Original airdate: 12/12/92

Story: Richard Pursel
Storyboard: Chris Reccardi Directed by: Chris Reccardi and John K.

Rating: 5/7

I’m filing this under Chris Reccardi, as I think it’s more his cartoon than John’s. Even though this was produced well before Spumco's firing it still has some of the earmarks of the second-rate directing style that would mark Games R&S – The gags aren’t built-up so much as they crash onto your senses after some plodding footage. The gags in MBF might have relied on acting much like Dog Show but the characters’ actions and interaction aren’t as delicately built-up and inter-woven. Only on a few occasions does the acting in DS really have an impact. If you’re in it for another MBF because of George Liquor, watch the real thing one more time.

DS does attempt – and fail – where MBF succeeded, but it compensates with other gags that are really good. Most of them are based on George’s maltreatment of Ren and Stimpy – he does some funny things to them during his lecture about making your pets look good – like buffering them. It converts Ren into a skeleton, but this isn’t the gratuitous cruelty you’d find in It’s a Dog’s Life or Travelogue, it’s an effective visual hyperbole. The accompanying exchange between Ren and Stimpy justifies the gag. I used to hate it of course, but that’s because I had preconceived notions of how Ren and Stimpy should be treated. And this definately justifies sticking Dog Show on Chris’ page and not John's – If this gag doesn't belong to Chris I'll eat my shorts.

At least, it’s probably John responsible for George and Ren’s fight near the end, a bit of acting that borrows a little from MBF. It’s fun to watch, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a little flaccid compared to the original (and the posing in this scene – no, the entire cartoon, looks like pages out of Chris’ sketchbook that were rejected for MBF. At least the sugary-colored backgrounds are ace). Some bits of characterization are very solid – it almost brings a tear to my eye when Ren expresses concern for Stimpy during the pre-judging sequence. And George convinces me to respect his macho way of thinking with what he does at the end. Why can’t every parent pushing their kid into little league sports subject themselves to the humiliation he does?

Dog Show, as you probably know, contains two of the most inane edits in R&S history (bleeping out the “Liquor” in George’s name and blurring a static shot of the lump on his butt), plus it almost suffered the same fate as Man’s Best Friend and aired three months late. I’ve got the unaltered print, so I haven’t actually seen these edits, but it’s enough to make me wonder what silly Nickelodeon's problem was.

Original airdate: 4/29/94

Story: Jim Gomez
Chris Reccardi
Background color: Scott Wills
Directed by: Chris Reccardi

Rating: 3/7

It's like a big fat nothing unfolding before my eyes. The premise, Haggis McHaggis enjoying life as a TV star only to be usurped by Ren and Stimpy, is very silly and self-conscious. Seeing clips from Stimpy’s Invention and Space Madness only makes me yearn for those cartoons. Although I must admit, the painting of Commander Hoek and Cadet Stimpy overlooking a cliff, a hock for Space Madness within-the-show, is pretty. In fact, as most commentors point out, the colors for the whole show are pretty.

The events read more like a sitcom, with dialogue advancing the plot rather than the characters. Haggis McHaggis is a generic wacky cartoon character with no interesting animation and a few deranged poses that don't work, mainly because I don't care about him as a character. The scenes where Haggis is exposed to R&S paraphernalia seem like they were made to brag about the show's success (I mean in the real world, dummy), some of which it still had at this point.

Within the rambling storyline there are a few moments that come close to enjoyable. Bare in mind I don’t enjoy watching them, but they’re…solid enough that I can’t call them bad. I like Haggis’ psychotic moment when his dog swears revenge on him. It’s a badly done psychotic moment, mind you, but it’s still my favorite moment in the cartoon. And the over-the-top idea of Haggis exacting revenge on Ren and Stimpy with hired thugs could have been developed into something funnier.

