Animaniacs is owned by Warner Bros., I don't claim any of them as mine, same as with any other franchise I use in here, they're not mine either.
This story's going to be a little different this time around. While it will use some of the same characters as "A Dare Gone Zany", it is in fact NOT a part of the same universe. This is sort of like a "what if" scenario/branch-off, and is its own separate story.
As a result, it is not related to my original "A Dare Gone Zany" storyline.
Saturday during summer vacation, 12 PM, at Universal Hollywood
Bradley was so excited that he was jumping in his seat when he saw the buildings of the Universal Hollywood theme park come into view! His mom promised him if he passed 4th grade, she would take him there for the weekend to enjoy what it had to offer. This was Bradley's first time going to Universal as well, and had heard recently that one of their attractions got replaced by something else. He wondered what that was about as Mom parked her van.
"Alright now, you better stay close just in case, this place is huge." Mom warned the boy as he got out of the van, his eyes lit up with excitement.
Bradley half-tuned her out but caught at least some of her words. "Yeah yeah, stay close, got it!" He responded with a happy tone, jumping up and down excitedly on the ground instead of his seat. Mom walked around and put her hands on his shoulders, trying to keep him under control and stop his jumping.
"Easy, you'll tire yourself out before closing time!" She said with a smile. Bradley chuckles a bit in embarrassment and nods, stopping his hopping.
"Right, sorry mom." He said as the two of them walked to the front gate and she paid for their tickets. Once they entered, it was completely awe-inspiring to the 10-year-old. The rides and the attractions in front of him waiting to be experienced, the Citywalk to his right, it was a lot to take in! Bradley walked to one of the kiosks to get a map of the park and pocket it in his jeans, which he wore along with his blue collared shirt and white running shoes, plus a little watch on his wrist to tell the time.
Mom caught up with him and asked what he'd like to go on first, they did have until 10 PM after all. He wanted to go on so many of the attractions, but he wanted to see the new one first that replaced one of the older attractions. Thankfully after looking at the map, they saw it was close-by. "Then let's go there then!" She said to Bradley's excitement, the boy fighting off the urge to just run off to the new attraction.
As it turned out, the park's "Shrek 4-D" attraction finally got replaced by something else to try and save money. Also as it turned out, it was with an "Animaniacs" attraction now! The building, instead of looking swamp-like, was more like one of the movie lots in the park, and the entrance-way into the building was like the door to the Warner Brothers' and Sister's water tower. Mom and Bradley got in line and waited patiently with some of the other kids and parents, walking inside. Some wacky props were strung about the floor outside the waiting lines and in the pre-show area, such as anvils and pianos and other various gags littered about, as well as a train track.
"Looks promising already..." Bradley said to himself, holding a light smile along with Mom, the other people chattering amongst themselves about the attraction too. It had gotten pretty popular over the time it was open, to which Bradley saw was a couple of months. He read that it would be a stage show with some 3-D simulator elements mixed in, but they even said no 3-D glasses were needed.
Soon the screen went from the Animaniacs logo to something more enticing, a video of the Warners from what looked like inside their water tower! "Hey kids, welcome to our brand-spanking new stage show!" Yakko said as an introduction in the pre-show. "Hope you're enjoying the park, cause let's be honest, we're kinda on loan here anyway and Dot's got a spa appointment soon." He added. The kids giggled at that joke.
Soon Wakko popped up into view. "You kids don't have any sandwiches in there, do you? I'm starving!" He said in slight despair as he tried pushing his way through the screen to no avail, the sound of a loud and growling stomach filling the room soon after he was pulled away.
"You don't have to wait long to catch my beauty, the show's about to start through those doors!" The voice of Dot said as she also joined the brothers who gagged at those words from behind her, the doors opening to the main ride. The people waiting in line started crowding into the room, Bradley and his mom included. They took their seats and the place definitely looked different inside. Instead of just a movie screen, it looked like they took the time to include a stage as well. The seats also looked like normal seats unlike the "4-D" seats before it.
