Wakko’s Wish (1999)
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Wakko’s Wish Review
Wakko’s Wish is a 1999 animated musical direct-to-video film from Warner Bros. Animation. It served as the series finale for Animaniacs.
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“Pinky, once again you’ve left the lens cap on your mind“
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As is the case with almost every TV-to-movie production (‘Ego Trip’ immediately comes to mind), Wakko’s Wish is such a problematic product. It’s okay that they added the story to it because obviously you need a bigger story and a bigger scope for 80 minutes, but they could have written a better, more suitable story for these characters.
Its quasi-19th century setting is interesting and it’s great that all characters are here together. That’s awesome. But what isn’t so great is the added seriousness to this whole picture. Animaniacs ought to be fun and irreverent, but this movie added the whole emotion with Dot’s storyline and it just doesn’t work. It feels forced and honestly rather unappealing.
As for the characters, obviously Dot is annoying and stripped of her lunacy, but at least her moment with that soldier and him being scared of her cuteness was the comedic highlight of the movie. Wakko and Yakko are not too better either unfortunately, but at least Pinky and the Brain got some good moments here and there.
I was frustrated to see the Goodfeathers trapped. I was infuriated by that development as that led to them being also stripped of their cool and funny personalities and interactions. So ridiculous. But some characters got some solid scenes here including Buttons and Mindy as well as Skippy and Slappy. They were all pretty solid.
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The standout part of Wakko’s Wish is obviously the animation which is very professional and so good for direct-to-video standards. I liked the character’s faithful looks and the imagery of the 19th century setting is memorable and very well depicted. The soundtrack is also pretty solid, albeit far from the greatness of the show itself. Overall, it serves as an okay, passable finale to the show, but it’s still an overly serious affair.
Wakko’s Wish has its very memorable sequences, some fine humor and particularly strong animation, but its overly serious tone hurt it in the long run as it led to less fun character interactions and an over-emphasis on storytelling. It’s an okay movie, but obviously subpar in comparison to the series.
