The Sundance Institute has announced that the 2020 Sundance Film Festival will host the world premiere of
Happy Happy Joy Joy - The Ren & Stimpy Story, a brand new documentary exploring the rise and fall of the groundbreaking animated series
The Ren & Stimpy Show and its controversial creator, John Kricfalusi - whose abusive relationship with an underage woman destroyed his once-celebrated career - through archival footage, show artwork and interviews with the artists, actors and executives behind the show.
Update (1/18/2020) - Deadline has released a sneak peek from the documentary, which you can watch on
Deadline.com.
โItโs wild and disturbing,โ said Sundance director John Cooper. โItโs not trying to make the show separate from the creator. Thatโs what we hoped to see in it.โ
From production industry veterans Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood,
Happy Happy Joy Joy - The Ren & Stimpy Story is a
crowdfunded documentary that has been in development for a couple of years, before Ralph Bakshi acolyte Kricfalusi's highly inappropriate behavior came to light. When the docu was first pitched, it was set to "delve deep into the world of Ren the rage-fueled chihuahua and Stimpy the simpleton cat. The filmmakersโ goal is to show that the creativity that fueled the animated series is akin to the intrepid genius and controversial merit of Banksy and Warhol."
Happy Happy Joy Joy - The Ren & Stimpy Story is produced by Ron Cicero, and features the cast of: John Kricfalusi, Robyn Byrd, Vanessa Coffey, Chris Reccardi, Richard Pursel, and Bobby Lee.
Ren & Stimpy premiered on August 11, 1991 as one of the original Nicktoons, alongside
Rugrats and
Doug, and followed the chaotic adventures of a psychotic Chihuahua (Marland โRenโ T. Hรถek) and dimwitted Cat (Stimpson โStimpyโ J. Cat). The series ran on Nickelodeon for 5 seasons and spawned the spin-off
Ren & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon in 2003.
The 2020 Sundance Film Festival takes place between Jan 23 - Feb 2, 2020 in Park City, Utah. For more information, visit:
https://www.sundance.org.
From
sundance.org:
Happy Happy Joy Joy - The Ren & Stimpy StoryIn the early 1990s, the animated show Ren & Stimpy broke cable ratings records and was a touchstone for a generation of fans and artists. Creator John Kricfalusi was celebrated as a visionary, but even though his personality suffused the show, dozens of artists and network executives were just as responsible for the showโs meteoric rise. As Kricfalusiโs worst impulses were let loose at the workplace and new allegations about even more disturbing behavior have surfaced, his reputation now threatens to taint the show forever.
With clips recognizable to any Ren & Stimpy fan and interviews with Kricfalusi and his fellow creators whose work has been both elevated and denigrated by their connection to him, this film is a complex look at a show that influenced the history of television, animation, and comedy. More than a celebration, Happy Happy Joy Joy - The Ren & Stimpy Story forces us to consider the role of media creators and how we reckon with the reality of who they are versus what we see on the screen.
YEAR: 2019
CATEGORY: Documentary Premieres
COUNTRY: U.S.A.
RUN TIME: 104 min
COMPANY: INVADER
WEBSITE
https://getinvader.comEMAIL reception@getinvader.com
PHONE (323) 601-5939
Credits
Directors
Ron Cicero
Kimo Easterwood
Screenwriters
Ron Cicero
Kimo Easterwood
Produced By
Ron Cicero
Director Of Photography
Kimo Easterwood
Editors
Sean Jarrett
Christina Burchard
Kevin Klauber
Kimo Easterwood
Ron Cicero
Executive Producer
Ron Cicero
Co-Executive Producers
Peter Wade
Ryk Maverick
Casey Dobson
Jason Anders
Story Consultant
Christina Burchard
Title Design
Simon Clowes
Colorist
Gabe Sanchez
Sound Editor
Patrick Cicero
Sound Mixer
Tom Efinger
Principal Cast
John Kricfalusi
Robyn Byrd
Vanessa Coffey
Chris Reccardi
Richard Pursel
Bobby Lee
Related Media
-
Official Website-
Twitter / @RenandStimpyDoc-
Official Facebook PageArtist Bios
Ron Cicero
Throughout his 15-year producing career, Ron Cicero has produced a long list of commercials, branded shorts, and experiential installations. He has partnered with industry-leading creatives including Judd Apatow, Aaron Ruell, and Jesse Moss, as well as experience company Magnopus, led by Academy Awardโwinners Ben Grossmann and Alex Henning. This is Cicero's first feature documentary as a producer and director.
Kimo Easterwood
Kimo Easterwood started his career as a tour photographer counting Chris Rock, Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera, Usher, and ZZ Top among his clients. Since 2015, Easterwood has filmed content for a variety of Fortune 500 brands. His fine art has been featured in galleries in New York and LA. This is Easterwood's first feature as a director.
###
From
Deadline:
โHappy Happy Joy Joyโ Clip: First Look At โRen & Stimpyโ Documentary Headed To SundanceEXCLUSIVE: How to describe The Ren & Stimpy Show, that bizarre, you-had-to-be-there โ90s animated series that carved a niche for itself on the kid-friendly Nickelodeon channel without being all that kid-friendly itself? (Well, depending on what kind of kid you wereโฆ)
In this exclusive clip from the upcoming Sundance Film Festival documentary Happy Happy Joy Joy, comics (including Bobby Lee) and fans try to describe the outrageous, grotesque and very funny series in one sentence. One or two come close.
Premiering at this monthโs Sundance as part of the Documentary Premieres section, Happy Happy Joy Joy (a catchphrase from the series) is co-directed by Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood, who set themselves the task of illuminating โthe joy, beauty, and lasting impact of Ren & Stimpyโ while also examining the cartoonโs creator John Kricfalusi, a man described as a brilliant animator and storyteller as well as a deeply flawed person. Press materials for the documentary say Kricfalusi โboth caused and experienced trauma that deeply affected his work and relationships.โ
Through archival footage, show artwork, and interviews with the artists, actors, and executives behind the show, Happy Happy Joy Joy explores what happens when โartistic genius goes awry.โ
Written and directed by Cicero and Easterwood, Happy Happy Joy Joy is exec produced by Cicero, with Easterwood as director of photography. Kevin Klauber produces.
The doc will have its press and industry screening January 24 at the Park Avenue Theatre before its world premiere Tuesday, January 28 at the Library Center Theatre.
Check out the exclusive clip [on
Deadline.com].
###
From
io9:
Happy Happy, Joy Joy - The Ren and Stimpy StoryDespite what the title suggests, this documentary about the cult Nickelodeon show isnโt all positive. It goes through the history of the show but will focus heavily on recent accusations of underage sexual abuse by its creator John Kricfalusi.
###
From
TheWrap:
โHappy Happy Joy Joyโ Film Review: โRen & Stimpyโ Doc Celebrates Animation But Shies Away From Darker SubjectsSundance 2020: Sexual misconduct accusations against creator John Kricfalusi have forever tainted the legacy of this cult series, but the movie avoids that topic as much as possibleDonโt be fooled by the title: โHappy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Storyโ may be the story of โRen & Stimpy,โ but itโs not a happy, happy story documentary, nor does it evoke joy or joy.
Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwoodโs film about the smash hit Nickelodeon animated series and its many artists, and series creator John Kricfalusi in particular, features interesting behind-the-scenes stories but pads the running time with redundancies. Worse, it never adequately engages with the most horrifying elements of this tale.
To watch cartoons in the early 1990s was to watch โRen & Stimpy,โ a trailblazing series about an emotionally abusive chihuahua named Ren, a good-natured doormat of a cat named Stimpy, and their gross, non-sensical, censorship-defying adventures. โRen & Stimpyโ was a critical and commercial success, crass in its subject matter but beautiful in its execution. It smashed expectations of TV animation, which had hitherto been relatively low on American networks. Plus, it was really, really, really gross.
Itโs nothing short of amazing that a show like โRen & Stimpyโ โ a series for little kids with episodes about pectoral replacement surgery and weepy relationships with anthropomorphic farts โ got made at all. Thatโs the story that โHappy Happy Joy Joyโ is happiest-happiest and most joyful-joyful to tell. For a long time, itโs a plucky, can-do story about a group of ambitious young artists who united under Kricfalusi to produce unique animation. A rags to riches story. A story of rock stars.
And, like any rock star biopic, the animators at Spรผmcรธ, Inc. were destined for a fall. Kricfalusiโs passion for animation, wild pitching style and extreme perfectionism, celebrated at the beginning of his career, led to abusive relationships with his employees and antagonistic relationships with Nickelodeon. He wasnโt the only artist to let his ego undermine his career but, as one of โHappy Happy Joy Joyโsโ many interview subjects sums it up: โNobody else worked harder to fโk it up than this guy.โ
For nearly 90 minutes, โHappy Happy Joy Joyโ is a sentimental look back at the history and significance of โRen & Stimpy.โ Cicero and Easterwood lay out the events that transpired and, just as importantly, the artistic innovations that โRen & Stimpyโ either pioneered or reimagined. Various scenes from multiple episodes are broken down in some riveting analyses of the craft, displaying how the animation geniuses at Spรผmcรธ, Inc. used elastic, off-model characterizations and extreme expressionistic storytelling to shock and engage the audience at the same time.
Unfortunately, not every aspect of โThe Ren & Stimpy Storyโ is equally enthralling, and โHappy Happy Joy Joyโ frequently resorts to sequences of multiple interview subjects saying basically the same thing, or sharing anecdotes that are redundant or go nowhere. Spรผmcรธ co-founder Lynne Naylor has one story about pickles that just gradually peters off into non-existence, which is somewhat whimsical but wholly off-topic.
Whatโs more frustrating is โHappy Happy Joy Joyโsโ tendency to break from its narrative flow and occasionally just cut to more talking heads so they can rave about how great โRen & Stimpyโ was. Thatโs all well and good, but sheesh, weโre an hour into the movie and weโre all on the same page by now. The time has long since come to move on.
And the time to address the disturbing elephant in the room has long since passed by the time โHappy Happy Joy Joyโ finally gets to John Kricfalusiโs disturbing relationship with an underage, aspiring animator. Ordinarily a development so incredibly shocking would be front-and-center in a documentary like this, but โ perhaps in an effort to primarily focus on the โRen & Stimpyโ parts โ the filmmakers havenโt just buried the lede, theyโve practically hidden the headstone.
Itโs not that โHappy Happy Joy Joyโ completely ignores the story; Robyn Byrd appears halfway through the documentary to talk about writing fan mail about the series, and the filmmakers pointedly leave in a candid moment where Kricfalusi lewdly licks his lips and makes uncomfortable remarks about the woman doing his makeup before an interview. But these foreshadowings donโt build organically to the filmโs conclusion, nor does the film spend nearly enough time discussing how the history of โRen & Stimpyโ has been forever tainted by the actions of its credited creator.
In its final 15 minutes, at least, โHappy Happy Joy Joyโ does ask some serious and significant questions about the cartoonโs legacy. Can a show with so many twisted, tasteless jokes still be enjoyed now that we know what we now know about John Kricfalusi? Robyn Byrd has a thoughtful answer, but the discussion probably demands a little more screen time than is given to Jack Black to talk about how neat โRen & Stimpyโ was when it first came out.
And since โHappy Happy Joy Joyโ includes new interview footage with Kricfalusi, the filmmakers do confront him directly about his life, an opportunity he uses predominantly to excuse himself. The film concludes with a bizarre moment from the animator as he completely plays down the most disturbing parts of his life. Itโs odd to give Kricfalusi the last word, and what he does with the opportunity is most unpleasant.
