Revolutionary Character
19 November 2007
John Kricfalusi is one of the most innovative and outspoken animator/directors of the past two decades. Kricfalusi, or “John K.” as friends and associates call him, is probably best known for the cartoon Ren & Stimpy, the TV series featuring two demented, wildly antisocial and always inappropriate characters. Kricfalusi is also no stranger to commercials, having recently completed award-winning and wildly successful campaigns for Old Navy, Comcast, and Nike. He just signed with Hoytyboy Pictures in San Francisco to represent him worldwide for commercial work. We caught up with him during a hastily arranged interview at his home in Burbank, California.
According to Hoytyboy executive producer Clint Goldman, signing the Canadian-born animator was the perfect fit for Hoytyboy Pictures. “John K. is like the rest of us here, he wants to do innovative and entertaining work,” says Goldman. “John has revolutionized the style and content of modern cartoons across the board, from spots to TV and the internet. He’s really cartoon animation’s modern pioneer. A true master, fan and advocate of the genre.”
For his part, Kricfalusi was looking for a production company that would represent him for all the right reasons. Although in the past loosely affiliated with several commercial production companies, John K. has recently garnered work on reputation alone (through his own Spumco studio) from agencies such as Wieden & Kennedy and Goodby, Silverstein. “These creatives come to me for all the right reasons,” says Kricfalusi. “My commercials have won some awards, sure, but more importantly, they have sold product,” he says. “In this age of TIVO, I try to make entertaining commercials that the audience doesn’t fast-forward through. They want to be entertained. I believe in selling the product first. I want to be creative, but my creativity is in service of getting the viewer to like the product and want to buy it. The consumer has to want to watch a commercial for it to be effective.”
Both on his blog sites and in-person, Kricfalusi describes his career beginnings in the eighties as the “dark ages of cartoons.” “I worked on a lot of crap, morning cartoons being churned out by the animation factories,” he says. During this frustrating period he and other disgruntled cartoonists developed and pitched their own cartoon creations. “Picture this, a frantic and extremely sweaty guy pitching some great cartoon ideas.”
Ralph Bakshi was the first to appreciate John Kricfalusi’s talent and hired him to direct Bakshi's CBS Mighty Mouse. It was while working on this cartoon that Kricfalusi realized that a new production system was needed to maintain artistic control throughout the entire process. He soon hired a team of artists that started the “creator-driven” revolution. The witty, satirical show was lauded by kids and critics alike, while making competing studios take notice of the innovative production process.
Kricfalusi would further refine this “Director-Unit” system with his landmark TV series Ren & Stimpy, featuring the demented, wildly antisocial and hilariously over-the-top antics of the two title characters. The smashing success of John K.’s series revolutionized the style and content of modern cartoons, while inspiring a plethora of subversive cartoons soon to follow, (i.e. Beavis and Butthead, South Park and Sponge Bob). John K.’s Ren & Stimpy also brought back into vogue the thick-lined, flat retro cartoon style (Dexter’s Lab, Fairly Odd Parents) seen in so many of today’s animated series.
Every major studio now uses styles, looks and humor influenced by Kricfalusi, and he continues to consult with both his peers and major studios such as Hanna Barbera and the Cartoon Network. Having pioneered the use of FLASH, John K is very active on the internet. Besides his blogs, Kricfalusi just recently completed internet based campaigns for Raketu and the aforementioned Comcast. The animator/director has also worked his animation prowess on various kid’s programming, music videos and even some high quality toys of his own design.
Now at Hoytyboy, Kricfalusi in very intrigued by the possibilities of adding CGI to his mix. “I’m very interested in applying my talents to the computer graphics world,” he says. “And I would love to collaborate with Spaz (director Steve Williams) on something. I guess it looks like I'm finally going to get my chance.”
