- "I am not a hat!"
- — The Brain
"Pinky and the Brain: Brainwashed" is a special three-part event from the Pinky and the Brain spin-off series. It originally aired on Kids' WB! over a period of three days from September 14-16, 1998, to kickstart the show's fourth and final season.
Episodes
- Episode 59 (PATB): Brainwashed Part 1 - Brain, Brain, Go Away
- Episode 60 (PATB): Brainwashed Part 2 - I Am Not a Hat
- Episode 61 (PATB): Brainwashed Part 3 - Wash Harder
Songs
Brain's Words
- Part 1: Flexanimous- Able to change others minds.
- Part 2: Capitose- Having a large head
- Part 3: Viraginity- Female Masculinity
Synopsis
Pinky and the Brain stumble into a global conspiracy— and the trendy dance the Schmeerskahoven is at the center of it all. The mice must get to the source of it and save the world- so it can be available to take over the following night.
Plot
After yet another failed plan to take over the world, Pinky and the Brain return to Acme Labs as Brain laments Pinky dancing to the hit new dance craze called the "Schmeerskahoven"; performed by Swedish super-group BAAB. The craze is sweeping America while also dumbing down its participants.
To combat the rapid dumbing down of America, a White House conference is called to find solutions to this problem. Pinky and the Brain attend this conference after Brain was accidently invited by the White House's coffee assistant Bobby-Bob Yokel. When they arrive, Brain looks on in agony as the guests at the conference dance along to the Schmeerskahoven, and attempts to seize the festivities with his speech.
The mice are then kicked out after the First Lady realizes the mistake as Brain's speech is stolen by an evil clown. As the mice pursue the clown into the Washington Monument, they are sedated and captured. After this, Brain's mind is erased and he becomes "Porkpie". Pinky is spared from mind erasure due to having no mind to erase, but is still however assigned the name "Fez". The duo is then imprisoned in a strange and mysterious place called "The Land of Hats"; where everyone is identified by the hat they wear and must perform the Schmeerskahoven. Multiple times a day.
Pinky takes advantage of Brain's new nature after seeing Brain do the Schmeerskahoven (something he vowed to never do unless he "lost his mind"), and the two spend the day doing stuff Pinky has always wanted to do with him. He begins to feel bad later in the evening, and attempts to bring Brain back to his senses as they become the Land of Hats' most wanted.
Pinky and Brain are then put on trial by the Court of Hats. Brain begins to gradually remember who exactly he is, and tricks the court into dancing the "10:00 Schmeerskahoven" as he and Pinky attempt to escape. The two are then unfortunately captured and taken to the robotic "Top Hat" for another mind-erasure process. Brain manages to outwit the Top Hat with a "logic bomb" regarding what exactly "Narf" is, and regains all of his memories from the malfunctioning Hat. The mice manage to escape The Land of Hats as the citizens regain their memories from the Top Hat's destruction; and the two retreat to the lab.
Using a floppy disk of information retrieved from the Top Hat, Brain deduces that Schmeerskahoven is responsible for the stupification of the world. They try to find the identity of the song's writer, "Pseudo Nym", but get too close. The disk uses the computer to activate a self-destruct sequence that destroys the lab. They retreat to Washington D.C. and attempt to warn the President, but to no avail. They learn that a Global Schmeerskahoven-a-thon is scheduled, where the entire world will dance along to the song together.
Desperate, Brain tries to get help from Bobby-Bob and brings to the Land of Hats, which is now in ruins. No real progress is made as Bobby-Bob leaves. Brain then concludes Snowball must be the culprit due to a quick, cunning nature equal to his own. The duo tracks him down, only to discover he is an inmate in his own mental institution. They find out that Snowball created the institution to research the Schmeerskahoven, but got imprisoned by his own bumbling staff; who were corrupted by the dance. The mice attempt to get Snowball out, only for Brain to end up joining him as an inmate after Brain insults the staff and their love of Pauly Shore.
By some miracle, Pinky manages to free Snowball and the Brain. They then manage to escape from the mental institution, and head off to confront the next prime suspect: Dr. Mordough, the one responsible for splicing the trio's genes. The mad doctor was the one who signed the papers for Snowball's staff to imprison him. To the trio's suprise, it turns out Dr. Mordough has been stupefied by the dance, and the identity of the elusive "Pseudo Nym" is really his cat Precious.