Original airdate: 10/01/94

Story: Bob Camp
Jim Gomez
Chris Reccardi
Bill Wray
Storyboard: Chris Reccardi
Background color: Bill Wray
Scott Wills
Directed by: Chris Reccardi

Rating: 2/7

I’ve sat through Hermit Ren two or three times, trying to squeeze out all possible enjoyment. Some people here and there have said they like this episode. Good for them, wish I could enjoy it as much as they do. The gang’s all here; anyone who worked on a classic Spumco R&S cartoon and got hired by the new studio appears to have a title credit. With that in mind as one goes through the cartoon, something about it just screams, “We’re lost without John K.”

Not for lack of trying. Out of every sub par Games episode, this one’s the most interesting. I mean, it’s interesting in the way a car crash is. Here you have these nice people just trying to go about their lives and get from one place to the other, and look what happens. This entry was poised to be a decent cartoon, what with the unique art style and gag ideas, but everything just went wrong.

HR isn’t completely beyond redemption. Perhaps you’ll even enjoy a dub of the cartoon right up to when Ren gets fed up and leaves the house. The best gag in here is when Stimpy asks Ren about his day at work. We cut to a painted close-up of Ren’s back: Dotted with footprints, a knife sticking out, a “kick me” sign taped on there, and a pink slip in his hand. 23 minutes of gags like this would be better than what we’ve got otherwise.

There’s a few more bits of decency. The card game Ren plays with his three personalities and the ensuing tirade are almost funny, but then the film reverts to the same awkwardness plaguing it throughout that I’ll be discussing below. It’s also kinda neat how Ren marches out of the cave in disgrace and passes by every character he encountered in the cave (even the characters he imagined – stupid non-sequitur strikes again). Not an especially fine gag, but considering how lackluster the rest of them are, anything close to acceptable is welcome.

From here on out, there’s nothing but problems. Number one: It’s too long. So was Ren’s Retiremen, but this time I really mean it. This is a shame, because if half the cave scenes remained on the drawing board, it might not have been so crappy. If anything had to go, it would those ridiculous dream sequences involving Ren’s farmer dad, which reminds me of how those R&S comics alter the history of the characters in a way that has nothing to do with the show . The bulk of the cartoon is Ren’s reaction to something in his environment (mostly hallucinations), and throwing some badly acted psychotic tantrum. The worst example comes after the commercial break, when he imagines the skin melting from his hands and suddenly breaks into a frenzy running through the cave like Yogi Bear running with a pic-a-nic basket. The cuts to Stimpy mulling over Ren at home aren’t any better. Not only does this make the cartoon into more of a sitcom, it also gives us more inane gross gags (Stimpy makes replicas of Ren…with brown ear wax scooped out of his head – WHAT IS THIS???).

Whenever it looks as though the plot is about to go somewhere, it digresses into another interesting but badly developed idea, and if a scene isn’t a badly acted bit of psychodrama, it’s just trying your patience. Another example of the awkwardness: While Ren is beating the dead hermit’s arm against the boulder during his tirade against his selves (which, like I said, is enough to prevent this thing from getting an even lower score), the cave suddenly opens and Ren’s pitiful psychodrama is finished. No consequence at all.

Remember when I said the art style here is unique? Well, it's not very good. I can remember more or less what the cartoon looks like (in favor of the uniqueness), but it’s more alienating than appealing. Alienating might be the word for it. You know I respect Chris’ ability to draw the most deranged cartoon characters, but this time around they went overboard into ugliness. A typical look consist of angry, beady eyes that look somewhere between the generic Tartakovsky-look and anime (although in the case of Stimpy and Ren’s frightened self, the eyes are child-like), with funny shaped teeth sticking out from behind the lower lip. Chris’s drawings in MBF had a reasonable amount of his deranged style mixed with that classic cartoon look, but here they lack the soft texture of the facial curves to counterpoint the derangedness , and they’re stiff, lifeless plastic.

Same goes for the scenery. The background for when Ren sticks his head in his hands while Stimpy wails on the accordion is nothing but a white splotch within a red one. Where the hell are the surreal 60’s-influenced backgrounds from Stimpy’s Invention? Not to mention the blue tones for the cave look so cheap, as though the watercolors were heavily watered-down.

