 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Animation |
| Founded | December 29, 1989; 35 years ago (1989-12-29)[1] |
| Founders | |
| Defunct | July 18, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-07-18) |
| Fate | Ceased operations, closed |
| Successor | Nickelodeon Animation Studio |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles,California, U.S. |
Key people |
|
| Products | |
| Website | Spumco's Wonderful World of Cartoons! |
Spümcø, Inc. (/ˈspuːmkoʊ/SPOOM-koh; stylized asSPÜMCØ) was an Americananimation studio that was active from 1989 to 2005 and based inLos Angeles,California. The studio was best known for working on the first two seasons ofThe Ren & Stimpy Show forNickelodeon and for various commercials.[3] The studio won several awards, including anAnnie Award for Best Animated Short Subject for themusic video of the song "I Miss You" byBjörk.[4]
Spümcø was founded by animatorsJohn Kricfalusi,Bob Camp,Jim Smith andLynne Naylor.[5] Kricfalusi named the company after the fictional person "Raymond Spüm", whom he jokingly described as the inventor of animation.[5] Thegolden age of American animation (exemplified by the 1940s cartoons byBob Clampett andTex Avery) served as inspiration for thesurreal and highly expressive house style of which Spümcø became well known.[6][7]
In the 1980s, animatorsJohn Kricfalusi andLynne Naylor attempted to sell original cartoon ideas while working for various animation studios, includingFilmation.[5][relevant?] Spümcø was officially founded inHollywood in 1989 by cartoonists Kricfalusi, Naylor,Bob Camp andJim Smith, who were all disappointed at the state of animation and had either been laid off or quit from other animation companies.[5] Soon thereafter,Nickelodeon announced that they were looking for new cartoons created by cartoonists.[5]
Kricfalusi explains the name Spümcø: "Well, it's a weird coincidence. The wordspüm is the word for 'quality' in Danish. But it's actually named after Raymond Spüm, the guy who invented animation in 1856."[8] Despite Kricfalusi's claims,Spüm is actually not a Danish word and Raymond Spüm is a fictional figure.
The Spümcø headquarters were located in Los Angeles, west ofParamount Studios at 5625Melrose Avenue in a bland concrete industrial building. Amy Harmon ofThe New York Times described the "not-quite-underground headquarters" as "a nondescript building".[9]
A few months after founding Spümcø, Kricfalusi pitched five cartoon ideas to Nickelodeon.Geraldine Laybourne, the president of Nickelodeon at the time, picked two of these:Ren & Stimpy andJimmy the Idiot Boy, the former being initially rejected by three other major American television networks.[5] Ultimately, Kricfalusi decided to sellRen & Stimpy to Nickelodeon, which led to Spümcø's first animated series production,The Ren & Stimpy Show.[5]
Because Nickelodeon had no original cartoon material prior to the hiring of Kricfalusi, the network was unaware of the basic process of producing an animated cartoon.[5] Kricfalusi volunteered to give Nickelodeon executives an informative background of cartoonists using storyboards for storytelling in animated cartoons, rather than a script.[5]Vanessa Coffey, who became the executive forThe Ren & Stimpy Show, listened to Kricfalusi's lessons and background briefing of the animation industry, and was pleased to learn about how the process works.[5] Coffey agreed with Kricfalusi that, "If storyboards were good enough forBugs Bunny, they were good enough for her."[5]
Spümcø finished the pilot "Big House Blues" in October 1990 and it aired on August 11, 1991, premiering alongsideDoug andRugrats.[10] Spümcø continued to produce the show for the next two years, while encountering issues with Nickelodeon'sstandards and practices. Over the next couple of years, a number of episodes werecensored.
