Career

Entering the animation industry

After moving to Los Angeles, Kricfalusi was introduced to Milt Gray by Bob Clampett, suggesting he should join Gray's classical animation class. Gray was working for Filmation at the time, and soon Kricfalusi found work there as well, getting his start on the shows like Super Friends and The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show. His first independent cartoon was a short called Ted Bakes One, which he produced with Bill Wray in 1979 for a cable channel. From 1979 to the mid-1980s, Kricfalusi worked for Filmation and later Hanna-Barbera and DIC Entertainment on various shows which he once described as "the worst animation of all time." However, he did enjoy his work as a layout artist on the 1987 series of The Jetsons as he was able to train a team of Taiwanese animators to draw characters more emotive and wild, which at the time was considered radical. He recalls being "saved" from having to work on horrible cartoons by director Ralph Bakshi, who'd worked with him before in 1981 and 1982. They began working on the designs for the film Bobby's Girl, which was sold to Tri-Star but later cancelled. Under Bakshi, Kricfalusi directed the animation for The Rolling Stones' 1986 music video "Harlem Shuffle."

Mighty Mouse

The team's most successful project was Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures for CBS, based on the classic Terrytoons character. The series was well-received, and it is considered the forerunner of creator-driven cartoons. Kricfalusi directed eight of the twenty-six episodes and supervised the series. At the beginning of the second season, Kricfalusi left the show. The production of Mighty Mouse was very different from other cartoons at the time, gaining creative and artistic leeway thanks to the success of the irreverent Pee-wee's Playhouse on CBS a year before. The animators had much more creative input, driven by Kricfalusi's production system that emphasizes artistic contribution in every step of the process, from outline to storyboard to layout to the animation.

Mighty Mouse was cancelled amidst controversy for allegedly depicting the main character snorting cocaine. Ralph Bakshi maintained that neither he nor Kricfalusi had the character sniffing cocaine, and that the character was sniffing the crushed petals of a flower, which were handed to him in a previous scene in the cartoon. In 1994, Kricfalusi pitched a revival series of Mighty Mouse to Paramount, which would have featured other Terrytoons characters such as Deputy Dawg, but they rejected the idea.

Beany and Cecil

Kricfalusi left Bakshi's studio to work on The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil for ABC, where he teamed up with many of the people who would later work with him on many of his Spümcø projects. ABC had been negotiating for the production of the show with the Clampett family, who insisted that Kricfalusi would be part of the production due to his friendship with the family. The long negotiations delayed the start of production to mid-July, causing much of the animation to be rushed in order to meet the September deadline. Tensions rose between Kricfalusi and ABC over the tone of the show, leading to an uncomfortable atmosphere for the show's crew. The more ABC strove to soften the show, the more Kricfalusi pushed for shocking and offensive material. The Clampett family were ultimately not very happy with the cartoon, but remained supportive of Kricfalusi. ABC cancelled the show after six episodes, finding the humor not suitable for children's programming.

Ren & Stimpy

Kricfalusi formed Spümcø animation studio with partners Jim Smith, Bob Camp and Lynne Naylor. They began working on a pilot for The Ren & Stimpy Show on behalf of Nickelodeon, after the eponymous characters were favored by Nickelodeon producer Vanessa Coffey in a presentation by Kricfalusi. The pilot was very well received, leading to the production of the first 13 half-hour episodes of the show. The show came to garner high ratings for Nickelodeon, and at the time was the most popular cable TV show in the United States, but the network disagreed with Kricfalusi's direction of the show, and disapproved of his missed production deadlines. Kricfalusi points specifically to the episode "Man's Best Friend", which features a violent climax where Ren brutally assaults the character George Liquor with an oar, as being the turning point in his relationship with Nickelodeon. One of the episodes, "Nurse Stimpy", did not meet Kricfalusi's approval because of the low quality of the rough cut of the episode that they received from the overseas studio, leading him to use the alias Raymond Spum in its credits. Nickelodeon fired Kricfalusi from production of the series in late September 1992, leaving it in the hands of Nickelodeon's Games Animation studio, which continued producing it for three more seasons before its cancellation.

The Ripping Friends

Fox Kids started airing the TV series The Ripping Friends in 2001, created by Kricfalusi and Jim Smith. Kricfalusi had previously tried pitching the show in the late 80's, but networks considered it "too extreme" so did not pick it up. Kricfalusi felt the show's supervisors were doing away with the Spümcø style, and was displeased with the direction of the show. He was not fully involved in the show until half-way through production and considers the episodes he was involved in to be experimental. One of his contributions to the show was directing the voice-actors, which he "really worked-out" so much that he was afraid he'd give one of them a heart-attack.

Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon"

In 2003, Spike TV produced a new show featuring Ren & Stimpy, which was written and directed by Kricfalusi. The first three episodes were based on fan ideas and scripts that were rejected by Nickelodeon during the original show's run. According to Kricfalusi, Spike pushed for more South Park-like themes in the new show. While he was initially pleased with the added freedom afforded to him by Spike, he later expressed disappointment in the series due to its slow pacing and overuse of toilet humor. Only three episodes aired before Spike's entire animation block was "put on hold", and the complete series was ultimately released in 2006 on DVD including three additional episodes that never aired. Kricfalusi also wanted to release an episode titled "Life Sucks" straight to DVD, but the episode remains unproduced.

