Entering the animation industry After moving to Los Angeles, Kricfalusi was introduced to Milt Gray by
Bob Clampett, suggesting he should join Gray's classical animation class. Gray was working for
Filmation at the time, and soon Kricfalusi found work there as well, getting his start on the shows
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids,
The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle,
The New Adventures of Flash Gordon,
The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show, and ''
Gilligan's Planet. His first independent cartoon was a short called Ted Bakes One
, which he produced with Bill Wray in 1981 for a cable channel. From 1979 to the mid-1980s, Kricfalusi worked for Filmation on the aforementioned shows and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and later Hanna-Barbera on Super Friends, Richie Rich, The Little Rascals, Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour, Pac-Man, The Gary Coleman Show, Snorks, The Smurfs, The Jetsons and The Flintstone Kids, and DIC Entertainment on Heathcliff; he once described these shows as "the worst animation of all time". However, he did enjoy his work as a layout artist on the 1985 series of The Jetsons'' as he was able to train a team of Taiwanese animators at
Cuckoo's Nest Studio to draw characters more emotive and wild, which at the time was considered radical. He recalls being "saved" from having to work on these cartoons by director
Ralph Bakshi, who had worked with him before in 1980 and 1982. They began working on the designs for the film ''Bobby's Girl'', which was sold to
TriStar Pictures but was later cancelled. Under Bakshi, Kricfalusi directed the animation for
The Rolling Stones' 1986 music video "
Harlem Shuffle". In 1981, Kricfalusi applied to work on
The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie.
Virgil Ross liked his drawings, but
Friz Freleng rejected the application, feeling that Kricfalusi's Bob Clampett-inspired style did not fit the film. Angered, Kricfalusi wrote post-it notes criticizing Freleng, pasting them on one of his cels from 1991, "The Squirt".
Mighty Mouse The team's most successful project was
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures for
CBS, based on the classic
Terrytoons character. The series was well-received, and it is considered the forerunner of creator-driven cartoons. Kricfalusi directed eight of the twenty-six episodes and supervised the series.
Mighty Mouse was cancelled amidst controversy for allegedly depicting the main character snorting
cocaine. Bakshi maintained that neither he nor Kricfalusi had the character sniffing cocaine, and that the character was sniffing the crushed petals of a flower, which were handed to him in a previous scene in the cartoon. In 1994, Kricfalusi pitched a revival series of Mighty Mouse to
Paramount, which would have featured other Terrytoons characters such as
Deputy Dawg, but they rejected the idea.
Beany and Cecil Kricfalusi left Bakshi's studio to work on
The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil for
ABC, where he teamed up with many of the people who would later work with him on many of his
Spümcø projects. and at the time was the most popular cable TV show in the United States, but the network disagreed with Kricfalusi's direction of the show, and disapproved of his missed production deadlines. Kricfalusi points specifically to the episode "
Man's Best Friend", which depicts the character
George Liquor as an abusive father figure, as the turning point in his relationship with Nickelodeon. One of the episodes, "Nurse Stimpy", did not meet Kricfalusi's approval because of the low quality of the rough cut of the episode that they received from the overseas studio, leading him to use the alias
Raymond Spum in its credits. Nickelodeon terminated Kricfalusi's contract late September 1992, leaving it to Nickelodeon's Games Animation studio, which continued producing it for three more seasons before its cancellation.
The Ripping Friends Fox Kids started airing the television series
The Ripping Friends in 2001, created by Kricfalusi and Jim Smith. Kricfalusi had previously tried pitching the show in the late 1980s, but networks considered it "too extreme" so did not pick it up. Kricfalusi felt the show's supervisors were doing away with the Spümcø style and was displeased with the direction of the show. He considers the episodes he was involved in to be experimental.
Ren and Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" In 2003,
Spike TV produced a new show featuring Ren & Stimpy, which was written and directed by Kricfalusi. The first three episodes were based on fan ideas and scripts that were rejected by Nickelodeon during the original show's run. Only three episodes aired before Spike's entire animation block was "put on hold", and the complete series was ultimately released in 2006 on DVD including three additional episodes that never aired. Kricfalusi also wanted to release an episode titled "Life Sucks" straight to DVD, but the episode remains unproduced.
