Around five years ago at the
Alamo Draught House Cinema here in Austin, I attended a special program of unseen & uncensored
Spumco cartoons hosted by Spumco boss (and
Ren & Stimpy creator)
John Kricfalusi (John K. for short). He didn't mention
the proposed
Three Stooges cartoon series from a few years
back, probably since that project died so fast that all that came out of
that was a bizarre-looking set of Stooges 12" dolls (
seen here).
John did point out, however, that the Stooges were a great influence
on how he makes his characters move, and in some cases even how
they act! Specifically, he showed us what was then a never-shown
double-length Ren & Stimpy cartoon called
Altruists which he said was inspired by the way the Stooges would treat
each other so viciously, yet would bend over backwards to aid a
total stranger in need - especially (but not exclusively) if the needy
soul happened to be a pretty lady. In
Altruists, Ren & Stimpy
go to Herculean lengths in their efforts to aid a poor, homeless
young mother and her handicapped (headless) young son!
And if that doesn't already sound like fun on a stick, the cartoon
kicks right off with a painful passel of Stooged-out fisticuffs!
Altruists is included on the 2-DVD set Ren & Stimpy - The Lost Episodes (2006)During the show, I also noticed a cartoon to add to the list of
animated shorts "featuring" the Stooges: In
Ralph Bakshi/
John K's groundbreaking 1987
New Adventures of Mighty Mouse,
the Second Season episode entitled
A Star Is Milked includes a scene [@
7:48] where Mighty joins up with an animated
Moe and
Larry (no
Curly?!?) for some serious slappin' & bonkin';
Bakshi is the director, and regular series villain
The Cow plays
the part of the matronly society lady who takes a faceful of pies -
after the boys do a
Wm. S. Burroughs-esque cut-and-paste
variation on the old "Where's our tools?" schick. Woo, woo!
A Star Is Milked is on the 3-DVD set Mighty Mouse: The New Advs. - The Complete Series (2010)(NOTE: If there are any
Michael Jackson fans in your household, do NOT let them see the finale of this cartoon!
You have been warned!)
-- mnw
