The Ren & Stimpy Show Season 1 (1991)
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The Ren & Stimpy Show Season 1 Review
The Ren & Stimpy Show is a cartoon series directed by John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon. The first season aired in late 1991.
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“I love being angry!
Thank you, Stimpy!“
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Let’s first comment upon the overall aspects of the show. First off, the animation. I find it actually very good for television standards. It’s a very authentic show in that it features two incredibly unappealing, ugly animals while also focusing on weird imagery. It thus accompanies its very adult, gross-out and physical humor very well.
The score is also good with the opening theme being solid. I personally find the character interactions the biggest selling point of this show. Ren is the nervous Chihuahua and a smarter one whereas Stimpy is the dumb part of the duo as this very stupid, oddly designed cat. Their banter and overall interactions are usually fantastic.
The show features segments instead of episodes. Each episode consists of two segments. The first season has twelve segments. And I personally find almost every segment different in story so I am going to watch them as separate episodes myself.
Stimpy’s Big Day and The Big Shot! feature a wonderful opening story where Stimpy becomes famous in Hollywood and leaves Ren who goes sad and lonely. Eventually, they reunite. It’s such a sweet story, though it would have been more moving had it been saved for future seasons.
Robin Hoek is a fine, but not that memorable Robin Hood parody whereas Nurse Stimpy has a terrific premise very well executed in terms of its scenario. Space Madness has such wonderfully weird space imagery and it succeeds as this crazy SF outing.
The Boy Who Cried Rat! has a solid premise, but not that great of an execution. The Littlest Giant is a parody that really works this time around with Stimpy stealing the show in the main role.
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Fire Dogs is fine, but forgettable. Marooned is another offbeat and weird space adventure. Untamed World is a solid island adventure with particularly strong animation and animal designs. Black Hole is another fine space episode, but the season has too many of them admittedly. Stimpy’s Invention is by far the standout as the perfect episode to close out the season. It explores Stimpy’s loyalty and care for Ren who is angry and loves to be angry. It’s a character-rich episode that really works.
Overall, the first season of Ren & Stimpy has its weaker episodes and it’s very short in runtime, but there are quite a few very strong stories here and the season excels at character development and the duo’s great, fun interactions.
Worst Episodes: Robin Hoek and Fire Dogs.
Best Episodes: Marooned and Stimpy’s Invention.