Cicero and Easterwoodโs film plays a lot like a loving ode to a beloved childrenโs series that got hijacked all of a sudden by harsh reality, and it doesnโt handle the transition well. For โRen & Stimpyโ fans, the documentary has an enormous amount of value, taking us behind the scenes of a fascinating chapter in animation history. But for documentary fans, itโs a haphazardly paced and awkwardly structured film that struggles to organically incorporate each facet of the tragic โRen & Stimpyโ story, ultimately giving too short a shrift to the greatest tragedy of all.
###
From
The Hollywood Reporter:
'Happy Happy Joy Joy โ the Ren & Stimpy Story': Film Review | Sundance 2020THE BOTTOM LINE
A cliched portrait of difficult genius undermines a layered portrait of a classic TV show. TWITTER
Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood's documentary covers the rise and fall of 'The Ren & Stimpy Show' and of creator John Kricfalusi.
Happy Happy Joy Joy โ the Ren & Stimpy Story, a documentary premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, has a John Kricfalusi problem.
Based on watching Happy Happy Joy Joy โ the Ren & Stimpy Story, "having a John Kricfalusi problem" seems to have been a common affliction for those working on and associated with the iconic animated series The Ren & Stimpy Show.
Happy Happy Joy Joy follows Kricfalusi and the supernova that was Ren & Stimpy, which arrived at a moment when animation had become a soulless, mechanized process driven by selling toys and not artistic considerations. Kricfalusi, as the story goes, somehow convinced Nickelodeon to bankroll an unconventional comedy about a sociopathic dog, an amiably addled cat and their adventures that veered into the grotesque, scatological and absurd. Kricfalusi restored an auteurist stamp to animation and, surrounded by a remarkable and demented team of artists, became a short-lived sensation before he was forced to abandon his creation and retreat into eccentric obscurity. Or that's the basic story.
As depicted by directors Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood, Kricfalusi was a troubled genius of the sort movies and television have been glorifying for decades. He was brilliant and unconventional and wildly ahead of his time, influential and uncontainable. He was also self-destructive and the reason we have so few episodes of Ren & Stimpy is because of his inability and his refusal to work within the system that brought him fame and to treat the employees who facilitated that fame properly. His is a tragic story, but one in which the victims were primarily viewers denied more greatness and Kricfalusi for his self-inflicted wounds.
If you believe that's the end of the conversation and if you love Ren & Stimpy, chances are good that you'll love Happy Happy Joy Joy. Cicero and Easterwood place Kricfalusi front-and-center and they have assembled an assortment of Kricfalusi's Ren & Stimpy collaborators that borders on all-encompassing. From background artists to character animators to some of the biggest names in the show's lore, including early partners like Bob Camp and Lynne Naylor, Nickelodeon's Vanessa Coffey and even the late Chris Reccardi, who died last year.
The insight into what made Ren & Stimpy unique is exceptional, delving into Kricfalusi's untrained vocal work, those ultra-disgusting cutaway close-ups and several specific episodes, like the notoriously banned "Man's Best Friend," which Kricfalusi links closely to his troubled relationship with his father.
Whether or not it's true, Happy Happy Joy Joy feels like it was deep into production when a 2018 Buzzfeed article accused Kricfalusi of befriending a 13-year-old Robyn Byrd, whom he groomed in sexual terms and moved into his apartment when she was only 16 โ a "relationship" that continued with an undercurrent of psychological abuse and left Byrd with shattered confidence and unable to find employment in Hollywood. All signs point to Byrd as having not been the only underage girl in Kricfalusi's sphere and, both in the Buzzfeed article and today, Kricfalusi doesn't deny the generalities of the situation, only Byrd's darkest interpretations. So this part is not an allegation.
Cicero and Easterwood have no idea how to handle the information in that Buzzfeed story, even with Byrd as a candid, but not too candid, talking head in the documentary. As presented here, the "relationship" was almost a symptom of years of struggles after he was booted from Ren & Stimpy and not a part of a long-running pattern of behavior. Byrd's revelations aren't mentioned until nearly 90 minutes into the film and that's even after she was introduced as a 13-year-old fan sending letters to the series' creator. The directors gently push Kricfalusi for an unspecified apology, which he begrudgingly gives as part of a creepy plea for Byrd to contact him, positioning the entire situation as something unsavory and less-than-kosher, but far from borderline criminal. Make no mistake: Byrd's Buzzfeed allegations are borderline criminal. From there, the documentary barely gets into additional accusations from the Buzzfeed article of similarly groomed young women, as well as long-running workplace harassment and more.
Kricfalusi denied many of the charges in the Buzzfeed article and doesn't appear to have been asked to repeat those denials here, but it's hard to stomach how his workplace "crimes" are presented as nothing worse than intense, childish and hyperactive behavior and how sanitized the documentary is up until Byrd's on-camera accusations. And it's unsettling how the several celebrities who appear on camera lauding Ren & Stimpy โ Iliza Shlesinger, Bobby Lee, Jack Black โ are allowed to give their praise for the series and none of them can give even an "Eww" to any behind-the-scenes stories. I almost want footnotes to say which interviews were conducted before the Buzzfeed story broke and which were conducted after, who had incentive to reckon with the totality of the story and who talked when it was a generally less complicated story โ because a lot of the shrugging about "Boys will be boys!" rambunctiousness at Kricfalusi's Spumco Studio plays mighty differently with this not insignificant context, context the filmmakers withhold until far later.
As Byrd says of Kricfalusi โ and the bad-boy genius myth โ point-blank, "It's not necessary for someone to be like that to create great art."
That should probably be the last word in this documentary. Probably it should be the first word as well. Naturally, it's not. Kricfalusi has to get the last word.
Even having read the Buzzfeed story two years ago, I spent the first hour of Happy Happy Joy Joy guiltily feeling like I needed a rewatch of Ren & Stimpy โ it's an important series and there's no pretending otherwise โ and the next 35 minutes feeling dirty about the whole thing and the last 10 minutes getting actively angry about how the entire story had been framed and reduced to "difficult genius" cliches.
Production company: Invader
Directors: Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood
Producer: Ron Cicero
Cinematographer: Kimo Easterwood
Editors: Sean Jarrett, Christina Burchard, Kevin Klauber, Kimo Easterwood, Ron Cicero
Venue: Sundance Film Festival (Documentary Premieres)
107 minutes
###
From the
New York Post:
The chilling dark secrets behind โThe Ren & Stimpy ShowโThe show was a revolution, ending more than a decade of TV cartoon stagnation and inspiring the next generation of animators. But behind the scenes, the staff of Nickelodeonโs โThe Ren & Stimpy Showโ were feeling anything but โHappy Happy Joy Joy.โ
A new documentary called โHappy Happy Joy Joy โ The Ren & Stimpy Story,โ which premiered Friday at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, reveals the culture of anger and fear at the new-defunct Spumco studios, led by the showโs fiery genius and scandal-plagued creator John Kricfalusi.
โHe had this sort of rockstar status,โ an animator says of Kricfalusi in the fascinating, if occasionally long-winded doc. Adds another: โThe whole thing is tragic. It really is like a Shakespearean play.โ
Animation was in a sorry state in the late 1980 and โ90s, and shows were being churned out that were cheaply made and more concerned with selling toys โ โMy Little Pony,โ โStrawberry Shortcakeโ โ than artistry. During this time, Kricfalusi, a true believer in the classic styles of Hanna-Barbera and Looney Tunes, was enthusiastically shopping around ideas to major studios.
In the memorable pitch sessions, Kricfalusi would do full character voices and exaggerated, highly physical gestures. โHis glasses hit somebody in the head once,โ a colleague recalls. But his non-conforming, subversive story ideas left execs feeling uncomfortable, and the animator says he was escorted out by a security guard at least once.
And then came Nickelodeon. In 1991, the kids network that had been reliant on foreign cartoons for more than a decade, wanted to branch out into original animated programming to be called Nicktoons.
Vanessa Coffey, a then-producer at Nickelodeon, wasnโt the usual TV exec. She was interested in weird, out-of-the-box notions, like those of Kricfalusi. He pitched her a show called โYour Gang,โ but she was enamored by just two of his creations, Ren, an irate dog, and Stimpy, a stupid cat.
And thus โThe Ren & Stimpy Showโ was born.
Kricfalusi and his talented animator friends who had formed Spumco, Inc. in 1988 were tasked with delivering six episodes of the risky new program that consistently bordered on inappropriate. As dramatic as the documentary can be at times, it also admiringly delves into the off-the-charts creativity on display during that period. Bill Wray was painting museum-worthy backgrounds, and cartoon characters meant for kids were being modeled after Kirk Douglas (Ren) and Larry Fine from โThe Three Stooges.โ This was just not done.
When it premiered, โThe Ren & Stimpy Showโ became a major hit with critics and audiences alike. But despite the showโs boffo success โ scoring a 4.0 (2.5 million viewers) in the ratings by episode 4 โ Kricfalusiโs temper was on the rise.
The creator was known to furiously rip up his employeesโ drawings, and to lock himself in his office for hours redoing already finished work.
โIf they toned it down,โ Kricfalusi says in the doc, โtheyโd get what people called โa beating.โโ
One worker went further in the film, saying he was โa Hitler type.โ
The manโs obsession with quality and pushing the envelope of censorship led to months-long delays and going hundreds of thousands of dollars over budget.
When he finally delivered the first episode of Season 2, a violent story called โManโs Best Friend,โ Coffey was appalled and rejected it. โHe said that I โcould go fโk myselfโ, he wouldnโt take notes anymore, that he made the network and that he was the star,โ Coffey says in the doc.
Kricfalusi, who also was the voice of Ren, was fired after Season 2, and the show plummeted in many criticsโ estimations. It was cancelled in 1995.
The creator never found the same success again, but in the ensuing years found himself in a #MeToo scandal. Director Ron Ciceroโs film appropriately switches to a deeply serious tone.
In 2018, a Buzzfeed article revealed that in 1997 when Kricfalusi was 42, he started a sexual relationship with Robyn Byrd, a 16-year-old girl, and then later Katie Rice, another teen. Byrd says in the doc that she was a fan of โRen & Stimpy,โ and wrote a letter to Kricfalusi when she was just 14.
โI was falling in love with her letters,โ Kricfalusi says in the doc. โShe was too young. I freely admit that. But she was so convincing.โ
Byrd interned with Kricfalusi, moved in with him and began a sexual relationship.
โI was isolated from everyone I know,โ she says in the film, adding that her โentire adolescence from 14 to 21โ was controlled by Kricfalusi.
Coffey says that when she read the article, she was deeply disturbed.
โIt hurt that he used โRen & Stimpyโ that way,โ she says through tears in the doc.
Kricfalusi claims he didnโt realize the emotional havoc heโd wrought. โ[I] felt like the lowest creature on earth,โ he says of reading the story.
Today, while Byrd says she does not want fans of โThe Ren & Stimpy Showโ to abandon a cherished childhood memory, hers are forever scarred.
โI still have nightmares about him,โ she says.
###
From
Collider:
โHappy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Storyโ Review: Never Meet Your HeroesHappy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story tells of the sudden rise and spectacular fall of one of the most influential animated series in television history. This story is about a group of ragtag artists who, through talent and dedication, brought to life two of the most beloved characters of all timeโRen & Stimpyโbut itโs also balanced by a cautionary tale about the artistic genius of the seriesโ creator. The controversial John Kricfalusi, who both caused and experienced trauma that deeply affected his work and relationships, is as much a part of Ren & Stimpyโs overnight success as its sudden and disastrous decline.
Through archival footage, incredible artwork from the show, and deeply personal interviews with the artists, actors, and executives behind the scenes, this in-depth documentary from co-directors Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood (who successfully crowd-funded the project) manages to be both balanced and earnest. The documentary artfully illuminates the joy, beauty, and lasting impact of Ren & Stimpy, as well as the dual sides of the showโs creator, a man who is both a brilliant animator and storyteller as well as a deeply flawed person. Happy Happy Joy Joy makes its Sundance premiere on Tuesday, January 28th, but our early review follows below.
