| John Kricfalusi | |
|---|---|
Kricfalusi at the Castro Theatre in July 2006 |
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| Born | Michael John Kricfalusi September 9, 1955 Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Other names | Raymond Spum John K. |
| Occupation | Animator, voice actor |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Notable works | The Ren & Stimpy Show, The Goddamn George Liquor Program, Weekend Pussy Hunt, The Ripping Friends, Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" |
| Influenced by | See below |
| Website | |
| johnkstuff.blogspot.com | |
Michael John Kricfalusi (pronounced Kris-falusi), better known as John K., is a Canadian animator. He is creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, its adults-only spin-off Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", The Ripping Friends animated series, and Weekend Pussy Hunt, which was billed as "the world's first interactive web-based cartoon", as well as the founder of animation studio Spümcø.
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Born in Canada, John Kricfalusi spent his early childhood in Germany and Belgium as a military brat, his father serving in the air force. At age seven he returned with his family to Canada. Having moved in the middle of a school season, he spent much of his time that year at home, watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons and drawing them. Kricfalusi's interest in Golden Age animation crystallized during his stay at Sheridan College, where an acquaintance of his held weekly screenings of old films and cartoons, among them the cartoons of Bob Clampett and Tex Avery, which left a deep impression on Kricfalusi. He soon left Sheridan College and moved to Los Angeles, intending to become an animator.[1][2][3][4]
After moving to Los Angeles, Kricfalusi was introduced to Milt Gray by Bob Clampett, suggesting he should join Gray's classical animation class. Gray was working for Filmation at the time, and soon Kricfalusi found work there as well.[5] His first independent cartoon was a short called Ted Bakes One, which he produced with Bill Wray in 1979 for a cable channel.[3] From 1979 to the mid 1980s, Kricfalusi worked for Filmation and later Hanna-Barbera on various shows which he once described as "the worst animation of all time."[4][6] He recalls being "saved" from having to work on these cartoons by director Ralph Bakshi, who'd worked with him before in 1981 and 1982.[7][8] They began working on the designs for the film Bobby's Girl, which was sold to Tri-Star but later cancelled.[8][9][10] Under Bakshi, Kricfalusi directed the animation for The Rolling Stones' 1986 music video "Harlem Shuffle".
The team's most successful project was Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures for CBS, based on the classic Terrytoons character. The series was well-received, and it is considered the forerunner of creator-driven cartoons.[11][12] Kricfalusi directed eight of the twenty-six episodes and supervised the series.[13] At the beginning of the second season, Kricfalusi and Bakshi had a falling out, prompting Kricfalusi to leave the show. The production of Mighty Mouse was very different from other cartoons at the time, gaining creative and artistic leeway thanks to the success of the irreverent Pee-wee's Playhouse on CBS a year before. The animators had much more creative input, driven by Kricfalusi's production system that emphasizes artistic contribution in every step of the process, from outline to storyboard to layout to the animation.[14]
Mighty Mouse was eventually canceled after it experienced some controversy for allegedly depicting the main character snorting cocaine. Ralph Bakshi maintained that neither he nor Kricfalusi had the character sniffing cocaine, and that the character was sniffing the crushed petals of a flower, which were handed to him in a previous scene in the cartoon.[15][16][17]
Kricfalusi left Bakshi's studio to work on The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil for ABC, where he teamed up with many of the people who would later work with him on The Ren & Stimpy Show.[18] ABC had been negotiating for the production of the show with the Clampett family, who insisted that Kricfalusi would be part of the production. The long negotiations delayed the start of production to mid-July, causing much of the animation to be rushed in order to meet the September deadline. Tensions rose between Kricfalusi and ABC over the tone of the show, leading to an uncomfortable atmosphere for the show's crew. The more ABC strove to soften the show, the more Kricfalusi pushed for shocking and offensive material. The Clampett family were ultimately not very happy with the cartoon, but remained supportive of Kricfalusi.[14] ABC cancelled the show after six episodes, finding the humor not suitable for children's programming.[4]
Kricfalusi formed Spümcø animation studio with partners Jim Smith, Bob Camp and Lynne Naylor.[19] They began working on a pilot for The Ren & Stimpy Show on behalf of Nickelodeon, after the eponymous characters were favored by Nickelodeon producer Vanessa Coffey in a presentation by Kricfalusi. The pilot was very well-received, leading to the production of the first 13 half-hour episodes of the show.[20] The show came to garner high ratings for Nickelodeon,[1][19][21] but the network disagreed with Kricfalusi's direction of the show, and disapproved of his missed production deadlines.[22] Kricfalusi points specifically to the episode "Man's Best Friend", which features a violent climax where Ren brutally assaults the character George Liquor with an oar, as being the turning point in his relationship with Nickelodeon.[23] One of the episodes, "Nurse Stimpy", did not meet Kricfalusi's approval, leading him to use the alias Raymond Spum in its credits.[6][24] Nickelodeon fired Kricfalusi from production of the series in late September 1992, leaving it in the hands of Nickelodeon's Games Animation studio, which continued producing it for three more seasons before its cancellation.[25]
Kricfalusi and many other Spümcø animators worked for Donovan Cook's 2 Stupid Dogs during this period as well. Kricfalusi, according to the cartoon's credits, supplied "tidbits of poor taste" for the three "Little Red Riding Hood" episodes: "Red!", "The Return of Red" and "Red Strikes Back".
