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John Kricfalusi
John Kricfalusi at San Francisco's Castro Theatre in July 2006
Born	Michael John Kricfalusi September 9, 1955 (1955-09-09) (age 54) Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada
Other name(s)	Raymond Spum John K.
Occupation	Animator/Voice actor
Years active	1979–present
Official website

John Kricfalusi (pronounced Kris-falusi, born Michael John Kricfalusi), better known as John K, is a Canadian animator. He is creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, The Ripping Friends animated series, and Weekend Pussy Hunt, which was billed as "the world's first interactive web-based cartoon," as well as the founder of animation studio Spümcø International.

Career

Work with Ralph Bakshi

Kricfalusi's first cartoon was a short called Ted Bakes One, which he produced with Bill Wray in 1979, for a cable channel.^[1] From the late 70s to the mid 80s, Kricfalusi worked for Hanna-Barbera on various cartoons, the best one in his opinion was the 1980s revival of The Jetsons. He recalls being "saved" from having to work on these cartoons by director Ralph Bakshi, who'd worked with him before in 1981 and 1982.^[2][3][4] They had teamed up for the film Bobby's Girl, but it was not picked up for production.^[3] Under Bakshi, Kricfalusi directed the animation for The Rolling Stones’ 1986 music video Harlem Shuffle. Their most successful project was Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, based on the classic Terrytoons character. The series was well-received, and it is considered the forerunner of creator-driven cartoons.^[5][6] Kricfalusi directed eight of the twenty-six episodes and supervised the series.^[7] Mighty Mouse was eventually cancelled after it experienced some controversy for allegedly depicting the main character snorting cocaine. Ralph Bakshi maintained that neither he nor John had the character sniffing cocaine, and that the character was sniffing the crushed petals of a flower, which was handed to him in a previous scene in the cartoon.^[8][9][10] Kricfalusi left to work on The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil, where he teamed up with many of the people who would later work with him on The Ren and Stimpy Show.^[11]

Ren & Stimpy

Kricfalusi formed Spümcø International animation studio with partners Jim Smith, Bob Camp and Lynne Naylor.^[12] They had pitched for several networks The Ren & Stimpy Show, which ended being picked up by Nickelodeon. The show came to garner high ratings for Nickelodeon,^[12] but the network disagreed with Kricfalusi's direction of the show, and disapproved of his missed production deadlines.^[13] 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.^[14] One of the episodes, "Nurse Stimpy," did not meet John K's approval, leading him to use the alias Raymond Spum in its credits.^[15][2] Nickelodeon fired Kricfalusi from production of the series in 1992, leaving it in the hands of Nickelodeon's Games Animation studio, which continued producing it for three more seasons before its cancellation.^[16]

Post-Nickelodeon

Björk music video, web-cartoons, Hanna-Barbera cartoons, Tenacious D music video, and The Ripping Friends

From 1993 to '94, John K contributed many articles to the animation magazine Wild Cartoon Kingdom under various aliases.^[17] During '95 and '96, he directed the music video for Björk's song I Miss You,^[18][19] and created Weekend Pussy Hunt for MSN, which was billed as "the world's first interactive web-based cartoon." Production under MSN stopped before the cartoon was finished, and later resumed under Icebox.com, after the release of Spümcø's own web-based Flash cartoon, The Goddamn George Liquor Program.^[20][21][22] Between 1998 and 2001 he directed and animated several Hanna-Barbera cartoons for Cartoon Network: three Yogi Bear cartoons, Boo Boo and the Man, A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith and Boo Boo Runs Wild, and two Jetsons cartoons, Father & Son Day and The Best Son.^[2] In 2001, Tenacious D released a music video for the song Fuck Her Gently, produced by Kricfalusi.^[23] From 2001 to 2002, FOX Kids aired the TV series The Ripping Friends, created by Kricfalusi and Jim Smith. John felt the show's supervisors were doing away with the Spümcø style, and was displeased with the direction of the show.^[24]

The return of Ren & Stimpy

In 2003, Spike TV produced a new show featuring Ren & Stimpy entitled Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon, which was written and directed by John K. Most of the stories were based on fan ideas and scripts that were rejected by Nickelodeon during the original show's run. According to John K, Spike pushed for more "South Park"-like themes in the new show. He criticized the new show for its overuse of toilet-humor and its slow pacing.^[25][26] Only three episodes aired on Spike before the show was officially cancelled in 2004, and the complete series was ultimately released on DVD in 2006, which includes three additional episodes that never aired.

Looney Tunes Golden Collection

Kricfalusi provides several audio commentaries in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volumes 2 and 3 (DVD sets of classic Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons) and appears in some of the bonus featurettes as well. Typically, Kricfalusi does commentary on the Bob Clampett cartoons, whom Kricfalusi often praises for his fast-paced and nutty style. John refused to do any more commentaries after volume 3 because of artistic integrity. He disapproved of the method of restoration for the cartoons through DVNR (Digital Video Noise Reduction), which tends to erase parts of the artwork, and oversaturate the colors. However, he provided commentary on one cartoon on the fifth volume: Buckaroo Bugs.

Post-Spike

Weird Al music video, more Tenacious D, Class of 3000, and George Liquor

On February 13, 2006, Kricfalusi started his own web log, John K Stuff, posting about cartoons and the animation industry. The site was originally intended for other artists and entertainers, and specifically other cartoonists.^[27] That year, 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.^[28][29] 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.^[30][31][32] 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.^[33] In 2008, Kricfalusi was developing a series of cartoon commercials for Pontiac Vibe starring George Liquor and Jimmy The Idiot Boy.^[34] The series remained unreleased after General Motors discontinued the Pontiac Vibe auto line in 2009.^[35][36]

Between the 21st and 24th of October, 2009, John K made his blog private. On the 24th it was made public again, and he explained: "I never expected to get thousands of visitors a day, I just put it up for a few of my cartoon friends, but now it's become a stranger responsibility and understandably, personal opinions are not always welcome in public."^[37]

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 kid, and by studying cartoons and their production systems from the 1940s and '50s.^[1][38][39] He says his influences are Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Frank Sinatra and Kirk Douglas.^[40] His Myspace page mentions Milt Gross, Tex Avery, Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Elvis, Don Martin and Robert Ryan under "heroes".^[41] 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."^[42]

Art book

PictureBox, a Brooklyn based publishing company, stated on their website: "PictureBox is publishing the definitive book of John’s work – from childhood through Ren and Stimpy to today – in late 2009."^[43] Animation historian Amid Amidi commented on Cartoon Brew, "[PictureBox is] releasing what is shaping up to be one of the must-have animation books of the year. And I’m not just saying this because I’m the editor of the project. This book is about one of the most influential figures in contemporary animation, and everybody involved is working hard to ensure that it turns out properly."^[44] Wired News reported that the book, titled The Art of John K. and Spumco, is due to be released in 2010.^[45]

References

External links

• John K Stuff - John K's blog that discusses mostly cartoons (formerly titled "All Kinds of Stuff")
• John K's blogger profile listing his curriculum for cartoonists, show pitches, and several other blogs.
• John Kricfalusi at the Internet Movie Database