Minerva Mink

Minerva Mink (originally called Marilyn Mink, after cinema bombshell Marilyn Monroe) is a character in the TV series, Animaniacs.

Personality
Personality-wise and despite her beauty and sexiness, Minerva can best be described as a "gold-digger", so to speak, being extremely vain and greedy. She typically was seen using men to do whatever she wanted, showing no interest in them whatsoever. As an example of poetic justice, Meet Minerva ended with her receiving a taste of her own medicine, as she fawns after a man with similar exacting standards who didn't seem to find her attractive at all. Her personality, being fashion conscious, obsessed with beauty and money, resembles a valley girl - a stereotype typically mocked in the works of her voice actress, Julie Brown. Although Minerva is snobby, smug and sees no interest in those who seek her attention, deep down inside she has a sweet friendly side to her, if anybody's kind to her, it could be that they'll get the same in return. This is best shown when, toward the end of her debut short, she gives Newt a hug and kiss of genuine affection rather than manipulation, being actually surprised when he reacts in a sexually attracted way even when that wasn't her intent this time. She is shown to have a more friendly dynamic with Newt in the comics following this, as well.

Minerva starred in the least number of shorts of all the ensemble cast, allegedly on account that the content of her shorts was so overtly sexual that it was decided that it would be inappropriate for the intended predominantly children's audience. For example, on one occasion, Minerva was seen as a shapely, nude silhouette while bathing in a lake. Additionally, many of the zany wild-takes on part of the male cast members were filled with innuendo. Her second and last solo short, "Moon Over Minerva", was slightly edited for content before broadcast. Some shots of her abundant breasts were considered too voluptuous and erotic for a children's cartoon, and as a result, were air-brushed out. The intent was for her full cleavage to resemble a large puff of fur, but resulted in what fans tend to refer to as a "uni-boob". Only some shots of her breasts, mostly close-ups, were censored - others were left alone.

Appearance
Minerva is an anthropomorphic mink created by Warner Bros. animation producers Paul Dini and Sherri Stoner. Her initial designs were handled by character artist Barry Caldwell, while her final design was done by Dan Haskett. She, much like Hello Nurse, is designed to be attractive (she also gets similar reactions from male characters as Hello Nurse). Her initial design had her naked, very much like Slappy Squirrel. Slappy's curvaceous design on her "Got Milk?"/Buttermilk parody skit is a close representation of this initial Minerva design. WBTA's management felt this "al fresco design" was inappropriate for family entertainment, with final designs and name change occurring prior to the first Minerva episode airing. Minerva has white fur with long blonde hair, an enormous soft blonde tail as well as a pretty face, pink nose and sweet big black eyes. Being a fashionable girl, she is rarely seen wearing the same outfit twice, though most production art shows her wearing a red jumpsuit. Her signature outfit is a red jumpsuit (seen in the theme song at We're Animan-y,Totally insane-y.) Her scale changes with the plot. In her first appearance she was shown to be the size of a normal mink (this is in relation to her size compared to Newt, who was shown earlier in that episode only coming up to his master's knee). However, she was most often shown the same size as human beings, only about a head shorter than Hello Nurse. Her appearance borrows from many famous sex symbols, most notably Veronica Lake, whose sheepdog haircut is similar to Minerva's style. Yakko Warner has a crush on her. She has worn a swimsuit in one episode and in some of the comics.

In "Gunga Dot", she worn a one-piece pink swimsuit while resting on a lounge chair by the pool.

In Animaniacs #28 "Natural Chemistry", she worn a red bikini when she was having a tan in the forest.

In Animaniacs #57 "Minks is Finks", she worn a pink one-piece swimsuit throughout the comic.