The lights soon dimmed and a drum roll was sounding, the curtains parting to show what looked like the theme song and animated sequence just like the original show. However, the sequence looked like a mix of 2-D and 3-D, giving a long tour of the 3-D Warner movie lot as the 2-D Warners sang the lyrics and flew across other 2-D characters. The kids and parents let out "whoa"s of surprise like Bradley did, holding on to their seats. For some reason, the sequence included some stuff and props flying at them while they "flew" through the Warner movie lot, looking kind of like holograms.
They swerved through the soundstages and through several of them, with other background characters jumping out of the way. The sequence also showed off the other characters like Ralph, Plotz, Dr. Scratchansniff, Pinky and the Brain, Slappy Squirrel and more from the intro sequence from the show the longer the song went on.
Once the song was about to end, instead of the Warners resting on one arm on their logo, it looked altered to seem like they were about to jump out of the screen. And surprisingly, they did! The three toons ripped through the screen, jumped out with a flip and did a "ta-da!" for the audience, the kids letting out a "whoa!" in surprise and clapped happily.
"Hiya, We're Yakko and Wakko, the true Warner Brothers!" Yakko and Wakko said with a bright smile at the same time.
"And I'm Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca the Third, the Warner Sister! But you can call me Dot!" Dot said with an equally bright grin. "But not Dottie. NEVER Dottie." She said in a threatening tone that time, but resumed her happy expression a second later with a giggle.
"What's goin' on there, everybody?" Yakko asked the group, with varying responses of good, awesome and meh. The combined voices ended up sounding like gibberish and couldn't be completely understood. "Well whatever that was, I'm sure it sounded good!" He said before leaning aside to Wakko and Dot. "Write this group down sibs, it looks like another Nick Jr. audience." Yakko whispered.
Bradley however, taking initiative, stood up and shouted more clearly. "We're doing fine, thanks!" He said before his mom pulled him back down and shushed him, telling him not to do that.
"Thank you for actually sounding like you speak English and not from Telemundo!" Yakko said, actually sounding slightly appreciative despite the boy getting tugged back down into his seat, the other kids in the seats giggling again. Yakko leaned back to the other siblings again. "Scratch that, Nick Jr. audience minus a few." He said quietly back to his sibs again.
The show finally got started and the three siblings went on to discuss some of their episodes to the kids, along with some of their jokes such as "Taming of the Screwy" involving some of the people they met there and where they moved onto. Dot complained how her star crush Mel Gibson changed so much, to which Yakko mentioned "Look on the bright side, there's always Chris Pratt." The audience found that very humorous and chuckled, so did the parents. Not Dot though, she just complained that "It's not the same".
They then went on to show some special effects and gags into their show, along with having a few volunteers to sample some of their tools of mischief. They included tools such as mallets(which turned out to be foam), balloon animals(using Wakko's fingers instead of real balloons and making the real balloon animals come alive briefly like giraffes and bulls, as well as birds which flew around the stage and above the audience) and paddle-balls, to which Yakko used his to swing around the room, hopping on a few people's heads, Bradley included. It did feel nice that they were taking advantage of the entire room instead of just the stage area.
The Warners definitely looked like they were having a good time at least, but Bradley was looking on with curiosity. He did see outside the attraction that it was using "innovative technology" to make this all possible. So were they holograms, were they machines? It couldn't have been either one, they looked too lifelike and self-aware.
Were they costumes? That wasn't it either, they were on model and not at all bulky. It wasn't make-up either, because the expressions were free and lifelike too, and neither face nor voice looked or sounded restricted on all three of them. He tried thinking it over more as the minutes went by until the finale, which would be a random song number, then a Wheel of Morality spin for their lesson to learn.
They called upon a few kids who raised their hands, wanting to be in the song, which had landed on "Yakko's Universe". One of the kids called up was actually Bradley, who jumped at the chance and joined the others on stage.
"Alright, ready maestro?" Yakko said in a random direction, no response. He let out a little groan. "Sorry, ready 'sound guy'?" He said a little annoyed, with air quotes accompanying it. "The things you get for adding class." He muttered to the group.
