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Original airdate: 11/21/92
Rating: 3/7
I used to like Haunted House when I was younger as with most Ren and Stimpy cartoons, now I consider it the first two seasons' worst episode, but at least it's still a light-hearted Spumco project and not a Games episode where Ren and Stimpy would get skinned alive and throw distracting tantrums.
Haunted House is too self-conscious for me, and it begins the trend that would carry over into Games of Ren and Stimpy cartoons parodying old cartoons at the expense of what made them work - A ghost should just put on that hideous grimace and scare the crap out of the characters...but our ghost just has to say, "Watch me put on my most hideous grimace", which ain't funny even for self-referential humor. Only a short step to "Tiny Toons" if you angst me.
What's more, Ren and Stimpy never even notices the ghost, which works against the comedy since the ghost is acting in his own little world. The only parts even remotely enjoyable are when the ghost is converted into foodstuffs. No matter how weird this cartoon gets, even with the bedroom and shower scenes, it's always flat and unconvincing. It's tolerable, and some of the backgrounds remind me of that crusty blue thing with the triangle from Sven Hoek, but there's no reason for me to put this above a Games cartoon.
Original airdate: 12/18/93
Rating: 4/7
This was written as an antithesis to Stimpy's Big Day: Ren becomes famous, hits the big time, and a tearful reunion between Ren and Stimpy ends the cartoon. However, Nickelodeon cut the would-be half-hour episode to the standard eleven minutes (just like Fake Dad, and we all know that was a masterpiece), and the joyful end was substituted for a bitter, lonely one.
That doesn't answer one little question: Is the cartoon actually any good? Well, sure, but it's also kinda crappy. Heavy emphasis is placed on the plot so the whole thing winds up un-gagful, a mistake that marred Big Day from perfection, only blown to gigantic proportion here. Of course, we don't get any great cuts, backgrounds, drawings, or bits of acting to compensate for the boredom. Well, maybe not that last one - West as usual does a good job of portraying Stimpy as a feminine (almost homoerotic) parental figure for Ren ("Don't stay out in the sun too long, Ren, you know you have delicate skin!").
As far as gags go, we get the lion's share in the part of the cartoon I find most enjoyable, when Ren undergoes his operation. You gotta love those puppy dog whelps when the surgeon drops scoops of fat into his open chest. And what happens to Stimpy's butt. And possibly some other stuff I can't think of now.
Original airdate: 12/18/93
Rating: 5/7
If all Games cartoons were like this they'd be more the equivalent of 50’s/Bob McKimson WB superceding 40’s/Bob Clampett WB instead of an unprecedented new aesthetic of awfulness superceding John K. Ren and Stimpy. This would have passed for a decent cheater cartoon if it aired one year prior, so don’t automatically dismiss it just because it’s Games.
You might know Jim Gomez as the co-writer of Space Madness and also layout artist. This is the only cartoon he directed, and I don’t know why he hasn’t done more (though he did some co-directs with Bob Camp here and there). Not a single moment is wasted and the gags are actually funny.
The only thing in here to indicate this is a Games episode is the vein on Stimpy’s tongue (eek) and Billy West doing Ren's voice. But things get back to cartoon basics – a nice simple premise, two very different people engaging in a simple personality conflict, and lots of mayhem. Most Games cartoons are a pot of bad ideas badly developed. This one has some actual timing, characterization, and recurring themes that make sense (like Stimpy’s discovery of the caramel corn inside Lincoln’s head).
There’s even an air of dread in the cartoon when Ren gets greedy for the treasure in Lincoln’s head and ends up doing some nasty stuff that you know will get him in trouble. It’s all underpinned by their boss Sgt. Big-Butt, voiced by Jack Carter (yep, the Wilbur Cobb guy. It would have been much more fun if they overused Big-Butt). Throughout the whole cartoon you keep remembering to be afraid of what he’ll do to Ren and Stimpy when he catches them. No Games cartoon has ever effectively captured a character’s looming presence off-screen like this one.
