Their names should be familiar to anyone who watched Animaniacs! since the first production season, but for those who have no idea of what I’m talking about, here’s a little recap:
Rita and Runt are two strays whose only goal is to find a happy home to share together. Rita is a queen cat with an unbelievable ability to sing, and Runt is a big dog with a thing for destroying cats (yes, I know, it sounds like the series formula to Ren and Stimpy, but this came out BEFORE) but the twist is that Runt it’s just too stupid to realize that Rita is a cat (and yes, this is stated) and loves every second that he spends with his friend. In an amazing twist, we actually got to see how they met, under which circumstances... and it’s quite uncomfortable for a kids show (most of their cartoons are): On a stormy night, they are thrown together in the pound, and spend most of the episode waiting to be KILLED there (yes, in the back room)... gee, that was pretty heavy the first time I saw it, and it hasn't improved over time. But it was precisely that kind of rawness what made their episodes so especial in the first place (although Rita’s songs also had a lot to do with that).
Their second episode was a brilliant parody of ´Les Miserablesª called ´Les Miseranimalsª that is globally considered to be a masterpiece and one of the best entries of the series as a whole. For that particular episode they achieved a lot of things, including the ability to cram TWELVE songs into the TEN minutes of length of the cartoon, and they also made a story out of them, because due to time demands, every single one of them had to move the story along. The parody is so brilliant, so well done, that many people consider it to be a faithful representation of the musical. And, as for the cherry on top, the animation here (made by the always great Japanese studio TMS) is just amazing, borderline incredible.
Their third entry was weak but watchable. That time around, the plot found the two strays roaming the ancient Italy, where Rita is kidnapped by a mad luthier who wanted to make a violin out of her gut, and it’s up to Runt to save her. That episode was tossed over a cheaper animation studio to save costs, and suffers from it, but again the two songs sung by Rita are the thing that saved this cartoon. And this should be a good time to mention that she was voiced by Bernadette Peters, a Broadway goddess that gave the character a lot of personality and made it really worthwhile (sometimes, her songs were the ONLY reason to watch these two). Runt was voiced by Frank Welker, who did a lot of other characters on the show and I’m positive that he doesn't need any introduction, as he is pretty much a legend of animation voice-acting. While they two did a terrific job with their characters, the expenses of having them both on the recording studio would eventually prove to be too big for the show to handle.
Their fourth installment had them roaming Egypt where they met both Cleopatra and Marc Anthony. The plot once again has Rita being just about to get roasted and Runt coming to rescue her at the very last second, but what makes this episode so popular among the fans is, once again, Rita’s song: ´All wrapped up in loveª. What they did here is an Egyptian ´sensualª dance that had Rita describing the pleasures of being a goddess. Bernadette Peters puts a lot of soul into her role, and the results are quite hypnotics. The episode was fun to watch, but the animation falls short when it should have been great (except for Rita’s song, that part is perfect) and this is shocking because the cartoon was, once again, animated by TMS. They would do more than redeem themselves for this on the next episode.
´Phranken-Runtª was the fifth episode starred by the strays, and oh boy it is a masterpiece. Not only this episode breaks the usual sadness that seems to be a trademark for all the Rita and Runt cartoons (replacing it with clever dialogue and funny jokes) but it also has two of the best songs on the series, and -more importantly- it finally changed the formula a bit; as this time the plot says that Runt is kidnapped by a mad scientist who wants to use his brain (this is ironically pointed by one of Rita’s songs) to create a large monster to tear the nearby village apart. To top it off, the animation here was golden. Too bad that this was their last good cartoon in general, and the rest would only work as form of punishment for the characters... I don’t wanna to name them all, but I wanna say that these remaining episodes (all SEVEN of them) all suffered from horrible animation and unenthusiastic writing that would make their episodes really hard to sit thru. Their very next would have them stuck in Poland during WW2, escaping from you know who (uh... guys, this is a kid’s cartoon, remember? -in fact, that was the episode that made me give up on this series-) and some of the rest would include a political parody that aged the cartoon more than it probably should, an unwatchable piece of junk named ´Kiki’s Kittenª and another one that flopped in the ´sentimentalª field, named ´Smitten with Kittensª.
All of the above would eventually result on the duo getting the boot (or being shown the door, if you please) after Season 1. They made a few cameos throughout the rest of the series, but they never headlined another cartoon again after ´Witch oneª, their final entry (episode 62). In fact, they were so neglected that their only true appearance after said final episode didn’t happen until several years later, with the release of the movie ´Wakko’s Wishª (in which they had a big portion of screen time, and Rita even got to sing a little bit). Honestly, there were far worst characters on the show, but Bernadette Peters’ high salary and tight schedule (she could only come once a month to voice her character) ended up being the nail on the coffin for this series. Those characters were really different to the rest of cast in so many ways (most of the other characters based their comedy on explosions, slapstick and naughty jokes) but that probably was another thing that ended up killing them.
But ok, I have said enough... how do YOU feel about these two?