"Ready everyone?" Dot said, the five of the called-on kids nodding in response. The music started and Yakko hopped onto a higher platform to sing the first few lines, the screen behind them changing to the song sequence as well. He pointed to one of the kids to make a spotlight shine down on her, indicating it was her turn to sing the "And the Earth is a ball full of oceans-" section. She kind of struggled at first, but managed to get the hang of the tone. In a way, this sort of felt like karaoke!
Bradley hoped he knew what section he'd sing as the other kids continued their parts except for one who got completely lost on their "Across the interstellar voids-" line and almost fell silent. Yakko had to fill in for that part. Soon it was Bradley's turn with singing the "Cause there's a hundred billion galaxies-" line, and despite a first stammer or two, made it through the section without a problem!
The other siblings joined in for the last chorus as everyone had the spotlight on them, the other kids singing the last chorus all together in the closest thing to harmony five youths and three toons can manage. The other kids in the audience clapped along with the parents, with the ones on stage bowing. Everyone went back to their seats after getting a free hat for their singing(which was a black had with Warner ears on the top) and the Warners said it was time for the Wheel of Morality spin. The wheel slid in from an open door on the side, looking pretty closely made to the one in the cartoon.
"Wheel of Morality, turn turn turn, tell us the lesson that we should learn!" Yakko and the audience said in unison. The wheel landed on "3" with a "ding!".
"And the moral of today's show is: 'If something's too good to be true, give it a week and it'll get replaced'." Yakko said.
The audience clapped and the show was just about over, the Animaniacs credits theme playing them out. "Well we all hope you enjoyed the show and our song, thanks for sacrificing your time of day for us!" Yakko said with a bright smile.
"Really, it's the best Christmas gift a girl could ask for!" Dot added with a wave.
"Drop by the gift shop and don't forget to drop off a sub sandwich too!" Wakko said, rubbing his belly.
The lights then lit back up and everyone started to leave the place, heading to the gift shop to buy the different shirts and mugs and hats and talking dolls and such, pouring their spending money into the knick-knacks and merchandise.
"Wasn't that fun? You had such a great singing voice!" Bradley's mom said happily, hugging her son.
"Yeah, I didn't expect to know that song, I didn't hear it that many times on our DVD of it." He said with a laugh as he was hugged, the other singing kids looking extra happy too.
"Want me to get you some stuff and some food while we're here?" His mom offered, they actually haven't had lunch yet since they got here.
Bradley looked at his watch, it was close to 12:45. He nods in response. "Yeah, sure!" He said with a nod, about to leave when he wanted to check something. "I'm gonna see if we left anything in there, I'll be back!" Bradley said, with his mom nodding.
"Good idea, I think I left my phone in there." Mom said as she scoured through the Animaniacs clothes and toys of the shelves and racks to get her son some of it while Bradley headed back into the stage through the open door. He pulled himself back when he noticed the three Warners still out there for some reason, talking to themselves about the show.
"I still think this doesn't feel right. We're entertaining and educating, but it doesn't feel like we're doing what we should do." Yakko said to his siblings.
"And the writing too, George Lucas would've been proud. No wonder you went ad-lib there." Dot said in response.
"What about you Wakko?" The older sibling asked his middle brother.
"I just wish they'd give me my gaggy bag back." Wakko said with a sad face and tone.
Bradley kept quiet as he overheard them for a while longer, thinking something over. They didn't WANT to be here? They definitely acted like they did before, but they were always good actors to begin with. Something didn't feel right with him either...
The Warners continued discussing until three security guards showed up. "Alright, enough talking, time to get back to your home until the next show." One of them said with crossed arms.
"Sure, Mr. Paul Blart." Yakko said with a smirk and sarcastic tone. The second guard of the three of them just pointed towards a door that Bradley only now noticed was open. The group walked into a different area through it and Bradley sneaked in after them silently, after grabbing Mom's phone she left behind of course and pocketing it.
Bradley felt a little lost in this part of the attraction now, it must've been the "employees only" section or something along those lines, all dark and cold thanks to the lighting and AC, and housed various parts and props in boxes along the halls. The guards walked the Warners down a preset path towards where they supposedly resided, the boy making sure to hide whenever the guards looked back to check.