Kricfalusi described Nickelodeon in the earliest period as being "simple" as there was one executive, Coffey, whom he said that he got along with. Kricfalusi said that another executive, who came during a later period in the show, tried to prevent some of theRen & Stimpy episodes from being produced. According to Kricfalusi, the episodes continued production since he had established a "trade" with Coffey of balancing "really crazy" episodes with "heart-warming" episodes.[11]
Nickelodeon fired Kricfalusi in 1992, and Nickelodeon moved production from Spümcø toGames Animation.[12] Kricfalusi confirmed that the primary reason for the Nickelodeon executives' decision seemed to be due to the level of violence inRen & Stimpy. He specifically referred to the episode "Man's Best Friend", which features Ren beating the characterGeorge Liquor with anoar, as the probable cause for his firing.[13] Nickelodeon banned the episode from airing; the episode did not air in North America untilRen & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" began in 2003.[13]
Bill Wray, a production artist forRen & Stimpy, described the main issues regarding Kricfalusi's conflict with Nickelodeon as not being able to meet deadlines for production. Wray stated that Kricfalusi attributed the delays to Nickelodeon "not approving things fast enough", and Nickelodeon staff members "changing their minds" over what can or cannot be produced. Wray said that Kricfalusi believed that the product's quality holds more importance than meeting deadlines, and that he perceived Nickelodeon as "slowing him down".[14] According to Wray, Kricfalusi believed, "[E]very step after thestoryboards weakens the process", and that he "fought for the integrity of the storyboards", and lengthened production time because he wished to salvage the quality of the series.[15] Wray stated, "On some occasions Kricfalusi completed an episode in eight months. Other occasions, he completed an episode in two or three months." Wray described Kricfalusi's ideal production period per episode as four half-hour cartoons per year, and added that the arrangement would not "jibe with our production schedule".[16]
Kevin Kolde became a key figure of the company, working as a vice president and general manager, enabling Spümcø to continue producing content for over a decade after the original run ofRen & Stimpy.
In 1997,Björk, a long-time fan of Kricfalusi's work, insisted on him doing an animatedmusic video for her when they met at one of her concerts.[4] Kricfalusi subsequently directed the music video for "I Miss You", a single that was released the same year.[4] It premiered onMTV as well asCanada'sMuchMusic channel andAsia'sChannel V.[4] "I Miss You" won anAnnie Award for Best Animated Short Subject in 1997, from theInternational Animated Film Association,ASIFA-Hollywood.[4]
A variety of techniques were used for the production of the video: traditional 2-Dcel animation by Spümcø and Colorkey Productions; 3-D computer animation supervised by Charlie Gibson at Rhythm & Hues; real-timemotion captureanimation by House of Moves; and blue screen mattes brought live-action into the mix.[4] The live-action sequences with Björk were shot in aLos Angeles studio in one day.[4] The entire music video took nine months to complete.[4]
In 1997, Spümcø launched their very own website to distribute cartoons without television network censorship.[17] Kricfalusi decided to useGeorge Liquor, a cartoon character he created, to star in theFlash Internet cartoon seriesThe Goddamn George Liquor Program.[17] The series premiered on October 15, 1997.[18]The Goddamn George Liquor Program was the first cartoon series to be produced exclusively for the Internet.[19] George appeared on the series with: his nephew, Jimmy The Idiot Boy; Jimmy's cousins, Slab and Ernie; Jimmy's love interest, Sody Pop; and George and Jimmy's pet dog, Dirty Dog. Spümcø produced eight one-minute shorts.[20] In 1999,The Goddamn George Liquor Program won anAnnie Award for "Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Interactive Production".[21]
In 1999, Spümcø created its second Internet-only cartoon series,Weekend Pussy Hunt.[22] The series had 12 episodes, with 4 cartoons unfinished due to budget problems. The series starred Dirty Dog and Cigarettes the Cat. When asked about the style of the cartoon series, creator Kricfalusi stated:
Its style was a 1940s live action film-noir movie and we based one of the characters "Dirty Dog", on one of my favourite movie actorsRobert Ryan. "WPH (Weekend Pussy Hunt)" was basically a chase movie; a really dark hardboiled thriller.[23]
In 1999, Spümcø produced and animated aYogi Beartelevision specialparody titledBoo Boo Runs Wild, which premiered on September 24, 1999, onCartoon Network as part of the Yogi Bear marathon.[24] The animated short focuses on Yogi Bear's sidekick,Boo Boo Bear, who becomes fed up with the rules of man and decides to return to his natural bear roots.[24] Though it focused primarily on Yogi and Boo Boo, it was titled as a "Ranger Smith cartoon". A second Ranger Smith cartoon aired alongside it, titledA Day in the Life of Ranger Smith,[25] as well as twoJetsons cartoons titledFather & Son Day andThe Best Son.
