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Director rating: 2/5
Rubber Nipple Salesmen*Big Baby Scam*The Great OutdoorsThe Cat that Laid the Golden Hairball
Introduction
Vincent Waller only directed 3.5 cartoons, and only completed one of them himself. Yet I feel compelled to make a page for them because they are different from every R&S cartoon, and despite being cheaters, he managed to create his own directing style only remotely tied to John K's.
Of course Vincent will always be famous for his contributions to major classics like Stimpy’s Big Day, The Boy Who Cried Rat and not least of all, Man’s Best Friend. For creating the latter’s premise and many of its gags his place in the pantheon is assured. Although Vincent is a great artist his facial expressions aren't as immediately striking as those of Bob Camp and Chris Reccardi's. They're fun to look at but I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time just staring at them, aside from a few in Cried Rat.
Nevertheless, his drawings support the gags that make his own cartoons worthwhile. Vincent’s directing is not exceptional, but it has no analogies in any cartoon I've seen. The way I see it, his two cartoons make all the difference between a good Spumco cheater and a typically crummy Games episode. When “Dad” moves the couch in Big Baby Scam to reveal the surprise underneath, the gag does indeed rely on what’s underneath, and yet in a Games episode the director would try very hard to set up the surprise in a way you wouldn’t expect it by putting in information unrelated to the gag, then reveal the big surprise from off-frame. Vincent has us staring at the same background the entire time with the surprise stepping out from where it hides, and it’s something you’d never expect in a household setting.
Vincent’s scenes don’t plod like Bob Camp’s, yet they're not wild and frenzied like John K's. They're more relaxed, and he concentrates on the side of Ren and Stimpy that we see throughout The Boy Who Cried, that is, more random acts of weirdness than character development, the one thing his cartoons have in common with Bob Camp's.
Original airdate: 9/29/92
Rating: 9 (11)
As much as I enjoy watching RNS, I don’t think it’s the classic many R&S fans consider it. It’s clear to me that Vincent Waller’s cartoons were cheaters as well as Bob Camp’s, because they all lack the depth of the John K. classics, including the ones Vincent had a heavy hand in. With the exception of The Cat that Laid the Golden Hairball (which came under Ron Hughart’s direction anyway), none of them even attempt deep characterization that goes beyond “Stimpy angers Ren, Ren slaps Stimpy”. I don’t expect every cartoon to have deep characterization of course, and RNS is an all-gag cartoon, but even then it lags behind Mad Dog Hoek, the ultimate Ren and Stimpy cheater due to its non-stop frenetic pace, tension, and endless supply of gag ideas (In the Army is about equal to RNS, but without something analogous to the bed scene, it can not compete). RNS doesn’t string along your nervous system like that – it makes you laugh once then lets you down so you can laugh at the next scene. And when you’re done laughing, you’re done laughing.
Enough of this nit-pickery, I’ll be the first to admit all the trimmings, staging, aesthetics, etc. are brilliant. Tons of material that would have been filler in a classic Ren and Stimpy cartoon is brought to life just by their handling. Stimpy’s initial speech about rubber nipples (the first time Billy West took on that religious tone in fact, that would annoy me so much in the Games episodes) relies a tad too much on the shock factor of the world “nipples”, but it’s so well-constructed it’ll make me laugh when I’m in the mood. The classic “Circus Midgets” gag comes back, but the recycling is made totally worthwhile by that fast piano tinkling while the fire chief apologizes and explains his behavior. The looking to the left and right adds a paranoid twist to the gag not present in Firedogs, and Stimpy’s voice suddenly lowering as he finishes his speech to the squished Ren closes off the gag nicely.
After this comes the most famous scene in the cartoon, and my personal favorite as well, the scene where Ren and Stimpy try to sell their rubble nipples to Mr. Horse, who’s already get up in plenty of rubber outfits. Mr. Horse doesn’t throw a psychotic tantrum, instead his paranoid monologue implies all kinds of sinister goings-on in his life, and the walrus totally makes this scene – it frightens me a little when he shows up. I don’t know or care what goes on in that house; it’s the not knowing that makes this scene so creepy.
You pretty much have the gist of the gags by now. I feel like an automaton discussing the facial poses in every Ren and Stimpy cartoon, but it’s a pre-requisite when talking about these cartoons, and besides, Ren and Stimpy don’t look anything like they do in other cartoons. Vincent gave Ren huge beady eyes and the mouth and teeth poses for both Ren and Stimpy are framed by these odd, square-like shapes. They don’t vibrate with life like Bob Camp’s drawings but they’re still fun to look at.
Original airdate: 12/12/92
Rating: 10 (12)
Note: Same with or without the "Family Bath".
One of the most famous edits in R&S history is in here, the “Family Bath” scene. “Grandpa” was originally recorded whistling a country tune made up by John K., but someone at Games changed it to Hail to the Mountain King, which was whistled by Peter Lorre in “M”. Since Peter Lorre’s character in that movie was a child predator, John got very angry over the alteration. I never found out who it was whistling in John’s place, or why it was changed to begin with. Do you know?
