Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon"

Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" (a.k.a. Ren and Stimpy's All New Adult Party Cartoon) is an American animated television series created by John Kricfalusi and produced in 2003 by Spümcø. It aired on Spike in the summer of 2003. The series is a spin-off of the critically acclaimed Nickelodeon series The Ren & Stimpy Show.

The series had six episodes, only three of which aired on its network. The last three were later released on DVD on July 18, 2006. The show also lasted only two months in 2003 before being canceled due to negative reception.

The series was not only Spümcø's last animated series before its closure in 2005, but also the last TV show that Kricfalusi ever made before his retirement in 2018 due to sexual misconduct allegations, as well as killing the Ren & Stimpy franchise and preventing the franchise getting a revival or a reboot until August 5, 2020, when ViacomCBS announced a Ren & Stimpy reboot for Comedy Central (one of three reboots for the network) without John Kricfalusi; a new creative team will be involved, though Billy West and a few of the original writers have been confirmed to return. Bob Camp's involvement in said reboot (if any) is currently unknown.

Why It's An EEDIOT

 * 1) An adult version of a kids' show is definitely not a great idea, which was why it upset and angered so many fans of the original show.
 * 2) *To be fair, a concept like this can work, but only if you put in as much effort as people wanted. The fifth season of mh:besttvshows:Samurai Jack, for example, has worked, because it not only stayed true to the first four seasons, but also gave it a much darker tone. Shows like Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Sealab 2021, and mh:besttvshows:Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law also worked, because they were funnier and clever, though the original shows that they were based on did not receive as much praise as other shows did. However, when you make it into an adult show that's nothing but overly raunchy, it insults the fanbase very hard, as well as the original source material.
 * 3) *The original may have been more appropriate for adults than for kids, but not to this extent.
 * 4) The humor is nothing more than absurd shock value and constant gross-out humor that is far too violent, cruel, vulgar, disturbing, and disgusting even for its intended adult audience. In terms of the gross-out humor, it's used continuously to almost no end and it never gets a break. What's worse is that, even for adult animation standards, this show relies more on gratuitous over the top violence instead of slapstick, which is something that the original Ren and Stimpy didn't even have in the first place. Sure it sometimes goes too far in all the seasons of Ren and Stimpy (even seasons 3-5), but not to this extent.
 * 5) Like Popee the Performer, the Larry Doyle era of Looney Tunes, the fourth season onwards of The Loud House, the sixth to eighth seasons of SpongeBob SquarePants, the final two seasons of Ed, Edd n Eddy and the Gene Deitch era of Tom and Jerry, it relies way too much on gratuitous over-the-top violence instead of slapstick, but it's cranked up to 11 here to the point that it makes even the most graphically violent of adult animation like Mr. Pickles and modern Family Guy seem nonviolent in comparison.
 * 6) It sucks out the charm of the original 1991-1995 Nicktoon, and ruined everything on how special Ren & Stimpy was on Nickelodeon.
 * 7) *To be fair, one of the main reasons what made the original Ren & Stimpy beloved by fans is how Nickelodeon's censorship and restrictions not only controlled its amount of adult and gross-out content, yet it encouraged the writers of the original Ren & Stimpy to be more creative with their comedic gags and story executions, like how in the episode "Rubber Nipple Salemen" from Season 2 of the original show Nickelodeon only allowed the episode to mention the "nipples" joke rather sparingly while encouraging the writers to be creative in coming up with other jokes outside the use of "nipples" for the rest of the episode. But since Adult Party Cartoon is aimed at adults and therefore is unaffected by censorship unlike the original show, this resulted the show losing its creativity in favor of overuse of gross-out and raunchy humor without any network censorship interference whatsoever.
