Spümcø

Infobox Company
name = Spümcø International

type = Studio
foundation = 1988
location_city = Los Angeles/Toronto
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key_people = John Kricfalusi
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dissolved = July 18, 2005
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Spümcø International was a North American cartoon animation studio. It was founded in 1988 by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi and his partners Jim Smith, Bob Camp, and Lynne Naylor. The company’s Canadian studio closed down around early 2005. A significant portion of the company’s material was given to ASIFA-Hollywood’s animation archives; Kricfalusi owns the rights to the characters. As of 2007 he lives in Los Angeles.

Works produced by Spümcø International

Spümcø produced and designed animation and products for just about every medium during its existence, from television to internet to comic books. For a period, Spümcø even designed and released toys based on their characters and other classic characters such as the Three Stooges.

Television

* "The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil" (1988, co-production with DiC Entertainment)
* "Ren and Stimpy" (1991–1992) (Games Animation was commissioned to take over after season two)
* "The Ripping Friends" (2001–2002)
* "Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon" (2003)

Internet

These two cartoons are credited with being the first syndicated internet-only program designed exclusively for the internet, ten years before online programming became mainstream with the advent of YouTube.

* "" (1996)
* "Weekend Pussy Hunt" for [http://www.icebox.com/ Icebox.Com] (1999)

Hidden Easter Eggs in Internet cartoons

It has been a tradition in American animation to "unofficially" add hidden images into cartoons as an Easter Egg or hidden in a fast produced video frame. One example of this was in Walt Disney's The Rescuers, in which a photographic image of a topless woman was inserted in two frames and not discovered until over 20 years later. [http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/rescuers.htm#zoom] In this tradition, the Spümcø animators have also been known to add sexually explicit images to some of their Internet cartoons.

Some examples of hidden Spümcø Easter Eggs include:

* In Episode 7 of The Goddamn George Liquor Program when Jimmy the Idiot Boy is fantasizing about his girlfriend Sody Pop in her new bathing suit, Sody's bathing suit will completely disappear if the viewer clicks on her left leg twice.

* In the Spümcø Christmas Card, when the viewer clicks on Sody Pop's pajamas buttocks flap, the flap will fall open, exposing Sody's buttocks. A fart fairy pops out of, and back into, her buttocks.

* In the second Spümcø Valentine Card when the viewer clicks on Jimmy the Idiot Boy's finger he will begin to push down on Sody Pop's left nipple. There are also hidden images of Jimmy found by clicking on Sody's nipples after she becomes topless. Jimmy uses his finger to sexually pleasure Sody both in a state of dress and undress.

Cartoon Network shorts

* "Boo Boo Runs Wild" (1999)
* "A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith" (1999)

CartoonNetwork.com animated shorts

These new "Jetsons" shorts were eventually broadcast on Cartoon Network although they debuted on their website initially.

* "" (2000)
* "" (2001)
* "Boo Boo and the Man" (2000)

Music videos

* “I Miss You” by Björk (1997)
* “Fuck Her Gently” by Tenacious D (1999)
* “Classico” by Tenacious D (2006)
* “Close But No Cigar” by Weird Al Yankovic (2006)

Video games

* "Go! Go! Hypergrind" (2003) for Gamecube by Atlus (Artwork and Character Design)
* "Yoake no Mariko" by Sony for Playstation 2 (Artwork & Character Design)
* Pizza Packing Moron, a downloadable Flash game sold for $2

Animated spots and commercials

* Various animated IDs for NBC
* Aoki Pizza Commercial
* Nike Commercial
* Probono advertisement for UFC starring George Liquor
* Barqs Rootbeer Commercial starring George Liquor
* Quisp Cereal
* Old Navy Big Hood/Flares/Big Pocket Jeans/Girls Fleece Commercial
* Cadbury Commercial
* Village Pantry Commercial
* Wagwells Dog Treats Commercial

Comics

* Spümcø Comic Book Volume 1 Issues 1-3 (Dark Horse Comics)
* Spümcø Comic Book Volume 1 Issue 1 (Marvel Comics)

Future

On July 18, 2006, Kricfalusi stated in his [http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/ blog] that “Spümcø is no more. I’m trying a new experiment now.” He later added “My experiment is to do more freelancing with artists I already know are great and I can count on them to do good and unique work, rather than waste all my money on studio overhead and training unknowns. It’s what HB (Hanna-Barbera) did when they first started their TV studio in 1957 and it produced their best cartoons.” [http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/07/lost-episodes-are-out_18.html “Lost Episodes Are Out”] all kinds of stuff (john k blog), July 2006 (retrieved October 14, 2006) Kricfalusi, John (2006).]

Notes

=External links=
* [http://www.johnkstuff.blogspot.com/ John Kricfalusi’s blog]
* [http://www.bjork.com/videogallery/watch.php?video=11;size=medium “I Miss You” video on Björk’s site]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiLtCCx4mCs Animated NBC ID created by Spümcø (YouTube)]
* [http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/TenaciousD/fhg.html Tenacious D “Fuck Her Gently” Music Video]
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5053/is_199511/ai_n18370324 Brik? Liquor? He Hog? It's Spumco.(television cartoon programs in development)(Brief Article)]