{"id":36487,"date":"2022-01-03T14:24:03","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T19:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=36487"},"modified":"2022-01-03T14:27:34","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T19:27:34","slug":"the-best-animated-movie-satire-ive-ever-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/03\/the-best-animated-movie-satire-ive-ever-seen\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Animated Movie Satire I\u2019ve Ever Seen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Part of what made the Looney Tunes and Warner Bros. dynasty so great beyond its characters, was its limitless ability to mock and satirize Hollywood. At a time where Hollywood was adored and enamored by so many, Warner Bros. actually did a great job of taking the piss out of people like Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable. In 1993, Fox Studios and Warner brought back the formula that they\u2019d abandoned for decades with \u201cThe Animaniacs.\u201d While the show was primarily a series filled with segments primarily aimed toward children, some of the segments brought back a lot of the classic Warner Bros. traditions, including satirizing modern Hollywood.<\/p>\n

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For the nineties it was all a matter of timing, and Warner never hesitated to satirize people like Madonna, Michael Jackson, and or Jack Nicholson. They even created the best Movie Satire I\u2019ve ever Seen: \u201cThe Goodfeathers.\u201d In 1990, Martin Scorsese unleashed his box office, critical, and Oscar darling \u201cThe Goodfellas,\u201d an instant crime thriller classic. \u201cGoodfellas\u201d is based on the biographical book \u201cWiseguy,\u201d written by Nicholas Pileggi. The book is based on the account of Henry Hill, an associate of the Luchese crime family before he became an FBI informant. The main characters were all based around real people in Hill’s life.<\/p>\n

The main character, played by Ray Liotta was the center of the story who narrated much of what unfolded through his eyes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In 1993, with the introduction of FOX Kids\u2019 \u201cAnimaniacs,\u201d Warner and gave us one of their many short segments entitled \u201cThe Goodfeathers.\u201d This series of shorts was an on the nose satirizing of \u201cThe Goodfellas,\u201d except the twist was that the trio of mafia thugs were New York Pigeons. Named Bobby, Pesto, and Squit, they live atop the head of a statue of Martin Scorsese in Central Park. On their free time, they roamed around New York City trying to survive, warring with seagulls, and merely soaking in the good life. The trio of characters was voiced brilliantly by John Mariano as Bobby, whose impression of DeNiro was pitch perfect, Chick Vennera, as Pesto, whose Pesci impersonation was top notch.<\/p>\n

They were rounded out by Maurice LaMarche who was impeccable as pseudo-Liotta, Squit. They were animal doubles of their cinematic counterparts, as often times Bobby let the trio, and Squit would say something innocuous, which would cause Pesto to take offense with a sharp \u201cWhat do you mean by that?\u201d This of course was a play on the iconic \u201cHow am I funny?\u201d sequence from the 1990 movie, turned in to a wonderful running gag that never wore out its welcome, believe it or not. Of course at the end of every episode they would answer to \u201cThe Godpigeon,\u201d a barely understandable, overweight pigeon, an crystal clear nod to Marlon Brando. Only the Goodfeathers understood him, obviously.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There wasn\u2019t much substance narrative wise to \u201cThe Goodfeathers,\u201d but it was beautifully tailored for all audiences. Kids could appreciate the excellent comedy, hilarious animation and top notch double takes, while adults could soak in the fantastic movie references and nods to classic cinema. While \u201cThe Goodfeathers\u201d was basically a blunt satirizing of \u201cThe Goodfellas,\u201d it did take on other classic movies. There\u2019s \u201cThe West Side Pigeons,\u201d an epic spoof of Leonard Bernstein\u2019s \u201cWest Side Story,\u201d which finds Squit falling in love with Carloota, the sister of a rival group of birds known as the Sparrows. Easily the best episode is \u201cThe Boids\u201d as the trio of sign up to become bird extras in filming of Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s (or Hitch) \u201cThe Birds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Convinced they\u2019re going to become Hollywood stars, they\u2019re less than thrilled when they realize the job is very hazardous to their health. There is also \u201cRaging Bird\u201d which finds Bobby becoming a prized boxer, while being trained by an older pigeon, who is suspiciously similar to Burgess Meredith. There was just so much to this segment that punctuated how funny and ingenious it could be. It embraced its role as movie satire, while also looking for new avenues to take its characters. The series only lasted for sixteen segments and sadly it has not shown up on the 2020 reboot on Hulu. It\u2019s surprising they were never even given a shot at a spin off as they even repurposed Pinky and the Brain a few times, ad nauseum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In either case, it\u2019s one of the reasons why \u201cAnimaniacs\u201d is the best (and sadly last) of its kind, as Warner doesn\u2019t seem to privy on celebrating the past anymore.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still the best movie animated satire I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n