Wakko's Wish

The 1999 direct-to-video musical Wakko's Wish (also released as Animaniacs: Wakko's Wish and originally titled Wakko's Wakko Wish) closes out the original run of the Animaniacs television series, which aired from 1993 to 1998, before the show was revived in 2020. In this animated fantasy comedy-adventure, the entire cast is transported to a fairy-tale world that resembles the 19th century, where they compete to be the first to reach a magical wishing star.

The story unfolds in Acme Falls, a town in the kingdom of Warnerstock. After the beloved King William the Good dies, civil war breaks out, and the neighboring kingdom of Ticktockia, ruled by King Salazar the Pushy, seizes control. Heavy taxes leave everyone poor and miserable, including the Warner siblings—Yakko, Wakko, and Dot—who are especially desperate because Dot needs an operation. Wakko takes a job in another town, but Taxman Plotz confiscates his single ha'penny for taxes. Heartbroken, Wakko wishes upon a star, only to learn from a falling fairy that it is the only wishing star in the sky. The star itself crashes in the mountains, and whoever touches it gets one wish. The Warners spread the news, and the entire town races toward the glow. King Salazar orders Plotz and Ralph to stop the Warners and sends his troops to secure the star.

Plotz fails, and the Warners arrive at the same time as the other townsfolk, only to find the king’s army has built a base and an ice palace around the star. Everyone is captured. The Warners bluff that the wishing process has ironic twists, which they demonstrate to the king’s annoyance. After being tortured, they are sentenced to execution, but Dot’s “cuteness” saves them.

When the king tries to shoot them with a cannon, the cannonball explodes nearby, and Dot appears mortally wounded. She asks Yakko to tell her the story of her birth one last time, then seems to die. The townspeople and even some royal soldiers weep. The Captain of the Guard angrily denounces King Salazar, and the crowd turns against him.

Dot then reveals she was faking, buying time for Wakko to reach the star. He wishes for two ha’pennies, delighting everyone. Back in town, he uses the second ha’penny to buy food and Lakers season tickets, while the first pays for Dot’s operation—a plastic surgery to give her a beauty mark.