|
|
Rating: 7/7 Note: lose a point if edited.
For many years, this Ren and Stimpy pilot fell under my radar. After all, what do I need it for when I've got Stimpy's Invention, which improves on it in every aspect? BHB has suffered shameful treatment over the years, as it didn't air on TV until months after the show premiered and then was condemned to fill-in for some misplaced episode or other, eventually settling down as "that cartoon that follows In the Army". Even worse, it lost a minute or so of footage THAT REMAINED IN THE SHOW'S OPENING ANIMATION, prompting everyone to wonder, just when the heck does Ren drink out of a toliet bowl?
13 years after Big House Blues set the animation world on fire at film festivals, sweet vindication is here at last as TNN/Spike TV aired the thing in its entirety, including the handwritten credits made for the original film. However, I secured my bootleg copy three years earlier and instantly fell in love with the new footage, which includes a split second of the dog catcher wiggling his butt and the infamous kissing scene. This scene has the best animation in the cartoon, with Ren's pouty lips a visual standout. The lack of this scene has so much impact on the cartoon I had a separate rating for the edited version. Now I can count on more people seeing it uncut.
Speed plays a large role in the flow of the scenes. This is one fast mother of a cartoon. The various obstacles Ren and Stimpy face in obtaining food are illustrated literally as the narrator namechecks them in still shots, but this is a far cry from Symphony in Slang. "Adversity" is hardly a pun and it would be difficult to illustrate the concept literally, but Ren and Stimpy's reaction to the embodiment of adversity, a pissed-off looking giant, makes it clear you're meant to sympathize with the characters.
In one of the most memorable scene transitions, the narrator shuts up and lends his voice to the dog-catcher, who is not the same character, and Ren and Stimpy end up in the pound. I wish I could paper my room with these backgrounds I won't begin to describe that convey the indolent, tense, and raging moods of the characters and constantly change appearence to give them life as much as the animation. The rorschach ink blots flying at you while Ren throws his first psychotic tantrum halts into an optical illusion of narrowing walls closing in on Ren and Stimpy. Lord only knows how many paintings they had to do to find the right ones.
More importantly, the character animation goes as far out as possible holding itself back just enough so we can admire it. A memorable moment is Jasper lecturing Ren on the big sleep, where his poses are held for a split second before the release of motion that leads to another pose. When Ren fluffs Stimpy like a pillow he looks convincingly...fluffy, and the squealing effect as he props up will have you wondering what it's like to lie down on him. This proves animation was meant to exaggerate a character's role (in this case Stimpy's passivity) as well as physical environment.
I used to think a dog pound was an unimaginitive place to set a cartoon, but they explore its darker sides, such as putting the animals to sleep. One highlight is Ren and Stimpy just sitting down and throwing spastic fits as they await their grim fate. The animation of Stimpy's jiggling blubber and Ren's bouncy static posturing is contrasted by the calm soundtrack of this part, right before a door slam brings the apparent harbinger of their doom.
This is were the silver age of cartoons began. "The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse" had its moments but it was too unfocused and limited in scope to deliver the goods. With animation so tight and spitfire and a plot so focused, Big House Blues brought the spirit of the old theatricals back into the dark age of animation. It's more abstract and lacks that extra push given by Space Madness but it's a fine achievment in animation, no matter what age we're speaking of.
Rating: 6/7
The first Ren and Stimpy cartoon to air on TV, this goes to the extreme opposite of the pilot film and opts for slow plot-development over quick builds of orgasmic animation. Both approaches would be flawlessly combined in Space Madness and Stimpy’s Invention, but for this one the animation is laid-back.
Even so, many of the scenes are extremely funny. The plot begins with a tongue-in-cheek look at Stimpy’s moronic fascination with cartoons, involving a little criticism from Ren as he flushes Stimpy’s brain and jiggles his nose like a toilet handle. The surreal living room is drawn like an optical illusion, narrowing the walls into a pointy corner, and the backgrounds are bright and candy-colored. The drawings emphasize head-shapes more than expressions yet the expressions are fun to look at, even if they don’t hit the highs of later episodes. Particular stand-outs for me are Stimpy meekly staring up at Ren, and a couple of Ren shots that predict Space Madness with spacy, menacing teeth, as well as his head getting really big in anger at the end.
This also looks closer to late 50’s Hanna-Barberra than Big House Blues thanks to the relative lack of surreal backgrounds…in fact several tributes to HB in here make Big Day/Big Shot one of the few times a Spumco cartoon would directly reference the classic era as an inside joke, with Stimpy running like Yogi Bear and even impersonating George Jetson, Elmer Fudd, and Katnip (At least I think that last one was Katnip). Aside from a few gags in later Games episodes I think this is about as funny as inside-jokes are gonna get and I’m really glad they didn’t do anymore. They still make me laff though, still make me laff.
The only real problem with Big Day, and this problem is more than compensated with some of the stuff below, is that it uses too much talking to develop the plot. Most of the great cartoons in the Golden Age only have enough dialogue to accompany the action, but the announcer talking, the lengthy build-up where Stimpy explains the merits of Gritty Kitty, and the poem-writing scene put the dialogue before the visual action. I usually fast-forward past the scene where Stimpy films a Gritty Kitty commercial as it’s never done anything for me. This is almost like the missing-link between ‘real’ cartoons and animated sitcoms.