 * 8) The show's logic makes absolute zero sense, even for Ren & Stimpy standards. For example;
 * 9) *The entirety of the episode Stimpy's Pregnant, which is about Stimpy, a male cat, literally getting pregnant with a poop baby and even gender-swaps himself from male to female because of it.
 * 10) *In Altruists, a duck has sex with Stimpy while Stimpy pretends to be a female duck. And Stimpy, for some reason, gives birth to three duck and cat hybrids.
 * 11) *In Ren Seeks Help, Ren somewhat screeches like a cat while killing Mr. Horse, even though he's a chihuahua.
 * 12) Misleading title and false advertising: The word "party" in the title makes no sense as there is no indication that this show is made for adult parties and you could very well see it at any time. In the series' title card, you see a martini glass, a box of cigarettes and a sentient condom and you will think they are characters from the series, but they are nowhere to be seen. Most likely the reason they are on the title card is to show that this is an adult cartoon, but then there are no martini and condom scenes in any of the episodes.
 * 13) Awful and unfunny episode ideas, patched up with ignorant jokes in some of them.
 * 14) Lots of scenes are drawn out and go on for way too long to the point that they often come off as nothing more than unneeded filler in general, like the toilet scenes in Fire Dogs 2 and some jokes in Altruists, for example.
 * 15) Disturbing and cruel moments in the show, such as killing/abusing animals, suicide, torment, sexual harassment, bestiality, etc.
 * 16) In the original show, Ren beats up Stimpy when Stimpy did something stupid because, for one thing, it's hilarious, and it never went over the top or overly mean-spirited and harsh, but in the reboot, he beats up Stimpy and torments him for no reason.
 * 17) On top of that, Ren & Stimpy are completely flanderized:
 * 18) *Ren suffers the ABSOLUTE WORST flanderization and character derailment of all the characters of Ren & Stimpy, as he is portrayed as a monstrous, unpleasant, and psychopathic moron who tormented animals and bugs in his childhood to inflict pain on others, he murdered his therapist after being called crazy, acted like a mindless pervert to bimbo women with no good qualities, has shown no reasons why he is scary and cruel like how he had his right reasons to act the way that he was in the old show, and seemed to care a lot less about Stimpy. This is an example of doing a sour-tempered character backward.
 * 19) *Stimpy, who was portrayed as ditzy, dumb, and happy-go-lucky in the original series, now he is portrayed as a stereotypical gay character who is a huge doormat and punching bag for Ren for no reason, acts extremely stupid to the point that it's more irritating and frustrating than funny, does pointless things to show how effeminate he is, and served no purpose to the show whatsoever.
 * 20) Speaking of Ren, the episode Ren Seeks Help, has been considered one of the worst episodes in cartoon history because it portrays Ren as a tormentor who murders and harms helpless animals for his own pleasure (as mentioned above). There was no reason for Ren to act the way he is other than for shock humor, but in the old show, he has his right reasons to be scary and cruel because of the way he is, and in Adult Party Cartoon, it was done all backwards. Ren is portrayed even more crueler and unfunny as it is as of Ren Seeks Help. Why did they ruin Ren's character? No seriously, what have they done?
 * 21) Episodes like Stimpy's Pregnant and Fire Dogs 2 contain false advertising and misleading titles at the same time because in Stimpy's Pregnant, Stimpy actually isn't pregnant, he is just constipated and they had to have him bring out the poop baby anyway just for the sake of it. Fire Dogs 2 had nothing to do with the first Fire Dogs, it had nothing, but pointless filler and focused more on a character who is basically an obese unfunny version of Fireman Sam who makes Homer Simpson look like a railway engine driver.
 * 22) The animation, while smooth and of very high quality, can get really ugly and disturbing with all the washed-out and hideous colors with some very horrifying imagery to go with. And has some animation errors here and there.
