Animaniacs is a show I hold very dear to my heart. Since the show debuted in 1993 and I was born in 2005, I missed the original run by quite a few years. However, one day in 2020, I got curious, and since my family recently subscribed to Hulu, I decided to check the show out, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that watching and loving Animaniacs changed my life forever. Since discovering the show, I've built my entire online identity around it, and I've met almost all of my closest friends through the show as well. Yakko, Wakko, and Dot's adventures have nurtured my creativity, made me slightly more confident in myself (but only slightly), and taught me that you don't always have to listen to what older people tell you. Really, I owe so much to the Warner siblings, Pinky, the Brain, Slappy Squirrel, and the others.
When I began to create fanart and fanfiction for Animaniacs, something I noticed is that the Warners don't have a lot of people their own age to talk to and get into mischief with. The Warner Brothers (and sister) typically spend their time with each other and their "special friends," who are almost always grown men. This is where I got the idea for my first Animaniacs OC: Cleff Lillipad, a character I designed to be a best friend and foil for Yakko, easily my favorite character: Yakko is energetic, confident, and a natural-born (drawn?) leader; Cleff is shy, anxious, and content to follow for the most part. Eventually, my circle of friends for the Warners grew dramatically to include many characters: Daisy Bell, a Southern belle named for the song about the bicycle built for two and a love interest for Wakko; Tilly and Silly Simmons, two knock-offs of the Warners created by a separate studio that eventually befriended the toons they were meant to mimic; Winona Bell, Daisy's aloof, rebellious older sister; Stevie Skunkton, a sassy yet privileged young man and Yakko's boyfriend; and Freddie, Stevie's inquisitive younger sister. In addition to the Warners' younger friends, I also created Carl the Crazy Cat, a foe for Slappy Squirrel in youth but a friend in old age, and Lip and Iris, Pinky and the Brain's cagemates, Iris being Pinky's older sister.
Animaniacs has inspired me greatly. If you want to read about my original characters, you can do so by using the link below.