakers, groceries at the grocers, season tickets for the Lakers" and finally, decides on an operation Dot needs. However, Baron von Plotz (the taxman) gets a wind of the situation and invents taxes so that he can charge Wakko exactly one ha'penny, leaving Wakko bankrupt again.

That night, Dot is lying in bed, coughing, and as Yakko bids her goodnight, she begs him to tell her "the story". After trying to refuse, Yakko relents and begins to tell the story of Dot's birth, stating they were kin of royalty, and how Dot was born from a flower. (Her family's lineage is thus revealed, the words implying that the Warners come from a royal family). The story's main point is Dot's name, "Just Dot. Call me Dottie and you die."

After bidding her goodnight, Yakko returns to Wakko before going to sleep. Wakko, saddened about Dot's illness, tries wishing upon a star. A fairy (who calls himself a "desire-fulfillment facilitator") falls from the star he picks and explains he had just chosen the only wishing star in the sky. The star itself falls shortly after in the mountains and the fairy tells Wakko that whoever touches the star first gets the wish.

The following morning he tells the whole town, which makes them all rush towards the glow in the mountains. Plotz manages to get ahead of all of them, only to be stopped by Salazar the Pushy, the King of Ticktockia. The King finds out about the star's power, and sends his whole army over. He also sends Plotz to stop Yakko, Wakko and Dot from reaching the star alive, threatening to kill Plotz if he doesn't do so. After the Baron leaves, the King orders his troops to head to the star first and secure it. He orders the Goodfeathers, or as he refers to them as "Rats with Wings", to tail Plotz because he doesn't trust him.

Plotz fires cannonballs at the Warners from his carriage, but doesn't manage to stop them from reaching the mountains at the same time as all the other townsfolk. However, the King's army has already built a military base around the star, and a small ice palace to the side of it, and they are all (including Plotz) captured and locked up so that the King may have his wish.

The Warners, however, are sentenced to death by firing squad, which they manage to weasel out of by acting as if they knew a secret about the wishing star. The King attempts bribing them with a feast and torturing them by forcing them to go on a ride showing them their greatest fears, (Mr. Director, a gas station restroom and Baloney, respectively,) until finally Yakko says, "It's not what you wish for, it's how you wish it... Things are taken so literally these days." The King proceeds to enlist the things he would've wished for, and the Warners find a comedic way out for all of them. The King, annoyed at being ridiculed, sends them to the firing squad. Dot, however, manages to convince the Captain of the guard to let them out of being shot to death by acting cute.

As the King is about to make his wish, the Warners show up, and he tries shooting them himself with a cannon. He misses, but Dot seems mortally wounded by the force of the explosion created when the cannonball hits the ground. Wakko seizes his chance to head to the star, and Yakko drops behind, trying to convince Dot that she can make it. Dot seems to ignore this, asking Yakko to tell her a story, "One last time."

Yakko complies, telling her the story he told her every night before bed, but towards the end of the story his voice cracks, and he actually begins to cry. Dot appears to die, causing the people of Acme Falls, along with some of the royal army, who become furious with King Salazar for his cruel nature. The captain of the guard exclaims, "She was the cute one, man, the impossibly cute one!" As everyone turns on the King, Wakko reaches the star. Dot immediately reveals she was "just acting", and Wakko reveals he wished for two ha'pennies (whether or not either of her brothers knew she was just acting was never specified).

Wakko uses the first of these to buy "burgers at the butchers, blintzes at the bakers, groceries at the grocers, [and] season tickets for the Lakers." The second one pays for Dot's operation, which is revealed to be a plastic surgery to create a beauty mark. Wakko's first ha'penny, however, returns prosperity to the town as the butcher, the baker, and the grocer start spending the money they've just earned, and the people they buy things from in turn do the same (see Circular flow of income).

The Hospital finds Yakko, Wakko, and Dot's birth certificates, and reveals they were indeed the heirs to the throne. They then boot Salazar out of their palace (literally) where he is attacked by his own dogs. The movie ends showing how they use their newfound power to grant the citizens of Acme Falls their wishes (see below). Before the credits, everyone spins the Wheel of Morality. The moral of the story is "Just cheer up and never ever give up hope"."

ubplots

The story features a number of smaller plots, which successfully includes all the Animaniacs characters. All the subplots intertwine, and end happily when each character "gets their wish" in one way or another. The most prominent ones are mentioned here.