 * 23) Although the theme song is catchy, it reuses the exact same intro as the original 1991 show without any attempts at changing the animation except the title card, which is incredibly lazy and uncreative, and the theme song is somewhat pitched up. In addition, it is misleading for the most part, as it deceives viewers into watching the original Ren & Stimpy, when actually it is Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon".
 * 24) None of the recurring characters from the original show (save for the titular characters, Mr. Horse, Mr. and Mrs. Pipe, and the Fire Chief) such as Mr. Announcer Salesman, Muddy Mudskipper, Sven Hoek, and Powdered Toast Man make an appearance in this series. Not even George Liquor, a character John Kricfalusi uses in most of his projects.
 * 25) Adult Party Cartoon, despite being created by the same guy who created the original, mostly feels like a completely different show (minus with Ren and Stimpy), and feels like a complete parody of its original concept and former self. The concept of Ren & Stimpy, in general, is that Ren & Stimpy have been a parody of the Golden Age of American Animation from 1928-1969. That concept is what made Ren & Stimpy also work. Here with APC, it's completely different given by the fact (again) that this reboot makes Ren & Stimpy a grotesque parody of its former self, as well as its original concept.
 * 26) * For this reason above, despite John Kricfalusi returning to work on this show for the first time since the original Ren & Stimpy 's first two seasons, it flopped miserably and ended up canceling the series very quickly.
 * 27) In some episodes, the actors would improvise their lines outside of lip-sync (in the tradition of the Fleischer Popeye shorts), which can look off-putting for fans of the original series.
 * 28) There is a MASSIVE over-usage of stock sound effects (particularly from Hanna-Barbera) which are even often used at inappropriate times, unlike the original show. They sound really weird too, like the pizza eating one for example.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) At least the original series creator, John Kricfalusi, was involved, despite this show being different from the original series as mentioned above.
 * 2) The voice acting was decent despite how bad the show was. Eric Bauza's performance as Stimpy was good (when he's not crying, at least) and sounded pretty close to his old voice actor, Billy West. John Kricfalusi reprises his role as Ren and still does a good job (depending on your view).
 * 3) A handful of jokes were kinda funny, like "You're the pitcher, I'm the catcher!" in Onward and Upward.
 * 4) Thanks to the series being animated by mh:besttvshows:Carbunkle Cartoons and Big Star Enterprise, the animation is still very detailed and fluid like in the original.
 * 5) Mr. Horse, like in the original show, is a great character, and is probably the only character in the series who was consistently good.
 * 6) *Some of the other characters from the original show also returned such as Mr. and Mrs. Pipe in Altruists and Stinky in a brief cameo in Stimpy's Pregnant.
 * 7) *Depending on your view, Stimpy is a bit likable and is the most tolerable of the main duo.
 * 8) *He says what we've been all thinking about the show: "YOU NEED TO BE LOCKED UP, AWAY FROM DECENT NORMAL PEOPLE! WHAT KIND OF A LUNATIC ARE YOU?! YOU JUST WALK UP TO STRANGERS IN THE STREETS AND TELL THEM 'HEY MISTER, YOU WANNA HEAR SICK STORIES OF MY TWISTED YOUTH??'"
 * 9) A few good scenes:
 * 10) *The flute dance from Fire Dogs 2 was entertaining and the only thing about Adult Party Cartoon that is memorable and passable and it also become the taunt for Ren and Stimpy in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (Although the devs did state that it was unintentional).
 * 11) *The scene in the beginning of Altruists where Ren beats up Stimpy felt pretty close to the old show.
 * 12) *Ren remembering the first time meeting Stimpy was charming, but decent as said in Ren Seeks Help.
 * 13) *"PSYCHOLIGIST? ARE YOU NUTS?! I'M A HOOOOORSE!", and then another slapstick segment of Mr. Horse beating up Ren (he deserved it) for a little bit, which also felt pretty close to the old show.
 * 14) The theme song from the original series is still catchy and makes a comeback.
 * 15) Altruists, while still a bad episode, is arguably the least bad of the show, unless you count the episode mentioned below, as it has a good concept and moral that says that helping the poor is very helpful, but just poorly executed due to many flaws in that episode.
 * 16) There is a good episode found in the show, but only if you count Man's Best Friend.