There’s about three minutes worth of gag scenes that actually work in here, so it’s not a total loss. To his credit, Chris must have realized he wasn’t cut out for cartoons like this, because he abandoned Ren and Stimpy until Ren’s Brain (a vast improvement over Hermit Ren). The next two cartoons he directed for the series don’t feature the characters at all.

P.S. Hermit Ren was accompanied by the infamous Field Guide (directed by Bob Camp), the one that ended in Stimpy stuffing Ren’s carcass to be mounted like a trophy. Aside from tasteful animation by an L.A. studio called Toon-Us-In and some good voice-acting by Billy West, the less said about it the better.

Original airdate: 11/05/94

Story: Chris Reccardi
Lynne Naylor
Vince Calandra
Storyboard: Lynne Naylor
Chris Reccardi
Background color: Scott Wills

Directed by: Chris Reccardi

Rating: 4/7

The recording I have of this is from VH1 with some of the middle cut-out for no reason (I didn’t actually record the cartoon myself, nor did I ever watch R&S on VH1, so I don’t know what the deal is), but the only way I can see the whole thing is to buy an expensive R&S collection that includes the old Nick-airing or I can wait until next year when it shows up on TNN. Come next-year maybe I’ll redo this review, but for now I just want to get it off my chest.

It’s obviously better than Hard Times for Haggis, since it’s only eleven minutes and only features the Haggis character, with no Ren and Stimpy at all. That is definitely a good thing, because while Chris can draw Ren and Stimpy, he can’t direct them, and apparently he knew it. Haggis’ only solo cartoon isn’t that good, but it has some moments that justify watching the thing.

Like the thing Haggis uses for a bed – it’s actually related to the character, the visual makes complete sense, and it leads into a non-sequitur proportioning of the “bed” in the next scene as something of a coda to the gag, which makes it better than most Games R&S gags. The scene where Haggis hallucinates in the well is one of my favorites, although I wish he stayed out of his skin for only one shot – when he’s running up the well with his skin following his muscles, they should have realized it was time to pack it in.

Be sure to watch it if you’re interested in Chris Reccardi – He still relies on reaction shots too much but somehow he took all the things that are normally a disadvantage with Games Ren and Stimpy and made them more “acceptable”.

Original airdate: 11/19/94

Story: Vince Calandra
Chris Reccardi
Bob Camp
Storyboard: Lynne Naylor
Background color: Scott Wills
Featuring Gary Owens and Gail Matthius
Directed by: Chris Reccardi

Rating: 4/7

Going by vintage Ren and Stimpy it’s a bad cartoon, but going by third-rate Powerpuff Girls (or some of the lamer superhero knock-offs on Dexter's Lab) it rules. This isn't as dorky as cartoons that satirize old Marvel and DC comics (even if Waffle Woman’s opening monologue, with her voice going up an octave every other sentence, makes me want to bury my head in the sand).

It benefits from taking the original Powdered Toastman's strange view on superheroes and running with it – the sadistic twists on superheroes are even more sadistic and…more stupidly genius. Where else will you find a superhero capturing (and accidentally harming due to his ignorance) a president about to sign a very inflammatorily-worded peace treaty just so he can fulfill a little brat’s wish? Or destroying the whole world during his fight with the big super villain yet celebrating his triumph?

The art's not as giddy as You Are What You Eat but it is sharper than most 2D style cartoons. PTM and WW both look kinetic when they stiffen before taking off.

Original airdate: 1995

Story: Richard Pursel
John Kricfalusi
Storyboard: Chris Reccardi
Background color: Scott Wills
Directed by: Chris Reccardi

Rating: 5/7

This must have been a bit of a surprise, considering Chris all but dropped from the face of the earth for the last year of Ren and Stimpy, only boarding Ren Needs Help and returning to complete this one. The story was done at Spumco back in the day, but I don’t know when Chris did the storyboard. You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a Stimpy’s Invention rip-off at first, but it really isn’t. Ren’s Bitter Half was more a rip-off in this respect (although that one is a better cartoon than Brain). Ren’s Brain concentrates more on just Ren and Stimpy’s relationship than sadistic and scientific stuff.

