Pinky and the Brain is an American animated television series about two genetically enhanced laboratory mice, Pinky and The Brain or "Brain", who consistently try and take over the world. The show was created by Tom Ruegger for the Kids' WB programming block of The WB, as a collaboration with Steven Spielberg and his production company Amblin Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Television Animation. This was the first animated television series to ever be presented in Dolby Surround. The characters first appeared in 1993 as a recurring segment on the animated television series Animaniacs. The beloved characters were Pinky who was voiced by Rob Paulsen and The Brain or "Brain" for short was voiced by Maurice LaMarche. It was later spun off as a series due to its popularity, with 65 episodes produced and shown on the Kids' WB. The first episode of the series aired September 9, 1995 and ran until November 14, 1998. The first episode was a first and aired both on prime time WB scheduling and on the Kids' WB. The characters later appeared in the sequel series Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain, and later returned to their roots as an Animaniacs segment in the 2020 revival of that series.
Premise Pinky and the Brain are genetically enhanced laboratory mice who reside in a cage in the Acme Labs research facility. Pinky is good-natured but feeble-minded, while the Brain is highly intelligent but arrogant, devious, and bitter. In the bulk of each episode, the Brain devises a new plan to take over the world with Pinky's assistance, which ultimately ends in failure, usually due to the impossibility of the Brain's plan, his own arrogance and overconfidence, an oversight on his part, Pinky's bumbling, circumstances beyond their control, or a combination thereof.
This formula has some exceptions. One centers on Snowball's plan to take over the world using Microsponge (a parody of Microsoft). Another episode features the Brain's single day where he tries to do anything but take over the world: in the end, a group of people votes that he should take over the world on the one day that he does not want to. In common with many other Animaniacs shorts, many episodes are in some way a parody of something else, usually a film or novel.
Many of the Pinky and the Brain episodes occur at Acme Labs, located in a large American city underneath a suspension bridge. Several episodes take place in historical times, with Pinky and Brain in the laboratory of some scientifically minded person, including Merlin, H. G. Wells, Ivan Pavlov, and Johannes Gutenberg. There is very little continuity between episodes, outside of the common fixtures of the two mice. Though some plans for world domination from early episodes are subsequently referred to in later seasons; for example, Brain's mechanical human suit that was first used in "Win Big" reappears when Brain faces his rival Snowball in "Snowball".
Both Pinky and the Brain, white lab mice kept as part of Acme Labs' experimentation, have undergone significant genetic alteration, per the show's title lyrics, "their genes have been spliced" which gives the two mice amplified intelligence over that of a typical mouse, the ability to talk to humans, and anthropomorphism. "Project B.R.A.I.N." suggests that the gene splicing occurred on September 9, 1995, which is coincident to the first full episode of Pinky and the Brain. The episode "Brainwashed" states that the gene splicing was done by Dr. Mordough, along with Snowball the hamster and Precious the cat, using the Acme Gene Splicer, a bagel warmer, and a hot dog steamer.
Although Pinky and the Brain plan to conquer the world, they do not show much animosity. In a Christmas special, Pinky even wrote a letter to Santa Claus saying that Brain had the world's best interests at heart.
Episodes
Characters Pinky Pinky (voiced by Rob Paulsen) is a genetically modified mouse who shares the same cage as Brain at Acme Labs. Pinky is an extremely unstable and hyperactive mouse. He has several verbal tics, such as "Narf", "Zort", "Poit", and "Troz", the last of which he started saying after noticing it was "Zort" reflected backwards in a mirror. Pinky's appearance contrasts with Brain's – while Brain is short, has a crooked tail and pink sclerae, and speaks in a deeper, more eloquent manner, Pinky is tall, has a straight tail, blue sclerae, and a severe overbite, and speaks in a high-pitched voice with a Cockney British accent. Pinky's name was inadvertently given to him by Brain himself: when insulting the two scientists responsible for their gene splicing while talking to himself, Brain claimed the scientists had "less knowledge in both their heads than I do in my...pinky!" Pinky then responded with "Yes?", believing that Brain was referring to him.