What I do know is that on subsequent airings the Family Bath (which I won't bother describing; the name says it all) sequence was excised altogether. I saw the cartoon first without the bath, and frankly, when I did see it, it wasn’t a revelation. It’s a cool gag and all – but I didn’t laugh hard at it or anything. Maybe the whistling thing ruined it? When I saw the kissing scene in Big House Blues, I totally fell in love with the cartoon when previously it passed under my radar, but sadly the Family Bath didn’t have a similar effect. I wouldn’t go mad if you haven’t seen it.
Enough about that. This is the finest example of Vincent’s unexpected, insane imagery discussed in the intro. The sudden cut from Ren kicking the baby out the window to him and Stimpy in the crib – sends me to heaven every time I see it. Or the sudden cut from “Mom” grabbing Stimpy’s diaper to Stimpy’s…other diapers. And don’t forget the example I mentioned in the intro. If John K. was responsible for the complex characterization that gave Man’s Best Friend its backbone, Vincent provided the insane twists on ordinary household events that augmented it. Without the necessary backbone BBS isn’t a very substantial cartoon – no matter how unique it is you’ll laugh at it a few times and put it away for good. But since the material is very strong, you’ll probably want to drag it back out eventually.
I should mention that even though Vincent didn’t draw any amazing facial poses on Ren and Stimpy, he did draw them in some cool shapes which convey the acting just as effectively. Hey, he didn’t supervise this thing in Korea for nothing. Again, Vincent is willing to pull a few twists on regular conventions to deliver the gags –Those shots of Ren in fatter proportions for instance and the animation has a syrupy feel to it that works wonders with the art.
Original airdate: 3/27/93
Rating: 8 (10)
The Great Outdoors is everything Monkey See Monkey Don’t should have been. It’s perfectly alright with me if you hate MSMD, but don’t direct the same hatred at The Great Outdoors just because Billy West does the voice of Ren and it wasn’t completed at Spumco. This cartoon, even if it does resemble a generic Nicktoon a little more than vintage Ren and Stimpy, has some very good gags that make it worth watching, and I never get sick of watching it like I do with the other two second-season episodes were West plays Ren.
The reason is that it’s packed with some real gags and not stupid gross jokes like MSMD or Golden Hairball. The gag with the food pill morphs Ren into a hilarious deformed shape, a shape tangentially related to the name of the food pill (cowboy’s dinner delight). Capping off the gag is the one-liner from the “food” stuck tightly inside Ren’s body.
The other great gag involves Ren drinking polluted water – polluted by beavers. The best part is, he was trying to avoid drinking beaver-contaminated water but inevitably drinks it anyway. But that’s not all – Stimpy’s stupid tall-tale about what happens when you drink Beaver-water turns out to be true, and when another victim of the beaver-water shows up, the gag reaches its hilarious culmination.
That victim is the “Old Man Hunger” guy from Big House Blues, and he’s involved in some riotous gags where he has to do everything “skinny” (skinny-dipping, skinny stomping, etc.). The skinny-stomping scene starts with Ren trying to rub two squirrels together to make a fire (which I heard was cut out on later airings, but are we surprised?), burns to a crisp, gets stomped by Old-Man Hunger, then smacks Stimpy in a funny roasted-black shape with his angry beady eyes.
The only gag in here I don’t like very much is the one with the mosquitoes, because it’s nothing but a bunch of insects acting like smart alecy thugs and leaving Ren with a lot of lumps on his face. And this scene goes on too long. It’s the gag in the cartoon that I’d call lower-tier Games quality. Otherwise the rest of it is enjoyable to watch.
THE CAT THAT LAID THE GOLDEN HAIRBALL
Original airdate: 4/3/93
Rating: 7 (9)
Originally I had this on the Misc. Ren and Stimpy page, since Vincent didn't finish directing it. Because it's mostly his ideas I've stuck it back here, remiscient of the Stimpy's Fan Club situation. The artwork is tragically compromised, evidenced by Ren's striking flash of anger where his finger sticks out like a knife, a funny pose that still looks stiff. The storyboard drawings were blown-up for the layouts according to Michelle Kline's episode guide, which might explain why the characters look more like rough sketches colored over than finished drawings. Nevertheless, even if you don't watch the cartoon for the facial expressions they're as expressive as anything, including Ren's sinister grin after seeing the newsstory on hairballs and Stimpy's lifeless body after all the hairballs are sucked out of him.
The surreal plot has Ren and Stimpy living in a bird house that looks like a real house on the inside, which they convert into a factory so Sitmpy can hwarf hairballs which are now valuable due to their many recently discovered uses. Ren’s greed blinds him to what he’s doing to Stimpy and it’s so touching when he shows concern for Stimpy at the end (and then they blow it with that asinine non-sequitur ending which made my sister cry when we first saw it). Billy's performance of Ren is starting to reveal his limitations, with Ren constantly sounding raspy, but at least he tries, and does regret effectively when Ren has to comfort Stimpy.
I really watch this for the surreal gags, like Bubba going inside Stimpy and the havoc their chimneys wreak on the environment, because frankly the conveyor-belt sequence does not do anything except to show Stimpy hwarfing hairballs for a few minutes. That might be funny enough for some people though I want more creative gags in that sequence to raise the rating. Oh well, I gotta pay props to two great bits of dialogue: "Oh boy, mayhem!" and one more you'll have to guess on your own.