Fortunately they knew where they were going too well to get bogged down in dialogue – I still enjoy the poem-writing scene because of Ren’s sarcasm and Stimpy’s woman-scream. A few other scenes like Stimpy’s odyssey in Hollywood feel like filler to me but they’re forgivable, and they make the good stuff seem even better. That good stuff would be Ren’s outburst when he learns Stimpy won the contest and his emotional breakdowns. As Dan Persons pointed out he can’t even do the simplest task while his buddy is away, so he sees Stimpy in everything: The bed, the pillow, and the TV, each accompanied by a hilarious reaction. I especially love it when he freaks out on the couch.
On Stimpy’s end, I enjoy looking at the scenes where he’s made-up and such, but I really laugh at Muddy Mudskipper’s contempt for him, funny dialogue gags where Muddy intersperses support with insults. What gives the cartoon a slight boost from a 13 to 14 is the surreal setting – Ren and Stimpy’s trailer is way too big on the inside to be a trailer for instance, and some of the bonus stuff like that caricature of Kirk Douglas and a shot from Stimpy’s Invention cleverly worked into the story (I’ve always wondered if they already had Invention underway or if that scene was conceived for Big Shot and reused for Invention. My instincts are saying the former).
As an intro to the new, mature Spumco character-development and the world of Ren and Stimpy it’s a must-see. The highlights are some of the best acting in a cartoon ever.
Rating: 5/7
A throwaway. I used to think more highly of it, but now that I’ve watched the crap out of 80% of all Warner Bros. cartoons and broadened my horizons a bit, it looks pathetic next to most of the early Spumco episodes, not to mention Robin Hood Daffy. Most of the early features that made Spumco R&S good are in place, and there are even a few innovative gags, yet they never gel into anything that would fire me up.
Get the bad points out of the way: Stimpy’s voice narrates, not only talking non-stop but hinging many of the gags on his autistic descriptions of the action (He shot a melon into the air, what the hell is that?). A few of the scenes are just plain tedious, like Stimpy leaping off and on frame as different merry-men.
Fortunately there’re plenty of gags that make me laugh: The painting of the first guy Ren gives the money to, climbing the fort (and the non-sequitur that follows), the tension that comes from Ren waking up, and even several of the poses in here are all time classics, mainly the ones of Ren at the beginning and end.
It’s strange though: Even the weaker efforts by other 1st tier directors like Falling Hare are good, solid cartoons, but the John K/Spumco stuff with this rating usually turn out to be weak cartoons bolstered by some extremely good moments. The Spumco magic works in mysterious ways. Of course it goes without saying that even if it weren’t fun to watch, it’d still be fun to look at.
Rating: 4/7
…And speaking of weak cartoons bolstered by extremely good moments… If this were the only Spumco Ren and Stimpy episode the studio would go down in history as that one that made this cartoon with the sugary-sparkling backgrounds and the scrawnly little Martian’s anatomy getting bent-out-of-shape. It wouldn’t take over the world, I can tell you that much.
This is probably the Ren and Stimpy episode that was most butchered in the writing/boarding stages. Lots of stuff they wanted to do ended up on the cutting-room floor (Such as Dr. Leach who sucks Ren dry and assures Stimpy he’s alright. Read about it in Cinefantastique. In fact pretty much all my knowledge of Spumco R&S comes from that June 1993 issue. Find it on ebay.) and the stuff that made it in is only a poor man’s version of just about every great Spumco film. My impression of it is generally favorable when I think about it, but when I watch it I know I can be watching something better.
Still, like every Spumco R&S, there’s a few moments you have to see. Stimpy inflating Ren’s head which fizzles and blankets over Stimpy, the cat using his nose as a nurse bag, Ren’s touching reluctance to let Stimpy strip his fur, and the scene where Stimpy loses it: It’s so rare to see a psychotic episode for Stimpy, but this one comes close as he clutches his head in stress while images of Ren spin around him. The sinister clown laugh is just killer. On the flipside the story just rambles and rambles so it’s no wonder John K. swapped his director credit for “Raymond Spum”.