Be sure to head to the docโs IndieGoGo page (linked above) to check out some clips, and read along with the official synopsis below for a bit of background:
In the early 1990s, the animated show Ren & Stimpy broke cable ratings records and was a touchstone for a generation of fans and artists. Creator John Kricfalusi was celebrated as a visionary, but even though his personality suffused the show, dozens of artists and network executives were just as responsible for the showโs meteoric rise. As Kricfalusiโs worst impulses were let loose at the workplace and new allegations about even more disturbing behavior have surfaced, his reputation now threatens to taint the show forever.
With clips recognizable to any Ren & Stimpy fan and interviews with Kricfalusi and his fellow creators whose work has been both elevated and denigrated by their connection to him, this film is a complex look at a show that influenced the history of television, animation, and comedy. More than a celebration, Happy Happy Joy Joy โ The Ren & Stimpy Story forces us to consider the role of media creators and how we reckon with the reality of who they are versus what we see on the screen.
ren-and-stimpyThat synopsis does a grand job of laying the groundwork for what you should expect with this Ren & Stimpy documentary. Itโs tailormade for fans who grew up with the outlandish and boundary-shattering Nicktoon, but itโs also accessible for folks whoโve never seen an episode (though Iโd imagine itโs even more surreal for the latter crowd). The animated series didnโt just knock down barriers in the animation industry, it whizzed all over them. To put Ren & Stimpy into context for our younger readers out there, it was basically the Rick and Morty of the early 1990s. Both R&S and R&M fansโa minority of them, I hopeโhave held the creators up as demigods and were more than willing to send death threats to creative forces behind the scenes who, in fansโ estimation, posed a threat to the creative vision. If R&M fans lost their collective shit over Szechuan Sauce, imagine what theyโd do if Cartoon Network / Adult Swim fired Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon from the show and then pulled it altogether. Yikes.
But thatโs exactly what happened to Ren & Stimpy. Kricfalusi and his team of avant garde-meets-anarchy artists were the animation rockstars of their time, but the rise of the showโs popularity was meteoric โฆ and the crash was spectacular. Happy Happy Joy Joy handles both facets of the story incredibly well. The first third of the runtime is dedicated to the crazy team of artists and animators who bucked traditions and overcame long adds to bring a punk-rock approach to kids animation. It chronicles the early careers of Kricfalusi and introduces Lynne Naylor, Bob Camp, the late Chris Reccardi and many more creative talents who built Ren & Stimpy from the ground up. Kricfalusiโs art style and extreme dedication to the craft united and inspired this ragtag team to achieve something that no one in the industry had seen before. Ren & Stimpy pulled the animation business out of corporate-run decision-making based on toy sales, bland morality plays, and mass market appeal and sent it on a crash course toward unique, creator-driven content.
And then the wheels came off.
The second third of the documentary plays like the desperate crash after a breathtaking high. It tells, in detail, how Ren & Stimpy became a victim of its own success, specifically calling out Kricfalusiโs controlling, abusive practices in both the Spรผmcรธ studio and in Nickelodeonโs own production offices. All of the artists interviewed cite Kricfalusiโs signature genius and dedication, but they vary in just how much blame for the fallout they lay at his feet; heโs seen as anywhere from completely responsible for the fall, to an artist suddenly thrust into stardom who failed to manage his own success. The truth is certainly somewhere in that spectrum. The fact is that Nickelodeon fired Kricfalusi from the show after numerous altercations, and while they tried to keep production going under Camp, Ren & Stimpy itself folded a few years later.
It would take more than 20 years after that for the first underage sexual abuse allegations against Kricfalusi to gain worldwide attention. And thatโs what the final third of the documentary addresses, complete with direct responses from Kricfalusi himself and a personal account from his former fan, flame, and protege, Robyn Byrd. I applaud the filmmakers who tackled this sensitive subject head-on, as I do both Byrd for telling her story on the documentary itself and Kricfalusi for addressing it. Filmmakers Cicero and Easterwood push Kricfalusi harder on their questions than they do his co-workers, who say they were surprised to learn that the artistโs inclination towards young, underage girls was more truth than just simple locker room talk. But it took more than 20 years for Byrd to find the courage to speak out thanks in part to the silence and averted eyes of everyone else in the studio and the industry; she is now seen as a shield and cautionary tale that defends other young female artists who might have otherwise given up on their dreams.
To paraphrase Byrd: Just because pain has brought art into your life as a way of coping with it, that doesnโt give you the right to impose pain on others.
So, what remains of the legacy of both Kricfalusi and Ren & Stimpy? For the man who holds the โCreated byโ stampโitself a matter of contention since Nickelodeon executive Vanessa Coffey actually pulled those two specific characters out of Kricfalusiโs Our Gang pitch for developmentโhis actions and behavior going forward will speak volumes and his full story has yet to be written. Itโs more complicated for the Nicktoon itself. Dozens of talented people worked on Ren & Stimpy, so is it fair to demonize its brilliance and artistry because of the personal failings of its core creative influence? At the same time, can Ren & Stimpy ever manage to shake Kricfalusi from its history after embracing the self-imposed โCreated byโ badge? Thatโs a decision that each individual fan out there will have to make for themselves, but thankfully the documentary addresses that complicated issue, as well.
Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story is at once a love letter to the classic Nicktoon that paved the way for creator-driven content over the last 30 years and is also an exploration of the personal demons that can drive an artist to both fame and failure. There is an absolute wealth of incredible behind-the-scenes stories, images, and trivia here for animation fans and Ren & Stimpy fanatics, but itโs all tainted with the hard truth of Kricfalusiโs difficult upbringing, abrasive personality, and abusive tendencies. And thatโs exactly what you want in an objective documentary that deals with both a pop culture phenomenon and a divisive creator at its center.
Rating: A
###
From
The Utah Review:
Sundance 2020: Happy Happy Joy Joy โ The Ren and Stimpy Story absorbing, sharp, potent, immaculately researched documentaryIf there was one episode from The Ren & Stimpy Show, the cartoon which aired on Nickelodeon in the first half of the 1990s, which encapsulated its creatorโs mindset, it was the Christmas season episode Son of Stimpy.
Stimpy breaks wind, convinced that he has given birth to โStinky.โ Ren, of course, does not believe Ren. Stinky runs away and Stimpy desperately searches for his beloved fart.
The 1993 episode almost did not air because the network asked the cartoonโs creator John Kricfalusi (a/k/a John K) to make stories with more heartwarming notes than the usual fare with heavy adult and gross-out scatological undertones, which had made the childrenโs cartoon immensely popular. John K despised, as he describes it, the โfake pathosโ generated in films by tricks with cinematography and music. To prove his point, he based the episodeโs story on the nonsensical premise of Stimpy not being able to fart again, using precisely the tricks he despised to prove that one could inspire a viewer to cry even at a storyโs most ridiculous premise.
A clip from this episode is featured in the absorbing, sharp, potent and immaculately researched documentary Happy Happy Joy Joy โ The Ren & Stimpy Story, which has its premiere at Sundance this year. Making their feature-length debuts as director, Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood capture perfectly the essence of this cartoon classicโs status as a pioneer in the genre of animation. They also deftly handle the damaging self-inflicted consequences of John Kโs legacy โ the disparaging treatment of colleagues driven by his narcissistic compulsion for creative control and the underage relationships he had with young women in the 1990s, along with other stories of abuse and sexual misconduct.
However, this documentaryโs genesis started out on a far more innocent note. Cicero (who had last seen a Ren & Stimpy episode at least 20 years before he began work on the film) and Easterwood (who says in an interview with The Utah Review, โI was not a cartoon fan as a kid so I never watched an episodeโ) initially set out to document comprehensively the creative teamโs gifts that led to Ren & Stimpy. And, when the news broke in 2018 about John Kโs relationship with Robyn Byrd (who is featured in the film), a young admirer who initially was inspired by his gifts as a cartoonist, the filmmakers were shocked. Cicero says, in an interview with The Utah Review, โit was a โHoly Cowโ moment for us. We realized the film at that point was ruined.โ Just three days before, they had entered the credits for the completed film.
A still (John Kricfalusi) from Happy Happy Joy Joy โ The Ren & Stimpy Story by Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood, an official selection of the Documentary Premieres program at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Kimo Easterwood.
In reworking the film with the news that had just broken, Cicero and Easterwood managed to obtain on-camera interviews from John K, who previously had refused their requests. โIt was not an easy process,โ Cicero says, adding it took negotiating six months to secure his appearance on camera. The directors worried that even after filming, John K might refuse to sign the release. โTo his credit, he did,โ Cicero adds.
Byrd, who also agreed to be interviewed, has traveled to Park City for the premiere. Now living in Illinois, she is โall but dissertationโ on her Ph.D in applied linguistics. Her Twitter profile reads, in part, โreformed cartoonist/ESL teacher/scrappy AF, will kick in some knees.โ A Jan. 23 tweet from Byrd reads, โI survived abuse at the hands of a man who thinks heโs a genius. Not only am I smarter than him (which is not that important)โฆ but I have healthy, long-lasting, affirming, fun, giving relationships. Considering the trauma he caused, I feel like that is a miracle.โ
In all of the instances where John K is featured in the documentary, the complex array of his skills as a cartoonist, the improprieties, the insincerity of his apologies, his penchant for sweeping generalizations and his lack of humility or self-effacement emerges in a clear yet disturbing portrait. In fact, his demeanor is pretty much the same as in a 1992 Film Criticism interview with Wheeler Winston Dixon. In that interview, when he was asked about if he is ever pressured by Nickelodeon or outside groups to be politically correct, he said, โNo. I feel obligated to be politically incorrect! I think thatโs the stupidest term Iโve ever heard in my life! Why is one personโs view politically correct when another personโs isnโt? Who decides that?โ
However, in the documentary scenes regarding questions about his abuse and conduct, John K conveys the sense without words being spoken that he at least is aware of his guilt but he goes no further to account for the damage he has wrought. Again, this is consistent with his โapologyโ that he posted on Facebook in 2018 to Byrd and Katie Rice (another victim who appears in the film). He described his behavior as โinappropriate.โ He added, โThere is some general truth in it, some things I remember differently, some not at all. The writer exaggerated and presented some things out of context for tabloid consumption.โ
Cicero and Easterwood are meticulous and successful in handling the multilayered controversies that frame the telling of The Ren & Stimpy Story, which lead to the epiphany question for viewers to contemplate: Can one still value the art for its creative merit with the same previous devotion and acclaim even as the most damaging and disturbing details of the creative artistโs life are revealed?
The filmโs research emanates in many magnificent moments, with artwork, clips and interviews featuring artists, actors, executives and fans. We learn about Spumco, the in-house production unit; the generous, visionary and risk-taking support of Nickelodeon executive Vanessa Coffey; the battles with Nickelodeon not just about having the episodes delivered late but also about the content that often was not advertiser-friendly, and fans such as comedians Iliza Shlesinger, Chris Gore and Bobby Lee. Even the filmโs documentary score strongly echoes classical music elements heard in Ren and Stimpy episodes.
John K did not use scripts believing that they were outdated tools and insisted on figuring out the gags in a brief outline that was perhaps two or three pages. Likewise, the story and the dialogue would be filled out on the storyboard. And, the show relied heavily on acting. After auditing numerous professional voice actors for the role of the asthmatic chihuahua Ren, John K decided to take on the part himself, offering what he described as a bad impersonation of the actor Peter Lorre, whose voice frequently has been parodied by comics and other cartoons.
The episode that soured the relationship with Nickelodeon was Manโs Best Friend, which was pulled before it was scheduled to air and led to John Kโs firing. It featured George Liquor, an abusive man who pushes Ren to beat George to a bloody pulp with an oar. The oddest thing is that of all the characters John K wanted returned to him, it was George Liquor. In the documentary, we learn that he based the character in part on his father.