After Nickelodeon fired Kricfalusi fromThe Ren & Stimpy Show in September 1992, he had plans to make a feature film starring the world's "manliest men".[26] The feature film plan was scrapped, but the characters were then used in the 2001 animated series,The Ripping Friends. As early as a 1987 story session for theMighty Mouse: The New Adventures, Kricfalusi had proposed using a wad of gum as a character, an idea which was used to create the first villain for the new series,Indigestible Wad.[27]The Ripping Friends premiered on September 22, 2001, and ran until January 26, 2002.[28]
During 2002, afterThe Ripping Friends had been cancelled, Kricfalusi was contacted by cable network TNN (later Spike TV, nowParamount Network)[29] which was struggling for ratings and needed a new audience.[29] In June 2003,Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" premiered with three episodes, ones which used plots developed forThe Ren & Stimpy Show.[29] The entire show was produced by Spümcø, which had complete creative control over the content.[29] The animation was produced by Carbunkle Cartoons andPiP Animation Services. The series also premiered along with a formerly censored episode from the first two seasons ofThe Ren & Stimpy Show.[29] The plot ofAdult Party Cartoon focused on the adventures of the duo from the original cartoon series.[29] Six episodes were originally meant to air during the summer of 2003, but were delayed for a year along with the rest of Spike TV's "Strip", mainly because of the risqué "Naked Beach Frenzy" episode.[29] Spike TV planned to bring the show back with the final remaining episodes on August 20, 2004, but delayed the series and cancelled it in early July 2003.[29] On July 18, 2006,Paramount Home Entertainment released a DVD collection titledRen & Stimpy: The Lost Episodes, which contained uncensored versions of all of theRen & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" episodes.[30]
In these years, Spümcø co-produced three video games for which they provided character designs and animations. The first two games wereYoake no Mariko andYoake no Mariko 2nd Act, two voice acting simulation games in which the goal is for the player to deliver fitting performances of lines from movie scenes of different genres that are playing on-screen. The games were developed in collaboration withSony Computer Entertainment, and released exclusively in Japan for thePlayStation 2 on December 6, 2001, and January 24, 2002, respectively.[31][32][33][34] The third and final game wasGo! Go! Hypergrind, a skateboarding game released on theGameCube byAtlus in North America on November 18, 2003. It features a crew of 11 animated characters who compete to become the next star of an upcoming Spümcø animated show on extreme skateboarding. The game's story states thatToon World is helping Spümcø "to renew interest in the medium and revive the struggling economy [of traditional cel animation]".[35]
On July 18, 2005, Kricfalusi decided to shut down Spümcø shortly thereafter, following alawsuit by Carbunkle which was filed against Spümcø in the Canadian court system over royalties and credit forBob Jaques's contributions toRen and Stimpy. In the summer of 2008, Kricfalusi made a partial payment to Jaques after Jaques had ceased seeking legal action against him.[36] The Spümcø trademark expired in 2007.[37]
Spümcø's influence onNickelodeon Animation Studio was immaculate, as basically every person of note who worked at Spümcø had varying involvement in productions by the studio.Doug Lawrence, a layout assistant on the show, became a key writer onRocko's Modern Life; he would also do so forSpongeBob SquarePants. Members who initially refused to join Games Animation, includingVincent Waller andRichard Pursel, co-foundersBob Camp andLynne Naylor, Games Animation hiresChris Reccardi andWilliam Wray as well as later Spümcø employees includingAaron Springer would work onSpongeBob of varying capacities; Waller serves as a showrunner on the series as of 2024.Jim Smith also joined the studio to work forThe X's, with Kricfalusi apparently allowed to return for a voice cameo.
In 2016, it was announced onTumblr that Kricfalusi and formerCartoon Network storyboard artist Gabe Del Valle were starting a new studio based in the Los Angeles area and were seeking new employees.[38] The name of the studio was not included in the announcement, but was inferred to be "Spümtwø" by the presence of "spumtwo" in the contact email. However, the announcement was removed from Del Valle's Tumblr account sometime afterward, most likely due to Del Valle being rehired by Cartoon Network shortly afterward.[39]
On March 4, 2017, Kricfalusi announced a second new studio to be based inMiami, Florida, named John K. Studios.[40] The studio's only project was an animated short forAdult Swim, which advertised the then-upcomingUFC 200 match on July 9, 2016, produced prior to the announcement of forming the company.[41][42] The short was referred to as the "big project" in Del Valle's previous announcement. However, as of July 2018, the studio website is offline.
In 2013, a website was created to promote a documentary about the Spümcø animation studio. A teaser trailer was posted on Vimeo which included brief interviews with Kricfalusi, Spümcø staffer Eddie Fitzgerald and self-proclaimed Spümcø fan and singer-songwriter"Weird Al" Yankovic, and clips fromRen & Stimpy and other former Spümcø series, giving the impression that it was authorized by Kricfalusi. However, sometime in 2014 or 2015 the website was taken down and the Vimeo account was deleted without notice or explanation. Many of Kricfalusi's fans were left wondering if the people involved in the project were unable to get further funding or a distribution agreement or that they could not obtain the proper licensing to use clips.[citation needed]
On February 1, 2013,Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren and Stimpy Story was published by animation historian Thad Komorowski. The book contains the detailed history of Spümcø and theRen & Stimpy cartoons.[43]
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