At first I thought I was going to hate the cartoon. The beginning is slow, boring, and pretty lacking in gags. The fact that the brain container is also an aquarium is kind of funny, but that’s the sort of gag that never works more than once. At least it DID work once, and that’s more than I can say for any new R&S cartoon airing at the time. But the corkscrew gag is totally weak: It looks as if it’s about to drill Ren’s head open, but instead lifts the cork off some giant bottle housing a saw that Stimpy uses to saw open Ren’s head. It took the Simpsons about four more years to degrade into that kind of predictability, and this scene even has the machine activated by a monkey for no apparent reason other than to fill air space.

Once Stimpy greets the newly awoken brainless Ren (in what looks like scenery stolen form Nurse Stimpy), the cartoon drastically improves. I’m somehow moved to tears when Stimpy says, “Oh idiot Ren, let’s be friends forever.” The whole sequence leading up to the confrontation with idiot Ren and his own brain is full of gags affirming their friendship, like Ren running into a wall and hitting himself on the head with a log. The retard-faced sunrise just takes the cake. Chris drew brainless Ren with some funny upper-lip arches and squinty eyes alternating with giant bug ones, and even if Wills’ palate tone still sucks, the bright colors make the scenery come alive.

Things let down a little at the end, but it isn’t boring at all. There’s something aesthetically ugly about this scene (like the living room background, and the shot of Ren running into the camera that looks as though his figure is shaking instead of running), but you can’t help but stare at the screen with your mouth open as all the action between the brain, Ren, and Stimpy unfolds. Topping it all off is an incredibly cheesy, non-sequitur closing gag (people watching the cartoon have their heads explode – that must have been put in to let us know he understands what we’re going through) and there you have it: A cartoon that barely manages to be good, making us root for it.

I’m positive this aired once and no one knew or cared, but try to find it. It’s the last remaining embers of Spumco’s creativity and the Games crew (those left anyway) actually constructed a good film. I might be eager to overrate this, but I don’t enjoy watching it any less than Nurse Stimpy. It’s worth at least one viewing. (And now this paragraph is outdated what with the 'Adult Party Cartoon' and DVD releases...good!)

Original airdate: Summer, 2001

Background color: Lynne Naylor
Written and Directed by: Chris Reccardi and Charlie Bean

Rating: 4/7

Chris Reccardi, Charlie Bean, and Lynne Naylor return from Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack to give us this pilot as part of Cartoon Network’s Big Pick weekend, where they air a bunch of pilots and one of them gets elected to become a regular show. I didn’t get to see Bob Camp’s Lucky Lydia from the year before, sadly (if anyone has this a dub would be greatly appreciated). As for Reccardi’s pilot I don’t love it but there are certain elements I enjoy.

I dismissed the artwork at first (hoped he would draw some creepy poses like he used to do of Ren and Chicken) but things looked better the second time around – I like the details on the farm lady and most of the characters are fun to look at, with several interesting contrasts in their 2-dimensional shapes, and everything looks better than in the other pilots (not that the other pilots don’t look okay but most of them are just fancy colors with unimaginative designs).

Now this is where the story comes in – it's not laugh-out-loud funny, nor really worth watching over and over, but it can be fun to watch if you really want it. None of the problems with Games R&S are here, and it veers toward PPG in characterization, which means it's shoved in your face but not overly obnoxious. The plot has some imps trying to get promoted by granting a farmer's wish for rain, and the verbal gags are occasionally funny.

I’ll tell you one thing, Imp., Inc. deserves a series more than the winner (The Kids Next Door? What’s this crap?). Didn’t vote for this Big Pick thing but I didn’t have cable at the time and thought I never would, so forgive my apathy.