In the aftermath John K refused to tone down the controversy, insisting on reaching beyond the boundaries that had led to his firing. He produced a half dozen episodes for Ren & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon but they were considered in such vulgar taste that even Billy West, the voice actor of Stimpy, refused to do. Only three episodes were aired before the series was canceled for good.
Indeed, John K. destroyed a legacy that should have been a brilliant chapter in fearless creative work for a television genre that long had been constricted by tame, prissy conventions to avoid offending the commercial preferences of program advertisers. The film by Cicero and Easterwood lucidly portrays how he wasted the goodwill of a tremendously talented staff and crew, supportive executives, fans and industry peers and, more significantly, inflicted long-lasting trauma on young victims who initially had sought out his guidance as a creative mentor. It is hard to imagine how anyone can enjoy Ren & Stimpy with the same admiration and enthusiasm they had when the show first aired nearly 30 years.
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From
Showbiz Cheat Sheet:
'Ren & Stimpy' Documentary Gets Answers from John Kricfalusi [Sundance]The Ren & Stimpy Show was a groundbreaking animated series for Nickelodeon and ushered in a wave of edgy โ90s animation. John Kricfalusi created the characters and the documentary Happy Happy Joy Joy depicts the difficulties both he faced and those who worked with him faced.
If youโre wondering about the 2018 allegations that he sexually abused teenage girls, the documentary addresses that too. The filmmakers confront Kricfalusi about it.
โRen & Stimpyโ in the history of animation
The beginning of Happy Happy Joy Joy sets the stage for the world Ren & Stimpy rocked. Animated shows in the โ80s were all about selling toys. Nothing wrong with that. A lot of our childhood favorites were made to sell toys and we loved them whether we owned the toys or not.
Still, in that environment Ren & Stimpy was groundbreaking. It embraced the sort of scatalogical humor of bodily functions that entertained kids, but entertainment was its first and foremost concern. A few minutes into the film, they introduce John Kricfalusi. As an animation aficionado, it sounds like he wanted to make animation great again. He doesnโt say those words but he expresses frustration with the climate of animation at the time.
The troubled making of โRen & Stimpyโ
The bulk of Happy Happy Joy Joy documents the making of Nickelodeonโs show. Die had Ren & Stimpy or animation fans may already know much of this, like the episode delays and ultimate firing of John Krikfalusi. The filmmakers found photos and video of pitch sessions and signing, plus storyboards and clips to illustrate the narrative.
Kricfalusi was lively in his pitches. Those sorts of demonstrations probably helped sell Ren & Stimpy but also spoke to some of the turmoil brewing inside. Happy Happy Joy Joy points out some of the naughty elements of Ren & Stimpy you may have missed as a kid. The film introduces Robyn Byrd in this early section as a young animator who wrote to Kricfalusi. More on that later.
Happy Happy Joy Joy singles out a few significant Ren & Stimpy episodes, both for their emotional content and some that pushed too far and got banned. Kricfalusi is self-reflective about his influences and some of the most outrageous Ren & Stimpy shows were very personal.
John Kricsfalusi couldnโt quite deliver โRen & Stimpyโ
It seems episodes were coming in late from the very beginning. Fans certainly followed the frustrating randomness of new episode airings and questioned the ousting of Ren & Stimpyโs very creator. The documentary offers more details and gives the network a fair shake. There is the artistโs vision and then thereโs the reality that you do have to produce shows. Yes, animation is difficult and time consuming, but other animated series meet their airdates.
Kricfalusi wonโt quite own up to his role in the development problems. He concedes that 20 episodes a season was too much for them. Maybe it was, and in 2020 there are shows that can do 13 or less in a run, but a dealโs a deal. He tried to revive a more adult version of Ren & Stimpy for Spike TV in 2003 but only three of the six episodes even aired.
The heartbreaking story of Robyn Byrd
At this point, Happy Happy Joy Joy returns to Robyn Byrd, really the story youโve been waiting 75 minutes for. The flimmakers dissolve Byrdโs descriptions of her time with John Kricfalusi overlapping. Itโs a classy technique that covers a lot and conveys how pervasive it was, while avoiding rehashing all the details in the news. Katie Rice does not appear but the film addresses her story and othersโ.
The filmmakers ask Kricfalusi the right questions. They probably get the most answers anyone will. Kricfalusi is apologetic but wonโt fully incriminate himself. Happy Happy Joy Joy is a worthwhile documentary about a monumental pop culture phenomenon and its problematic creator. It comes at just the right time to address the full scope of his personality, and the larger impact he had on the people in his wake.
How to get help: In the U.S., call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to connect with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.
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From
Solzy at the Movies:
Sundance 2020: Happy Happy Joy JoyHappy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story takes us through the journey of Ren & Stimpy while also touching on creator John Kricfalusiโs dark side.
Ren & Stimpy was a hit for Nickelodeon when it first hit the airwaves. Outside of those working on the series, nobody could have ever guessed what happened beyond the scenes. No, not creator John Kricfalusi performing the storyboards while pitching his ideas. Itโs worse than this to tell you the truth. His behavior is something that would get him fired under todayโs #MeToo and Timesโ Up movements. As it should.
If anything, this documentary serves as a wider exposure of John Kricfalusiโs dark side. Itโs this dark side that would hurt relationships with people working on the show. Think of it this wayโwhen Ren & Stimpy came back in an adult series on Spike TV, it didnโt hit with the same impact. The reason for this is new version was missing the dedicated artists that worked on the showโs previous incarnation. Honestly, the tragedy behind Ren & Stimpy is among the worst in television history.
Co-directors Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood underwent months of interviews to get the story. The story that they get? One that celebrates the show. Nobody could predict what would come next. Everything changed come 2018. Until this point, John Kricfalusi declined to be interviewed for the documentary. Naturally, you think you have a finished film and then BOOM! Breaking news happens and the film must go in a different direction. In this instance, allegations surfaced regarding John Kricfalusiโs relationship with an underage girl. So what happens? Kricfalusi finally speaks on camera. Better late than never, I suppose. One would think that most of this is to contain the PR damage.
When we talk about films having more than one cut, Happy Happy Joy Joy may become a new prime example. New footage means a very different cut of the film. This speaks to how important editing becomes in filmmaking. Not only does new footage need to be edited into the film but how does the previous footage connect with the new footage? Editing is truly everything. It really is!
Watching the documentary does beg the question of separating art from the artist. The beauty in this documentary is asking if we can celebrate the success of the show but recognize the flaws in creator John Kricfalusi. Can one still love the show or will it become a victim of โcancel culture?โ There is no easy answer to the question. Honestly, there might never be.
After viewing Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story, youโll never be able to watch Ren & Stimpy in the same way ever again.
DIRECTORS: Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood
Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story holds its world premiere during the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in the Documentary Premieres program.
Grade: 3.5/5
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From
The Sun:
NO LAUGHING MATTER Dark secrets of โHitler-typeโ Ren & Stimpy Show creator who โpreyed on teen fansโA NEW documentary about Ren & Stimpy reveals alleged sexual and verbal abuse at the hands of the show's creator, John Kricfalusi.
Several former staffers claim he was verbally abusive and two women accuse him of preying on them as teens in "Happy Happy Joy Joy - The Ren & Stimpy Story," which premiered Friday at the Sundance Film Festival.
The risky cartoon debuted on Nickelodeon in 1991 and quickly became a major hit, appealing to critics with subversive story ideas and drawing in kids with childishly-drawn characters that had adult personalities.
But despite Ren & Stimpy's early success, Kricfalusi remained dissatisfied and often took his anger out on his staff.
He was known for allegedly tearing up his employees' drawings if they were too tame and locked himself in his office for hours to redo already finished work, the New York Post reported.
"If they toned it down, they'd get what people called 'a beating,'" Kricfalusi says in the film.
One employee went as far as to describe his former boss as "a Hitler type."
His obsession with quality and pushing the envelope of censorship created months-long delays in production, causing the show to go over budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Former Nickelodeon producer Vanessa Coffey said the Canadian animator cursed her out after she rejected the season 2 premiere for being too violent and claimed he made the network, not the other way around.
"He said that I 'could go f**k myself', he wouldn't take notes anymore,that he made the network, and that he was the star," she says in the doc.
Kricfalusi, who also voiced Ren, was canned by the end of Season 2 - the show was eventually canceled after the fifth season aired in 1995.
In 2018, Robyn Byrd told Buzzfeed News she had sex with the animator for the first time at a nearby hotel in 1997, when she was just 16 years old and he was 42.
She moved in with him that year and began working at his studios as an intern that summer, a dream come true for the teenage fan.
Another fan and former employee, Katie Rice, told the news outlet that a then-49-year-old Kricfalusi would walk around "with his wiener hanging out of his pants" when she worked from his Los Angeles home.
He professed his romantic feelings to Rice in a work email he sent her when she was only 18 years old, she told the news outlet.
Kricfalusi, now 64, was never able to replicate the success he found with Ren & Stimpy, and eventually moved on to more behind-the-scenes collaborations on music videos and internet cartoons in later years.
In spite of the abuse allegations levied against him, Kricfalusi claims he didn't realize the emotional damage he caused in either of his accusers.
"[I] felt like the lowest creature on Earth," he said after reading the Buzzfeed exposรฉ.
###
From
JoBlo.com:
REVIEW: HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY (SUNDANCE 2020)PLOT: The story behind Nickelodeonโs seminal โRen & Stimpyโ, and the complicated, sometimes predatory man behind it, John Kricfalusi.
REVIEW: For fans of โRen & Stimpyโ, HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY is a mixed bag. On the one hand, itโs packed with enough clips to make you nostalgic for one of the most demented, cerebral and often brilliant cartoons ever made. On the other, it makes the series all but impossible to enjoy as by the end youโll know its creator, John Kricfalusi, all too well. At his best a brilliant, but complicated man, Kricfalusi, who sits for a thorough interview, is a troubled soul. While undeniably talented, so much so that โRen & Stimpyโ had no chance whatsoever when Nickelodeon infamously showed him the door, he was also a toxic, abusive man who treated his employees, friends and especially his romantic partners with absolute disdain. And thatโs not even getting into some of the more sordid aspects of his personality, such as the allegations of sexual harassment and his highly inappropriate relationships with former young fans, such as one woman who he reportedly groomed from the age of fourteen, and became his romantic partner when she turned sixteen.
One thing worth noting - these arenโt only accusations. Kricfalusi admits what he did in the documentary, even if he stops short of expressing real remorse over anything other than the fact that his actions cost him his career (he admits that heโs currently retired - but not by choice). It should also be noted though - directors Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood do not make this aspect of his life their focus, a choice that produces mixed results. Instead, the focus is on the cartoon itself, which isnโt a bad way to go, but the accusations only really come into the film about fifteen minutes away from the ending, making them feel like a bit of a footnote. That said, Cicero and Easterwood have clearly tailored their film towards โRen & Stimpyโ devotees, and if youโre a fan of the show, chances are you already know what he did and this gives you a little added context non-fans may not have.
Thoroughly entertaining throughout, it canโt be denied that the subject matter is incredibly compelling. โRen & Stimpyโ was a full-fledged cultural phenomenon, albeit briefly, and both it and the man behind it make for compelling subjects. The impact it made on pop culture is enlightening, especially to a person like myself, who watched it as an eleven year old Canadian (when it aired on Much Music) and knew little about the effect it had on animation in general. Itโs argued that Kricfalusi, with his demand for creative control and an all-important โcreated byโ title card, paved the way for the makers of โSouth Parkโ and other important cartoons.
