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Ren & Stimpy - Seasons Three and a Halfish
RRP: £29.99
Our Price: £10.97 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Though the third season of John Kricfalusi's much-loved Ren and Stimpy animated series has been the subject of much controversy among devotees of the show and its creator, there is still enough cat/dog insanity to warrant viewing. Some fans' problems with the season revolve around the fact that Nickelodeon, which was airing the program, removed Kricfalusi and his Spumco team from the show's production and replaced them with Games Animation, which reproduced Ren and Stimpy's signature artwork, but without the absurd spark of the first and second seasons (at least by those fans' estimation). However, a perusal of the 29 episodes compiled on this three-disc set (which offers the entire third season and a smattering of the fourth, which concludes on the Season Five and Some More of Four set) does turn up some worthwhile episodes, most notably "Ren's Pecs" (Ren develops a rippling physique after injecting fat from Stimpy's posteior), "Jimminy Lummox" (Stimpy's conscience takes the form of a monstrous singing lout), "Powdered Toast Man vs. Waffle Woman" (no explanation needed there...), and the surreal "House of Next Tuesday" (R & S visit the title domicile to escape giant ants). All this, plus several visits to "Untamed World," appearances by the irascible Wilbur Cobb, Jerry the Bellybutton Elf (who resides inside Stimpy's navel)--and scads of commentary tracks, including eleven from Kricfalusi and his Spumco team, and two from Ren and Stimpy themselves. Though the loyal may be divided on these seasons, completists will want to add this round of lunacy to their DVD animation collections. --Paul Gaita
Under-rated
Review date: 2008-04-12 Rating: 10 out of 10
No reviews yet? Allow me...
An awful lot of people have heard someone else say that Ren And Stimpy suffered after creator John Kricfalusi left, or rather, was booted off his own show. These people then say the same thing themselves, and so begins a pattern. Teenagers in particular are quick to jump on bandwagons where they get to claim the earliest of something (Metallica albums, Red Dwarf episodes) are the best, without really knowing what they're talking about. I was wholly guilty of this myself many years ago. The Ren And Stimpy Show is one of those programs that unfortunately carries that stigma. Some say its not as extreme as the Spumco episodes were, and therefore not as good. Firstly, they're wrong; the quality of insanity in this third season of R&S is unparalleled, and Kricfalusi is the first to admit it. He has often complained about how he was fired because his ideas were too warped, only to have the show continue with arguably stranger concepts. Secondly, a wacky plot does not a good episode make, evident in second season duds like "Son Of Stimpy". For me, this represents the peak of the show, when the animation was at its best and the humour, most importantly, was at its funniest, without relying on gross-out gags for laughs. While Billy West is less effective as Ren as John K. was, he still shines as Stimpy, perhaps his greatest role.
The DVD set also features commentary from the exiles, John K. and his animation team, talking about episodes they'd never before seen, let alone been involved with. Their reactions to how their show was continued after they left are very interesting, and its not something your often treated to on a DVD. It'd be like hearing Bryan Singer talk about X-Men 3, or Connery talk about Moonraker - unexpected but very cool. When they're not talking about the episode specifically, they speak about how the show came about and how important R&S was in putting creator personality back into animation for the first time since Looney Tunes.
This set is a must have for any fan of one of the most original and imitated shows of the 1990s, and whether you think there was a decline in quality or not, there's no denying that these episodes are a hell of a lot of fun.
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Product Details/Specifications
Artist(s):
Ren and Stimpy
Recording label: Paramount Home Entertainment (UK)
Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment (UK)
EAN: 5014437920935
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 3
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2007-07-16
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 379 minutes
Language: English (Original Language)