It’s hard to understate just how revolutionary John Kricfalusi’s “The Ren & Stimpy Show” was to the world of animation.
Having worked on stultifying commercial products throughout the 1980s, John K., as he is better known, longed for the old, wilder, more creative days of Termite Terrace (the nickname for Warner Bros.
Pictures’ animation department from the 1930s through the 1950s).
He particularly admired Bob Clampett and aimed to make stranger, more grotesque cartoons.
The ’80s were a time of product-based cartoon shows like “Transformers,” “My Little Pony,” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks.” Such shows were seemingly only green-lit if they had pre-existing “marquee value” or a product to sell.The airing of “The Ren & Stimpy Show” kicked the door open for a new generation of creator-based cartoon shows.
Original ideas began flooding the marketplace in earnest in the early ’90s and cynical, product-forward cartoons series fell by the wayside.
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