Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon
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Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon | |
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Genre | Animated series |
Running time | approx. 0:30 (0:11 per episode) |
Creator(s) | John Kricfalusi |
Starring | John Kricfalusi Eric Bauza |
Country of origin | USA |
Original channel | Spike TV |
Original run | 2003– |
No. of episodes | 12 (10 shows) |
IMDb profile |
Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon was an animated television series created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi for the American cable network TNN (later to become Spike TV). The series was an adults only-revival of the popular animated series The Ren and Stimpy Show, considered by some to be a children's series, which had previously aired on the American children's cable network Nickelodeon. Although the series had a positive reaction from long-time fans, [verification needed] it aired briefly in 2003, and was officially canceled a month after it debuted
[edit] History
The original series was very controversial, and its creator had been known for disputing content with censors. In 1992, Kricfalusi was fired from his own series, and the Nickelodeon-owned studio Games Animation took over the series, leading many animators to quit the series. The Games-produced episodes were poorly received by fans, and Ren & Stimpy was eventually cancelled.
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 was allowed full creative control without censorship, and produced 7 new cartoons featuring the characters, with decidedly more adult content.
A few of the head storyboard artists, writers, and animators returned from the original Ren and Stimpy series, such as Vincent Waller and Jim Smith, but most of the new animation and writing team was a new team of artists, specifically instructed and headed by Kricfalusi himself. Some of the notable, new talent, that worked on Adult Party Cartoon (or "APC" for short) are Katie Rice and Nick Cross.
In June 2003, the new series began airing as part of an animation block also featuring Gary the Rat, Stripperella, and digitally remastered episodes of the original Ren & Stimpy series, subtitled "Digitally Remastered Classics."
The premier episode fulfilled a long-running ambition of Kricfalusi's, based upon fan requests: an entire episode revolving around jokes that became progressively more disgusting as the episode went on. This episode also portrayed the characters as gay lovers: In one scene, Ren informs Stimpy, "I'm the pitcher, you're the catcher." Then Ren (dressed like a baseball player) dives under the covers with Stimpy, and they have anal sex.
Advertisers were "freaked out" (in Kricfalusi's own words) by some of the new show's content, particularly that of the risque episode Naked Beach Frenzy (which was finished in 2003 but is unaired on American TV so far) and, along with the network's entire animation block, the show was taken off the air.
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 APC's 2nd season in August 2004, but cancelled that plan at the next-to-last minute.
The network officially cancelled APC around November 2004 (and John K. shut down his studio in Canada shortly thereafter), but in 2005 John K. announced that all of the APC cartoons were coming to DVD, and that the possibility exists for new Ren and Stimpy episodes to be produced on the back of successful sales [verification needed] (Kricfalusi has stated to have great interest in making direct-to-video episodes to avoid TV restrictions). The entire run of cartoons was released in July 2006 as "Ren and Stimpy: The Lost Episodes".
[edit] Episode list
- Man's Best Friend
- Onward and Upward
- Ren seeks Help
- Fire Dogs/Fire Dogs 2: Part 1
- Fire Dogs 2: Part 2
- Naked Beach Frenzy (originally titled "At the Beach")
- Altruists: Part 1
- Altruists: Part 2
- Stimpy's Pregnant: Part 1
- Stimpy's Pregnant Part 2: The Blessed Event
¹ (Man's Best Friend was originally to be aired in the second season, but the episode was banned by Nickelodeon and had not been aired until Adult Party Cartoon. Spike TV's official episode lineup on their website suggested that they consider Man's Best Friend a part of the Adult Party Cartoon season.)
² (These have not yet been officially aired on television in the United States but are known to be complete, and finished episodes. These were released on the Adult Party Cartoon (Lost Episodes) DVD set.)