Pinky and the Brain is an American animated sitcom created by Tom Ruegger for the Kids' WB programming block of The WB. It was the first animated television series to be presented in Dolby Surround and a collaboration of Steven Spielberg with his production company Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television Animation. The characters first appeared in 1993 as a recurring segment on the animated television series Animaniacs. It was later spun off as a series due to its popularity, with 65 episodes produced. The characters later appeared in the series Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain, and later returned to their roots as an Animaniacs segment in the 2020 revival of that series.

Pinky and The Brain are genetically enhanced laboratory mice who reside in a cage in the Acme Labs research facility. Pinky is good-natured but feeble-minded, while The Brain is highly intelligent, self-centered and scheming. In each episode, The Brain devises a new plan to take over the world which ultimately ends in failure; usually due to the impossibility of The Brain's plan, The Brain's own overconfidence, Pinky's bumbling, an oversight on The Brain's part, circumstances beyond their control, or a combination thereof. In common with many other Animaniacs shorts, many episodes are in some way a parody of something else, usually a film or novel.