The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show

The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show is a half-hour American animated comedy television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and aired in 1995 as a spin-off of the show Marsupilami. The show represents Disney's attempt to do a more "edgy" cartoon in the vein of Nickelodeon's Nicktoons shows such as The Ren & Stimpy Show and Rocko's Modern Life.

Unlike other Disney Afternoon cartoons, Shnookums & Meat only aired once a week, usually Mondays. Only thirteen episodes were produced.

## Premise

This animated series actually follows three segment series.

### Shnookums & Meat

This segment involves a cat named Shnookums (voiced by Jason Marsden) and a dog named Meat (voiced by Frank Welker) who do not get along very well. Their owners are unseen stock characters only viewed from the neck down and named (appropriately enough) Husband & Wife (voiced by Steve Mackall and Tress MacNeille). Husband is always referring to their home as their "domicile" before the two leave their pets in charge while they are away.

### Pith Possum: Super Dynamic Possum of Tomorrow

A spoof of the *Batman* comics, with the superhero Pith Possum (voiced by Jeff Bennett) and his sidekick Obediah the Wonder Raccoon (voiced by Patric Zimmerman) fighting crime in Possum City when called by the gorilla Commissioner Stress (voiced by Brad Garrett) and the monkey Lieutenant Tension (voiced by Jess Harnell). Pith Possum's true identity is lowly tabloid copyboy Peter Possum. Pith Possum fights various enemies with his recurring one being a mad lumberjack named Dr. Paul Bunion (voiced by Jim Cummings). Pith Possum (even when in his true identity) also has developed a crush on a female human reporter named Doris Deer (voiced by April Winchell) who mostly loves Pith Possum more than his true identity. It was stated in the first episode that Pith Possum was an ordinary lab opossum until he gained ultra opossum-like abilities upon an experiment gone wrong. The titles of the episodes are completely unrelated to their contents but rather (usually) over the top titles always using the word 'dark' or 'darkness' and often with the words 'black' and 'night' (e.g., *The Phantom Mask of the Dark Black Darkness of Black*, *Return of the Night of Blacker Darkness*, *Return of the Dark Mask of Phantom Blackness*, etc.). Jim Cummings provided the narration in most episodes.

### Tex Tinstar: The Best in the West

A parody of Wild West serials involving the cowboy Tex Tinstar (voiced by Jeff Bennett), his horse Here Boy, and Tex's friends Smelly Deputy Chafe (voiced by Charlie Adler), Percy Lacedaisy (voiced by Corey Burton), and Floyd the Insane Rattlesnake (voiced by Jess Harnell) who always get into trouble when pursuing a group of outlaws called the Wrong Riders consisting of Wrongo (voiced by Brad Garrett), Ian (voiced by Corey Burton in a homage to Paul Frees' character Inspector Fenwick from *Dudley Do-Right*), and Clem. The end of each episode ends in a cliffhanger for next week (not unlike the Wild West serials or "Rocky and Bullwinkle"). Jim Cummings narrated each installment in a Western accent.

## Voice cast

* Charlie Adler - Chafe
* Jeff Bennett - Pith Possum/Peter Possum, Tex Tinstar
* Corey Burton - Ian, Percy Lacedaisy, Krusty Rustknuckle, Ultra Guy Man Dude (in "The Light of Darkness")
* Jim Cummings - Narrator, Dr. Paul Bunion, Mr. Kane, Ralph Bear (in "Return of the Night of Blacker Darkness"), Supper Squirrel (in "Dark of the Darker Darkness"), Caped Cod (in "The Light of Darkness")
* Brad Garrett - Commissioner Stress, Wrongo, Super Water Buffalo (in "Son of the Cursed Black of Darkness"), Shirley Pimple (in "Bride of Darkness")
* Jess Harnell - Lieutenant Tension, Floyd the Insane Rattlesnake, Polite Coyotes, Easter Bunny Imposter (in "Phantom Mask of the Dark Black Darkness of Black"), Al Dog (in "Return of the Night of Blacker Darkness"), Spidey (in "Bride of Darkness"), Power Weasel (in "The Light of Darkness"), Bat Guy (in "The Light of Darkness")
* Steve Mackall - Husband
* Tress MacNeille - Wife
* Jason Marsden - Shnookums
* Frank Welker - Meat
* April Winchell - Doris Deer, Registration Lady (in "The Light of Darkness"), Wowee Woman (in "The Light of Darkness")
* Patric Zimmerman - Obediah the Wonder Raccoon

## Production

*Shnookums and Meat* was created and written by Bill Kopp, who also created *Toonsylvania* and *Mad Jack the Pirate*. The show was directed by Jeff DeGrandis. Kopp was the voice of Eek! The Cat and Yuckie Duck from *The What-A-Cartoon! Show* on Cartoon Network.

Disney previously reached out to Carbunkle Cartoons (one of the animation studios that worked on *The Ren & Stimpy Show*) to work on the show's animation; the latter declined due to there being less payment than in *Ren & Stimpy*.

## Segments on "Marsupilami"

*Shnookums and Meat* originated as a segment on Disney's 1993 series *Marsupilami*. Five episodes were shown on that series, and were later run again as part of the actual *Shnookums and Meat* series in 1995. These episodes were:

* "Kung-Fu Kitty"
* "I.Q. You, Too"
* "Night of the Living Shnookums"
* "Something's Fishy"
* "Jingle Bells, Something Smells"

## Broadcast history

The series aired on The Disney Afternoon on Mondays between January 2 to March 27, 1995 in the timeslot normally occupied by *Bonkers*. Reruns were later shown on Toon Disney. The Tex Tinstar segments were shown out of order on the Disney Channel UK in 2003 to fill the then frequently gapped schedule. The show last aired on Friday, July 6, 2007, on Toon Disney during the Mega Jam block.

Following the launch of the Disney+ video on demand streaming service in November 2019, *Shnookums and Meat* along with *Aladdin* (based on the 1992 film of the same name) are the only Disney Afternoon series not yet on the platform.

## Reception

The series had received mixed reactions upon its initial release. Some enjoyed the artistic design and humor of the series, while many criticized it due to it copying the designs and humor of John Kricfalusi's designs and characters in *Ren and Stimpy*. This is considered to be due to a great deal of the Spumco artists working on the series.

## Similar series

Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman of *Animation World Magazine* described *The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show* as one of two *The Ren & Stimpy Show* "clones", with the other one being *2 Stupid Dogs*.

1. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `kopp`
2. ↑ Reboy, Judith (Summer 1996). Eekstravaganza Update. *Animato! #35*. Archived from the original on June 29, 2006. Retrieved on May 1, 2011.
3. ↑ Template:Cite podcast
4. ↑ "Cartoons Aren't Real! Ren and Stimpy In Review." *Animation World Magazine*. Issue 5.12. March 2001. Retrieved on June 3, 2010.