For those of us who watched it as kids and wondered why it suddenly started to suck after the second season, you find out why here although this is perhaps the only time where youโll sympathize the network over the artist. He comes off as so insufferable youโll wonder how he lasted so long at the helm, even if his work was brilliant. The stories are fascinating, with it coming out that it was the reaction to one deeply personal episode that triggered his downfall. Watching the clips, it also seems amazing that Nickelodeon let so much slide, although this willingness to push the envelope has allowed it to stand the test of time, even if its creator makes it hard to appreciate now.
If you havenโt seen โRen & Stimpyโ in awhile, HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY is a mixed blessing. Itโll no doubt trigger so legitimate nostalgia, but itโs also a tragic story about how one man couldnโt help but inflict his pain on others at every chance he got. Itโs fascinating, but also deeply tragic.
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From
812filmReviews:
SUNDANCE 2020: HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY โ THE REN & STIMPY STORYRating: 3/4
In 1991, a cartoon debuted on Nickelodeon that would change cartoons forever. The Ren & Stimpy Show, born from the mind of John Kricfalusi and the artists of Spรผmcรธ, pushed the boundaries of acceptable child programming and the limits of animation to revolutionary results while inspiring a generation of animators and kids. Nevertheless, a shadow sketches across its storyboards because of the grotesque acts of its creator. Ron Cicero and Kimo Eastwoodโs Happy Happy Joy Joy โ The Ren and Stimpy Story charts the path of the showโdetailing all of the artists who made the program special and their challengesโwhile examining the psychology components that led to Kricfalusi crafting the show and becoming a predator.
For Ren & Stimpy enthusiasts, the most thrilling portions of Cicero and Eastwoodโs documentary comes in deconstructing the origins of the cartoon. The animators: Corey Yost, Scott Wills, Bob Camp, Bill Wray, Chris Riccardi, etc.โrecount the influences of the characters, from black and white films to comedy trios. They also recount the early days of working with Kricfalusi, who they speak about in referential terms.
Described as the next โWalt Disney,โ Kricfalusi was a flight of energy that had rarely been seen before. His acting of storyboards became legendary, much like Disney, and his quest for perfection toxic. Animators describe the verbal and emotional abuse they suffered under the creator while he perched himself as a God. And like most icons, the brilliance of their shine hypnotizes many for a time, until their acidic drops return their worshippers back to reality. They were outsiders ordained to take down the city walls of cable television, and they believed in their charge. Watching a band of creatives fight for artistic integrity and freedom, unspool themselves for a cause they believe in, invites the most uplifting portions of Cicero and Eastwoodโs doc.
However, the Happy Happy Joy Joy doesnโt solely bow at the altar of Kricfalusi. Incredibly, the directors talked the Ren & Stimpy creator into appearing in the documentary. He chronicles much of his childhood, one filled with multiple instances of abuse, and how it formed his ethos for perfectionism. We also receive the behind the scenes spats between him and Nickelodeon producer Vanessa Coffey, who often is left devastated at multiple parts while holding a Stimpy plush doll during her interviews. Furthermore, Cicero and Eastwood show the disintegration of Kricfalusi relationship with Lynne Neyer and later Bob Camp, and airs significant portions of the banned Ren & Stimpy episode โManโs Best Friend.โ
Nevertheless, the most harrowing portions arrives when Happy Happy Joy Joy inspects Kricfalusiโs predatorial history of raping under-aged girls. Robyn Byrd, one of Kricfalusiโs victims, describes the acts of grooming perpetrated by the Ren & Stimpy creator. And shockingly, Cicero and Eastwood coax Kricfalusi into addressing the multiple allegations of pedophilia and abuse levied at him. The results are stomach churning and achingly horrifying, nearly destroying whatever affinity one might have for the cartoon, even as Cicero and Eastwood carefully divide the program from its creator over the course of 104 minutes. That division, which doesnโt allow for a deeper dive on allegations (they mostly take up 20 minutes) often seems one note. Happy Happy Joy Joy โ The Ren & Stimpy Story is engrossing and gutsy, and tactfully executed, but could be more combative.
###
From
Celebrity Insider:
Alleged Misconduct Of Ren And Stimpy Creator Revealed In New Documentary At Sundance Film FestivalRen And Stimpy has become one of the most influential cartoons of all time, however, after ten years of run-time, the staff behind the popular Nickelodeon series were not as happy as one might suspect.
The New York Post recently picked up on a new documentary that screened at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival called Happy Happy Joy Joy โ The Ren and Stimpy Story.
The doc purports to explore the behind-the-scenes problems at Spumco Studios, helmed by the seriesโ creator, John Kricfalusi, who has since been accused of several transgressions. An animator said in the documentary that Kricfalusi had โrock-star status,โ and how the show collapsed was โtragic,โ like a โShakespearean Play.โ
Before Ren and Stimpy began, cartoon animation wasnโt doing well on the market, as many of them were cheaply made and concerned with marketing products. However, Kricfalusi, who was a true believer in cartoon animation, shopped around his show which later went on to great success.
One source claimed that Kricfalusi would pitch his ideas to executives sometimes in a dramatic manner, even forcing them to escort him out of the building on one occasion. In 1991, Nickelodeon began investing in cartoons, Nicktoons, and Vanessa Coffey, who was a producer at Nickelodeon at the time, became interested in his subversive ideas.
When the show finally premiered, it was an instant hit. Despite the cartoonโs success, Kricfalusiโs erratic behavior increased. Reportedly, he was known to angrily rip up his employeeโs drawings and lock himself in his office redoing the work of others.
Another person in the film described him as a โHitler type,โ stating that his obsession with quality and perfection was out of control, sometimes even leading to month-long delays and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent over the pre-established budget.
During the first episode of the second season, Vanessa Coffey had to reject the first episode, titled, โManโs Best Friend,โ due to its violence. Kricfalusi was fired after the second season and the series plummeted in the ratings afterward. Nickelodeon canceled it in 1995.
Then, two years ago, a BuzzFeed article came out claiming that Kricfalusi had been in a relationship with a 16-year-old girl. Another girl, Katie Rice, sent him a letter when she was 14-years-old. She later interned with him and began a sexual relationship after moving into his home.
She claims she was isolated and her life was controlled by him from the age of 14 until 21. Through tears in the documentary, Rice claimed it was tragic that he โused Ren and Stimpyโ in that way. In the doc, Rice claims that she still has nightmares about him until to this day.
###
From
Polygon:
The new doc Happy Happy Joy Joy questions Ren & Stimpyโs legacyAimed at fans, the film grapples with the art-vs.-artist debateLogline: Happy Happy Joy Joy - The Ren & Stimpy Story looks back at the making of the influential cartoon and the career of creator John Kricfalusi, who multiple women formally accused of sexual misconduct in 2018.
Longerline: According to former executive Vanessa Coffey, Ren & Stimpy was everything Nickelodeon needed to combat the staleness of late โ80s/early โ90s cartoons, and the complete opposite of what the network wanted out of kid-friendly content. But the concept of โNicktoonsโ was simple: Hire visionary animators to bring idiosyncratic concepts to the screen. As close collaborators testify in Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwoodโs feature documentary debut, there was no one more visionary or idiosyncratic than John Kricfalusi.
The last decade has seen a rise in nostalgic โfanโ documentaries, celebrating everything from movies (2015โs Back to the Future-praising Back in Time) to music (Taylor Swiftโs own Miss Americana fits the bill) to comics (Dear Mr. Watterson, the ode to reclusive Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson). Happy Happy Joy Joy joins the crowd, interviewing animators who recall the exhilaration of working on the rebellious toon, and admirers, like Jack Black and Mad TVโs Bobby Lee, who were mesmerized by Ren & Stimpyโs painted close-ups of nipples. Littered with show clips and archival photos of the crew at work, including Kricfalusi delivering manic pitches in a tone that would make him the obvious candidate to voice Ren, the doc exalts the creatorโs genius through the voices of those who knew him. Numbers back up the phenomenon status: Nick only ordered six episodes off of Kricfalusiโs pitch, but at the height of the series, one animator believes the show was producing nearly $4 billion in merchandising.
In whatโs presented as something of a surprise, Kricfalusi also sits down for an interview. The animator walks Cicero and Easterwood through his childhood inspirations, early ideas for shows, character breakdowns of his infamous dog and cat (โStimpy was an abject retard with a good heartโ), and his philosophies on art, which range from the value of time-consuming caricature work to the importance of sneaking pieces of poop into frames where the censors would never catch them. Happy Happy Joy Joy presents the exploding Ren & Stimpy fandom through Kricfalusiโs eyes, and explores what those reactions meant to him. But only an hour and a half in do we realize Robyn Byrd, a young Ren & Stimpy devotee interviewed for the film who tells a story about mailing Kricfalusi a letter and actually getting a response, is the same person who accused him of abuse 20 years later.
Early on, one animator describes Kricfalusi as โthe best drill sergeant youโll ever meet, and drill sergeants do need to be cruel.โ The full extent of that cruelty is the final note in Happy Happy Joy Joy. Chronicling the broad strokes of BuzzFeed Newsโ report from 2018, Cicero and Easterwood hear from both Byrd and Kricfalusi on how the Ren & Stimpy creator leveraged his standing in the industry to establish a romantic relationship. Kricfalusi does not deny courting a then-15-year-old when he was 41, but his reflection focuses more on mistakes made than apologies offered. Cicero and Easterwood leave the details of Byrdโs story, and the stories of his other accuser Katie Rice, out of the picture.
The quote that says it all: Grappling with Kricfalusiโs influence and his abusive behavior, Robyn Byrd tells the documentarians, โPain does create great art, but you donโt have to keep inflicting pain to create great art.โ
Whatโs it trying to do? Cicero and Easterwood chart every moment in the Ren & Stimpy saga in a way that reassures fans that this gnarled, grotesque cartoon was just as artful as they remember. The documentary spends a good chunk of time in the weeds on the animation process, showing how Kricfalusi and his Spumco Studios crew pushed the limits in every frame. Itโs not all positive; Coffey offers powerful insight into how Kricfalusiโs perfectionism and blue humor led to his firing and the implosion of the show.
But the way the documentary explores Kricfalusiโs personal life, and how he crossed the line with multiple young women, plays like an addendum. Was this the culmination of stewing in his genius for so many years? What should people think of Ren & Stimpy now? By letting Byrd tell her story, asking Kricfalusi to respond, and allowing for the other artists involved with the show to make sense of it all, Happy Happy Joy Joy reaches for an answer to whether we should separate art from artist.
Does it get there? The structure of Happy Happy Joy Joy makes for insufficient exploration of Ren & Stimpyโs legacy. The show was one of the first cartoons to carry a โCreated byโ card, meaning the story of Kricfalusiโs abuse is also the story of the celebrated Nicktoon. Though one animator admits in broad terms that the show is now โcovered in shit paint,โ none of Kricfalusiโs collaborators are asked about the abuse or his behavior beyond his tendency to be a boss with a โsadistic edge.โ As the BuzzFeed story makes clear, โstories of how Kricfalusi sexually harassed female artists, including teenage girls, were known through the industry.โ They are not chronicled in Happy Happy Joy Joy, save for one emotional follow-up interview with Coffey. (Worth noting: The film was produced and funded via Indiegogo in 2017, and itโs possible much of it was shot before BuzzFeed published the report on Kricfalusi.)
What does that get us? Happy Happy Joy Joy did not have to deliver a verdict on the art-vs.-artist debate, but a more successful documentary might demand conclusions from its subjects. Cicero and Easterwood seem to have an opinion, or one that fits with the first 90 minutes of the movie; even after Byrdโs emotional story, the film returns to animator interviews that remind us of Ren & Stimpyโs transformative power. That unspoken, authorial comment feels like the easy answer, and ultimately prevents the film from finding a bigger picture.
When can we see it? Happy Happy Joy Joy is an independent production that premiered at Sundance, and itโs currently seeking distribution.
