The Complete Ren and Stimpy Scorecard

We're beginning to walk away from my "mini-series" showcasing all the popular Cartoon Network shows from the 2010's. I consider Over the Garden Wall an epilogue to the last scorecards of Season 1 because it gained popular attention towards fans and critics. So yeah, this is the first Nickelodeon scorecard of this season and we're back to normal once again. Anyways...

The Ren & Stimpy Show is a show I didn't like when I was little, despite that I didn't watch any episodes of the show. I didn't like it mainly because of its zany-ness and the two main characters, Ren (especially) and Stimpy. While listening to the theme song and credits over and over again, I had an idea to review the show for Season 2, as the first episode of the season "to be normal from my perspective". When I saw the pilot and first episode, Stimpy's Big Day, I liked the show, but at that time, I thought is was just good...

...but when I saw the series as a whole, I was really astonished by not only a 90s cartoon scoring pretty high, but also its infamous reboot is as good as the original! I can't believe it; this has to be one of those shows where I was the most easy on (because it's early 90s for ya, duh). Judging by the chart, wow! You know why? There's only 5 episodes I didn't like! One of which I didn't recommend at all and unfortunately, it's a bad episode. You thought I didn't like this show because it's Gumball Syndrome? Well, it isn't that type of show with Gumball Syndrome, but it's one of those shows that gave birth to Gumball Syndrome because it influenced shows that borrowed some of the show's aspects, only to mess around with it too much where the writing and characters are mean-spirited, thus Gumball Syndrome is born, being used uncommonly by Nickelodeon and Kids WB at the time, and then Cartoon Network wanted a grip of it, which they've become addicted to the formula that one time, the entire network is nothing but Gumballs. But I digress, there's 10 blessed episodes from the show, with the most common ratings from the show being great and divine. Thanks to Seasons 4 and 5, the great rating has multiplied where it's up there with divine to be the most dominant rating of the show. As for Adult Party Cartoon, I was honestly shocked especially with the ratings and final rating becoming extremely unpopular. The worst one is only good, while the best one is up there with the best episodes of the show overall being supreme. This has become something great I haven't seen in quite a while now.

I'm going to split each section that talks about my thoughts on The Ren & Stimpy Show and Adult Party Cartoon respectively. Without a further or do, we'll analyze how revolutionary The Ren & Stimpy Show is with its writing and how it set new standards for the cartoon industry:

The Ren & Stimpy Show: For the premise, it doesn't look anything promising. It's all about a chihuahua and cat living together and their adventures. Since we're talking about the early 90s, the premise doesn't look bad, so how's the execution. Unlike everything I've seen before for its time. Well, the episodes' premises are pretty simple. Since it's all about adventure and comedy regarding The Ren & Stimpy Show, the writing here absolutely works. For most of the time, the show heavily makes fun of everyday life, whether it would be fishing, camping, getting stranded on an island, addiction to TV, insomnia, guarding, the list keeps going! Not only can this show tell simple yet hilarious concepts very well with its use of satire, but it can also sometimes be ahead of its time (An Abe Divided, Blazing Entrails, Powdered Toast Man vs. Waffle Woman to name a few) that makes it a piece of art of the 90s. It's not because that they feel so original that it automatically makes them good, these episodes can get as hilarious as they get jammed pack with satire, super effective slapstick, unpredictably funny moments and a lot of clever and chuckle-worthy twists. There's also some creative effort in the writing where examples like galoots and lummoxes being like wild animals are genius-enough ideas for a premise for The Ren & Stimpy Show that, while delivering some gross-outs, are executed satirically. What spiffy up the humor some more is the use of adult jokes and no, they aren't as uncomfortable and visible as the ones from Adventure Time's Fiona and Cake, like their format, the humor makes fun of adult jokes. And what about gross-out? What's my thoughts on the gross content you may ask? Well, the gross-outs come out as unpredictable and indeed out-of-place for a children's show, but thanks to the zany animation, it's fairly effective for what it is. Since this is the one that started Gumball Syndrome, few of the episodes can go out as too mean-spirited and sappy where substance is stripped away from the writing. And not all of the episodes are laugh out loud hilarious because few episodes aren't that funny where it makes me bored, but it doesn't affect the overall quality of the writing because the satirical and creative effort helped shape the writing for new unique ideas. This is easily one of the best examples for a show dedicated to satire.