Rating: 7/7
Space Madness is a classic's classic alright, the first major breakthrough from John K. The film itself is pretty short, but has such a melodramatic and epic feel, especially with the orchestral strings playing during the title credits. Any bloated pretentiousness this might imply is deflated with the framing sequence where Ren and Stimpy sit down to watch their favorite live-action drama: Their alter-egos Commander Hoek and Cadet Stimpy. A hillarious set-up revealing how obsessed Stimpy is with TV gives way to the theme of the show-within-the-show where Billy West literally screams at the top of his lungs to get the perfect announcer voice, and then it's on to the near-cinematic title sequence and the beginning of the cartoon. The main body of the cartoon starts slow. Slow doesn't mean bad, naturally, since John K. was effective at building the tension. A theme of insanity(possibly caused by cabin fever and starvation) runs through the cartoon, and Ren becomes the victim of the very insanity he warns himself against. What's more, Ren's paranoia causes him to send Stimpy on a special mission that leads to a disastrous and creepy end. And I think Ren may have done that because he was embarassed of his behavior during the middle of the cartoon. Once Ren gets in the bathtub...oh wow. Every scene from then on is pure raving insanity, which I will avoid giving as much away as possible while tyring to describe what makes it so awesome. Space Madness relies a lot on diologue. One could mute Stimpy's Invention and more or less understand what is going on the whole way through(only at the end, where Ren goes from angry to happy in an instant, would the sound be necessary to understand why). Whereas the vocal track in Madness actually carries the gags. Not that I'm complaining. The dialogue is stream-of-consciousness, after all. It's alright to have an abundance of dialogue in a cartoon if it's not droaning through one long explanation after another - And of course if there's some emotion in the voice-acting, which John K. has in spades. There's not as much memorable or interesting animation in this entry as in Stimpy's Invention, but the psychotic sequence is a notable accomplishment. Just awe at how Ren's lips expand as his teeth chomp down over and over again. Another good moment is when Ren gets his first glimpse of space food, what with the quivering lips. Just to make sure this is the greatest verbal-reliant cartoon ever, John K. threw in some bizzare cutting ideas to complement the pyschotic ramblings. Ren floating off-frame flows into Ren floating back and forth, and each time Ren's about to flow off-frame again, there's a sudden cut to a close-up of him, with said mouth animation to follow. And the sequence where Ren explains to Stimpy his, um, special mission, as well as the ensuing chaos, contains more cutting styles that just hammer the images into your brain. It's fun to look at a particular pose and guess if it was drawn by Chris Reccardi or Jim Smith. I really, really think Reccardi is the one who did the final shots of Ren in the cartoon(and the shot of him as he leaves Stimpy alone just before the end), which are the most deranged and frightening drawings of him ever(well, second only to the final shots of Ren in Stimpy's Invention). Seriously, watching this cartoon late at night can scare the crap out of me if I let it. Then there's that shot of Stimpy at the beginning as he runs off to grab his space gear; love that teeth. Smith and Bill Wray are responsible for the fore and backgrounds, which achieves some kind of bizarre realism, as opposed to the unworldly surrealism of Stimpy's Invention. Obviously they've read enough Flash Gordon comic strips to get the tacky sci-fi look down pat. The scenery consist only of space ship equipment(while in Stimpy's Invention we get ordinary household scenery alternating with dimensional warps). Wait...I just remembered a bit or two of surreal inconsistency ala Stimpy's Big Day in this cartoon. Try and find 'em yourself. While Space Madness is a masterpiece, it's not as monolithic and god-like as Stimpy's Invention, and can't be my favorite R&S cartoon...but it's a close second, and I can see how this would occupy someone's number one slot. Rating: 5/7
If there’s a cartoon to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of Spumco Ren and Stimpy, this is the one. The funniest and most touching scenes are simply the ones where Ren and Stimpy converse while switching from one pose to another, not to mention what they eat at the beginning. However, it shows that when John K. and the other creative Spumco people try to branch into more active physical gags, their bag o’ tricks comes up short.
Ren and Stimpy pull a scam by having Ren dress as a mouse while Stimpy chases him for money. I still have mixed feelings about their Tom and Jerry-like chase scene: On one hand there are no physical gags to really match Tex Avery or Hanna-Barberra at their best; on the other hand, their effort at keeping up the charade results in some funny verbal gags like Ren pretending to be scared of Stimpy even though he’s walloping the cat. The strength of Spumco lies in pure animated acting to go with a complex storyline, with unexpected eccentricities thrown in (Like the living potatoes getting whipped in Onward and Upward). When they try to do physical gags like their forebears, it comes up flat.
However, after the chase scene comes one of the most outrageous ideas in a Spumco cartoon, Stimpy eating Ren. Just the fact that Ren looks smaller in Stimpy’s mouth than he does outside is a value in itself, and Ren’s psychotic outburst with an electronically-encoded demon voice rounds off the scene. Not to mention the sequence is delivered with intensity as Stimpy tries to look like he’s chewing Ren without actually swallowing him.
Despite being in the ‘second-tier’ category, it flows more smoothly than Robin Hoek and the good parts feel more like a serious effort and less like compensation for the lacking moments.
Rating: 6/7
Written and boarded in the time it would take you to watch it, Fire Dogs has gone down as a classic in R&S history, spawning even its own cult of merchandise (a videogame of the same name and a music video with scenes from the cartoon and others), a remarkable feat for what was meant to be a throwaway cartoon.
But that stuff is unimportant. There's a little of everything that made early R&S great in FD: the contrasting animations between Ren and Stimpy, the focus on the individual characters straining and writhing, people grabbing things off the screen that obviously weren't there before, exploding chaos where a multitude of dull, everyday sights in the city take on nightmarish forms, extreme poses, candy-coated backgrounds of bubbly brightness, and circus midgets.
The black skyscrapers jumbled together look intimidating as they tower over Ren and Stimpy treking across a barren intersection to upbeat orchestral music. This leads to a heartfelt moment as Stimpy offers to feed Ren, who struggles to gobble the last morsel over a nightmarish spotted background. Clenching his fists and shaking all over his struggle to swallow the grub lodged in his throat culminates in a Kermit-the-Frog pose and a further extreme distortion as he literally blows his stack and tightly condemns Stimpy with his index finger. The fire chief's elaborate construction and complex proportion changes, even a small trifle like gliding his feet out the doorway, helps to keep you on edge as his demeanor goes from 0 to 60. And circus midgets! Circus Midgets!
