Ren and Stimpy, one of the first "creator" driven cartoons since Walt Disney.
The independent animation driven cartoon/animation series was key in television programming in the 1990's - culminating with Matt Groenig's The Simpsons but was actually a re-occurring cycle in the animation industry that hadn't seen this kind of explosive growth in American culture since Walt Disney.
In the 1990's TV networks like UPN, Nickelodeon, and MTV scrambled to find the same success as Fox's Simpsons achieved. John "K" Kricfalusi was the creative force behind this Nickelodeon series - directing the animation and voicing the cantankerous chihuahua Ren. Billy West, one of the most versatile voice actors today, voiced the idiot cat Stimpy and later Fry and the Professor in Matt Groenig's Futurama. John K describes the animated duo of Ren and Stimpy as 1/2 Larry Fine (of the Three Stooges) and 1/2 Petter Lorre.
After the series was cancelled, Kricfalusi, due to an exlusive contract, lost all character rights for Ren and Stimpy to Nickelodeon. Since then John K has developed several other less successful characters for his production company, Spumco, before shutting down original animation production in 2007.
References:
- Wikipedia, The Ren And Stimpy Show
- Angelfire, Ren and Stimpy Audio Dump
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