The Entire Series (Unless Man's Best Friend Counts As An Episode Of This Show)

 * 1) Onward and Upward
 * 2) Ren Seeks Help
 * 3) Fire Dogs 2
 * 4) Naked Beach Frenzy
 * 5) Altruists
 * 6) Stimpy's Pregnant

Cancelled Episodes

 * 1) Life Sucks - Ren explains to Stimpy that life sucks, much to Stimpy's horror. After that, they have an extensive look at life's past tragedies like the Children's Crusade. According to John Kricfalusi himself, this was meant to be a prequel episode to Ren Seeks Help. This is suggesting that this episode was the cause of Ren and Stimpy's argument, as it is never stated in Ren Seeks Help what Ren had done exactly. Production had begun on this episode, with some voice work and roughly a third of the storyboard completed at the time of the show's cancellation. This episode was also originally written for Nickelodeon.
 * 2) The Big Switch - The supposed sequel to Ren Seeks Help, with it beginning with Stimpy no longer being tolerate to Ren's abuse any longer as the two argue over which is better by being an idiot or a "psychotic asshole". They finally settle the argument by making a bet that they can switch roles for a day. The episode's basic premise would somewhat be loosely made into the Games Animation era episode, Who's Stupid Now?.
 * 3) Fishing Trip - Ren & Stimpy go on a fishing trip in search of the elusive foul-mouthed bass. The episode's basic premise is loosely related to the season 3 episode Bass Masters and the unproduced Spümcø episode The Wilderness Adventure.
 * 4) The Wilderness Adventure - George Liquor takes Ren & Stimpy hunting in the deep woods. The episode was originally written for Nickelodeon, but was rejected several times. Michael Pataki was made to reprise his role as George Liquor. The storyboard for the rejected episode, however, were completed all the way back in the 90s, as far as before the show actually started production, as one of the ideas would later used in the Season 2 episode The Great Outdoors. Two small portions of some of the storyboards of this episode had some voice work, sound effects, and music completed and put into part of the episode before the show's cancellation.
 * 5) My Little Ass - A fake commercial that was suppose to be parody the series, My Little Pony. The script for the commercial was written during when Kricfalusi was working on the new episodes for Spike, but it never came to fruition. (Source: John K. Interview - 08/19/03, WGN Radio)
 * 6) Powdered Toastman's Rolling Tobacco - A second fake commercial. The commercial was going to mark the return of Powdered Toastman. The idea for the commercial was conceived, but the commercial itself was never fully produced. (Source: John K. Interview - 08/19/03, WGN Radio)
 * 7) Log for Moms - A third fake commercial. This commercial was possibly going to be about a log specifically targeted to mothers. This commercial was planned, but it was never completed.
 * 8) The Succubus - The plot of this episode was going to be based on some of Kricfalusi's experiences with Robyn Byrd.
 * 9) Untitled Shampoo Master Episode - The character named Shampoo Master first appeared in Naked Beach Frenzy, and Kricfalusi was planning on making an entire episode dedicated to him.
 * 10) Untitled Mike Barrier Episode - An episode about Mike Barrier's own interests and fears that was planned to be made, though it never began production.
 * 11) Untitled Father Episode - Another episode was going to be about the specific tastes and phobias of someone, this time being Kricfalusi's own father. The episode was left unfinished.

Reception
Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" was universally panned by both critics, audiences and longtime Ren and Stimpy fans. It currently sits at 5.5/10 on IMDb. According to Wikipedia, Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" has been listed as one of the worst TV shows of all-time. PhantomStrider despises this cartoon and considers it to be worst. Billy West (Stimpy's voice actor) rejected the series, calling it the worst thing that he has ever seen. Ren Seeks Help is heavy despised by the majority of the fans of the original series.