Adult Party Cartoon: Alright, now it's time to talk about the infamous and critically-panned Ren & Stimpy 'Adult Party Cartoon', considered as one of the worst cartoons of all time. For me, I think the writing didn't change a bit, except the adult jokes dominate every single episode and are clearly visible. And you know what? I'm fine with humor like that. Since Adult Party Cartoon is a show aimed towards adults, the jokes some episodes send out really shows that this is an adult cartoon and not a kids show. However, for a reboot based on something like "The Ren & Stimpy Show", the portrayal could've been worse, but I'll talk about that in the characters section, the "worst" aspect according to many reviewers. Now back to the adult jokes, which I can say that it still fits with the show's formats; The reboot continues to make fun of everyday life (moving in with someone, impressing girls at the beach (for some reason it's unpredictable) and dealing with your wife being pregnant), but it doesn't stop there. It takes the edgy humor of the show and actually be creative with it. I think the creativity with the jokes here work better than The Ren & Stimpy Show because I find them more clever than ever. I'm surprised that Adult Party Cartoon can go many directions with adult jokes and turn normal actions into more edgy jokes so that the mature audience and grasp a laugh at that. For example, the infamous log scene where Ren wears shorts with a saw strapped on as he cuts the log in half on Stimpy's back, in my opinion, works because it feels a lot different yet creative. It feels like something adult cartoons could've done with some creativity of its edgy material where it feels thoughtful. How about the gross-ups? Well, they're more fitting for Adult Party Cartoon rather than The Ren & Stimpy Show because again, the reboot is an adult cartoon and I find it forgivable if it makes disgusting jokes. It's probably a way to make the audience laugh and so forth and like what I said, the show crafts creative ideas for adult jokes. But what about the writing itself without the humor? Since the episodes are stretched to last more than 20 minutes, the pacing can be slow, like REALLY slow. It can shove in filler often, probably to dive deeper into what and why is it happening in the episode. Like The Ren & Stimpy Show, it can have some clever twists and unexpected moments from the duo. Since The Ren & Stimpy Show is from the early 90s while Adult Party Cartoon, it did its best not to feel dated for the early 2000s and it turns out it did. Thanks to more creative effort, thoughtful ideas for adult humor and nice twists, there's not much to describe the writing except it fits really well for Adult Party Cartoon's tone/theme. Once again, the portrayal needs some work and the pacing can be slow, but it's still writing I approve.

Adult Party Cartoon's writing isn't as good as The Ren & Stimpy Show's, but it's very good for what it is (great WITHOUT the Ren & Stimpy touch). I have a very bad feeling for your thoughts because I'll get attacked by a lot of Mr. Enter fans for what I said with the writing being good. It's an adult cartoon and it's alright if it has many adult jokes. But since it's rating is M, there can be sexual jokes here and there. As for the animation, the infamous one wins:

The Ren & Stimpy Show: It still lives up to my dreams when I can say that this is the reason why many episodes are divine and over. So this appears to be a type of animation style that references cartoons from the late 50's to 60's. What are you going to expect? Me bashing the animation style specifically because it's dated for its time? Actually, no because the show strives to create its own unique animation style and it works. The animation of the show is what adds to the humor of the show where it's over-the-top in a hilarious way. And now you'd expect me to criticize the character designs for looking ugly and inconsistent. Well, they're used for the humor of the show once again for the exaggerated expressions so that the audience can get a laugh at. And the ugliness of the characters? They're also intended to show how zany and cartoony Kricfalusi's works are and you know what? They're also silly looking as well. It presents anthropomorphic animals in a zany but unique way that makes the animation really fitting and silly looking. When Kricfalusi worked on the show, it made the animation more unique and nostalgic to look at due to the use of paint splatters used over the backgrounds, as well as simplistic backgrounds that are given some depth and value that gives you vibes of the late 50s to early 60s animation. This looks like it's making the old-style animation new again by painting a simplistic background that we can all tell what it is, therefore it isn't ugly looking, as it shaped 90's style of animation. Just like how Adventure Time made its character designs simple yet effective where it shaped the cartoon world of the 2010's. Much of this animation style worked really well for the show that it makes the humor more laughable, but what about the gross-ups? While there are some that can be taken too far, the grotesque-ness is toned down for family viewings. I'm glad that it isn't THAT gross to look at. And the character animation? Well, it's pretty fluid. The characters don't move realistically, but it makes sense because this is a cartoon that isn't real and the animators did have a lot of fun with the character animation. All of these aspects combined together multiplies the quality of the humor where it definitely revolutionized today's standard with nostalgic animation being used to act more unique at its own.

