Buttons and Mindy
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Buttons and Mindy are characters that were regularly featured on the animated children's television show Animaniacs. Their segments centered around three characters: Buttons, a heroic German shepherd-type dog; Mindy, an accident-prone baby girl; and Mindy's mother, who was often referred to as "Lady" by Mindy. One never saw above her waist, though her brown hair can be seen briefly in the Animaniacs movie Wakko's Wish.
The plots are deceptively simple. Mindy is left alone with Buttons, one of the few non-anthropomorphized characters in the series, who is charged as babysitter by her mother. Soon after, ever-curious Mindy wanders off with Buttons chasing after her. Buttons faithfully keeps her from harm, often taking the brunt of horrible abuse and injury. Somehow Mindy manages to wander back home unharmed, yet Buttons is ironically always scolded for being inattentive by Mindy's mother. However, Mindy always hugs Buttons and tells her dog she loves him afterwards.
The formula of the Buttons and Mindy cartoons seems to be a poke at both Lassie and Hanna-Barbera—in fact, one of the shorts, "Cat on a Hot Steel Beam," was lifted from a Tom and Jerry short featuring the cat-and-mouse duo pursuing a baby who had wandered out onto an unfinished skyscraper—and an off-model Tom and Jerry even appear in the short chasing an errant infant. This scenario was also the plot of two classic Popeye cartoons, a Fleischer and a Famous Studios remake, with a hypnotized Olive Oyl. Additionally, Mindy's remarkable luck and innocence is reminiscent of Mr. Magoo.
In several shorts, Buttons and Mindy are re-designed as Flintstones, Jetsons, and even mermaid-type characters.