| "Ren's Bitter Half" | |
|---|---|
| The Ren & Stimpy Show episode | |
 | |
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 15 |
| Directed by | Michael Kim |
| Written by | Michael Kim Ron Hauge Bob Camp |
| Original air date | June 4, 1994 |
"Ren's Bitter Half" is the fifteenth episode from the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show . It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on June 4, 1994.
Stimpy works in a laboratory late at night, using rubber bands, "colored water" and Sterno to create a mysterious substance named XB-49. Ren walks in, where Stimpy reveals that he had become a genetic engineer, giving himself an additional buttock in a prior experiment. A furious Ren demands his dinner whom Stimpy should have cooked; he steals the substance and shakes it; it erupts on Ren, who splits into two individuals: one evil and one indifferent. Stimpy is joyful on the prospect of having a second best friend.
Stimpy watches television with the two Rens; Evil Ren repeatedly hits Indifferent Ren who does not mind the abuse. Evil Ren throws the television on top of Indifferent Ren and Stimpy, causing Indifferent Ren to be rendered unconscious. Evil Ren finds a Girl Scout at the door, who offers him cookies; he joyfully chews the cookies and spits it out in an attempt to disturb her. Stimpy unsuccessfully tries to make Indifferent Ren help; Evil Ren plugs in the television, electrocuting the duo.
Stimpy takes Indifferent Ren for a walk, who does not react; Evil Ren fortifies the door with wooden planks to keep the duo out, which is unsuccessful; they return 12 hours later to Evil Ren having constructed a factory, where he destroys Stimpy's prized possessions, including his record of "Happy Happy Joy Joy", his mouse toy and his litter box. Stimpy is traumatized by this incident; he passes out, waking in captivity with Evil Ren taking control of his laboratory. Evil Ren, glad to have become free to act on his maniacal desires, decides to splash XB-49 on himself to replicate more of him into an army, so he can conquer the world in a manner similar to the Nazi Party. This attempt splits him into another Evil Ren without his intelligence and Hideously Evil Ren, a hideous female version of himself whom he is immediately attracted to. Evil Ren kidnaps a Minister to officiate their marriage; they beat other in love and leave in a car, pulling the wall holding Stimpy and Indifferent Ren together with a chain and ending the episode.
The episode is the first to be primarily directed by Michael Kim. [1] Kim had been working in the animation industry since he was 16 and he had been recruited to work for Spümcø by series creator John Kricfalusi. Kricfalusi considered Kim to be a highly talented individual, realizing his talent from his work on The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil . He made him his protégé and convinced him to back off from working on Batman: The Animated Series at Warner Bros. Animation with higher pay. Kim worked on every episode as a layout artist until his firing, where Kricfalusi was dissatisfied at his inability to provide large amounts of layouts in little time during the production of Man's Best Friend. [2] When Spümcø lost the contract for The Ren & Stimpy Show, Kim was among the studio's alumni who migrated to Games Animation. [3] Kim stated in an interview: "I just wanted to get back into doing shows more like the original episodes that were just centered around Ren and Stimpy. I was just feeling my way around, I had never directed before. But I had a good idea of what I wanted and basically drew it all myself". Kim had personally contacted Bob Jaques of Carbunkle Cartoons to allow the studio to provide their animation, who showed interest but rejected due to scheduled conflicts, so Rough Draft Korea in Seoul provided the animation as usual. Peter Avanzino was responsible for the episode's storyboards. [4]
American journalist Thad Komorowski gave the episode four and a half out of five stars, praising Kim's supreme draftsmanship and the story and considered it to be one of the best episodes in the series. [4]
Spümcø, Inc. was an American animation studio that was active from 1989 to 2005 and based in Los Angeles, California. The studio was best known for working on the first two seasons of The Ren & Stimpy Show for Nickelodeon and for various commercials. The studio won several awards, including an Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject for the music video of the song "I Miss You" by Björk.
Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" is an animated television series created and directed by John Kricfalusi and produced by Spümcø for TNN / Spike TV. The series was developed as a more "extreme" revamp and spin-off of Nickelodeon's The Ren & Stimpy Show, which Spümcø produced the first two seasons. The series premiered on June 26, 2003, and was removed from the network on July 24, after airing only three episodes; the remaining episodes were released on DVD. During its run, Adult Party Cartoon was heavily panned by critics, audiences and fans of the original series. It has been referred to as one of the worst animated series of all time.
"Stimpy's Fan Club" is the seventeenth episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on April 24, 1993.
"Stimpy's Cartoon Show" is the seventh episode of the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on January 8, 1994.
"Man's Best Friend" is an episode from the second season of the American animated television series The Ren & Stimpy Show. It was originally intended to air on Nickelodeon on August 22, 1992, as the second half of the second episode of Season 2, but was pulled before airing and replaced by a censored version of "Big House Blues". It eventually aired on the soft launch of Spike TV on June 23, 2003. In the episode, Ren and Stimpy learn about obedience after George Liquor takes them home with him and swears to make them "champions".
"The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen" is the nineteenth episode and season finale of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on May 23, 1993, and is the final episode to be aired with input from Spümcø.
Lynne Rae Naylor is a Canadian animator, artist, designer, director, and producer for television. She is best known for co-creating DreamWorks' The Mighty Ones, co-founding the animation studio Spümcø with John Kricfalusi, Bob Camp, and Jim Smith, and co-developing The Ren & Stimpy Show for Nickelodeon. She also worked on Batman: The Animated Series, The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, My Life as a Teenage Robot, and Wander Over Yonder.
"Stimpy's Invention" is the twelfth episode and series finale of the first season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on February 23, 1992.
"Sven Höek" is the sixth episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on November 7, 1992.
"Big House Blues" is a 1990 American animated comedy film produced by Spümcø. Originally screened at a film festival, with a censored version later airing on Nickelodeon, it was succeeded by The Ren & Stimpy Show on the network, to which it serves as a pilot episode.
"Space Madness" is the fifth episode of the first season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on September 8, 1991. Along with "Marooned" and "Black Hole", the episode is part of a loose trilogy in the first season known as the "space episodes", centering around the show-within-the-show, a parody of Star Trek-like science fiction shows titled The Adventures of Commander Höek and Cadet Stimpy.
"Rubber Nipple Salesmen" is the fifth episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on August 29, 1992.
"Stimpy's Big Day!" is the first episode of the first season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on August 11, 1991.
"Fake Dad" is the fourteenth episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on February 27, 1993.
"The Great Outdoors" is the fifteenth episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on March 27, 1993.
"The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball" is the sixteenth episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on April 3, 1993.
"To Salve and Salve Not!" is the first episode of the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on November 20, 1993.
"A Yard Too Far" is the second episode of the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on November 20, 1993.
"Ren's Pecs" is the fifth episode of the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on December 18, 1993.
"Eat My Cookies" is the fourteenth episode from the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on June 4, 1994.