I used to unfairly compare the falling sequences to Tex Avery, now I think they're the bee's knees: The folds in the elephant's back as he squeezes out Ren and Stimpy make his construction all the more amazing and some of the other things thrown from the window just plain demonstrates how bizarre things can get in this cartoon. The slow, painful Mr. Horse sequence has several abrupt cuts to highlight various parts of his body spazzing out as he contemplates his answer to a reporter, an effective use of slow timing.
There are other good moments in here, but pointing them out seems pointless. Even if the lack of intensity (though not excitement) betrays its frivilousness, it remains a highlight of Ren and Stimpy lore.
Rating: 4/7
I’d like to give this a higher grade, but I squirm through too much to forgive it. As far as I know it was simply hacked together to appease standards and practices (or the Hayes Office, or the Comics Code Authority, or the MSRP, or the KCIA). It’s another ‘Stimpy’s Storybook Land’ using the exact same framing sequence, and lo and behold, it’s the part of the cartoon I enjoy the most. I forgot to mention this when writing about Robin Hoek, so I may as well point out the tension when Stimpy wakes Ren, as he turns his head gradually curving that deranged grin, and the cut to further away where he’s still angrily glaring at Stimpy is pretty darn scary for such a quaint setting.
So yeah, that’s the best part and it’s recycled from another cartoon. The main story has Stimpy picked on by giants for being smaller, running away from home and moving in with Ren after he refills his well by crying into it. It’s a bit touching, a bit funny, and real boring. The scene where he writes a note saying goodbye could be great, but it goes on too long with Stimpy just sitting on a rock. The background music is appropriately sad and it is pretty funny when he eats the letter and sticks his tongue out, but otherwise it’s squirm city.
At least there’s a cow teat joke in here, but now that Steamboat Willie is on DVD it’s not that useful anymore. The shots of Ren taking care of Stimpy’s hygiene are much funnier. Anyway, this isn’t really bad. If there were only more things going on in place of the dull footage, this could have been bumped a point or two.
Rating: 5/7
This is the most effective early Spumco R&S cartoon at being just a sequence of gags without attempting anything special. You might be expecting another Space Madness, but they take all of the psychodrama out of the ‘Commander Hoek and Cadet Stimpy’ segment and replace it with a lighthearted situation comedy (At least when there’s not some creepy alien thing accompanied by screeching background music). Stimpy says lots of stupid stuff and gets Ren to smack him, putting this closer to the Three Stooges (Minus Curly) than ‘Ren and Stimpy’.
There are several gags that completely rely on you not knowing about them to work, and even years after first seeing them they still crack me up. What strikes me a bit is how integrated the physical comedy between Ren and Stimpy is with their environment. Some of the best moments come when Stimpy is goofing off during a serious task.
Despite being one of the weaker R&S cartoons visually, Marooned has a few good twists on Ren’s face as he’s about to grab Stimpy’s head and there’s a ton of bizarre background and alien designs. There’s not a whole lot to write about here, just a situation with some gags. Sometimes that’s enough.
Rating: 6/7
I used to relatively dislike Untamed World but have softened-up to it. Bit of trivia: John K. pitched this story when he worked on the short-lived Beany and Cecil revival back in the late 1980's, and well, it didn't go over so well and nobody wanted him to write anymore cartoons after that. Guess the idea of using Beany and Cecil as nature show hosts was too radical. The real strength lies in that the premise of ridiculing nature shows is filled with inspired goofiness, culminating in the fact that almost all the animals wax Ren and Stimpy's likenesses. Pay close attention to the manner which the Horny-Bill Chihauhua eats the walnut. Or the yak carrying his hooves like slippers. Or Ren and Stimpy's uneffective moose-head disguise which disturbs the squirrel who witnesses a walking moose-head. The animals based on Stimpy are also a hoot(which I won't even give away). Geez, I'm suddenly recalling so many great gags in my head I feel like a dunce for ever putting down this cartoon. Even better, every gag is timed with subtlety, diversity, and precision as though the gag is hiding behind the bushes and is now leaping out get you. I also seriously underrated Jim Smith as a storyboard artist. The animals are well-designed(weird how the baby turtle's face changes in that one scene, now that I think about it). There's even a classic Ren-pose as the poor nature show host is...er...falling asleep...yeah...that's it(caught myself there, almost spoiling a really good scene). There's some classic soundtracks in here(the bus theme, the opening of the cartoon), and John K. pulls off an unusually calm yet attention-grabbing Ren. However, none of this changes the fact that the cartoon...is just really boring sometimes. I can appreciate all the good things about it, but the backbone premise isn't much to captivate. That's why I can't put it on the level of Cried Rat, which in turn can't be put on the level of Big House Blues, which can't go on the level of Stimpy's Invention, which can't go on the level of...of... Rating: 7/7
