'Animaniacs' actors don't believe Season 3 is the end

The stars of Animaniacs said they do not believe the third season, premiering Friday on Hulu, will truly be the last, as Hulu announced.

The animated series originally ran from 1993 to 1998, and Hulu began to stream the revival in 2020.

Maurice LaMarche, 64, plays the Brain, a lab mouse unsuccessfully trying to take over the world with his partner, Pinky (Rob Paulsen). LaMarche said Pinky and the Brain are only going on hiatus for now.

"Pinky and the Brain are going back to ACME Labs and plotting to take over the world without the camera on them," LaMarche told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "Nothing's ever put to bed forever. I like to think of us as taking a little break right now."

Animaniacs is not the only reboot of which LaMarche has been a part. He and Animaniacs co-star Tress MacNeille, 71, just completed voice work on a third revival of Futurama, which will stream on Hulu.

"We've just completed 20 episodes," MacNeille said of Futurama. "That's why I refuse to believe that this one's canceled, too."

On Animaniacs, Jess Harnell, Paulsen and MacNeille play Wakko, Yakko and Dot Warner, respectively -- residents of the Warner Bros. water tower who wreak havoc on the studio lot. All four actors agreed it's easy to slip back into their characters.

"It's part of us," Harnell, 59, said. "They're always there."

LaMarche said he and Paulsen often fulfill fan requests to speak as Pinky and the Brain at conventions. So they had practice for the decades between 1998 and 2020 and expect to continue taking requests.

"We're doing the voices for the folks who come up to our tables," LaMarche said. "We're always ready with Pinky and the Brain because they're big crowd-pleasers."

LaMarche said that he need only lower his voice slightly to speak like the Brain.

"Brain is always there for me," LaMarche said. "He's just a few tones lower than my speaking voice."

All four actors work prolifically in animation. MacNeille also does voices for The Simpsons, Rick and Morty and more, but said Dot feels more ingrained than others.

"In fact, you can hardly stop us from using our Animaniac voices," MacNeille said. "They come so easily to us and so naturally that we just fall right back into it."

Animaniacs episodes alternate between shorts that feature the Warners and Pinky and the Brain. The voices may be familiar, but the characters have new adventures in Season 3.

One episode depicts a confrontation between Brain and ex-wife Julia (Maria Bamford), who was introduced in the Hulu reboot.

"I enjoyed his sort of push-pull and this kind of love-hate that he has with her and the hate-hate that she has with him," LaMarche said.

The Warners will face old nemeses in Season 3, too. Season 2 ended with Ralph the Guard (Frank Welker) taking over Warner Bros. and hiring Norita Norita (Stephanie Escajeda) to replace him as head of security.

Norita continues to chase the Animaniacs in the first Season 3 episode. Harnell said it would take more than Norita to stop them, though.

"We're inimitable, no matter who you put us up against," Harnell said. "And we'd like to prove it with the Kardashians, but we didn't get the chance."

The Animaniacs sing a song to a teenage influencer about the importance of being a normal child. Yakko even does some yodeling, for which Harnell already had the skills.

Harnell, who trained in multiple styles for his work as a studio singer, said even the producers of Animaniacs were surprised that yodeling didn't throw him.

"I've done pretty much everything vocally that you can think of," Harnell said. "I've covered a lot of ground."

Animaniacs always has been a musical show, and Season 3 includes many more comedic songs. Harnell said a trademark of Animaniacs songs is cramming as many words as possible into a melody.

"They give us way too many words in way too small a space," Harnell said. "We've got to figure out how to make that happen."

Though there are no more Animaniacs episodes on the books, LaMarche said the continued popularity of revivals and reboots gives him confidence. Beyond Futurama and Animaniacs, LaMarche even holds out hope for other shows on which he appeared.

"I'm still waiting for them to reboot The Critic," LaMarche said. "I won't believe any show I'm on is canceled for real."