Let Him Talk Moomin

let him talk moomin

How one clip in the new season 3 trailer significantly changes Animaniacs canon

As I was replaying the new Animaniacs trailer for the 100th time in my head, I realized there's one clip that has big ramifications on how I previously viewed Animaniacs canon. How can one clip change canon before the episode's even out? I know it sounds clickbaity, but I think it's warranted. The clip in question is this:

The Warners are thrown into the water tower. The door is open and the interior of the tower is unfurnished and empty. There are about 21 tally marks visible on the wall presumably counting the days the Warners have been captured in the tower.

The Warners sit against a wall of the tower after being thrown in, looking discontent. Prison bar shadows beam down on them.

An image of the tower with the door shut. It is dark inside.

Now, to most fans of Animaniacs, this might not look out of the ordinary at all. After all, this is far from the first time they've seen the tower depicted this way- for decades, in fan fiction and fan art, this is exactly how it's been described and shown when it comes to stories about the Warners being locked in the tower. To my knowledge, though, through all Animaniacs animated media, this is the first time it's ever been officially shown like this.*

*It was shown somewhat close to this in reboot episode 1, but that was after no one had been living in it for 22 years.

What do I mean by "like this"? Previously in the show, whenever we got a look at the interior of the tower, it's always looked something along the lines of this:

An interior shot of the tower from the original Animaniacs, showing it having a fully fledged roller coaster, trees, grass, a mountain, a waterfall, and a lake.

Image from the original series of the Warners sleeping together in bed. Various furnishings are visible in the tower, including a giant cauldron bathtub, a stool, a dresser, and a toybox filled to the brim with toys and knick-knacks.

Image from the reboot of Dot in bed, close-up to the camera and looking out at the rest of the tower. It has a TV, a couch, a beanbag chair, a basketball on the floor, a rocket ship of some kind, and a metallic rollercoaster track is barely visible at the top of the shot.

It's fully furnished, packed to the brim with all the fun activities the Warners could ever need. It has rollercoasters, basketball hoops, a TV, and, importantly, a kitchen, bathroom, and comfy beds. (We'll assume Yakko chooses to sleep in a ball pit.) It's a veritable wonderland that any kid would be overjoyed to play in. I always assumed it was shown this way to soften the blow for kids who thought too much about the Warners' backstory- sure, they were locked in a tower for 60 years, but it couldn't have been that bad. Look at all the fun stuff they have in there!

When reading and writing tower-related angst, where the tower is depicted as a barren prison, I had always done it with the understanding that it wasn't really like that. Sure, we played it up for angst, but in reality, in canon, the Warners were more or less fine in there. They played games, rode roller coasters, had a good time. I was even gonna make an entire analysis post about what the Warners' time in the tower was really like. Anything else would be just a bit too dark, wouldn't it?

But no. It really was like that. According to the clip in the trailer, when the Warners are locked in the tower, they get all their fun stuff taken away. It really does become empty, barren, and dark. There's no rollercoasters. There's no TV. There's not a kitchen, a bathroom, or a warm bed to sleep in. There don't appear to be any windows, except maybe one prison-barred window at the top. It doesn't even look like they get rations of food. When they're locked in the tower, they sit in shadowy darkness, with absolutely nothing to entertain themselves except each other.

For

sixty

years.

And that's canon.

➤ [ Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun: Chapter 6.5 ]

A short translation of an extra collaboration comic published with Chapter 6 in the GFantasy magazine, featuring two other series “The Morose Mononokean” and “A Vampire Called God.” Available to read on Mangadex as well!