Other projects

Collaborations with Fred Seibert

After leaving The Ren & Stimpy Show, Kricfalusi consulted, and other Spümcø animators worked for Donovan Cook's 2 Stupid Dogs, which was put into production by Hanna-Barbera president Fred Seibert. The cartoon's credits read "Tidbits of Poor Taste Supplied by John Kricfalusi" for the three "Little Red Riding Hood" episodes: "Red!", "The Return of Red" and "Red Strikes Back". In 1994, Hanna-Barbera and Seibert started production on What A Cartoon!, also known as World Premiere Toons for Cartoon Network. Siebert approached Kricfalusi for advice and for recommendations for personnel to head the shorts, among them David Feiss, Tom Minton, and Eddie Fitzgerald.

Music videos

Kricfalusi directed Icelandic singer Björk's animated music video for the song I Miss You in 1995, which features Björk and the character Jimmy the Idiot Boy. Jack Black of Tenacious D approached Kricfalusi to produce a music video for the song Fuck Her Gently from their debut album, released in 2001. Black browsed Kricfalusi's website and, since both he and his band-mate Kyle Gass held Ren & Stimpy in high regard, he asked Kricfalusi to produce the video. The costs amounted to $40,000. Initially, Sony Music did not allow the video to be placed on Tenacious D's website and instead placed it on the record label Grand Royal's website, but later relented. In 2006, Kricfalusi directed two music videos, and served as art director for an animated musical segment. The first music video, for Close but No Cigar by "Weird Al" Yankovic, was released in September, on the DVD side of the DualDisc album Straight Outta Lynwood, which features Kricfalusi's character Cigarettes the Cat. The second music video was for Classico by Tenacious D, starring the band members as cartoon characters. He animated them again in a THX logo parody for the band's feature film, The Pick of Destiny. Kricfalusi served as art director for a musical segment in the show Class of 3000 entitled Life Without Music, which first aired on November 3, 2006. In 2014, he produced art for Miley Cyrus's Bangerz Tour.

Internet cartoons and Hanna-Barbera shorts

Venturing into Internet cartoons, Kricfalusi created Weekend Pussy Hunt in 1996 for MSN, which was billed as "the world's first interactive web-based cartoon." The cartoon, which was released in segments, was scheduled to be completed on June 1997, but production under MSN stopped before it was finished. Production later resumed under Icebox.com after the release of Spümcø's own web-based Flash cartoon, The Goddamn George Liquor Program. Between 1998 and 2001 Kricfalusi worked on several Hanna-Barbera cartoons for Cartoon Network: three Yogi Bear cartoons which he directed and animated, Boo Boo and the Man, A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith and Boo Boo Runs Wild, and two Jetsons cartoons which he produced, The Jetsons: Father & Son Day and The Jetsons: The Best Son.

Cartoon commentaries, magazines, and other media

Kricfalusi contributed several articles in 1993 and 1994 for the magazines Film Threat and Wild Cartoon Kingdom under various aliases. Kricfalusi appears in several bonus featurettes and provides audio commentaries for the Looney Tunes Golden Collection volumes 2, 3 and 5, for cartoons directed by Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones. On February 13, 2006, Kricfalusi started his own weblog, John K Stuff, posting about cartoons and the animation industry. The site was originally intended for other artists and entertainers, and specifically other cartoonists. As of 2014, Kricfalusi became a part of the advisory committee for the website Animation Resources, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing education tools for animation students, enthusiasts and professionals alike. He shares this position alongside other animation luminaries, such as Ralph Bakshi, Sherm Cohen, Will Finn, David Chai, J. J. Sedelmaier, Steve Stanchfield and Mike Van Eaton.

Commercials and freelance work

Kricfalusi directed commercials for Comcast and Voice over IP company Raketu in 2007. He was developing a series of cartoon commercials in 2008 for Pontiac Vibe starring George Liquor and Jimmy The Idiot Boy, but the series remained unreleased after General Motors discontinued the Pontiac Vibe auto line in 2009. He developed and animated a series of bumpers using Toon Boom Harmony for Adult Swim in 2011 and again in 2015. He animated the opening couch gags of two episodes of The Simpsons, "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts", which aired in October 2011 and "Treehouse of Horror XXVI" which aired in October 2015. He collaborated with streetwear brand Stüssy to create a short series of apparel based on his designs in 2012, which he promoted with a commercial featuring some of his characters. Also in 2012, he funded through Kickstarter a cartoon short entitled "Cans Without Labels" starring the character George Liquor, which remains unreleased as of 2015. The advertising agency Muhtayzik-Hoffer hired Kricfalusi in 2013 for an ad campaign for F'real milkshakes. He was involved in the early development of many Reel FX projects such as the 2013 film Free Birds, a pitch for a film adaptation of the Dr. Seuss book Happy Birthday to You! and a pitch for a film he created with Jim Smith. He posted the concepts for these projects on his blog.

Influences

Kricfalusi says he is mostly self-taught, having only spent a year in Sheridan College, barely attending class. He acquired his skills largely by copying cartoons from newspapers and comic books as a child, and by studying cartoons and their production systems from the 1940s and 1950s. His main influence is Bob Clampett, and he also names Chuck Jones, Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas, Milt Gross, Tex Avery, Peter Lorre, The Three Stooges, Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Elvis Presley, Don Martin and Robert Ryan. Michael Barrier, an animation historian, said that Kricfalusi's works "testify to his intense admiration for Bob Clampett's Warner Bros. cartoons" and that no cartoonist since Clampett created cartoons in which the emotions of the characters "distort their bodies so powerfully."

Further reading

• Thad Komorowski (2013). Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. BearManor Media. ISBN 9781593932343.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]