In the opening to some episodes of the series, a faux newsreel, Newsreel of the Stars, is played with an abridged history of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner in 1929, they were created by the Termite Terrace Animation Department and starred in several cartoons until their zaniness caused a falling out with the studio.

When asked what they are, most often they state, 'We're the Warner Brothers! And the Warner Sister.' The Warners themselves often use this ambiguity as a source of humor in episode 6, the musical number ''What are we?'' is devoted to guessing their species to which they declare 'what we are, dear Doctor-is cute!'. Various characters in the series question the Warners about this. The series' other characters are cartoon representations of various animals such as mice, birds, monkeys, and squirrels, but the Warners are intentionally ambiguous.

It's been explained that the Warners' parents have been killed by King Salazar and threw the three siblings away to the unwanted child home in the movie Wakko's Wish which was set in a medieval version of the show, the siblings learn that their parents were the same thing as pencils.Ī running gag throughout the Animaniacs series is the question of what animals, if any, the Warners are meant to be modeled after. Characters consisting of simple black drawings with white faces were very common in cartoons of the 1920s and 1930s, including Bosko and Honey, Felix the Cat, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Bimbo, Flip the Frog, Foxy and the early version of Mickey Mouse, Pete, Minnie Mouse, and Goofy. The image of the Warners is an homage to cartoon characters of the early 1930s. Although they looked somewhat like a type of cat with floppy ears, a snout, and tails. Originally, the Warners were intended to be birds but Tom Ruegger had come to the conclusion that 'everybody had ducks' (see Disney's DuckTales and Darkwing Duck, and Looney Tunes's Daffy Duck not to mention Plucky Duck from Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures and Count Duckula), so the Warners became something new. Series creator Imaan dean modeled the Warners' personalities heavily after those of his three sons.

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