As for the gags, we got some additions to the Lincoln statue – like a coin slot that reads “See Lincoln pick his nose, $.05”. It’s hella funny when Stimpy does that to get Ren out of the nose (as is the result, which is one of the few tasteful disfigurations of Ren’s form in a Games episode). Everything in here is done right – there are no lapses of taste and Gomez knew when to stop a theme dead in its tracks and move on to something else. The best Games episode of Ren and Stimpy ever.
Original airdate: 2/19/94
Rating: 4/7
I really should hate this like I hate Road Apples. After all, it perverts the goal of the original Spumco cartoons by making Ren into an unlikable jackass so by the time he gets it you don't feel any sympathy for him, nor is there any catharsis when everybody else is just as clueless and amoral. It gets a D- for character development.
Inspite of the heartless cruelty that inflicts Jimminy Lummox I rather enjoy watching some of it. The baby chick breaking down after Ren bellows in his nest is fun in a disturbing way and Jimminy's retarted proverbs sound funny while he's inflicting bodily harm on Ren. Plus they start that running gag where Ren and Stimpy's home is a famous cartoon monument, and in this case it works due to the depiction of their lifestyle inside.
At the end though, despite the cruelty, lack of character, and disjointed structure we get the closest thing to a good psychotic moment in a Games cartoon. It's not so much the animated acting although a few drawings are acceptable and it's not the situation either, it's that delicious contradiction where Ren's denial of his own anger gives way to intense anger. The part where he goes, "And now, you...DIIIIIIIIIIIIIE" is the most intense moment in the Games R&S history. Despite its flaws, a little charm comes through.
Original airdate: 4/9/94
Rating: 3/7
With the very lifeless, dull artwork and general lack of direction, this could have been a 2 at best. As it is, the cartoon contains two of the most wild, hysterical ideas ever in a Games Ren and Stimpy cartoon. The first is the mini-music video of Stimpy walking through his own navel, with psychedelic imagery abound and the Masters of Reality singer doing his best Jim Morrison imitation. The music’s okay, I guess. I haven’t heard anything else by the MoR, but if all their stuff is like this, I’m not very anxious. I can’t stand self-consciously retro music.
Then there’s Jerry, specifically the scene where get becomes mad at Stimpy and starts chasing him. One of the few times I laugh out loud at a Games cartoons is when he runs after Stimpy brandishing a spiked club. The surreal cutting to Jerry after Stimpy on a motorcycle is also a hoot.
Unfortunately, the rest of the cartoon is almost unwatchable. There’s not a single idea worth developing in here. I don’t know why Ren threw a cast party, but that doesn’t lead anywhere. And I don’t care for his remark about the sixties – why do modern cartoonists get so nostalgic for the 60’s? It was the death knell of their art form! I like the Doors and the Beatles as much as anybody but keep the two art forms separate, alright?
Original airdate: 4/9/94
Rating: 0/7
Out of every cartoon worthy for review on this site, this is the only one where every second of footage is wasted, in addition to a few more outstandingly bad elements piling on top to widen the injury. I could find something good in even the worst Games cartoons, although for cartoons rated one higher than this that good usually turns out to be, "not as bad as Road Apples", but there are no redeeming qualities here whatsoever.
My friend once said Road Apples is not that bad when I mentioned how crappy it is, but you could say that about losing every body part you don't actually need to stay alive. There is not a second of this film that shouldn't have been burned on sight, it just drags its way through time and space, assaulting your deeper senses, spurting a loogie in the cup of coffee you're drinking. Anything resembling a good idea is only an embryonic good idea. The yak-mirage, Stimpy's tongue feeling the pavement, the elaborate features of the RV, Cobb's bed-wetting joke and Stimpy's heartfelt display when he carries Ren across the desert could have been parts of better cartoons, but they don't go anywhere nor do they come from any sort of build-up, so what you have is zero stimulation.