Precious reveals her desires for vengeance on humanity after being rejected for her "ugly" appearance following an accidental gene-splice (she acknowledges she could just walk through the gene-splicer again to regain her "cute" looks but decides against it). She concocted the Schmeerskahoven with intentionally-hypnotic lyrics and dance moves to dumb the people down, and was aided by the evil clown (who was also rejected by society). The cat then reveals that she will debut a new verse at the Global Schmeerskahoven-a-thon, which will hypnotize the people into acting like cats. She then traps Pinky, Brain and Snowball and leaves them to be de-spliced as she escapes with the evil clown.
Brain manages to trick the cat-like Mordough to free them, but is nearly foiled when the cage gets stuck on him. Snowball attempts to flee from the mice, but is sent back into the gene-splicer by his vengeful lawyers, who Snowball sent to the island in the past to seek-out the doctor, then captured by him and neglected by Snowball. Pinky and Brain escape as Snowball is reduced to an ordinary hamster, devoid of any enhanced intelligence. Brain then devises a Schmeerskahoven verse of his own, designed to undo the damage caused by the dance.
The duo then ventures to Washington D.C. just in time for the Global Schmeerksahoven-a-thon; intending to have the song's singers BAAB perform it. Due to a mix-up, they wind-up using Bobby-Bob. Inspired by Brain's earlier failed plan, the mice shrink down in a microscopic ship and venture inside Bobby-Bob. Brain poses as his subconscious and directs him to perform the new verse, which successfully undoes the damage and saves humanity.
Bobby-Bob is rewarded for his heroism, and is appointed as Chief-of-Staff (Brain uses this to his advantage and arranges for Acme Labs to be rebuilt). A defeated Precious is then taken-in by Bobby-Bob and is redeemed, and she writes a letter apologize to (and thanking) the mice. The mice leave D.C., regrown and victorious. From their newly rebuilt home of Acme Labs, Brain tells Pinky to prepare for the following evening, where they will do the same thing they do every night— try to take over the world!
Cast
Voice Actors: | Character(s): |
Rob Paulsen | Pinky, Additional Voices |
Maurice LaMarche | The Brain, Additional Voices |
Roddy McDowall | Snowball |
Nora Dunn | Precious |
Jeff Bennett | Dr. Mordough |
Tress MacNeille | First Lady, Top Hat, Additional Voices |
Frank Welker | Mr. President |
Tom Bodett | Himself/Good Idea, Bad Idea Narrator |
Andrea Romano | Herself |
Townsend Coleman | Bobby-Bob Yokel |
Larry Cedar | Fedora |
Corey Burton | Strawboater, Evil Clown |
Cree Summer | Receptionist |
Crew
- Written By Wendell Morris and Tom Sheppard
- Directed By Kirk Tingblad (Parts 1 and 2) and Russell Calabrese (Part 3)
Trivia
- "Brainwashed" is said to be the final three episodes produced for the Pinky and the Brain series in the show's standard setting (just before the Animaniacs crossover episode "Star Warners"). According to a post on Tom Ruegger's old alt.tv.animaniacs account "Trtoonswba"; the Brainwashed episodes did in fact- initially represent episodes 62-64 of the series (just before episode 65- "Star Warners"). [1] However, Kids' WB aired the three-parter as the first three episodes of the fourth season to have a premiere "event" broadcast, presumably for more ratings. As a result, episodes produced before the three-parter (such as "To Russia With Lab Mice"/"Hickory Dickory Bonk") ended up airing afterwards. This change in the episode order remains in effect 25 years later for the series episode listings in digital and streaming outlets, and the DVDs.
- Following the launch of Max in Latin America on February 27, 2024, the episodes were finally listed in production order.
- This was one of the final productions starring Roddy McDowall that released while he was alive. He passed away a few weeks later on October 3, 1998.
- When combined, the three parts make-up a Pinky and the Brain "movie" of sorts. In fact, Nickelodeon planned to air the three-parter as a movie under their "Nick Flicks" block on August 25, 2001; and even promoted the planned airing. However, it was pulled at the last-minute and the As Told By Ginger special Summer of Camp Caprice aired instead.[2] The channel still continued to air the three parts as standard half-hours while they had the broadcast rights.
See Also
- Hooray for North Hollywood- a two-part Animaniacs event
References
- ↑ Tom Ruegger's post on alt.tv.animaniacs. Published July 31, 1997. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
- ↑ Nick Flicks -- Too Much Of A Good Thing: Schedule Archive. Rugrats Online. Retrieved February 28, 2022.