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The cartoon
 
Despite the faults of the season premiere, Onward and Upward, this second cartoon is vastly superior and does a great job of recapturing what made the show good back in its Golden Age. Ren Seeks Help is a psychodrama much in the vein of Space Madness and Stimpy's Invention, giving us an insight into what makes Ren tick.
Unlike Onward and Upward, this cartoon doesn't feel stretched. It's set up well, and has development, build-up and tension without giving you the feeling that the artists were ticking off the minutes. If anything, it feels a little too rushed, especially in the last few minutes. There is a wealth of material here, and I'm sure the cartoon could have supported an even longer running time if it was given one.
I wasn't much of a fan of the way a number of the Games cartoons would rewrite the characters' history, but it doesn't seem like a problem here. In the Games cartoons, showing Ren and Stimpy in the trenches of WW1 in The Last Temptation (for example) felt completely gratuitous and seemed to be nothing more than a cheap throwaway gag, but here the subject matter justifies giving Ren a background, a childhood and parents. Ren and Stimpy have always been characters that can be put into just about any situation, so in my opinion changing their history isn't really any different from the constant practice of making them live in a different house in virtually every cartoon.
There's some great (and bizarre) voice acting in this cartoon. Eric Bauza isn't given much to do as Stimpy, beyond screaming and wailing, but John K does some incredibly twisted stuff as Ren, exaggerating his accent and going to depths he has never reached before. The scene where he whispers in Mr. Horse's ear (coupled with a wonderfully perverse pose) is quite disturbing. Interestingly, Ren's father is voiced by John K's own dad. He's not a great voice actor, but knowing this little piece of behind the scenes trivia makes it much funnier.
I don't know what the budget for this cartoon was, but I'm willing to bet it was significantly more than the majority of the first and second season shows. The look is very rich, with an incredible amount of detail in the drawings (which are, incidentally, some of the best ever to be seen on the show), with a look of smooth and intricate animation. Six different storyboard artists worked on this cartoon, and while it's not clear who is responsible for what (the artists' individual styles seem a lot harder to separate in the new shows), they are all up to the task. Of the three new shows that have currently been released, all of them have a larger than usual number of storyboard artists, whereas the old cartoons usually just had one or two.
The color palette is great too, and the backgrounds have that old MGM feel to them: completely different from the surreal shapes and paint splotches usually used on the show.
Ren Seeks Help is not a perfect film (as I mentioned before, the climax feels rushed), but in my opinion it's the best piece of TV animation for almost a decade.
Standout moment: "You're fuckin' crazy, that's what's wrong with you!"
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Ren Seeks Help
- Story by John K. & Richard D. Pursel
- Storyboard by Steve Stefanelli, Helder Mendonca, Jeff Amey, Derek Bond, Tavis Silbernagel, John K.
- Background Design by: Nick Cross
- Background Color Styling by: Kristy Gordon
- Layout Supervision by: Helder Mendonca
- Ink & Paint and Special FX by: Dulcie Clark's PiP Animation
- Animation directed by Bob Jaques
- Directed by John K.
Writings
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