But what about those outstandingly bad elements - Stimpy pretending to be roadkill (THE worst visual I have seen in my life, and I'll have to thank Dan Persons for including it in his Cinefantastique article so I can see it anytime), Ren getting his eaten alive carcass spit back on his skeleton with a scream sound-effect (also in the mag, thanks again), Stimpy's abrasive and needless tantrum (looks like it took some effort to draw, but there's nothing to hang it on to, and Billy's scream sends me running for cover) and of course the skunk milk. BLARRRGH.
This is the lowest rating I've given a cartoon. All footage ranges from repulsive to useless (When Stimpy twitches in the scene where Ren gets run over, at least he isn't drawn hideously anymore, though I suspect that's lazy cartooning more than respect towards the viewer's digestive tract. Ren's own scrambled-egg visual doesn't help, either). How to make a simple plot with gags fall flat on its face...That's Road Apples.
Original airdate: 6/4/94
Rating: 4/7
Note: IIRC, Richard Pursel is listed as writer on the closing credits.
Games episodes based on Spumco plots usually turn out better than most cartoons filled with original Games material and this one is…no exception. It’s the first Ren and Stimpy cartoon since Powdered Toastman to highlight a celebrity voice in the title credits, which became a bad trend later on (gee, I’ve always wanted Bill Mumy and June Lockhart to voice a lackluster episode of Ren and Stimpy like it was the Simpsons), but at least here Rosie works wonders. I mean, she’s perfect for her role – throwing out snide remarks, sadistic buddy-buddy behavior and screaming like she was born for the part.
The art is pretty typical Games art, meaning a few deranged poses and facial curves and the like, but not really conveying emotion, just looking weird. The gratuitous anatomy extension for this episode is when Stimpy’s nipples are shown near the beginning. Throbbing veins in necks and under tongues and now nipples where they don’t belong?
Of course the gags are all incredibly silly – Ren and Stimpy eat all the cookies they’re supposed to sell, so when someone’s ready to buy ‘em they replace it with an inedible substitute the buyer naturally enjoys. Stimpy goes hunting for snipes when Ren is sure it’s a practical joke and finds one. Ren and Stimpy earn badges for causing themselves bodily harm. No one in this cartoon is actually who they appear to be. You know, the usual stuff.
Original airdate: 10/8/94
Rating: 2/7
Annnd we have yet another Ren and Stimpy cartoon that is no better or worse than any Nicktoon out there and is totally boring to watch.
If you’re sitting down to watch this like you’d watch the new episode of The Simpsons, you may find some of it funny. The scene-progressions are very sitcom-esque as are the gag-payoffs, meaning none of the timing required to make a real cartoon gag is present. I won’t even bother describing the cartoon. You’re better off watching Tex Avery’s House of Tomorrow. And don’t blame Ron Hughart for this cartoon. He was only doing the grunt work. Blame Ron Hauge – he wrote the gags. This proves Ren and Stimpy had turned into a crappy third-rate sitcom – only in that genre would the writer’s position overtake the director’s.
If you laugh out loud at Stimpy’s glee over the whale plankton being pre-digested, you’re no friend of mine.
Original airdate: 11/19/94
Rating: 3/7
The only thing worse than a cartoon that goes as far away from the Spumco spirit as can be is a cartoon that makes a half-hearted try to recapture the old spirit. Makes me feel bad about it. But where is the characterization? Stimpy’s stupid and nice and makes a few tantrums when Ren tries to eat the chicken. Ren is smart and mean and tries to eat the chicken. And he throws a few obligatory psychotic scenes of glee like we were watching a David Lynch or Alfred Hitchcock movie. Big deal.
What is the point of the satire, anyway? I can’t imagine anybody laughing when Ren says, “Stimpy, I’m home!” There’s nothing particularly nasty about this cartoon, mind you. It’s just a perfectly forgettable piece of mediocrity.
