Animaniacs Interview: Jess Harnell and Tress McNeil

All right, yeah, I'm just gonna dive right in

So are there any songs that you could tease for the new season

I have one of my favorite songs we've ever done in the new season, Michael, which is a Christmas song about Santa Claus

and I can still remember some of it, and it's fantastic, we just sang a lot

and it's a fantastic song, one of my favorites we've ever done. Tress, what about you

You know, most of the singing that comes to mind for this last season that we've done

has been this rapid fire, historical stuff, and so, you know, I had to read it then

I'd have to read it now, but it's dense and it's edumacational

I'll tell you that right now. So, yeah, I think that you will marvel at our skills

in wrapping our lips around some of these songs. Way too many words and way too short a time

Way too many words, yeah, but fun stuff. All right, is there anything you've always wanted to do

that never got to, or something that was ever recorded, but never made it to air

Yeah, I wanted to go out to the Kardashians since 1993, when nobody even knew who they were

so I'm still, I'm kinda sad we missed that opportunity, but you can't have everything. Tress

Eh, I don't know, I kinda leave it to the powers that be

to bring their ideas to us, and then when we're in the studio

that's when Rob and I, and Jess and I get at it

and, you know, make our wishes known. You know, I don't have any agenda

outside of what our brilliant writers bring to us now. Do you have a favorite joke, a favorite scene

a favorite moment, either of the new series or the original one

Too many to mention, I can tell you one thing that stands out for me. Tress, did you have a chance to see the episode

that's coming up where we're CGI? Did you see that? Oh, I saw some of it in ADR

Yeah, me too. And that's beautiful. Yeah, man. I didn't wanna make too, find a point of it

to the producers that were in the session, because if it wasn't their episode or whatever

and I couldn't say, why doesn't this show look like this all the time

Because I loved it so much, the CGI episode, Michael. When you see it, you'll be blown away

It's beautiful. Yeah, and you know, that's one thing they tried to do with the reboot consistently

which I really admired and appreciated, is they kept trying to find ways to reinvent the familiar

Right, different styles. Right, whether it was with the anime thing or a video game kind of a style

or now with the CGI thing, and boy, did they come through. You guys are gonna freak out. It looks amazing

Yeah, yeah. Are there aspects of your characters that you find you can relate to

That come, anything that comes from you that was brought into the show or vice versa

Dude, all I can tell you is, and I think Tress will back me up, is that a lot of the time, you know, with these roles

they sort of become you and you become the roles. We absolutely are Yakko and Wakko and Dot

Tress is a clone. We are them. Tress is adorable, but she's sharper

than the average bear. Right. Robbie's a song and dance man of the classic variety

and I basically just wanna hit stuff, eat stuff, and not wear pants

So we're basically exactly like the real animation. And you know, Michael, over the years

you know, the writers have learned what we are like, and so they, you know, they write for us

And so we become the characters and the characters become us. And eventually we even end up looking like them

I think, a little bit. A little bit, yeah. You should see me with a red hat on. You wouldn't know the difference

Do you find that the satire has gotten any more pointed now that you're over at Hulu versus network

Tress, what do you think? I don't think so. You know, it's hard to remember

I know that we did political stuff, of course, in years past and seasons past

but, and of course, political material or spoofy stuff is, these days

just noticeably and egregiously pointed. And so it's just the way things are

now. I'm glad that we didn't get too wrapped up in that

because, you know, we wanna keep it funny and pleasant. Thanks so much

See you, Mike. Thank you, bro. Bye, Michael. See you at the water, Tala

Take care, my buddy. Bye now