This show ruined both the reputations of Ren & Stimpy and Kricfalusi, because of the poor reviews that "Adult Party Cartoon" has received, and the reason why Ren & Stimpy didn't come back for their own animated movie to Nickelodeon nor were even set to appear in the canceled Nicktoons movie. Paramount Pictures, one of the subsidiaries of Paramount Global, also rejected a proposed theatrical short for Ren & Stimpy in Spring of 2017, because they refused to let Nickelodeon do anything with the franchise. This show botched Spümcø, the studio who created Ren and Stimpy for Nickelodeon shutting down in 2005, due to Carbunkle Cartoons' lawsuit against Spümcø.

On January 28, 2020, a crowdfunded documentary about the original show and Kricfalusi called Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story, was released at the Sundance Film Festival and was released both theatrically and video-on-demand on August 14, 2020. The documentary has no involvement from Nickelodeon and ViacomCBS, but they were credited in the documentary's end credits under "Special Thanks".

On August 5, 2020, ViacomCBS announced a reboot of Ren & Stimpy produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studios for Comedy Central without the involvement of Kricfalusi; according to Variety, he will not have financial remuneration or creative input from the reboot, due to his allegations in 2018. This caused various fans and people who worked in the original show, including Cheryl Chase, to speak out against the idea (due of Bob Camp not being involved with the reboot), while various animators also disliked the idea of rebooting existing franchises, instead of studios greenlighting their original ideas. One of the two victims of John Kricfalusi, Robyn Byrd, made a petition on Change to urging ViacomCBS cancel the reboot on Comedy Central, as according to her, it would "cause trauma and endanger fans and crew members who worked in the original series". Despite the petition (which failed, mainly for inaccurate information against the reboot that the petition has) and negative reaction to the reboot's announcement, mainly from the animation industry, according to Billy West, the reboot is still happening, but development was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trivia

 * The show was so bad that Billy West, Stimpy's original voice actor (as well as Ren's actor for some of Seasons 2 and Seasons 3-5), refused to work on the show saying that it would ruin his career and he called it one of the worst things that he's ever seen. He later stated in a tweet his reason for not doing the show was he did not want to work with Kricfalusi, but wished all the luck in the world to him in "APC". As a result, he was replaced by Eric Bauza.
 * Because of West's refusal to voice Stimpy again in "Adult Party Cartoon", some people auditioned to voice Stimpy in "APC" before Bauza took over the role as Stimpy. One of these people auditioned to take the role as Stimpy was the late voice actor Joe Alaskey, who came close to Billy West's voice, but his voice was a bit too deep for Stimpy.
 * While this show was hated by Ren and Stimpy fans, old and new, this show, for unknown reasons, had stronger fanbases in Eastern Europe (mostly in Poland).
 * Billy West also predicted the show would get cancelled, and a couple days later the prediction came true.
 * While the last three episodes Naked Beach Frenzy, Altruists, and Stimpy's Pregnant didn't air on American television, it aired in other countries and continents like Latin America (MTV), Brazil (Multishow and VH1), Russia (2x2), Poland (MTV), and Italy (Fox), while in America they were only released in The Lost Episodes DVD in 2006.
 * A petition was made by the now defunct Ren & Stimpy forum, The Members of the Loyal Order of Stupids (aka MOTLOS) in 2003 on the also now defunct petition website, PetitionOnline, in the wake to save "Adult Party Cartoon" for getting cancelled and be renewed for a second season.
 * People who worked on the show such as Richard Pursel stated that they hated working on the show and working with Kricfalusi.
 * The show was originally going to have nine episodes. However, due to similar issues with production at Nickelodeon, only six episodes ended up being produced, with Spike declining to renew the series.
 * All the episodes except Altruists were originally planned to be released as episodes of the original show. This includes the cancelled episodes too.

Videos
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External Notes
TV Trash's review on this show on Dailymotion.