He figured something had to be done, so after a couple more seconds to make sure he wouldn't be seen, he grabbed some debris and tossed it against a wall, making a big clattering noise as he dove back into his hiding spot behind a box.
The guards definitely took notice and jumped in surprise, looking around the place after they recovered from their startle. "Who's there?! You're not supposed to be down here!" One of them shouted out, the voice echoing around the area as he glared around to see what happened, taking their eyes off the Warners to look for the intruder. The second one walked towards Bradley's hiding spot, the boy able to see the flashlight spots moving around. He tried making himself as small as he could, biting his lip and staying silent.
After a few seconds of searching the guards found the debris and the first guard picked it up. "Must've fell from the ceiling or something." The second guard said before they headed back to where the Warners were.
The keyword being "were", because by the time the guards regrouped, the Warners had disappeared. "Hey, they're gone!" The third guard said, looking at where the siblings once stood. "They must've left while we weren't looking at them!"
"Aww, come on! After all this time, you'd think to NOT take your eyes off of them?!" The first guard groaned as he kicked the wall in frustration, letting out a hefty sigh. "Look, we can still get them back, we just can't let anyone know, okay?"
"But if they're really out, they're gonna make chaos for everything in this park!" The second guard said worriedly. "Someone's bound to notice and report it before we do!"
"Well that's a risk we took when we brought them here, and that's the same risk we'll take to get them back." The first guard said with authority, trying to get the others to calm down.
While they were distracted with talking to each other, Bradley sneaked out of the area and fled out of the theater without a trace, heading back to the gift shop where he saw Mom finishing buying the stuff she thought Bradley would like, like a new shirt and plushies of the Warners, as well as a mug for her. She turned around and spotted him, looking worried. "There you are, what kept you? I just finished getting all this stuff for us." She said.
"I'm okay, I just went to get your phone." Bradley said as he gave it back to her.
"Well, I figured. And good, it's lunch time anyway." Mom said as they headed down to one of the cafes close by the attraction, ordering a little burger and fries and a milk for Bradley and a steak and salad and tea for herself.
As they ate, Bradley wanted to ask something, looking nervous the more he thought about what he just saw. "Do you think those things we saw at that attraction were really real?" He said to Mom curiously, partially hiding what he really saw in there.
"That depends, what makes you think that?" His mom said in response.
Bradley pondered that for a little while. "Well, not only did I actually feel the bounce on my head, but they definitely sounded like they ad-libbed their lines all over except the beginning and very end, and they brought out those hats out of nowhere..." He said as he slipped his off, looking at it. "I don't wanna obsess over it, but it felt a bit odd..."
His mom listened with a soft nod. "Well it does sound convincing... But they said they had 'innovative technology', so maybe they found ways around that."
"But technology doesn't make things from thin air, right?" Bradley asked again.
Mom hummed a little as she thought, eventually shaking her head. "Not really, no. Not as far as I've heard anyway."
"Exactly!" The boy said, then lightly sighs. "Still though, that was a pretty cool thing we saw." He admitted with a smile. "Hope the next ride we go on is cool too!" Bradley added as he finished his burger and nibbled his fries, his mom nodding in agreement. After finishing the food and paying for it, they went back to their van which was in "Frankenstein Parking" and put the stuff they bought in the car.
"Alright, next ride!" Bradley said as they reentered the park with his mom with freed hands.
While they walked, the now freed Warners sneaked around to see what mischief they could get into with their new freedom.
3 PM
During their time, they went on plenty more rides, such as "Jurassic Park: The Ride" and "Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride" and had a lot of good thrills on them. Some of them felt weird or too scary, so he couldn't get on "The Walking Dead" attraction.
However, when they got onto the Transformers ride, that's when things really started taking a turn for the weird.
The ride started out normal, but when it got to the chase scene through the city, everyone noticed the Warners in the ride on the 3D screens, to which they shouldn't be there at all. Bradley immediately recognized them from before as they hopped on the various robots' heads, rode unicycles along the roads, took bites out of the scenery, and have Dot give a makeover to one or two of them with puffs of pink smoke around their faces, giving them mascara and lipstick and blush and other things. She even gave one a temporary dress.
