Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Show: Film Review

Directors: Ron Cicero, Kimo Easterwood

When it premiered on Nickleodeon in 1991, The Ren & Stimpy Show was an animated blast of fresh air in an industry that had become stale with conformist cartoons and stale franchises.

Anarchic, almost disgusting and definitely feeling like it was created on some kind of drugs, the show, which centred around an angry chihuahua and a docile cat and their friendship, was like nothing that had been on TV.

Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Show takes a look at the phenomenon and also thrusts its creator John Kricfalusi into the spotlight - for better and for worse.

But what Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Show also does is throw the show's other creators and workers into the limelight, giving them their due and also using them to show that groundbreaking series require more than just one person.

That said, Cicero and Easterwood give more than enough time to the show's initial creator, John Kricfalusi, an at times temperamental artist, whose penchant for workplace abuse comes sadly to the fore in the latter stages of the doco.

It's an intriguing tale of the heady rise, and eventual fall of an obsessive creator, but what Cicero and Easterwood do is fail to fully capitalise on the darker parts of the final revelations about Kricfalusi and potential paedophilia claims levelled on him. The disturbing behaviour feels confined to the end of the film, and while it's obvious that the directors don't want to sully everyone with that brush, it can't help but leave a conflicted taste in the viewer's mouth.

It taints the almost group vibe of the show's creation, and in a month where Joss Whedon is in the spotlight for apparently abusing his power on the set of Buffy and Angel, it leaves yet another childhood joy shattered in the darkness of male abuse.

It's here the conflict emerges - how far does one go to distance the people from their art? And it's a fascinating discussion which Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Show seems to hint at, but never looks to explore, merely being content to set out an argument that the show was a talented team, not just one man. Certainly, when Kricfalusi is asked about the abuse, there's never the feeling that he's fully pushed on it by the interviewers.

Still, most of Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Show is very much like a "getting the gang back together to reminisce" DVD extra, but with a lot of archival footage thrown in to thread it all nicely and competently together.

It's an enjoyable reminder of how groundbreaking Ren and Stimpy were, and how influential - but it also serves to salute the entire team of artists and creators, as well as the network who initially supported and finally fought the show.

A fascinating but troubling insight into an anarchic megalomaniac ingenue it may not be, but there's no doubt that Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Show is a doco that deserves praise for showing creation and subsequent success is always due to a team of players, rather than a team of just one boundary pusher.

Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Show is airing now on DocPlay