Pinky is more open-minded, kinder, and generally happier than Brain. Troubles never ruin his day, possibly because he is too scatter-brained to notice them. He steadfastly helps Brain toward world domination, even though Brain usually berates, belittles and even abuses him. Pinky actually seems to enjoy this, often laughing after he is hit on the head. He is also Brain's moral compass and his only true friend. When Pinky sold his soul to the devil to give Brain the world in "A Pinky and the Brain Halloween", Brain saved him because he missed him and the world was not worth ruling without him. He is obsessed with trivia, spending a lot of time watching television in the lab and following popular culture fads. An entire episode (entitled "The Pinky P.O.V.") even shows a typical night of attempted world domination from his point of view, showing his thought processes and how he comes to the strange, seemingly nonsensical responses to Brain's famous question, "Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
Pinky also has shown signs of intelligence, despite his supposed stupidity. He often points out flaws in the Brain's plans, which the Brain consistently ignores. The issues Pinky brings up can ironically lead to the downfall of the plan in any given night's plot. Sometimes, Pinky even finds non-rational solutions to problems. In "Welcome to the Jungle", Pinky was able to survive using his instincts and become a leader to Brain, who, despite his intelligence, could not survive in the wild on his own. And in "The Pink Candidate", when Pinky became president, he later began citing various constitutional amendments and legal problems that would bar Brain from his latest plot to take over the world. When Brain attempted to pressure him into helping, Pinky refused, claiming that the plan "goes against everything I've come to stand for."
The Brain The Brain or "Brain" for short (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) looks and sounds like Orson Welles. In "What Ever Happened to Baby Brain", Brain actually crosses paths with Welles, who is working as a busboy in a Hollywood restaurant, and they find themselves inadvertently yelling in unison, "Things will be different when I take over the world!" In "Project B.R.A.I.N.", Brain's name is the backronym for the eponymous project: "Biological Recombinant Algorithmic Intelligence Nexus". His tail is angular and bent – he often uses it to pick the lock of the cage door – and his head is large and wide, housing his abnormally large brain. He is highly intelligent and develops complex plans for global domination using politics, cultural references, and his own inventions toward his goal. He seems coldly unemotional, speaking in a snarky deadpan voice. Nevertheless, Brain has a subtle sense of humor and has even fallen in love, with Trudie in the episode "The Third Mouse" and with Billie in "The World Can Wait". Due to his stature and megalomania, Brain has been compared to Don Quixote and has been called a pop culture depiction of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Many of the Brain's plots have the endgame of winning over the people's hearts and then having them make him their ruler. However, his motives are pure. He sees his inevitable rise to power as good for the world and not as mere megalomania. According to the creators, Brain wants to take over the world not for the sake of being a dictator, like his rival Snowball, but because he believes that he could do a much better job of it than the people currently in charge. Brain has even helped save the world by doing everything in his power to prevent Snowball's evil schemes, knowing that a world under Snowball's rule would be a worst-case scenario. In Animaniacs: Wakko's Wish, he said to Pinky "We're on our way to fame, fortune and a world that's a better place for all." In one episode, Brain finds himself hypnotized by a psychologist whom he had planned to manipulate for one of his schemes, who turns out to be none other than Sigmund Freud. There, Brain reveals that he originally lived with his parents in a tin can at the base of a tree in a large field. When he was young, ACME researchers captured Brain and took him from his home, and the last he saw of it was a picture of the world on the side of the can. Dr. Freud speculates that Brain's hunger to take over the world is misplaced, and that all he really wants is to go back home to his parents.
In the 2020 Animaniacs reboot, Brain gains a new rival in taking over the world in the form of his wife, Senator Julia Brain, after his attempts to mind-control her into becoming a puppet ruler for him led to her becoming insane.
Other recurring characters Snowball the hamster (voiced by Roddy McDowall) is Brain's former childhood friend-turned-rival who was also made intelligent by gene splicing and has a similar desire for world conquest (though his desire is far more malevolent than Brain's), which Pinky and Brain are sometimes forced to stop. Billie (voiced by Tress MacNeille) is a female white mouse and yet another result of gene splicing. She is smarter than Brain and also has the goal of world domination. Though Brain loves her, she fancies Pinky instead. In the episode "You'll Never Eat Food Pellets in This Town Again!", it is revealed that Brain is married to Billie (who in real life is named Sheila and hates playing Billie), who pretty much only agreed to marry him because he is famous, and eventually kicks him out and makes him live in his restaurant. It is later revealed that the events were just a dream. Pharfignewton (voiced by Frank Welker) is a white racing mare, with whom Pinky is in love. Though Brain constantly tells Pinky that he is a mouse and Pharfignewton is a horse, Pinky always chooses not to listen to him. Pharfignewton is a reference to a slogan from a Volkswagen ad from 1990: "Fahrvergnügen", which means something like "the enjoyment of driving". Larry (voiced by Billy West) is a white mouse who was created as a response to demands from Kids' WB executives to include additional characters on the show. His presence is sporadic, as the writers of the show believed that including an additional character would ruin the chemistry between Pinky and Brain, as they worked best as a comedy duo; thus a third character would be out of place and unnecessary to the plot. To further drive this point home, Larry's first appearance was marked by a modified version of the theme song with the words "and Larry!" shoehorned in between existing lyrics. He is a caricature of Larry Fine of The Three Stooges fame; therefore, the episode's title is "Pinky & the Brain... and Larry".