During the next section, the weird stuff didn't stop as when Devastator started trying to suck up the car, Wakko appeared and opened his mouth widely in front of it to make it look like he was doing it. Then during the grappling hook flying section, the siblings were in hot air balloons and flying planes around as they hopped out of them and along various buildings, even doing a circus act with trapeze swinging and balancing on the grappling hook's wire.
Everyone, Bradley included, stood mystified at how this was possible. He thought the Warners left, but apparently they wanted to stay and have fun first. That and he didn't expect to see them on THIS ride specifically.
Some of the people laughed, some looked scared, but him and Mom looked on with open jaws, almost forgetting to hold on when their car started to move again. By the time it got to the last part when they supposedly fell, the Warners went "weeeee!" as they went skydiving with the others, spinning around and doing other tricks together. Then after Optimus's last line, the Warners popped up on his head and said "And the best part is you get to do it all again in about 5 minutes! No bathroom breaks needed!" before waving at the group.
By the time the car came back to the station, Bradley ran off, grabbing his mom by the hand as they went outside. "Did you see that?! Tell me you saw that too!" He shouted, almost panicking. By now, the security guards came in searching for something in the ride, trying to part the crowd with "coming through, get back!" and so on.
"I did, I did... Honey, I'm gonna go get a soda to try to relax, that ride wasn't supposed to look like that... Want me to get you anything?" She asked, with Bradley shaking his head.
"No, I'm fine... That was cool, but something isn't adding up..." Bradley said, letting Mom go to calm down. The boy sighed and thought it over, overhearing some of the guests' conversations as they passed.
"Did you see those things, they made that ride so funny!" "Where did they even come from?" "We gotta tell somebody now!" "Maybe the park put it in as a surprise?" "It was just like when they were in that Simpsons Ride!" And so on, and so on. This was getting a lot of attention fast, they must've been on other rides while Bradley and Mom were on their own.
During the commotion, Bradley ended up hearing laughing from nearby, by the side of the Transformers ride building. Noticing that everyone else was too busy to hear or look for it, he sneaked out from the group and decided to investigate. He peeked around the corner and saw the Warners laughing to themselves.
"Aww man, that was a fun one!" Yakko said as Wakko was rolling on the ground laughing too.
"Everyone looked so surprised, who's never seen a robot with make-up on their face before?" Dot said with a bright grin from the laughter before.
"I dunno, does Megan Fox count?" Yakko said.
"And I got my gaggy bag back too!" Wakko said as he got up and brought it out, putting the circus stuff back inside, even jumping on top of it to stomp it down. As a result, the pile made lots of honks and various noises.
Bradley smiled a little at them, but at the same time was surprised, realizing that they WERE real after all! They weren't just some kind of costume or holograms! But how'd the park even get them here? There were a lot of questions that really needed answering, so Bradley turned the corner and looked right at them, crossing his arms and smiling at them.
"Having fun?" The boy called out to them.
"Yeah, what we just did was a real-" Yakko started before turning to see Bradley was there watching them.
"Hoot." Wakko finished, with a real owl hoot sound.
"Hey, it's one of the singing people from our show!" Dot said when she recognized the boy, all three siblings standing right back up.
"Yeah, name's Bradley by the way." The boy introduced. "So what was all that about, making that show, you know... 'Warnerized'?" He asked curiously.
"We're just having fun, something that fell really thin since we came here." Yakko explained. "Good word by the way, gonna be putting that on our next word-a-day calendar." He added as he brought one out, writing that word down on one of the blank days.
"And your brand of fun included changing whole rides to have you in them, putting makeup on killer robots?" Bradley said with his hands on his hips.
Dot shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea. They look ready for the 'Miss Giant Bot' pageant now!" She said as she handed Bradley a flier, advertising for that very same pageant, with some of the same robots too.
"Hm... Yeah, looks nice." Bradley remarked before handing it back. "You ever wondered who threw that stuff back at your show to help you get out of there?" He brought up with a smirk.
"That was you too?" Wakko said in curious surprise.
Yakko crossed his arms and smiles at that. "Heh, now I'm reminded of James Bond in elementary school."
