Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon"

Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon"
Title card.
Format	blue humor black humor off-color humor comedy
Created by	John Kricfalusi
Starring	John Kricfalusi Eric Bauza
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	7 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Spumco International Essex Productions
Broadcast
Original channel	Spike TV
Original run	June 26, 2003 (2003-06-26) – August 21, 2003 (2003-08-21)
Chronology
Preceded by	The Ren & Stimpy Show

Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" is an animated television series created by an american animator John Kricfalusi for the cable network Spike (formerly TNN). The series was an adults-only-revival and spin-off of the original animated series, The Ren & Stimpy Show, which had previously aired on the American children's cable network Nickelodeon. It aired from June 26 to August 14, 2003, and was officially cancelled a month after it debuted.

History

The original series was known to be controversial, and its creator had been known for disputing content with censors. When Nickelodeon fired Kricfalusi in 1992, the Nickelodeon-owned studio Games Animation took over the series, leading many animators to quit the series. The Ren and Stimpy Show was canceled in 1996. In 2002, Viacom hired John Kricfalusi to produce a new version of his series for an updated version of the TNN network devoted specifically to programming for male audiences. Kricfalusi said that TNN wanted an "extreme" version of The Ren & Stimpy Show.^[1] TNN gave Kricfalusi greater control of the writing and contents of the episodes than the control given by Nickelodeon. Kricfalusi produced seven new cartoons aimed at adult audiences.^[2] A few of the head storyboard artists, screenwriters, and animators returned from the original Ren and Stimpy series, such as Vincent Waller, Eddie Fitzgerald, and Jim Smith, but most of the animation and writing team were a new team of artists, specifically instructed and headed by Kricfalusi himself.

Many of the original voice cast members returned with the exception of Billy West, which led to Eric Bauza filling the role of Stimpy. West shared the role of Stimpy with Eric Bauza for one episode, but the show in question, "Man's Best Friend", was produced during the Spümcø era of Nickelodeon, when West was still with the show. Cast members Harris Peet and Cheryl Chase also returned, and Kricfalusi's father Mike Kricfalusi and long-time childhood friend Tom Hay provided some voices. West said in an interview that when Kricfalusi asked him to voice Stimpy, West replied by saying that he did not wish to voice Stimpy in this cartoon. West said in an interview that he believed that the cartoon lacked humor and that voicing Stimpy in it would damage his career.^[3]

All of the episodes were animated at Carbunkle Cartoons, the studio that Kricfalusi would send his best episodes to be animated at during the Nickelodeon years (including "Space Madness", "Black Hole" and "The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen"), in association with Big Star Productions. In June 2003, the new series began airing as part of an animation block also featuring Gary the Rat, This Just In, Stripperella, and digitally remastered episodes of the original Ren and Stimpy series, subtitled "Digitally Remastered Classics". Kricfalusi wrote the first episode, "Onward and Upward", based on requests from fans from the Nickelodeon era.^[2] The episode portrayed the characters as bisexuals: In one scene, Ren informs Stimpy, "I'm the pitcher, you're the catcher."

Trouble with advertisers

Advertisers objected to some of the new show's content, particularly that of the risqué episode "Naked Beach Frenzy" (which was finished in 2003, but hasn't aired on American television due to scenes of extensive nudity and heavy sexual innuendo), and, along with the network's entire animation block, the show was taken off the air.^[4]

Cancellation

In the spring and summer 2004, Kricfalusi completed 2 new episodes (each an hour-long), and those episodes (along with "Naked Beach Frenzy") were shown at film festivals and special screenings. The network had planned to start Adult Party Cartoon's second season in August 2004, but canceled that plan.

The network officially canceled Adult Party Cartoon around November 2004 (Kricfalusi shut down his studio in Canada shortly thereafter following a lawsuit by Carbunkle filed against Spümcø in the Canadian court system ^[5]), but in 2005, Kricfalusi announced that all of the Adult Party Cartoon cartoons were coming to DVD, and that the possibility exists for new The Ren and Stimpy Show episodes to be produced on the back of successful sales.^[6] Kricfalusi has stated to have great interest in making direct-to-video episodes to avoid the TV censorship constrictions that have plagued his work in the past. A TV movie is said to be in the works.^{[citation needed]} The episode is called Life Sucks and is about Ren and Stimpy's outlooks on life and how they are so different.^{[citation needed]} John Kricfalusi claims that it is the best Ren & Stimpy episode he has ever written and the Spümcø staff easily agrees.^{[citation needed]} The entire run of cartoons was released in July 2006 as Ren and Stimpy: The Lost Episodes. It is currently unknown when Life Sucks will be completed and released onto DVD. As of now, the Life Sucks movie hasn't been released yet for any home media.

Episode notes

• "Man's Best Friend" was originally to be aired in the second season, but the episode was banned by Nickelodeon for excessive violence, reference to tobacco, and several scatological jokes. The episode did not see airtime until Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon". Spike's official episode lineup on their website seemed to suggest that they consider "Man's Best Friend" a part of the Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" series, but this episode in general is not counted as one of the three episodes from this series that aired in the U.S.
• "Naked Beach Frenzy" and the two-part episodes "Altruists" and "Stimpy's Pregnant" were not aired on television in the United States (although "Onward and Upward", "Ren Seeks Help", and "Fire Dogs 2" did air), but are finished episodes released on the Ren and Stimpy: The Lost Episodes (a collection of the episodes of Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon") DVD set. Despite this, the complete series aired on various networks in other countries.

References

1. ^ "Bio In Progress," John Kricfalusi's Stuff at Blogspot
2. ^ ^{a b} Who's Who in Animated Cartoons. 188.
3. ^ "Billy West Interview." UnderGroundOnline
4. ^ Nick Digilio interview with John Kricfalusi
5. ^ http://archive.ottawabusinessjournal.com/archive_detail.php?archiveFile=2004/November/15/OBJ-ForTheRecord/9952.xml&start=0&numPer=20&keyword=carbunkle&sectionSearch=&begindate=1%2F1%2F1999&enddate=12%2F31%2F2009&authorSearch=&IncludeStories=1&pubsection=&page=&IncludePages=1&IncludeImages=1&mode=allwords&archive_pubname=OBJ-Web%0A%09%09%09
6. ^ "The Ren and Stimpy Show DVD news: John K. chats: talks about Adult Party Cartoon & other show DVDs, says Ren & Stimpy to get 'Ultimate' DVDs with more extras!", TVShowsOnDVD.com

External links

• Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" at the Internet Movie Database
• Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" at TV.com