###
From
Film Threat:
HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOYSUNDANCE 2020 FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW! There are two animated shows on television today that have pushed the boundaries of decency and have been attacked because of their negative impact on the moral foundations of family-friendly cartoons on TV. They are The Simpsons and South Park. But arguably, there should have been one more (really many more), but for this review, Iโm talking about Ren & Stimpy in Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwoodโs documentary Happy Happy Joy Joy โ The Ren & Stimpy Story.
While Happy Happy Joy Joy starts as your typical how-did-this-get-made-type documentary, it becomes something very different in the end. The doc opens with Hollywood industry types, including a certain rebellious and mildly famous film magazine editor, gushing over Ren & Stimpyโs influence on modern animation today, and how amazing it was for a radical show like this ever made it on childrenโs television.
โโฆstarts as your typical how-did-this-get-made-type documentary, it becomes something very different in the end.โ
Beginning in 1991, Ren & Stimpy ran for five seasons on Nickelodeon, but the documentary focuses primarily on the first. The primary subject of the documentary is Ren & Stimpyโs creator John Kricfalusi. As docs do, Happy Happy Joy Joy goes over his childhood love of animation, his disdain of the limited-animation-style appearing on television at that time, and his dream to change the landscape of the genre.
Getting on Nickelodeon wasnโt easy, and both Kricfalusi and Nickelodeonโs Vanessa Coffey go into detail about how John pitched a show about a gang of kids. However, Coffey noticed the pets of one of the kidsโa chihuahua and a cat. She wanted the series to be about them, and off they went. Kricfalusi established Spรผmcรธ with other artists and animators, many of whom appear in the doc. John would voice Ren, and Billy West would be Stimpy.
Not only did Kricfalusi produce an artistically beautiful and creatively unique style of animation, but he was also insistent on pushing the boundaries of network standards and practices. The stories of the war between creatives and networks are legendary, and the stories behind Ren & Stimpy are no different. The show had two things going for it. First, was an executive in Coffey, who believed in Kricfalusiโs vision and was the only one who could manage him, and of course, the ratings. Ren & Stimpy produced the highest ratings for Nickelodeon at that time.
As the documentary continues, you soon realize that while the film is about Ren & Stimpy (the show), it becomes about the rise and fall of a mad, creative genius. Thereโs no denying that Kricfalusi was a creative genius. He demanded artistic perfection in his product, which meant that artists at Spรผmcรธ worked long hours under a leader and father-figure, who was never pleased with your work. At the same time, Kricfalusi was always the first one in the office and the last to leaveโฆif he ever left.
After the first season, the pressure got to everyone, and Kricfalusi started to become sort of a megalomaniac, and this is where you need to see the doc. Sometimes oneโs genius, especially if you believe your own press, can be your downfall, and it was. The showโs success meant Kricfalusi was untouchable, and the showโs success said that in his mind, he was the one solely responsible for keeping it at the top of the ratings. But he was out of control and ultimately fired by Nickelodeon, two episodes into the second season. His second episode would never air for decency-sake.
โThis is the filmโs Catch-22.โ
As Kricfalusiโs career begins to sputter, the documentary goes into a dark secret that, as of recent, slowly emerged after principal photography was completed. After his downfall from Nickelodeon, Kricfalusi began a series of inappropriate relationships with teenage fans. This creative genius now turned into a Svengali, stealing the hearts of young teen women, then manipulating and controlling them for his ego and pleasure. While the documentary doesnโt overtly cast judgment upon Kricfalusi, it does present the facts. Those facts overwhelmingly conclude that Kricfalusi became a serial abuser and pedophile.
This is the filmโs Catch-22. You go through all the trouble of putting a fantastic documentary together about one of the most controversial childrenโs television shows in history and paint the creator as a creative genius, only to find out heโs a real scumbag. In the end, the story of the show Ren & Stimpy is a fascinating one, especially for fans and anyone who wants to push boundaries in Hollywood. It also doesnโt make a hero out of John Kricfalusi, who still desires admiration and sympathy. In fact, when given a chance to redeem himself, he sort of blows itโฆbig time.
Happy Happy Joy Joy โ The Ren & Stimpy Story screened at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
###
From
The Moveable Fest:
Sundance 2020 Review: An Animator Who Didnโt Play By the Rules Gets His Due, For Better and Worse, in โHappy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy StoryโThe groundbreaking Nickelodeon show gets the warts and all treatment it deserves.It may sound like an obvious observation when someone can be heard saying at the top of โHappy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story,โ that the showโs creator John Kricfalusi sees โeverything in his life through the lens of a cartoon,โ but a necessary one when it becomes evident that he believes the same laws apply to the real world and the one he created with a pen and paper, where the odder the character the better they could fit in, the infliction of pain would only hurt until the next commercial break, and one could spend an eternity being exactly the same age as when they stepped into the frame. Of course when โRen and Stimpyโ became a cultural phenomenon in its first season on Nickelodeon, this belief was affirmed and largely unquestioned when everyone invested in the showโs success werenโt about to point out the flaws in this logic or the resulting reprehensible behavior, but for anyone watching the show, with its gleefully deranged sense of humor and diseased character design that separated itself from anything else on television, let alone kidsโ programming, there was a disturbed mind at work and as the saying goes, when people show you who they are, you ought to pay attention.
Directors Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood do that and and then some in โHappy Happy Joy Joy,โ which is impressive as an engaging and exhaustive oral history of a groundbreaking show, but more so for being able to hold multiple truths about someone as simultaneously admirable and repulsive as Kricfalusi, from advancing the cause of animators as artists by crediting himself in the boldest title card possible while denying the collective work that was crucial to the success of โRen and Stimpyโ by singling himself out, keenly understanding how to build a team while not knowing how to work well with others, and most significantly to his downfall, the notion that his extended adolescence blinded him to the impropriety of having sexual relationships with teenagers who worshipped him when he likely saw himself as not being much older.
There are limited resources at play, visible in the reuse of archival footage because there surely wasnโt more available, but the number of people willing to go in record isnโt one of them, including Kricfalusi, now exiled but still proud, and while the film can feel slightly repetitive with so many talking heads, no stone is left unturned about the unlikely development of Ren and Stimpy from minor characters in another show Kricfalusi was working on, the wild workplace culture that turned toxic at his company Spumco, and eventually his relationship with the 13-year-old Robyn Byrd, who would spend seven years with him in an abusive relationship where she saw her dreams of becoming an animator die.
Many of the people in โHappy Happy Joy Joyโ likely havenโt spoken to each other in years and arenโt destined to do so again, but they appear to hold little back in front of the filmmakers, seemingly adamant about creating a definitive record of both work they believe is important as well as breaking a cycle of how it was created when so often unconscionable behavior in the name of art is lauded as being crucial to its creation. As vivid as their experience still clearly is in their mind, itโs conveyed just as vibrantly in a cultural climate where โHappy Happy Joy Joyโ reminds of all the behind-the-scenes drama on so many sets revealed in the wake of the #metoo movement as well as reevaluations of autobiographical work veiled as entertainment. While itโs frightening to think of this story as part of an open-ended cycle that persists to this day, the film holds considerable power as a closed loop charting Kricfalusiโs rise and fall, intriguingly celebrated for the same qualities that he would become vilified for when the pretense of artistic expression was dropped, making its preview for whatโs perhaps to come for those predatory artists whose exploits have become known a fitting tribute to a show that was always ahead of its time.
โHappy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren and Stimpy Storyโ will screen at the Sundance Film Festival on January 28th at 3:30 pm at the Library Center Theatre in Park City, January 29th at 11:30 am at the MARC Theatre in Park City, January 30th at 11:30 pm at the Prospector Square Theatre in Park City, February 1st at 6:30 pm at the Rose Wagner Center in Salt Lake City.
###
From
Black Girl Nerds:
Sundance 2020 Review: โHappy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy StoryโAs a millennial, I vividly remember the โ90s being the prime decade for some of the greatest animation including the hit Nickelodeon series Ren & Stimpy.
The โ90s brought us a different cream-of-the-crop of animated shows. It wasnโt Looney Tunes, Disney, or even Don Bluth. It was something a bit darker, more sinister, a bit grittier, and most certainly ahead of its time. If you switched the TV channel over to MTV at the time, you might have caught a TV show called Liquid Television, a barrage of animated clips from comic strips to claymation to a little-known show of two slackers watching music videos in their living room called Beavis and Butthead.
For us, these werenโt cartoons; this was so much more. Ren & Stimpy, albeit a show on a kidsโ network called Nickelodeon, was ostensibly a TV show for a mature audience. Although I was 11 years old when Ren & Stimpy premiered in 1991, I got most of the adult jokes that were supposed to go over my head and loved every second of it.
Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story, which premiered at Sundance, breaks down the origin story of how the characters of Ren and Stimpy came to life and dives into the mind of the showโs complicated creator John Kricfalusi, the visionary whose rise and fall changed the course of the show and its artists forever.
The documentary features commentary from comedian Bobby Lee, who says, โIf Tom and Jerry and had a portal to hell it would be Ren and Stimpy.โ Other featured interviews are from Jack Black and Chris Gore of Film Threat Magazine. Artists and animators of Spรผmcรธ, the production company founded by John Kricfalusi and Stephen W. Worth, also spoke on their experience working with both John and on the show.
And although they each had their own separate experiences, collectively they all had one thing in common โ John Kricfalusi was difficult to work with. He was a man who was passionate about his work, but he also had high expectations of his artists and wanted to be perfect. His temper got the best of him, which stood in the way of what could have made him great. According to John, his philosophy is, โIf you make it funny, you win and become popular.โ
He did make Ren & Stimpy popular, so much so that it broke cable rating records and was #1 in its time slot โ which, for an animated series at the time, was almost unheard of. The animated duo became a pop culture icon in a relatively short time. The documentary also explores the origin of how he created each character; Ren (the dog), which resembles a chihuahua who hasnโt slept in days, was based on Peter Lorreโs voice and characterization. John Kricfalusi himself provided the voice of Ren, which was quite rare for a cartoonist to do at the time. Stimpy (the cat) was based on Larry Fein of The Three Stooges and was voiced by Billy West.
Kricfalusi would spend hours watching Kirk Douglas movies to study facial expressions for the characters. A lot of the wild and chaotic behavior of Ren & Stimpy mirrored John Kricfalusiโs own behavior. As his behavior spiraled out of control, he was let go out of his contract with Nickelodeon and fired from Spรผmcรธ in 1992. Bob Camp replaced Kricfalusi as director, and sadly the two have not seen each other since he took over the show in 1992.
The documentary takes a darker turn past Kricfalusiโs bad temper with his partners and into his private relationships with underage girls. There are two documented relationships featured in the documentary where he lived with two different girls and openly admits to it. Kricfalusi does not deny the claims and confesses to his mistakes. This sadly is what sealed the fate of these beloved characters and placed a permanent stain on the legacy of Ren & Stimpy, even bringing to tears a former Nickelodeon executive who believes he ruined their legacy and used those characters to lure young girls.
Kricfalusi tried to revive Ren & Stimpy on his own without his original team on Cartoon Networkโs Adult Swim, but it was quickly canceled after a few episodes. It sadly just didnโt carry the same flair as the original series did. In large part, it could have a lot to do with the missing magic of the original team as well as Kricfalusiโs own personal downfall.
Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story is written and directed by Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood.
###
From
UPI:
'Ren & Stimpy' Sundance documentary addresses John Kricfalusi abuse chargesJan. 28 (UPI) -- Directors Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood had finished a cut of their Ren & Stimpy documentary, Happy Happy Joy Joy, when sexual abuse allegations came out against show creator John Kricfalusi.