"Why'd ya do that though?" Dot asked. "No one asked you to, then again, we do a lot of things without being asked to."
Bradley thought about it a little, there were a few reasons actually. "Well... I dunno, it just kinda felt right to me, you know? How'd you even get here anyway?"
"Well, that sounds like a good tale to tell. Come, sit around and lemme spin ya a yarn." Yakko said in a pirate's accent now. Bradley was comfortable with standing though.
"Or not, I'll just tell it anyway." Yakko said in his normal voice.
Some months ago
Yakko explained via flashback on how the Warners came to arrive at Universal with their own show. He told Bradley about how some of what they called "talent scouts" arrived at their water tower and wanted them to come over to entertain the kids again.
Seeing how the Universal parks had a lot of Amblin-influenced rides like E.T., and they just got Harry Potter which was owned by Warner Bros., to which both of them were a big part of making Animaniacs, it'd be a perfect nostalgic match. The three of them said yes of course, and soon after they were led via limo to the park.
After trashing said limo's interior with their bouncing and games, the scouts, with more patience than Wally Llama as Yakko put it, it was Dot's turn to continue the story. She said that they were taken to the attraction where Shrek 4-D once stood, and stated on a sign that it was "under new renovations! Coming Soon: Animaniacs: The Live Show With The Real Toons!"
It looked promising, and if the stage show itself went well for a while, they could make their own 4-D short movie! The first show played out and it went perfect. At least as perfect as three toon kids like them classified as perfect.
Wakko continued the story from there. After that show, which actually resulted in a few injuries and even a scare or two involving Wakko's gookie face as well as a real mallet as it went on, the park knew they had to be more subdued and less crazy. They found out ways to restrict their toon freedoms to achieve that, like keeping eyes on them while they walked, putting them in toon-escape-proof cages, made much like the escape-proof toon rope so they wouldn't get out. They came prepared when they brought them here.
Yakko finishes the story with saying that since then, they haven't had any chance to try and escape. At least until Bradley's distraction gave them enough time to vanish. Since then, they're tried to catch up on lost time with their brand of mischief.
Present Day
"Wow... So they just plucked you out and basically kept you hostage, huh?" Bradley said with crossed arms.
"We thought we were gonna get to do our own show again, but thanks to writing Nick Jr. would be proud of and all the stuff taken out of our acts, we couldn't do much." Yakko said with a huff.
"You know, like a reboot on Cartoon Network, you know the kind, right?" Dot said.
Bradley nodded in response. "I know, I know. Who even let you go though? Wasn't there someone looking out for you?" He asked.
"Well, we did hear Plotzy laughing from his office while we were leaving..." Dot said as she crossed his arms.
Bradley sighed lightly at that. "That explains a lot, actually. Well look, since you don't like being here, maybe I can help try to get you out?" He asked with a shrug.
The Warners' eyes lit up at that idea, they needed their freedom back badly. But at the same time, they weren't sure they trusted him yet. What if he'd just turn them in? Bradley on the other hand, thought about this plan and how they'd make it work. He couldn't just hide them, they were too big. They could use their toony logic to change that since they were out of view...
However, they were thinking for too long, and ended up being spotted by some of the guests. "Hey, aren't those the Warners from that new attraction?" One of them said, soon making a small gathering. This was starting to get the attention of one of the park security guards, looking curious and also starting to approach.
Bradley knew time was running out, they had to do something. "Come on, do you trust me or not? Cross my heart, don't fear dread, or drop a mallet on my head!" He said as made that up on the spot, wanting to make some kind of promise that he wouldn't turn them in. The Warners noticed the gathering of guests too, deciding that going with him would be the best course of action in order to get out of here.
"First off, good promise phrase." Yakko said, with Wakko writing it down with an over-sized notepad and pen. "Second, alright, but you better not be another Nedry." He warned.
Bradley groaned and had to agree, they couldn't stay here any longer. After another few seconds, they burst out of that crowd of people on a long motorized scooter, likely gotten out of some kind of hammer space. Yakko was behind the handlebars while Bradley, Wakko and Dot held on to each other in that order as they buzzed along the path, the guard immediately calling for backup.
The chase was on.