Adult Party Cartoon: I know I may be crazy saying this but the animation, like other shows when they made the move to digital ink and paint, is an upgrade compared to The Ren & Stimpy Show. While the color palettes got darker and the backgrounds lost that nostalgic touch The Ren & Stimpy Show, the character designs and backgrounds (still) translates very well into digital ink and paint. I mean, the style did lose half of its charm, but it did make room for more depth and character animation as well. In Adult Party Cartoon, the characters move a lot fluid compared to The Ren & Stimpy Show's animation, while still having little exaggerated faces in them. As for the backgrounds, they appear to be given more depth as possible where they make them look cartoonish and realistic respectively. The new animation style here doesn't look as low-budget and inferior like what Teen Titans Go! did to Teen Titans' animation but it didn't make the animation as ugly as possible where you had to look away. Combined with very well painted backgrounds, they seem to have some taste of what the 80's animation like with more realistic backgrounds compared to the simple and abstract backgrounds from The Ren & Stimpy Show. I'm happy to see Adult Party Cartoon aim for a different animation style so that the old animation style doesn't look dated for 2003. But, I said that The Ren & Stimpy Show presented a 50's vibe while cracking some unique ideas from it, right? Well, the luster the show's animation style includes is going to feel really dated by 2003, so Carbunkle Cartoons aimed for more realistic backgrounds while keeping that 50's vibe to it and it still manages to work for the 2000's. However, they make the backgrounds too realistic where there can be gross ups everywhere. I think it's used to coincide with the show's edgy tone and how gross it is, which again, they did some creative effort with gross content. And yeah, we still have Kricfalusi's signature animation on the human designs where they look less cartoony than Ren, Stimpy and Mr. Horse themselves. That's where Adult Party Cartoon tries something new with the animation style because back in The Ren & Stimpy Show, the humans are drawn to look like they are a little cartoonish like Ren and Stimpy, but in Adult Party Cartoon, the backgrounds got an upgrade with its details and settings, so the animators went along with Kricfalusi's human designs. They're still as cartoonish as Ren and Stimpy themselves and animates fluidly with the backgrounds and their movements. While the colors are a bit crisp, the animation did its best to capture the charm of the original while presenting new ideas for the show with realistic backgrounds and upgrades on character designs and animation that in all translates well for 2003.

Once again, the upgraded animation always win, but it haves some holes it needs to cover up, yet it solved it by replacing it with something that fits well with the show's theme, therefore it works. Not much to describe the characters, though:

The Ren & Stimpy Show: You all were expecting me to bash on the characters as much as I can due to how Ren is a jerk often and Stimpy is plain naive and dumb. But as for me, there's not much to describe the characters from The Ren & Stimpy Show. Ren's grouchiness is funny this time instead of annoying thanks to their voice acting, which also adds to the humor of the show. While there isn't a lot of major characters, they're pretty interesting characters for what they are, especially when they look like they have a secret upon them. Development, which was missing in most Gumball Syndrome shows, is present in most of The Ren & Stimpy Show episodes, showing Ren and Stimpy's troubles of having no home and trying to adapt to the setting. There are indeed some episodes where either Ren or Stimpy learn from their mistakes of what they've did throughout the episode, but in some cases, it comes out as under-developed. However, since Ren is typically a grouchy chihuahua, he gets his comeuppance at the end. But back to the others characters, which have some sense of depth and are quite funny. Examples of other funny characters from The Ren & Stimpy Show are Powdered Toast Man and Mr. Horse, them of which deliver a fair amount of audio and visual gags together while presenting their personality in a comedic way. So, there's not much to describe the characters, except they're quite funny and well-characterized for what they are. The cruelty makes sense here.