Ren & Stimpy, which ran from 1991 to 1996, starred a cat and a dog who engaged in a lot of scatological bodily function humor and sometimes adult innuendo. Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story profiles the Nickelodeon cartoon's creation and demise, including Kricfalusi's relationships with illustrators Robyn Byrd and Katie Rice when they were teenagers.
A Buzzfeed article, published in March 2018, recounted Kricfalusi's relationships with Byrd and Rice. Byrd wrote to Kricfalusi in 1994 when she was 13, hoping to pave the way for a career in animation. He responded, and by 1997, when she was 16 years old, she became his girlfriend. Rice wrote to him at 14 and alleged Kricfalusi had phone sex with her when she was no older than 15.
"It was done and it was a celebration of Ren & Stimpy, which now, of course, became outdated and potentially toxic once this news broke about the creator," Cicero told UPI before the Sundance Film Festival. "When the news broke, we then got John's interview and Robyn's interview and we completely restructured the movie."
Byrd contacted Cicero and Easterwood right before Buzzfeed published the article.
"Just before the news broke, Robyn actually reached out to me and said, 'Look, there's this whole other side of John that you're not aware of. I don't know where you're at with the documentary, but this story is going to break,'" Cicero said.
Byrd gave Cicero and Easterwood an interview. Rice already had declined an interview earlier when the directors saw a clip of her with Kricfalusi.
"We had seen that clip, which is in the movie, the DVD extra where John says, 'Hey, this is Katie Rice and she draws girl characters,'" Cicero said. "[We] reached out to her and she said, 'Look, I don't want to talk about John. It wasn't a great part of my life.'"
The directors didn't have to scrap the first cut. The story of Ren & Stimpy -- which explores Nickelodeon's foray into animation with executive Vanessa Coffey and animators who worked with Kricfalusi -- still proved relevant in examining the abuse for which Kricfalusi is accused.
"If we're going to understand John, we have to understand the show," Kricfalusi. "If you don't know the show, you have to understand the importance of the show to understand why we're even talking to John and why he's our lead character."
Cicero and Easterwood said it was complicated confronting Kricfalusi on camera.
"We feel that because we sat down with him off-camera for that length of time, we developed a sense of empathy for him," Cicero said. "By that, I don't mean a sense that we condone what he did or we're trying to be apologists for what he did. That's not what I'm saying at all."
Cicero hopes that by prompting Kricfalusi to take stock of his actions, Happy Happy Joy Joy can provide insight into what leads to such abuse.
"Unless you have that access and unless you have that trust and somebody's going to open up to you, you're never going to quite figure out the why," Cicero said. "I think both what John said and what he didn't say provided a window into that trauma and some broad answers."
Simply convincing people involved with Ren & Stimpy to discuss it proved challenging even before news about Kricfalusi broke. The documentary also addresses Kricfalusi's hostility toward collaborators and the show's struggle to even meet air dates.
"It was very difficult to get everybody because the show ended on such a bad note -- it was like a divorce," Cicero said. "So, when we called up the initial artists, they were like, 'Why are you wanting to dig up this divorce that happened in my creative family 25 years ago?'"
Cicero said Ren & Stimpy animators Bill Wray and Scott Wills were among the first to agree. They convinced other collaborators to talk to Cicero and Easterwood. At that point, they didn't have Kricfalusi to interview, so sought archival footage to represent him in the film. Some of that footage remains in the final cut.
"Nowadays, everyone's got a cell phone," Easterwood said. "At least 100 pictures a day are taken at someone's work, but back then, nobody was walking around with cameras. We had to scrape and beg and borrow and steal from a lot of the artists that maybe took some pictures at a birthday party one night."
The most helpful find was a collection of VHS tapes, including behind-the-scenes footage recorded at the animation studio while they were producing Ren & Stimpy.
"That really helped us out a lot because you got to see what the actual studio looked like back then," Easterwood said. "We really, really had to ask, beg and make people go into their garage and pull out boxes they haven't touched in 20 years."
Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story premieres Tuesday at the Sundance Film Festival.
###
From
Salt Lake City Weekly:
Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story ***1/2 [Documentary Premieres]
โWarts and allโ documentaries have an inherent intrigue, but thereโs a particular jolt that comes from what this story ultimately explores. On the most basic level, itโs the story of the groundbreaking 1990s Nickelodeon cartoon series The Ren & Stimpy Show, focusing on creator John Kricfalusi and his team of innovative animators. Thereโs plenty of material simply involving the show itself, from its near-immediate popular and artistic success, to Krisfalusiโs firing from the show, to the many other creators influenced by its style. But the ability of directors Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood to get Kricfalusi himself on camera makes it possible to dig into the perfectionism and abusiveness towards collaborators that led to the showโs implosion, as well as the stories that ultimately emerged about his grooming of and long-term sexual relationships with underage girls. Itโs a rare #MeToo-era film that allows us not just to look into the face of a sexual predator as he responds to what has been said about him, but to wrestle with how we are supposed to think about wildly creative works once we know the darkest truths about those who created them. (Scott Renshaw)
###
From
MovieMaker:
Ren & Stimpy Doc Makers Explain Why They Didnโt Tell a #MeToo StoryThe directors of Happy Happy Joy Joy, a Sundance documentary about the โ90s cartoon Ren & Stimpy and its creator, John Kricfalusi, thought they were done with their film two years ago. Then BuzzFeed broke a story about Kricfalusi and two underage girls.
The directors, Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood, knew they needed to address the BuzzFeed report โ and Kricfalusiโs admission that he had what he considered a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship with Robyn Byrd when she was 16 and he was in his early 40s. But Cicero and Eastwood were also committed to their original concept for Happy Happy Joy Joy.
โWe always knew that we were not going to make a #MeToo documentary,โ Easterwood told MovieMaker. โWe had to stick to our original plan, which was a Ren & Stimpy documentary. โฆ We just couldnโt get that deep into it because we wanted to stick to our original idea for a film.โ
That decision has led to some criticism of Happy Happy Joy Joy, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival Tuesday and traces the rise and fall of Ren & Stimpy, a grotesquely beautiful cartoon about an abusive chihuahua and co-dependent cat.
Kricfalusi lost control of his creations in a series of clashes with Nickelodeon, which aired the cartoon in the early 1990s. Cicero and Easterwood spend about 90 minutes on that story before turning to Kricfalusiโs involvement with the two girls.
โCicero and Easterwood have no idea how to handle the information in that Buzzfeed story, even with Byrd as a candid, but not too candid, talking head in the documentary,โ reads the Hollywood Reporterโs review of the film. โThe directors gently push Kricfalusi for an unspecified apology, which he begrudgingly gives as part of a creepy plea for Byrd to contact him, positioning the entire situation as something unsavory and less-than-kosher, but far from borderline criminal. Make no mistake: Byrdโs Buzzfeed allegations are borderline criminal.โ
The Buzzfeed story, which we recommend reading in its entirety, says Kricfalusi had inappropriate relationships with both Byrd and Katie Rice when they were teenagers who wanted to break into animation.
Byrd says she was 13 when Kricfalusi first wrote to her, and that he first touched her in a sexual way when she was 16. Rice told BuzzFeed that Kricfalusi made graphic sexual remarks to her during phone calls when she was underage, and sexually harassed when she became his intern.
Kricfalusi says in Happy Happy Joy Joy he would โdefinitely apologizeโ to Byrd and โadmit to what I shouldnโt have done, that I did do.โ He also expresses guilt and adds that he always had what he believed to be her โbest interests at heart.โ He tells the filmmakers he didnโt realize how hurt Byrd was, and adds that he wishes he could apologize to her in person, adding, โGive me a call, please.โ
The directors told MovieMaker they decided to make the film after someone suggested Ren & Stimpy as a rich subject for a documentary โ long before the BuzzFeed story.
โIt actually started out as a documentary celebrating the show,โ Cicero said. โNeither of us were fans. Kimo hadnโt even seen an episode before.โ
When the story broke, Cicero says, they suddenly realized: โWe have a toxic movie.โ The dilemma was what to do about it. Abandon the project, or rework it to address the revelations? The film was self-financed, and they were โdevastated,โ Cicero said.
โThis is our first film, this was supposed to be our calling card. And now itโs tainted,โ he says he thought at the time.
Byrdโs willingness to talk with them helped get the project back on track, he added. Kricfalusi, who had previously declined to participate, agreed to talk with them as well.
But that led to questions about how to approach him, and how much to press him for a detailed response to the BuzzFeed story.
Cicero said he and Easterwood were careful โnot to take a side.โ
โFirst of all, we got John to talk on camera about these allegations,โ Cicero said. โSeveral of them we addressed with him and asked him about, and as you saw in the film, he said, look, I donโt want to get into a lot of it, but he did ultimately talk about what happened with Robyn and for us it was really important not to take a side โ not to say, oh, weโre condoning this โ no.โ
Cicero continued: โWhat weโre doing is, weโre presenting all the facts, which right now, by not taking an opinion and saying, โThis guy is awfulโ and spending two hours just pillorying him, is almost revolutionary, because these days, itโs like, either youโre a CNN person or youโre a Fox person, youโre giving your opinion, and we kind of felt that itโs led to this intellectual laziness. And obviously weโre not condoning pedophilia and weโre not condoning his behavior and we address it in the film. Whatโs kind of the bigger issue is how do you separate, or do you separate, the art from the artist?โ
He added: โWe wanted people to make up their own mind.โ
Rice was invited to take part in the film, but declined, Cicero said.
In a statement for the BuzzFeed article, an attorney for Kricfalusi said: โ1990s were a time of mental and emotional fragility for Mr. Kricfalusi, especially after losing Ren and Stimpy, his most prized creation. For a brief time, 25 years ago, he had a 16-year-old girlfriend. Over the years John struggled with what were eventually diagnosed mental illnesses in 2008.โ
The attorneyโs statement also said that โfor nearly three decades [Kricfalusi] had relied primarily on alcohol to self-medicate,โ but that he has since โworked feverishly on his mental health issues, and has been successful in stabilizing his life over the last decade.โ
No one expects Happy Happy Joy Joy to be the last documentary to struggle with whether or not to become a #MeToo story. The situation sets off a debate about documentary ethics that will only become more pressing as we look at once-celebrated artists with increased scrutiny and awareness.
Happy Happy Joy Joy, Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwoodโs documentary about Ren & Stimpy and creator John Kricfalusi, premiered Tuesday at the Sundance Film Festival. It does not yet have distribution.
###
From
KPCW:
In Sundance Doc, "Ren And Stimpy" Saluted; Its Creator Is Scorned For History Of Sex AbuseThe Sundance documentary โHappy, Happy, Joy Joyโ turns out to be two different stories. One is a fond look back at the ground-breaking animated series โRen and Stimpy.โ
But the other half of the film looks at the revelations of sexual abuse by the showโs creator.
The film-makers say they themselves were surprised by the twist.
In a Q and A after the premiere of the film this week, co-director Ron Cicero said they had completed a version of the film that was a nostalgic celebration of the early-90โs Nickelodeon series, which fans say has been an influence on just about every animated show since then.
Then in early 2018, Buzzfeed reported the accusations of two women that the showโs temperamental creator, John Kricfalusi, or โJohn Kโ had groomed and lured them into sexually abusive relationships when they were underage.
Cicero said they re-tooled the film to include the new information, with remarks especially from one accuser, Robyn Byrd. The film also reported stories of him mistreating his employees and the conflicts with Nickelodeon, which ultimately got him fired from the show.
Cicero told the audience they just wanted to present the evidence on a story that had many different perspectives.
โYouโre gonna talk to so many different people, and theyโre gonna be so many different perspectives. And everybody from their perspective is right on John, on the show. And what made this so incredibly complex is that you have people that suffered, like Robyn, at the very one end of the extreme, to people that worked with John who suffered, to fans. We interviewed a lot of fans, not all of them made it up on film of course, but would say, โLook, the last time I saw my mom smile was when we were watching โRen and Stimpyโ just before she died of cancer. This is a show that hit people very deeply. Itโs heartbreaking to see them conflicted.โ
He said the film considers the question, โ How is the art affected by the artist?โ Cicero said theyโre not telling the audience how to answer.
