Ren and Stimpy

Ren and Stimpy are the eponymous characters of two cartoon television series created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi. Ren Höek, a neurotic "asthma-hound" chihuahua, and Stimpson J. Cat, a fat simpleton (but occasionally intelligent) cat, wander around in nonsensical adventures reminiscent of the . Kricfalusi created the characters in 1979 while working for low-budget TV cartoons after moving to the USA.

Ren & Stimpy on other home video formats

The Ren & Stimpy Show was previously released on VHS video tape in the USA and Canada by Sony Wonder. These tapes contain mainly the original Spumco episodes of the show.

Related Topics:
VHS - Sony

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The tapes contained the same edits as Nickelodeon's first screenings. However, "Ren & Stimpy: More Stinky Stories" contains an edited version of the short "The Big Baby Scam". The entire sequence where the family take a bath is very crudely deleted from the cartoon, meaning that it no longer makes sense.

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Eventually, the rights for Nickelodeon's programming on home video were transferred to Paramount Home Video and taken away from Sony. Only one cassette was released under the Paramount label, "Have Yourself a Stinky Little Christmas". Like all of the other Paramount cassettes of Nickelodeon shows, they were recorded in the EP/SLP format which gives very poor image quality.

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Several tapes, mainly containing episodes produced by Games Animation, were released in the United Kingdom in the PAL format (not playable on conventional US VCRs). These included: "Ren's Brain", which contained that particular cartoon as well as some others, "Space Madness", which includes that episode as well as four other space-themed episodes, "For the Love of Stimpy", and "As Stinky as They Wanna Be". Bill Wray painted the covers for each of these UK-only cassettes. Each one is rated PG by the British Board of Film Classification, which contrasts to the earlier tapes consisting mainly of Spumco shorts that typically received U (all ages) ratings.

Related Topics:
PAL - VCR - British Board of Film Classification

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Ren & Stimpy was also released on LaserDisc in the USA by Sony Wonder. The disc is called "Ren & Stimpy: The Essential Collection" and has the same program content (but of course, in much higher quality) as the Ren & Stimpy Classics and Classics II VHS tapes. The disc is recorded in CLV mode, is double-sided, and has Digital Sound.

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