Original airdate: 12/3/94
Rating: 2/7
This is the infamous MBF-ripoff. It’s a moot thing to get mad about considering Man's Best Friend is now easily available but I still resent this thing’s existence. The scene where Ren discovers the freeze-dried dog, for example, or when the old lady has her butler break their arms and legs. It’s a sick exercise in cruelty. There aren’t any gross jokes in here, but there are tons of gratuitous Bible jokes (the lady names Ren and Stimpy “Abraham” and “Leviticus”), pet cemetery jokes, and neuter jokes. And there was no reason to do any of this stuff other than to do it.
Did I mention this is one of the ugliest cartoons I’ve ever seen in my life? Even Road Apples didn’t look this bad. No matter how hard they try to make it look “cartoony” or “bright” everything is just a sludgy mess. The lady and her butler look like a massive blob of lines and colors that form a barely distinguishable figure and rely on the eyes to look like cartoon characters.
Original airdate: 1/14/95
Rating: 3/7
The only good thing here are a handful of Ren poses, some of which remind me of Bob Camp, like Ren’s cute little meek eyes peeking up behind the giant. I like how Stephen drew Ren’s apathetic appearance throughout most of the episode as well. So I ask you, why must since a premise as innocent as Elves wanting to become Pixies be so tainted with stupid gross out humor? Bill Wray once said what they were doing around this time was most certainly better than what other TV networks were airing, and while he’s right in some ways, as these guys could make quality stuff once in a blue moon, when they hit bottom, they hit unreachable depths of crappiness no made-for-TV cartoon could touch. I would take every Games episode over every 70’s cartoon Hanna-Barberra made, but I would take all of the latter over Road Apples and Travelogue easy. What am I supposed to do with this “giant’s eye crust is worth more than fairy dust” shtick? I don’t bust out laughing. Was I supposed to do that? Blech.
Well, I remember Ren and Stimpy’s sardine bed being pretty funny, but when you chuck lots of mud something is bound to stick. I don’t know what’s worse – Games’ satricial side or their goofy, gross side. You watch Pixie King Ren dump eggs out of his butt like a Queen Ant and tell me how clever these Gamesians really are.
Original airdate: 1/21/95
Rating: 2/7
Grrrugh...Steve Loter did okay on the Clerks animated series, but like everyone else, he messes up on Ren and Stimpy (Incidentally, he co-directed a few eps. with Bob Camp uncredited, which might explain Scotsman in Space, where some of the gags here have their roots). Not only does it rip off both Ren's Toothache (Stimpy annoys Ren with his hygene) and Stimpy's Fan Club (Ren's observation of Stimpy's sleeping), the art tries hard to be asymmetrical and looks like a mess. All of Ren's posing points his upper lip at some funny angle and his eyes distract from the rest of his face, not to mention his face is totally cluttered. Every time Stimpy talks his mouth goes from the front to the side, which looks cool for a moment and gets old fast.
The visual gags are grotesque and illustrated realistically, like Stimpy replacing his eyes as though they were ear-plugs. Ren's shouting at Stimpy never varies from the same flat, constipated tone, and you'll see it coming after everything Stimpy does. It's not as offensive or boring as, well, the stuff rated lower, but it just drags and drags. The only remotely funny gag is Stimpy's dream with the little Stimpies suckling him.
Original airdate: 2/11/95
Rating: 1/7
Another low for Games. Why do I review these Games R&S cartoons when I could write them off with a wave of my hand? These cartoons don’t deserve my generosity, I tell you. A while back I borrowed a Rocko's Modern Life tape and marveled at how similar to this Games R&S crap it was. Take a really obvious situation, throw the two characters in, pump them full of useless dialogue, and sprinkle lightly with drawn-out, lightweight gags. When they cross the desert ala Road Apples, Ren looks like one of those starving children you see in charity pictures. The gag with the French chefs meanders to no end. Ren spends about a minute under the wheel looking as bad as Road Apples roadkill. The plot development is jerky. This review could go into two-thousand words if I listed every problem.
The only reason it gets a point more than Crap Apples is the scene where R&S are suddenly okay when they spot their destination. A glimmer of hope in a sea of shit.
