The Ren and Stimpy Show

***The Ren and Stimpy Show***, mostly shortened to *Ren and Stimpy*, is an American animated show by John Kricfalusi. It is one of the first Nicktoons and the work of John Kricfalusi still has an influence of other animation to this day. It ran on Nicktoons Network from 2005-2009, usually being in a "graveyard slot".

*Ren and Stimpy* met critical acclaim and influenced many other shows in the 1990's such as Beavis and Butthead and South Park.

## Premise

The show follows Ren Hoek, a psycopathic chihuahua, and Stimpson J. Cat, otherwise known as Stimpy, a dim-witted happy-go-lucky cat. We see the over the top and raunchy adventures of these two as they travel through space, become horse thieves in the wild west, disguise as babies to get the easy life, and many more.

There are also a number of supporting characters that appear throughout the series such as Mr. Horse, George Liquor, Muddy Mudskipper, Wilber Cobb, and Stinky Wizzleteats, who wrote the famous "Happy Happy Joy Joy" song.

## Development and History

Around 1978, John Kricfalusi created the design of the characters while studying at college for "personal amusement." He got the design for Ren from an Elliot Erwitt postcard. It showed a chihuahua with a sweater on by a woman's feet. John thought this was genius for a character because this ferocious beast is in a cute sweater. The idea for Stimpy came from a Tweety Bird cartoon called "Gruesome Twosome," which had cats with big noses. The characters were supposed to be a throwback to early cartoons when the characters had big bulbous noses.

When Nickelodeon approached Kricfalusi, he presented them with three pilots. One was a show with a live-action host that presents cartoons called "Your Gang, Our Gang." One of these shorts in the pilot was a parody of the cat and dog genre. Vanessa Coffey, the executive producer, was dissatisfied with the other shorts, but she kind of liked the Ren and Stimpy part, singling it out for it's own series. Another one of the pitches was "Jimmy the Idiot Boy," who was another Spumco character.

### **The Spumco Era**

For the first and second seasons, the project was being produced by Spumco animations. However, it was hard getting certain scenes past Nickelodeon's Practices and Standards because they thought they were inapproprite for children. One episode, "Man's Best Friend," was never aired on Nickelodeon and even got John fired from production. Most of the Spumco team left with him.

### **The Games Animation Era**

After John Kricfalusi was fired, Nickelodeon made their own animation studio, *Games Animations*(now known as *Nickelodeon Studios*). A lot of fans and critics thought this was the turning point of the show, and that they were only doing what was expected.

## Production

Production for the show was very similar to cartoons from the early 20th century. John Kricfalusi was always a big fan of cartoons from the 40's. He particularly liked Bob Clampett because his charcters' expressions would distort their bodies.

### **Animation**

Ren and Stimpy's animation was supposed to resemble the animation from the Golden Age of cartoons. Characters have a variety of different expressions that distort their body. Kricfalusi always told his crew at Spumco to never draw the same expression more than once. He believed there are more expressions than just happy and sad. One of the unique things about the animation is the detailed and gruesome paintings of close ups. This style would be later used in *SpongeBob Squarepants.*

Carbunkle Cartoons was a studio that animated many episodes from the first two seasons. John Kricfalusi cited that they did such a good job with the animation, that it could not possibly be replicated in overseas animation studios. After he was fired, they switched to *Rough Draft Studios*.

### **Voice Acting**

Ren Hoek was originally voiced by John Kricfalusi himself, doing a Peter Lorre impression. He really likes Peter Lorre because he is a subtle but over-the-top actor. After Kricfalusi was fired, Billy West did the voice for Ren. Billy West is the voice of Stimpy. He did a Larry Fine impression so that the character had the personality of a child with this grown man voice.

### **Music**

The music used in Ren and Stimpy is usually from the APM library.

### **Controversy and Censorship**

Ren and Stimpy recieved many complaints from parents due to use of toilet humor and harsh language. Some episodes of the show had scenes that were censored or unaired. An example is the Haunted House episode. There was a scene that involved Ren and Stimpy getting a visit from the Bloody-Head Fairy, which was censored for gore. Another example is the infamous *Man's Best Friend* episode, which was unaired because of a scene involving Ren beating George Liquor with an oar and tobacco references. The episode wasn't aired until 2003, when "Ren and Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon" started.

### **Reception**

The show got massive critical acclaim and got a cult following.