Adult Party Cartoon: Same thing I can describe the characters is that they're quite funny and well-characterized. However in Adult Party Cartoon, it appears that development here is replaced with more depth on the characters. The reboot does give some really interesting backstories/depth on the characters that showed who they are in the show today. Ren Seeks Help is dedicated to Ren's backstory of how he became a psychopath in the first place and WITHOUT Ren, the backstory appears to be told suspenseful and entertaining thanks to the details it tells on Ren and what kind of things he do in Adult Party Cartoon. Ren is the most hated character in Adult Party Cartoon because his grouchiness is taken to a new level where it shows that he's a psychopath wanting to kill innocent creatures. However, he does have some sense of dynamics where he did change throughout the episode showing his jealous side (derived from The Ren & Stimpy Show) and he did reflect on the wrongs he did in the past (Ren Seeks Help). And by his psychopathic side, it can be shown in Sven Hoek where he threatens Stimpy and Sven so it can be shown in the original nevertheless. So, he has a sense of development and he does have moments here and there in Adult Party Cartoon when he does care about Stimpy and other characters from the reboot like the beach girls from Naked Beach Frenzy and the poor lady and her handicapped son from Altruists. As an example, it can show that characters are able to develop in Adult Party Cartoon when they can reflect on what they've done before and heck, Ren can get karma for what he done. Ren Seeks Help may show that he desires to show animal abuse to the audience, but in other times he can care about other people as well. But as good as when I brought up those points, there's something absolutely wrong regarding the character from Adult Party Cartoon. Remember what I said about the characters having development? Well, they don't develop well as they used to back in The Ren & Stimpy Show. It just feels like the writers want to dive deeper into these characters' lives as possible so that we could learn more about them, but development is what makes us like characters. The reboot lacking any sense of development weakens the characters more. Also, I think the portrayal of these characters could've been worse because I feel like Adult Party Cartoon isn't a good fit for Ren & Stimpy. Well yeah, the characters aren't flanderized to the max, but the episodes don't treat them well as they used to. I think Adult Party Cartoon should be about someone else like George Liquor or Jimmy the Idiot Boy, but it's not saying much. Also, Ren and Stimpy are visually shown as gay couples here, but they can be specified as gay back in The Ren & Stimpy Show where they lived with both each other. Remember when Ren kissed Stimpy in the pilot, Big House Blues? Well, that's just a deleted scene so nevermind. Even though Adult Party Cartoon fails to give respect to the characters, at least they have some redeemable qualities like fair amounts of development, flanderization not taken too far (it's a different story for Ren Seeks Help) and some of the best backstories and depth I've seen in a while.

When Nickelodeon started, this, in my opinion, is one of their best Nicktoons. One of the most revolutionary cartoons I’ve seen has to be this one that brings everything to a whole new level for cartoons that gifts us clever writing that takes advantage of the premise, non-stop silliness and hilarity ensued, Kricfalusi’s signature animation that adds to the humor of the show and funny and likeable characters. Adult Party Cartoon isn't far behind since it did tried to keep the show's charm with creative effort targeted on the humor, upgraded animation that still keeps a taste of the 50's and a lot of depth fed into the characters. If you want to watch a comedic cartoon, I highly recommend this cartoon with its magnificent use of satire and comedy where I can find a joke in an episode here and there. Thought I would rate this show meh like the other Gumball Syndrome shows? Nope, it's divine (82%). What about Adult Party Cartoon? I, honestly, was really shocked that the reboot would reach an 81% in the cartoon ruler. Both shows did something for its time and that's to revolutionize cartoons into what they are today. The Ren & Stimpy Show is the starting point of Nickelodeon's success, along with Rugrats, as it gets love from other shows like every Gumball Syndrome show, Rocko's Modern Life, SpongeBob SquarePants, etc. It is truly a marvel for the cartoon world that made my past self wrong about the show overall.