Do I not know where to begin. Pegging this as the greatest cartoon ever would be kinda risky, but if this isn't the greatest cartoon since the last brilliant thing Tex Avery did for MGM, I'll gladly choke on underwear(goes without saying this is the greatest made-for-TV animation ever, but entering it in such a competition would be injustice). The phrase "greater than the sum of its parts" may be cliche, but a good cliche that applies more to this than anything in animation. Just as I said in the intro to John K., his best cartoons challenge viewers to deconstruct each part. And that's just what I'm gonna do, for no reason other than so much care was put into this. No doubt everyone killed themselves on the cartoon, which took a full year to finish, three or four months longer than usual. I can guess all those working under John suffered severe whip cracks; the layout artists had to redo everything three or four times. John was continually badgered by Vanessa Coffey as to when he would deliver the film. Even Bob Camp thought Invention took too long and lamented how John continually rerefined everything to the point of ridiculousness. Of course Bob Camp is one reason why Invention is so wonderful. This is easily Camp's peak as a storyboard artist(come to that, this is the peak of everybody involved). Bob has drawn the most dynamic head shapes, eye stares, and teeth arrangements ever seen in a cartoon. What about that pointy shape Ren's head forms before slamming the iron down on the ironing board, or all those genuinely menacing grimaces just before he strangles Stimpy? I could go on and on throwing out examples of stand-out shots, but it might be better if you just watch the cartoon, then you'll know what I'm talking about. Tons and tons of innovative animation ideas, each one executed to pefection, complement Bob's drawings. Some animation flys by so fast you'll need to freeze the vcr to check out some great drawings. Particulary when Ren throws a tantrum in the socks full of glue, or when he's about to strangle Stimpy, or just after Stimpy slams his invention down on Ren's head. In a Cinefantastique article from the latter days of Spumco R&S, John K. praised Kelly Armstrong for what she did with the socks scene, expanding their layout drawings of Ren twisting around into the animation of Ren twirling in knots. A couple more standouts I particularly love(but there's soooo many...) would be Ren picking up Stimpy's litterbox(look at the way he shakes!) and at the end when Ren's head is vibrating as though it were boiling water. Oh oh oh...and the movement of Ren's mouth as he's saying, "No...got to...fight it!" How in the heck did they do that? Also, I just wanted to bring-up the ironing scene, where Ren's head splits in half at the lips and the roof of his mouth dances atop his wavering tongue(now's not the paragraph to mention the sound, but you gotta love the crunching sound effect when his head falls back in place). I'm not saying the Southpark guys consciously ripped this off for their show, but they very well could have. Not to say this part is cheesy or cheap-looking. It actually complements the slap-happiness of the scene. As does the following movement of Ren's arm stretching off frame. Next up are the backgrounds. Some have a near psychedelic look, at least one looks like intricately designed vomit, and several more look like some freaky dimensional vortex. I really wish they credited the background painters on the title card. Whodunnit? Bill Wray? Scott Wills? Glenn Barr? Some people whose names I'd have to read on the closing credits? Hey, whoever did these backgrounds did a stellar job. Voice-acting: Every breath uttered by John K. and Billy West pulsates with acting talent. That laugh uttered by Ren while cleaning Stimpy's catbox is disturbing with a nice rhythm(check out the way the facial animation is timed with the sound fx of the litter dropping in the rubbish can). However, that laugh is Billy West, not John K.(just one more reason to dub him the second greatest voice-actor of all time). I realized that when Ren did the same laugh in Ren's Pecs, produced after John K. was long gone. Billy West also did the laugh for In the Army to nice effect, but Stimpy's Invention will always be its home. Sound: 'Flight of the Bumblebee' conveys the tension during Ren's transformation. The cartoon starts off with 'Camp Granautta'(sp?) which conveys the innocent child-like atmosphere of the beginning. My favorite track would be the one backing the scene where Ren cleans Stimpy's litterbox. Unfortunately, I don't know what it's called, and it didn't seem to be on Raymond Scott's Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights album. I could go on about the sound fx but I'm too lazy to describe them and would ramble mindless praise. Don't forget about the original composition for Stimpy's Invention, the Happy Happy Joy Joy song by Jim Smith and sung by "Stinky Wizzleteats"(John, who proves to be a great voice-artist in his own right). Mark Kausler animated the shots of Ren bashing his head with the hammer, which you'd have to freeze to check out some incredibly wild poses(like when his head looks squashed with his flat teeth sticking out). When Ren kicks Stimpy's broken contraption unseen onto the frame and stomps over to strangle him, I use to get this feeling of intense...er...tension. One second Stimpy's on the ground jiggling his butt in and outward(also animated by Kausler), the next Ren's right over there, looking frighteningly pissed-off(Bob Camp is the master), which just might be the best timed moment in animation history. Of course the song-and-dance sequence is the most famous moment in R&S history, but it isn't just a gimmick, as you should already know . It's all held together by the story of a moron who tries to force his friend to be happy after inadvertantly angering him. Every element mentioned above has been used to create atmospherics of slap-happiness, insanity, fake-happiness, and sadism. John K. shows his choreographing genius in the way each and everything happens. When Stimpy slams his invention down on Ren's head, there's something funny about how Ren whines, goes silent so Stimpy can explain what it does, glares into the camera, glances at Stimpy, then proceeds to continue whining after Stimpy finishes. And that cutting: Almost every frame, something changes, sometimes even the floor Ren and Stimpy are standing on. It's like moving from one room to another. If this sounds sloppy or irresponsible, don't think that. Surreality is what reigns supreme here. And claustraphobia. The only section of the cartoon that can sometimes be a little boring to sit through would be Stimpy toiling in his lab. But there's no way I'd consider this a real flaw, because even here there's tons of great ideas to make the scenes of Stimpy working on his invention interesting, including the awesome soundtrack, the backgrounds, and nice little screwy actions. Most of the animation in this section is limited, but for some reason they animated Stimpy's face very intricately when the first version of his contraption sputters and fizzles. I also love the way his forehead moves and how his