โBoth in entertainment and in wider society, how do youโItโs not just art vs. artist. How do you balance the trauma of a few against the needs of millions.โ
He said hopefully the film starts a discussion of how to prevent this kind of abuse.
Co-director Kimo Easterwood said that Kricfalusi refused to talk to them until the abuse reports surfaced. He said that despite his easy-going faรงade before the camera, he was an evasive, volatile character who would just walk away when they sometimes got into sensitive areas.
Cicero said when they pressed him to apologize to Robyn Byrd, they were amazed by his response.
โYou look at his body language and how he makes that apology. And I think if you had any empathy as a human being, you look at that guy, going โWowโ Itโs just, still to this day, it just has not computed. โHey Robynโ And this was a critical decision, we felt, in the editing room. We could have edited very easily before he said, โHey Robyn, why donโt you gimme a call?โ But to us, that was just such a key into his psyche. Itโs just like, I couldnโt even imagine.โ
During the discussion, an audience member stood up and said she too was a victim of John K. in the Nineties.
โI just wanna say, you could have ignored us survivors when the news first broke, taken your already-finished film and ran with it for some safe, comfortable nostalgia piece. But you didnโt. โThis is your story tooโ you said to us. And you listened to us after so many years of so many adults failing us. So from the bottom of this non-binary personโs heart, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for putting in the work to give us a voice in this story.โ
The film ends with Kricfalusiโs comments, but Cicero said they followed that with a cartoon sketchโand a captionโthat conveys their judgment on the animator.
Nevertheless, Vanessa Coffey, the โRen and Stimpyโ producer featured extensively in the film, stood up in the Sundance audience and scolded the film-makers for the ending.
โAfter watching the film and even before, I have no empathy for John K. None. He was brutal to everybody. And the question I have for you as film-makers, and knowing heโs an abusive guy/pedophile, why did you give him the last word? Why? Why? (Cicero) Thatโs a great question. And I think the last image says, โYou monsterโ I donโt know if you saw that on screen. But thatโs how we handled it. We didnโt think that there was any more powerful way, than literally writing on screen that heโs a monster.โ
In the end, Robyn Byrd, also in the audience, got in a brief comment of her own.
โWhen you said that, I just wanted to say, donโt worry, Iโm not gonna call him.โ
Robyn Byrd, featured in the Sundance documentary โHappy Happy, Joy, Joy.โ
###
From
Variety:
โHappy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Storyโ: Film ReviewThe meteoric rise and contentious fall of the envelope-pushing 1990s cult cartoon series is charted in this lively documentary.With: Matt Kennedy, Scott Webb, Vince Waller, JJ Sedelmaier, Elinor Blake, Tom Minton, Lynne Naylor, Bobby Lee, Iliza Shlesinger, Chris Gore, Jim Ballantine, Bob Camp, Chris Riccardi, Richard Pursel, Billy West, Vanessa Coffey, John Kricfalulsi, Robyn Byrd, Bill Wray, Jack Black.
Running time: 107 MIN.
For many the 1990s were the Age of Irony, with hipster cultural touchstones like Spy magazine and the TV show โStrangers With Candyโ helping make snark the preferred flavor of the day. โThe Simpsonsโ was also a big player in that area, yet arguably no cartoon series before had been quite so postmodern as โThe Ren & Stimpy Show,โ which premiered a couple years after it in 1991. While Matt Groeningโs creation still chugs on decades later, way past its pop-phenomenon peak yet remaining a valuable Fox commodity, John Kricfalusiโs was short-lived โ and his own control of it even shorter.
โHappy Happy Joy Joyโ is both an homage to an inspired endeavor and a cautionary tale illustrating how even the greatest popular success can be brought down by unchecked ego, perfectionism and โartistic temperamentโ at the top. Feature debutants Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwoodโs documentary is a very entertaining recap that grows more disturbing as it wades into the dysfunctional behavior that doomed the show, and still somewhat taints its legacy. It should prove a hot item among the seriesโ many past and ongoing fans.
A compulsive drawer fascinated by animation from an early age, Kricfalusi formed Spumco Studios in 1988, though his pre-โRenโ professional activities are barely noted here. Assembling a group of talented specialists equally dissatisfied with the cheap, generic, merchandizing-focused toons that had dominated childrenโs television for decades, they hoped to bring back the artistic glory days of โgolden eraโ Looney Tunes and such. While uninterested in the specific concept he sought to pitch, Nickelodeon executive Vanessa Coffey encouraged Kricfalusi to develop two subsidiary characters that caught her fancy.
Thus was born โThe Ren & Stimpy Show,โ variously described here as โIf Tom and Jerry opened up a portal to Hellโ and โA dog and cat are friends but live on the precipice of insanity and death.โ It took the wild physical and psychological exaggeration of Bob Clampettโs classic Warner Bros. shorts to berserk new extremes, with the misadventures of psychotic, asthmatic Chihuahua Ren (initially voiced by Kricfalusi) and dim, loyal, hapless cat Stimpy (Billy West) inevitably bending toward the violent and gross.
The content was envelope-pushing enough to create public controversy (particularly as it was on a child-targeting network), as well as incessant battles with Nickelodeon brass. But that crazed absurdism, combined with a striking hand-drawn visual style, also made for an immediate ratings hit and object of faddish obsession. Kricfalusiโs gifted staff were gratified to be working on something so cutting-edge, even at the cost of enduring extremely long hours and a somewhat tyrannical, abusive boss. But their environment grew worse when he broke up with girlfriend-collaborator Lynn Naylor, whoโd been a mediating influence. And when the network upped its second-season episode order in response to overwhelming demand, Kricfalusi became even more maddeningly difficult. Coffey says she had no choice but to terminate his and Spumcoโs involvement when he flatly refused to cooperate with any future deadline or budgetary limitations. Company co-founder Bob Camp was promoted to creative director on the showโs subsequent seasons, which ended in 1995 and are generally regarded as inferior.
It was a spectacular wipeout that Kricfalusi took hard. But the role he assumed of sensitive genius thwarted by crass moneymen is somewhat undercut by co-workersโ latter-day testimony, as well as glimpses here of his later work, which was so nastily โextremeโ (including a โRen & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoonโ canceled after just three episodes) that it suggests Nickelodeonโs squeamishness actually did his sensibility a huge favor.
At Sundance the documentary directorsโ noted that โHappy Happy Joy Joyโ was virtually completed almost two years ago when BuzzFeed broke the story that fans Robyn Byrd and Katie Rice had been manipulated into abusive relationships with Kricfalusi while still teenagers. This revived tales of his creating a hostile work environment even by Hollywood standards while adding a new level of pederastic ick. Soon after, the hitherto uncooperative Kricfalusi (as well as Byrd) agreed to extensive interviews, which were woven into the smoothly restructured feature. He duly strikes a posture of shame for his predation toward underage women. But he seems resistant to any grasp of the notion that his behavior was responsible for what happened to โRen & Stimpy,โ or to his career in general.
Needless to say, thereโs a lot of archival material to draw on here, from peeks at the showโs well-documented creation to various promotions and influences. (Kirk Douglas at his most histrionic was evidently a great favorite among the animators looking for exaggerated character expressions on the continuum between rage and panic.) Key personnel are garrulous and colorful in reminiscence, not least Kricfalusi himself. It is lost on none of them that their bratty broadcast baby opened the door to virtually all boundary-stretching, โAdult Swimโ-type cartooning since.
โHappy Happy Joy Joyโ is predominantly fast-paced fun that will be catnip for animation fans, despite the admittedly gruesome (yet engrossing) dark side to this tale. Notably, the titular song that was โRen & Stimpyโsโ single most viral (albeit pre-internet) sensation is never heard here. All excerpts from the show are presented in slightly altered ways (on an on-screen television, etc.), further suggesting some rights issues the film had to finesse around. As an overall package, however, itโs appropriately slick and punchy.
'Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story': Film Review
Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival, Jan. 29, 2020. Running time: 107 MIN.
PRODUCTION: (Documentary) A Ladies & Gentlemen presentation of an Invader production. (Int'l sales: Submarine, New York City.) Producers: Ron Cicero, Kevin Klauber. Executive producer: Cicero. Co-executive producers: Peter Wade, Ryk Maverick, Casey Dobson, Jason Anders.
CREW: Directors, writers: Ron Cicero, Kimo Easterwood. Camera: Easterwood. Editors: Sean Jarrett, Christina Burchard, Kevin Klaubner, Cicero, Easterwood.
WITH: Matt Kennedy, Scott Webb, Vince Waller, JJ Sedelmaier, Elinor Blake, Tom Minton, Lynne Naylor, Bobby Lee, Iliza Shlesinger, Chris Gore, Jim Ballantine, Bob Camp, Chris Riccardi, Richard Pursel, Billy West, Vanessa Coffey, John Kricfalulsi, Robyn Byrd, Bill Wray, Jack Black.
###
From
Geek Vibes Nation:
โHappy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Storyโ Review โ Sundance 2020It was during the 1980s that John Kricfalusi looked out on the animation landscape and was disgusted by what he saw. Everything was lifelessly drawn and perfectly packaged to market action figures and other merchandise to the masses in an inoffensive manner. There was no true passion behind the medium that had sparked wonder inside him as a child, and he was determined to do something about it. Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwoodโs โHappy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Storyโ details the creation and destruction of one of the most important shows of the 1990s and the polarizing figure at the center of it all.
John K. originally pitched a variety show entitled โYour Gangโ which was passed on by the Nickelodeon executives at the time, but they did take a shine to the characters of Ren & Stimpy, which led to the production of their own series. This initial era of development is showcased as a free-for-all of creativity from a shaggy little upstart called Spumco. The film provides detailed interviews from the creative team that proves to be equal parts โthose were the daysโ nostalgia and โI donโt know how we survivedโ shell-shock. Most agree that creator John K. was a creative genius who put his entire heart into crafting the best show possible, but the legend of his temper and unyielding demands led to a great number of fractured relationships both creatively and personally.
Kricfalusi would argue that his methods were effective as โThe Ren & Stimpy Showโ debuted to some of the highest ratings in cable that had been seen up until that point. The film highlights the genuine love that the fans developed for the show as stars like Jack Black and Iliza Shlesinger explain how this show was unlike anything they had seen before. With this immense popularity came the desire for more content from a creator that was becoming more difficult to manage with every episode. Not only was John K. sparring with Nickelodeon Standards & Practices and encouraging his team to ignore network notes, he was pushing his team to the breaking point and being a perfectionist to the detriment of everyone and everything, including the longevity of the show.
The documentary offers an objective look from all parties involved from the network executives and the animation staff to the prickly creator himself. This footage is what elevates this film from a mere history of one of the greatest animated series ever to air to something more immediate and important. Throughout the film John K. is labeled as many things, but it is not until certain #MeToo revelations in the final act that the film gives you an emotional gut-punch that puts you in a state of stock and reframes the interview you have been witnessing throughout. While he appears to believe that his apologies are enough to wash away the specter of abuse that hangs in the air, the audience is left to reckon with the fact that great art is often tied up with detestable figures, and it is up to them to see what they can tolerate.
โHappy Happy Joy Joyโ offers an in-depth look at the development and highlights of the beloved not-really-for-childrenโs show that should satisfy both die-hard fans and those interested in a story of narcissism run amok.
Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival, January 30, 2020. Running Time: 107 MIN
โHappy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Storyโ will be playing at The Big Sky Documentary Festival, as well as other major US and international events in 2020. Distribution plans have not currently been disclosed.
###
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