Original airdate: 3/4/95
Rating: 2/7
“I remember it as if it were only an hour-and-a-half ago” and “Let me tell you how the early wild west was really won” are only two samples of Wilbur Cobb’s dialogue at the beginning. And how about this – “Back in the early days there were no galoots, we had to use woodchucks. About a week later the galoots settled in from their native land…” See what I’m getting at? It’s these kinds of stupid inane pseudo-satirical unfunny puns that kill these Games cartoons. There are also fast food joints out in the desert and wranglers using Galoots (fat lugs ala Kowalski) to pick the locks on a car door at a rodeo.
Tex Avery could make these gags work with his sense of design, timing, and aesthetics; they’d never be my favorite Tex gags of all time, but they would be pleasant filler in one of his documentary cartoons. But when your cartoon looks very ugly, and you’re throwing way too many ideas out at the viewer, none of them that good to begin with, and you’ve got Jack Carter to drone on and on in his Cobb voice which detracts form any enjoyment (I mean, the narrator on those Tex documentaries used to alter the tone of his voice at least) and you have no sense of purpose plus a longer format, well, you've got a cartoon that could drive a suicide to shoot his corpse from Heaven for good measure.
That’s why I review these things. They attempt to do all the same stuff the old cartoons did and fail at them. They’re the other side of the coin. The perfect foils. Redeeming factors: The Phil Sheldon-like sequence showcasing domestic uses for the Galoots. The contrast between the “normal” fashion and the “Galoot” fashion just works, and so do the scenes where the fat lugs are used as meat. The art for this sequence is pretty good as well. But, like so many Games Ren and Stimpy cartoons, there’s no reason for me to watch it again now that I’ve reviewed it.
I forgot to mention Craig Bartlett did the claymation “Penny” segments on Pee-Wee Herman (yay) and he also created the Nickelodeon show Hey Arnold!, which I’ll review right after I’m done with every made-for-TV Hanna-Barberra cartoon. Which is never, of course.
Original airdate: 4/1/95
Rating: 1/7
It was paired with Superstitious Stimpy when it originally aired in 1995, so that must make for the worst half-hour in animation history that wasn’t cooked up to sell action figures or greeting cards or whatever sponsored the show. Even Road Apples was paired with the much better Jerry the Bellybutton Elf. Why am I giving this a point more than Road Apples anyway? Because nothing in here repulses me – bores me to a catatonic state, yes, but it doesn’t sicken me or anything like that.
I wouldn’t even remember a single thing from Travelogue if I hadn’t bothered to take notes, now lessee – Verbal gags in the form of “take only the most useless necessities”…”Grade Q Meat” (with little bones and things sticking out of it)…”Vitamin W” Okay, show’s over. I can’t believe they didn’t slap these together in 15 seconds.
Ren and Stimpy are once again reduced to their automaton Dan Slott selves. They don’t seem to mind when they get the short end of the stick, their personalities are interchangeable - Stimpy will get grossed out and yell at Ren and stuff and Ren will not get grossed out by his monkey-brain soup until he sees a hair in there. My god, if this should be your first Ren and Stimpy cartoon you will never give the classic Spumco episodes a chance. And that would be tragic. Maybe we should petition TNN not to air this stuff (although for educated viewers I wouldn’t mind – it’s good to have these cartoons around to get a full perspective and hey, I won’t be watching them! I got videos!).
What else do we have in here? Old Facefull, a bum that sits on a park bench in the island square surrounded by a fence and spews puke like a geyser. Illegal immigrant jokes (New Americans harvested, exported, etc). A yearly revolution in the country Ren and Stimpy visit where they are beheaded but don’t seem to mind. In fact they wave goodbye with the blood vessels dangling from their heads.
And in the funnest scene of all, Ren has his face ripped off by the island’s sacred animal, a baboon. Not only does everyone, including Ren , treat the event like a religious experience, Ren has his photo taken with the baboon (skull still exposed). How can a cartoon with a title as innocent as Travelogue be so horridly unfunny?