goggles blink when he finishes his work for real. Most importantly of all, the whole act of Stimpy in his lab builds the tension for the rest of the cartoon. First-time viewers will be very anxious to see what he actually made... I'm proud to say this is the cartoon that got me into cartoons on this scale. This is the cartoon that taught me how review cartoons. Without Stimpy's Invention, I would never have even thought of doing this site(Don't worry, I would have found other activities to kill off my life-span). This would be my all time favorite if I could only pick one. Each viewing I'll laugh at something and even when I don't laugh I'm glued to the seat. While the other three 15-rated cartoons by John K. are perfect, their perfection is a simpler, quieter type compared to this. Stimpy's Invention is so complex in its pefection, even the title card is ominous and monolithic. Maybe I could spend the rest of my life trying to formulate what makes it so great, but I'm sick and tired of writing about it. Just get it, watch it, and know that you will make me very happy if you agree with what I've said. You don't have to worship it and analyze it to death like I have, but if you don't at least like it - well, then your soul is simply unfit for cartoons. P.S. I'm happy to announce I have the Ren and Stimpy Essential Collection laserdisc, meaning I have this gem, Space Madness, Untamed World, Sven Hoek, and Stimpy's Fan Club on LD. Now if I only bought a laserdisc player with freeze-frame, I'd be in Bob Camp heaven. Rating: 5/7
(Note: I just want to talk about the cartoon. Nowhere in this review will I make any obvious connections between the plane scene and that...event.) Let me just say I like the general atmosphere of Powdered Toastman(yet another cartoon I awarded a mindlessly fanatical maximum rating to when I started this site). Cartoons that parody superheroes are a dime-a-dozen, but the approach John K. took is quite fresh. While most dopey superhero cartoons like that Caped Opossum thing from Schnookums and Meat and Secret Squirrel rely on sheer silliness(often unfunny), John K. presented Powdered Toastman as detrimental to the people he attempts to save. John K. always has a message for you in his cartoons(the Ren and Stimpy ones, at least), and I don't mean forced morals like "be kind to animals", I mean slightly more intelligent, underlying meanings that takes some effort to decode. With PTM, the answer is: Don't rely on people stronger than you to pull you out of a jam. The animation is more "normal" here. Every once-in-a-while they'll demonstrate some inventiveness with PTM's strange bodily functions that act as distress signals. The actual look of the cartoon isn't that great, either. Most of it reminds me of an episode of Underdog. It's just that generic pastelish look. As far as visual hooks go, the only face that really stands out in my mind would be PTM's overly whimsical face as he says, "danger"! And maybe the Wray-drawn looks on Ren and Stimpy's faces as they curiously chew on some Powdered Toast, which BTW, has some of the better animation in the cartoon. Nah, what makes this so great is the underlying bizarreness in Kricfalusi's take on superheroes. PTM's double-identity is so inanely redundant that it's hillarious. More hillarity ensues when the vicitms PTM tries to save become further victims of his ignorance. Only Ren and Stimpy(Who appear in the cartoon for one scene) seem to benefit anything from his heroic acts. Gary Owens does this really heroic voice that rounds out the sadistic atmosphere. After the eleventh time PTM announces himself as he enters the room it'll be so annoying as to be funny. Speaking of voices, the title card proudly announces Frank Zappa guest-voicing as the Pope. Which makes sense, if you see that photo of him on his Sheik Yerbouti album. It's pretty cool that they got Zappa to speak for this cartoon. Check out his debut album, Freak Out!, We're only in it for the Money, and You Are What You Is, and go from there, because he has like 60 albums or something. Where was I? Oh yeah, PTM aired intact once, then three overly-sensitive, possibly under-sexed housewives whined to Nickelodeon about a certain gag at the end of the cartoon that got the offending scene shorn from subsequent airings(if it aired at all). I won't give away what it was exactly; you'll just have to find the cartoon uncensored and see for yourself. If you're dumb enough to end-up with the censored edition, you don't deserve to know(although you probably do anyway, if you're reading this). Also: Frank Zappa's credit was altered to "The Funny Little Man in the Pointy Hat". Warning: The following paragraph turns into a vent of frustration. One of those dorky women said this cartoon has no social value whatsoever. Sure it does! Didn't I say up there PTM teaches you not to rely on superheroes to save your religious idols from Muddy Mudskipper? What, would she find it entertaining if PTM delicately placed the Constitution and Bill of Rights in a wooden frame? Even if PTM isn't the greatest cartoon ever, it deserves more than what these ladies brought upon us fans. The only thing worse than these tarts would be the biddy who got Buffalo Gals banned after one airing. Everyday on ebay there's like five auctions for a tape with Man's Best Friend on it, but since no one seems to be selling C&C they taped off the TV, I may die without seeing Buffalo Gals. Take a bow, you old biddy. Buffalo Gals probably isn't that great, it's probably just another semi-excellent episode of C&C, but shee-it, isn't keeping everyone from seeing it a mean thing to do? Just had to vent that. No one ever accused me of being a professional. Rating: 7/7
This captures the influences of John K. and the Spumco crew to a T more than anything they've done thus far. Space Madness' structure put the storytelling before the gags, and Stimpy's Invention was a melting pot of God knows what, while Man's Best Friend takes place in a typical household setting that focuses the economical storyline on a character's repeated failure to accomplish a certain objective, reminiscient of a Sylvester and Tweety cartoon, or many early Hanna-Barberra cartoons. The visuals, especially the coloring texture, are nostalgic for that early 50's streamlined look where the characters nevertheless moved in full-on 3D models.
