Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story Review

 
NR (It’ll be rated R though)Runtime: 1 Hr and 47 MinutesProduction Companies:  INVADERDistributor: N/ADirectors: Ron Cicero, Kimo EasterwoodCast: John Kricfalusi, Vanessa Coffey, Robyn Byrd, Chris Reccardi, Richard Pursel, Bobby LeeRelease Date: N/ARen & Stimpy, the infamous cat and dog duo. You know their names, and most of you who are currently reading this probably have nothing but fond memories of the series. It was one of Nickelodeon’s debut original programming alongside Rugrats and Doug in 1991 and was the most ambitious animated series that revolutionized animation television programming in the ’90s. Everybody had fond memories of the series, until 2018 when news broke out that creator John Kricfalusi sexually harassed and groomed former Spümcø animators, Robyn Byrd and Katie Rice, while they were underage. This tainted the show forever. As much as I loved Ren & Stimpy, it was a huge pill to swallow if I ever wanted to revisit. It’s like listening to R. Kelly's music. I can’t fucking do it because all I can think about is his child grooming and sexual abuse crimes. Now you have the doc, Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story, that begs you to rewatch the series, but with only the animators in mind. 
For fans of Ren & Stimpy or die-hards of the animation community, the film gives you a deep dive into its humble beginnings and relays the truths on how the show came to be; where it wasn’t an idea sold to Nick by a pitch, but rather, was developed with them, for they were two characters who stood out. The film brings into light what the state of animation was at the time prior to Nickelodeon creating original series. It was a business where cartoons based on toy properties with limited, cheap animation were running the show, and it was blatant commercialism at its absolute worst.Because of this being more focused on the property and timeline of Ren & Stimpy and how it came to be, there are some inspiring and relatively funny stories to be told. Such as the story of the glory days at the now-defunct animation company Spümcø, how the team pushed back censors, and how much fun the animators had. But the highlight that struck a chord is the initial story of Kricfalusis and his original collaborators hustling their way through Hollywood in order to get their foot in the door in the industry. Many up and coming animators are still trying to do this so it felt comforting to hear how, even then, they had to do the same. Happy Happy Joy Joy has a similar vibe to the Fyre Fest doc, where they give the disgraced subject a platform to speak without manipulating the audience or swaying them to feel empathy towards the subject — as the words from the horse’s mouth spill showcasing their true personality. Yet unlike Billy McFarland, Kricfalusi can put his money where his mouth is. When you see a Kricfalusi piece of art, you know it's his. And when he had his team, they made such amazing things. Storyboard artist credits in the title cards were non-existent until Kricfalusis fought for it, and short-format animated television still follows that today. At the same time, through his interviews, archival footage, and stories from his past colleagues and superiors, the true Kricfalusis comes to light. He’s clearly an artistic talent with style, but was just so mad with power and was fueled by his own ego, which led him to one of his many firings from his own series. After the many times Nick told him to stop including innuendos, he always found a way to sneak them in. Tell John Kricfalusis not to do something and he’d often respond to his superiors with:
All the collective responses from past animators and storyboarders who worked on the series express how difficult he was to work with, while at the same time, highlighting how energetic he was regarding going through boarding process on episodes where he would physically act them out himself in an over the top animated manner to match the series. But when the episode, “Man’s Best Friend,” went unreleased, you know shit hit the fan and, boy, does the doc reveal that Kricfalusis did some king ego shit. As the camera sets on him, letting him speak, he sounds so disingenuous and defensive over his actions.  Even when asked if there's anything he could've done differently, he says, "That’s an impossible question to answer," when the director responds with, ”No, it's not." I even love how the doc showcases his post-1992 work without any executive interference and just lets the footage of his NSFW projects show without sound, just footage, while the chilling score plays. And, holy shit, were they gross and tasteless. For some reason, I felt like it asked the question to the remaining fans of his work:
Happy Happy Joy Joy makes it clear it wasn't just Kricfalusis that made Ren & Stimpy special and unique, it was a collaborative effort with the crew that shaped it into a classic. It’s a testament to the art of animation, where it's a group effort first and foremost. Animation is more than creator-driven — it’s artist-driven. 
It falls into some trappings in documentaries that I tend to get annoyed by. Such as cutting to comedians or famous familiar faces who had nothing to do with the series expressing how great it was, how it inspired them or how much they loved it when they were young. Like you get cameos from Jack Black, Bobby Lee, Iliza Shlesinger, and it’s truly unnecessary. It’s a personal pet peeve of mine, which becomes borderline distracting.
The documentary doesn’t hold much back when relaying the truth about the toxic nature of the show’s creator and his monstrous acts. But I feel the more destructive parts of him are only addressed and not explored. Like it dives more into Kricfalusi having a huge ego more so than him being an actual pedophile. When it comes to handling the accounts of Robyn Byrd, who is featured here, I feel like it was handled well and with respect, but feels far too brief when it’s such a major discussion. During Byrd’s footage expressing her personal experience being with Kricfalusi, there are jump cuts of her telling a tidbit from one story to the next without hearing many of them in full. She gets her platform to speak on the topic, but then they cut to Kricfalusi and his response to it, and he does an on-screen apology that ALSO feels disingenuous, even down to him asking Robyn to call him when you know good and well she doesn’t want anything to do with him. I remember following Byrd & Katie Rice’s story where Kricfalusi went to respond by saying how the article had “some general truth” to it and how he used that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder along with ADHD as an excuse. A response from him on camera is the last thing anyone should ever want because that’s only providing him with some sort of closure, which is the wrong thing to do. Even down to the final moments, Byrd thankfully has the final say and says something powerful that will go down in my personal mantra and should for others as well:  "I believe pain makes great art, but you don't need to keep inflicting pain to make great art.”Rating: 3.5/5 | 70%