* Dr. Scratchansniff's Elixir: Dr. Scratchansniff arrives to Acme Falls in a wagon claiming to sell a miracle elixir with a wonderful taste. However, no matter how many mixes he tries, he can't find one that won't make people spit it out in disgust. After he uses his wagon and his horse (Pharfignewton) to try to get to the wishing star first, the jarring of all the bottles inside his wagon creates a spill which mixes into the perfect combination of ingredients. He has the Warners try it, and discovers it makes its drinkers burp loudly in satisfaction. He subsequently creates a company called "Scratchy Cola" to sell it. He also adopts Rita and Runt.

* Hello Nurse's brain: Hello Nurse always wanted to be accepted for her brain than just her beauty. A common scene in the movie is Yakko and Wakko saying "Hello Nurse", every time they saw her. At the end, she became CEO of Scratchy Cola and came up with a new design for bottles, which is shown to be strikingly similar to her hour-glass physical figure. This is humorously emphasized when she states that it "just came to [her] , from who knows where."

* Pinky and Pharfignewton: Pharfignewton first arrives to Acme Falls as Dr. Scratchansniff's horse. Pinky, however, still is in love with Pharfignewton, and thus when Dr. Scratchansniff takes her away to pull his wagon towards the wishing star, he is heartbroken. Pharfignewton also shows sadness after a while, until Pinky crash-lands in front of her. Pinky is put in charge of the royal stables at the end of the movie, guaranteeing they will stay together.

* Pinky and the Brain: Pinky and the Brain are left behind when everyone leaves to get to the Wishing star. They manage to build a functional version of [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Leonardo_helicopter.jpgLeonardo da Vinci's Airscrew] , and try to use it to get to the star first. Unfortunately, they crash into the Goodfeathers, and they all fall in front of Dr. Scratchansniff and Pharfignewton. At the end of the movie, the Brain is made prime minister of Warnerstock, and chief advisor to the Warner triumviratum, partially fulfilling his desire to take over the world.

* Slappy and Skippy: Slappy and Skippy try to reach the star by hopping through the trees. Slappy wants a quiet retirement and Skippy feels lonely as no other young squirrels want to go near Slappy's home. When the movie ends, Slappy's tree flowers for once in a long time, and dozens of squirrels flock towards it. Skippy gets a crush on one of them. He bumps into a girl squirrel, who flirts with Skippy as she walks by him and strokes his chin with her tail. He then exclaims: "Squirrel chicks, yowza!"

* Buttons and Mindy: Mindy here is Snow White's daughter and is shown outside the seven dwarves' cottage. Buttons is charged with taking care of her, despite being hungry. When Mindy sees Slappy and Skippy passing by, she chases after them. Buttons, of course, follows, and when Mindy is about to cross a broken bridge, he puts himself over the hole. However, all the other citizens of Acme Falls use his presence to cross over the bridge, and over him. When he returns Mindy safely home at the end of the movie, he is given a large tower of steaks, fulfilling his wish to be recognized and rewarded for his courage and loyalty (also for the first time he even talks by thanking her). Mindy also fulfills her mother's wish by calling her "Mom," instead of "Lady" as she is known to call her.

* Mr. Plotz: gets his wish of being king by opening Burger Meister King ("Your Way You Can Haff!"), a restaurant where he can market his famous Plotz burgers (his only customers being Flavio and Marita). This is an obvious pun on Burger King and its slogan, "Have it your way."

* Rita and Runt, as usual, want a home. When the star lands in Acme Falls, they hide in Dr Scratchansniff's wagon. When Plotz is firing cannonballs at the wagon, they (along with Buttons who hid on board) throw a barrel of the elixer at his carriage, causing an explosion. Their long-standing wish for a home is granted when they are adopted by Dr Scratchansniff.

* Ralph T. Guard gets his wish of directing traffic, but causes a traffic jam.

* The Goodfeathers get their wish of getting more respect. Or at least, they feel respected, as Acme Falls is really admiring the statue of the Warners on which the pigeons perch.

* The Mime from the "Mime Time" segment also appears in the movie. His inclusion is excused by Yakko saying, "No town is perfect." He appears only in the scenes that take place in Acme Falls where, when he is not imitating other characters, he is being hurt by them. While he is used as a scapegoat when problems arise, it should be noted that no one means any true malice but use him simply as a convenient getaway. The mime doesn't have any wish fulfilled. However, he is involved in fulfilling Yakko's wish by letting a safe fall on himself.

* Minerva Mink was also in the movie and she was the only character (other than the mime) who didn't have her wish granted (this was because she was one of the less popular characters despite her attractiveness).

Release

"Wakko's Wish" was released on VHS in December 21, 1999 by Warner Home Video (there was no DVD or Laserdisc release, and there are no current plans for Warner Bros. to re-release the film on DVD or Laserdisc Fact|date=September 2008). On August 25, 2008, "Wakko's Wish" was released for rental or purchase on iTunes.

References

External links

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