Some of the most complex characterization in an animated short unfolds before your eyes in this deceptively simple presentation, and more than any Ren and Stimpy cartoon, the gags cling to the plot so tightly they would not have the same impact in another cartoon (I guess you can say that about other R&S toons but even the "Happy Happy Joy Joy" dance and the History-Eraser Button have become legends in their own right, while MBF has no one gimmick that could capture the public's imagination enough they'd forget the cartoon it came from). "Lawn Cigars" are funny enough, but they'll never be as funny used in another R&S cartoon.
Everybody and his dog knows that MBF was banned for over ten years, but the reasons are worth discussing a little. Speculation continues to this day, the majority believing it was tied to Spumco's firing, which it probably was. Nickelodeon did not keep the rights to George Liquor as they hated his mean, macho, and misogynist character so much, evidence that they fired John K. for his material as well as taking so much time. After joining Coal Black's spot as a banned cartoon that represents the pinnacle of its director, MBF was finally released from prison on TNN/Spike TV.
Following the plot is simple, yet the characters are ingeniously developed. Each scene of George Liquor subjecting Ren and Stimpy to his indoctrination reveals something of their character, be it Ren's failure to please George until George unwittingly triggers his primal lust for violence or Stimpy pleasing George at every turn when he's too ignorant to know what's going on. Every moment builds off the last in such a way changing even one would adversely affect the whole. Even a simple throwaway gag like the Fish falling from his bowl has a consequence later on and the slow timing John K. has become known for is nowhere to be found - The parts with George talking keeps it adequately-paced with Ren and Stimpy's facial expressions plus George's bodily movements through the seemless cutting. No Yogi rummaging through the bushes here.
This may be the quintessential use of Ren and Stimpy ever, to say nothing of George. Stimpy only gets three lines but they capture his moronic, slighty feminine demeanor in all its glory, whether he's bellowing in panic or screaming like a yuppie woman who caught her husband in bed. Ren's little dialogue is delivered with alternating meekness and delirium, and somehow I knew the ultra-psychotic laughter from the litter-box scene of Stimpy's Invention would be used here before I saw it. And George's croaky grumble is warm enough to offset any abrasiveness with the naive conviction of his manly principals; principals that manifest as bizarre rituals accompanying ordinary pet discipline such as house-breaking, keeping them off the couch, or training them for guard duty. I used to have this pet theory that Stimpy represents homoeroticism and masochism, Ren stands for bi-sexuality and sadism, and George is a heterosexual sadomasochist. I've grown out of such silly analyzing, but now that I think about it it's kinda interesting again.
Chris Reccardi does for Man's Best Friend what Bob Camp did for Stimpy's Invention when Ren lowers his manical grin holding the oar behind his back or sticking his legs around his own butt or just plain cowers in fear. Stimpy flashes a few of the most gleeful, retarded facial expressions in history and George looks like a beaver curving the skin around those buck-teeth (and like my Polish aunt when he squints at Ren and taunts him for having no discipline). Okay, I don't really know if he's responsible for all these poses but his name is on the storyboard credit so what the fug do you want, a frame-by-frame layout guide? The realistic painting of Ren and Stimpy was his idea, tho'.
Do I even need to tell you about the animation? I love how George's head spins around, folding his likeness and giving the twist some real gravity without looking like the exorcist, 'cuz that would be too much like Avery and they'd rather convey the pain of George's bludgeoning than its absurdity. George's tirade during the couch sequence is worthy of note, especially when he bellows, "...or else I'll scream at you", his maw threatening to gulp you whole, and while I'm at it the crackling sound effect adds to the memorability of his neck movements during the calm part of his speech.
Now that the cat's out of the bag the general public and animation fandom should treat it like the classic it is. Whether MBF is a forbidden cartoon or a tired rerun, it's one of the best cartoons ever made, and DON'T_YOU_FORGETIT.
Rating: 6/7
This makes a strong case for being my favorite Ren and Stimpy cartoon besides the big four. It seems to have the stunningly disciplined coordination that made those four the classics they are without the extra trimmings to push it to the top. They keep Ren and Stimpy in the house all day and rant about Ren's oral hygiene, yet even without the outrageous animation, backgrounds, and situations the interaction between them is as accomplished as Stimpy's Invention.
Instead of throwing violent tantrums, Ren puts on convincing displays of sobbing and Stimpy is compelled to comfort him. Lines like, “There now, I know it hurts”, “Would you like me to tell you a story”, and other gentle exchanges are as effective as Stimpy’s displays of intimidation and bewilderment around Ren’s psychotic episodes. Ren’s sobs and pathetic displays of vulnerability play off Stimpy’s compassion and kindness so wonderfully it’s easy to overlook the lack of any particular scene or drawing that would really psych me up like Ren getting blasted out of bed from In The Army.
That’s not to say the drawings aren’t excellent, just that they work better for the scene as a whole than as a value in itself, and that may be for the better. Ren’s scowling with his nerve-endings exposed is a semi-classic, and most of the mouth illustrations are audacious, but otherwise the facial expressions express the more gentle nature of Ren and Stimpy and lean away from the deranged side. Even so, this displays Reccardi’s skill as much as anything If this aired with MBF as originally planned, it would have been a half-hour of Chris Reccardi goodness.