Music videos, web-cartoons, Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and The Ripping Friends
From 1993 to 1994, Kricfalusi contributed several articles for the magazines Film Threat and Wild Cartoon Kingdom under various aliases.[26][27] During 1995 and 1996, he directed singer Björk's animated music video for the song I Miss You,[28][29] and created Weekend Pussy Hunt for MSN, which was billed as "the world's first interactive web-based cartoon." Production under MSN stopped before the cartoon was finished, and later resumed under Icebox.com, after the release of Spümcø's own web-based Flash cartoon, The Goddamn George Liquor Program.[30][31][32] Between 1998 and 2001 he directed and animated several Hanna-Barbera cartoons for Cartoon Network: three Yogi Bear cartoons, Boo Boo and the Man, A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith and Boo Boo Runs Wild, and two Jetsons cartoons, Father & Son Day and The Best Son.[6] In 2001, Tenacious D released a music video for the song Fuck Her Gently, produced by Kricfalusi.[33] From 2001 to 2002, FOX Kids aired the TV series The Ripping Friends, created by Kricfalusi and Jim Smith. Kricfalusi felt the show's supervisors were doing away with the Spümcø style, and was displeased with the direction of the show.[34]
In 2003, Spike TV produced a new show featuring Ren & Stimpy, which was written and directed by Kricfalusi. The first three episodes were based on fan ideas and scripts that were rejected by Nickelodeon during the original show's run.[7] According to Kricfalusi, Spike pushed for more South Park-like themes in the new show. He criticized the new show for its overuse of toilet humour and its slow pacing.[35][36][37] Only three episodes aired on Spike before the show was cancelled in 2004, and the complete series was ultimately released on DVD in 2006, which includes three additional episodes that never aired.
Cartoon commentaries, music videos, George Liquor and Spümcø and the Art of John K.
Kricfalusi appears in several bonus featurettes and provides audio commentaries for the Looney Tunes Golden Collection volumes 2, 3 and 5,[38][39][40] for cartoons directed by Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones. On February 13, 2006, Kricfalusi started his own weblog, John K Stuff, posting about cartoons and the animation industry. The site was originally intended for other artists and entertainers, and specifically other cartoonists.[41] That year, Kricfalusi directed two music videos, and served as art director for an animated musical segment. The first music video, for Close but No Cigar by "Weird Al" Yankovic, was released in September, on the DVD side of the DualDisc album Straight Outta Lynwood, which features Kricfalusi's character Cigarettes the Cat.[42][43] The second music video was for Classico by Tenacious D, starring the band members as cartoon characters. He animated them again in a THX logo parody for the band's feature film, The Pick of Destiny.[44][45][46] Kricfalusi served as art director for a musical segment in the show Class of 3000 entitled Life Without Music, which first aired on November 3, 2006.[47] In 2008, Kricfalusi was developing a series of cartoon commercials for Pontiac Vibe starring George Liquor and Jimmy The Idiot Boy.[48] The series remained unreleased after General Motors discontinued the Pontiac Vibe auto line in 2009.[49][50] Kricfalusi developed and animated a bumper using Toon Boom Harmony for Adult Swim in early 2011.[51] In October 2011, Kricfalusi animated the opening couch gag on the episode "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts" of The Simpsons. He also continues to update his blog with his theories on cartooning.
An art book, Spümcø and the Art of John K., was scheduled to be published in "spring 2011" by Abrams ComicArts.[52]
Kricfalusi says he is mostly self-taught, having only spent a year in Sheridan College, barely attending class. He acquired his skills largely by copying cartoons from newspapers and comic books as a child, and by studying cartoons and their production systems from the 1940s and 1950s.[1][2][3][4] His main influence is Bob Clampett,[14] and he also names Chuck Jones, Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas,[53][54] Milt Gross, Tex Avery, Peter Lorre, The Three Stooges, Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Elvis Presley, Don Martin and Robert Ryan.[55] Michael Barrier, an animation historian, said that Kricfalusi's works "testify to his intense admiration for Bob Clampett's Warner Bros. cartoons" and that no cartoonist since Clampett created cartoons in which the emotions of the characters "distort their bodies so powerfully."[56]
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