The Littlest Giant

"The Littlest Giant"
The Ren & Stimpy Show episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 4a
Directed by	John Kricfalusi (uncredited)
Story by	John Kricfalusi Bob Camp
Production code	RS-04A
Original air date	September 29, 1991 (1991-09-29)
Episode chronology
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List of episodes

"The Littlest Giant" is the seventh episode of the first season of The Ren & Stimpy Show . It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on September 15, 1991. A censored version of "Big House Blues" aired afterwards in place of another episode, being the pilot's first airing on the channel.

Plot

The episode starts in the same manner as that of "Robin Höek", except that Ren utters his prayers in an absent-minded way. Unlike that episode, the episode does not cut back to reality and hence the actual Ren does not reappear.

Stimpy portrays a giant who is the smallest in his family. He is constantly abused by his brothers, who resemble Curly Howard and Larry Fine of the Three Stooges. As such, he is extremely self-conscious and lives a miserable life. He decides to leave home in search for companionship; he writes a letter to notify his brothers of his absence, but chooses to swallow it in spite. The giant travels as far as he can, horrifying people and animals.

At a village, a peasant named Wee Ren complains of the harsh conditions of the area; the land is barren and the well is empty. Due to malnutrition, his cow only produces powdered milk and his chicken lays eggs made of silt. The following morning, he is awoken by the sound of the giant crying, only to realize that the giant's tears have filled up the well. The cow drinks as much tears as she can, finally able to produce actual milk after rehydration, and the land's glory was restored by the excess tears. Both Ren and the cow are overjoyed.

Ren makes a bargain with the giant, where he agrees to take care of the giant in exchange for the giant keeping the farmland sustainable. They live together, happily ever after, except that Ren has to endure the giant's loud snoring for the rest of his life.

Cast

• Ren – voice of John Kricfalusi
• Stimpy – voice of Billy West

Production

The episode was the last in a short-lived series called Stimpy's Storybook Land. ^[1] Jim Smith drew background scenes based on the work of N. C. Wyeth, that gave the story "an appropriate storybook look and feel". ^[1] The intro is the same of that of "Robin Höek", with the shoddy work causing newly added voice lines to be disconnected from the animation. The team who worked on "The Littlest Giant" have panned the writing on the episode, with Bob Camp calling it an episode where "you have to wait for them to say what's going to happen before it happens". ^[1] The director, John Kricfalusi, disowned the episode and had his name removed from the credits, later nicknaming it "The Littlest Jokes" in scorn.

Reception

Thad Komorowski, giving the episode two out of five stars, wrote that "The Littlest Giant" was one of the worst episodes in the first season that was "a run-of-the-mill Saturday morning cartoon". ^[2]

References

1. Komorowski 2017, p. 94.
2. Komorowski 2017, p. 355.

Sources

• Klickstein, Matthew; Summers, Marc (2013). Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age. London: Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN   9781101614099.
• Komorowski, Thad (2017). Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN   978-1629331836.