The classical music does the job of setting a dreary mood and you can really feel Ren’s trauma when he realizes his teeth are gone thanks to the sad strings. Take note of that distortion in the Nutcracker Suite when the fairy visits Ren. And you thought Disney could do animated musicals… Actually Spumco cartoons never seem to use music the way Carl Stalling did. It mostly creates mood without interlocking to the characters’ actions. They leave that to the sound effects. That’s at least one obstacle to matching up to the old WB cartoons (And yes, as someone who rarely listens to classical, I don’t really need it saturating my cartoons. Gimme some original score or at least some Raymond Scott any day) Spumco has never overcome, but hey, why am I complaining?
This wouldn’t be half the cartoon it is without the bizarreness: Stimpy’s childish explanations coming true, the contradiction of the flies getting offended while enjoying their meal, the visual non-sequiturs that are the first and second shots of the fairy AND Stimpy overdoing his tooth care to ridiculous heights… But most of all this is one of the most important developments of their friendship in the series, especially the ending.
Rating: 7/7
This is the last great Ren and Stimpy cartoon, and may be the most butchered
one. Two versions exist, both required viewing to fully appreciate the cartoon; the
differences are signifigant enough to warrant the task of merging both together in your
head. The rough cut is slightly scarcer than Man’s Best Friend, but you gotta
track it down, staring with ebay. The Classics II vhs promises Sven Hoek
uncut, but it's only uncut from the original TV broadcast of the finished print(nowadays
when it airs Ren's speech consists only of, "I'm gonna hit you..."). There's no music in the rough cut, but that's for the better, because the vocal
performances are stunning, and some vocal effects were shorn for speed purposes when
the cartoon was finished(Although for some reason, the finished print has vocal track not
on the rough one, like Stimpy’s “gimmie” and a half-minute of Ren talking after his
tirade is over. Yet another reason why you gotta see ‘em both.). The overcranked guitar
in the finished cut may sound badass, but Ren’s tirade is more involving in the rough cut
since you’re forced to concentrate on the animation and voice-acting. If you have patience, the timing is also better in the rough cut. When Ren begins his
tirade with crying out, "You idiots!", there's a few seconds delay while Stimpy and Sven's
lips extend out in surprise, cut during post production. Even while kept waiting, one has
to appreciate the delay between Ren's arm dangling after demonstrating how he'll tear out
their limbs and that angry grin suddenly forming on the side of his head. Whatever print you see, however, this is an achievement in animated acting. While
circumstances prevent Ren from doing anything to the two idiots, his threats are very
intense, due to Carbunkle's animating prowess and John's acting and sense of pacing. It's
even better on the rough print, though, with that extra footage of Ren looking into the
camera, whining, "And then, I'm gonna g-gouge your eyes out! Yeaaah...that's what I'm
gonna do", and flashing a menacing face with his eye squinting and his teeth sneering,
while the two idiots cower in the corner, with even their shaking displaying a sense of
animation inventiveness. That's another thing I like about these classic R&S cartoons,
how you can choose which character's animation you want to focus on during such
scenes. You have to watch a lot to catch all the little nuances, and be careful not to focus
only on the speaking character every time. Jim Smith drew most of Ren's posing for his threatening speech, similar in style to
how he drew Dirty Dog's angry faces in Weekend Pussy Hunt. Unlike Bob Camp
and Chris Reccardi, whose strengths lies mostly in teeth arrangements and head shapes,
Jim puts more variation into facial complexion, such as Ren's face after his speech ends.
Bill Wrays co-storyboard credit could come as a surprise, as he never had a role in
storyboarding Ren and Stimpy before, but his drawings of Stimpy capture his idiocy
perfectly. The backgrounds during Ren's tirade are different for both cuts, but they don't
affect things much. Stimpy's idiocy does go overboard here, and it only doubles when Ren's cousin Sven
comes over. Since Ren expected an intellectual conversation with Sven, his resentment
at the two idiots bonding is understandable. By the way, the interaction between Stimpy
and Sven resembles the way I've observed little girls act("Do you want to see my brain?"
"Okay!", Stimpy gleefully croaks while clutching his hands together near his waist). The nice thing is that despite its length, every scene is either very exciting or at
worst, sligthly boring but still necessary for the sake of the whole composition. Except
for one: I can't imagine anyone even thought about producing the closet scene. It's only
voice acting and a sound effect of Stimpy swallowing...something. Maybe he was eating
a turd, or maybe he performed oral sex on Sven, but I could live without that footage.
Still, produce it they did, and I'd rather it made it into the finished cut so people could
decide for themselves. Other than that, this is the perfect half-hour cartoon, even if the
time counter on the rough print only goes up to seventeen minutes. The structure doesn't
go into the realm of animated sitcom or anything; luckily Ren, Stimpy, and Sven don't
kiss and make-up(which is to be expected of a sitcom). I wouldn’t have awarded the highest grade to Sven Hoek if I never saw the
rough cut. Rough cut or no, the finished print would still have received a 14. When I
thought about it, though, I decided to award the 15 to stress the rough cut’s importance.
With this cartoon offically closes the Spumco-era of Ren and Stimpy. While the
remains of the second season are mostly good, none approach the level of energy and
spirit present in Sven Hoek.