Other projects Collaborations with Fred Seibert After leaving
The Ren & Stimpy Show, Kricfalusi consulted, and other Spümcø animators worked for
Donovan Cook's
2 Stupid Dogs, which was put into production by
Hanna-Barbera president
Fred Seibert. The cartoon's credits read "Tidbits of Poor Taste Supplied by John Kricfalusi" for the three "Little Red Riding Hood" episodes: "Red", "Red Strikes Back", and "Return of Red". In 1994, Hanna-Barbera and Seibert started production on
What a Cartoon!, also known as
World Premiere Toons for
Cartoon Network. Seibert approached Kricfalusi for advice and for recommendations for personnel to head the shorts, among them
David Feiss,
Tom Minton, Pat Ventura, and Eddie Fitzgerald.
Music videos Kricfalusi directed Icelandic singer
Björk's animated music video for the song "
I Miss You" in 1997, which features Björk and the character Jimmy the Idiot Boy.
Jack Black of
Tenacious D approached Kricfalusi to produce a music video for the song "
Fuck Her Gently" from their
debut album, released in 2001. Black browsed Kricfalusi's website and, since both he and his bandmate
Kyle Gass held
Ren & Stimpy in high regard, he asked Kricfalusi to produce the video. The costs amounted to $40,000. Initially, Sony Music did not allow the video to be placed on Tenacious D's website and instead placed it on the record label
Grand Royal's website, but later relented. on the DVD side of the
DualDisc album
Straight Outta Lynwood, which features Kricfalusi's character Cigarettes the Cat. The second music video was for
Classico by Tenacious D, starring the band members as cartoon characters. He animated them again in a
THX logo parody for the band's feature film,
The Pick of Destiny. Kricfalusi served as art director for a musical segment in the show
Class of 3000 entitled
Life Without Music, which first aired on November 3, 2006. In 2014, he produced art for
Miley Cyrus'
Bangerz Tour.
Internet cartoons and Hanna-Barbera shorts Venturing into Internet cartoons, Kricfalusi created
Weekend Pussy Hunt in 1996 for
MSN, which was billed as "the world's first interactive web-based cartoon". The cartoon, which was released in segments, was scheduled to be completed in June 1997, but production under MSN stopped before it was finished. Production later resumed under
Icebox.com after the release of Spümcø's own web-based
Flash cartoon,
The Goddamn George Liquor Program. Between 1998 and 2001, Kricfalusi worked on several Hanna-Barbera cartoons for Cartoon Network: three
Yogi Bear parody cartoons he directed and animated,
Boo Boo Runs Wild,
A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith and
Boo Boo and the Man, Kricfalusi appears in several bonus featurettes and provides audio commentaries for the
Looney Tunes Golden Collection volumes
2,
3 and
5, for cartoons directed by Bob Clampett and
Chuck Jones. On February 13, 2006, Kricfalusi started his own
weblog,
John K Stuff, posting about cartoons and the animation industry. The site was originally intended for other artists and entertainers, and specifically other cartoonists.
Commercials and freelance work Kricfalusi directed commercials for Comcast and
Voice over IP company Raketu in 2007. He was developing a series of cartoon commercials in 2008 for
Pontiac Vibe starring
George Liquor and
Jimmy The Idiot Boy, but the series remained unreleased after
General Motors discontinued the Pontiac Vibe auto line in 2009. He developed and animated a series of
bumpers using
Toon Boom Harmony for
Adult Swim in 2011 and again in 2015. He animated the opening couch gags of two episodes of
The Simpsons, "
Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts", which aired in October 2011 and "
Treehouse of Horror XXVI", which aired in October 2015. He collaborated with streetwear brand
Stüssy to create a short series of apparel based on his designs in 2012, which he promoted with a commercial featuring some of his characters. The advertising agency Muhtayzik-Hoffer hired Kricfalusi in 2013 for an ad campaign for F'real milkshakes. He was involved in the early development of many
Reel FX projects such as the 2013 film
Free Birds, a pitch for a film adaptation of the
Dr. Seuss book
Happy Birthday to You! and a pitch for a film he created with Jim Smith. He posted the concepts for these projects on his blog. He partnered with animator
Mike Judge to produce a series of shorts for
UFC that aired on Adult Swim throughout 2016.
Cans Without Labels In 2012, Kricfalusi funded through
Kickstarter a cartoon short entitled
Cans Without Labels, starring the character
George Liquor (with
Michael Pataki reprising the role for the final time before his death in 2010, having recorded his lines beforehand), However, on August 6, 2017, the Kickstarter was updated, announcing the film's completion. On May 27, 2019, Kricfalusi announced the DVD masterings' completion and released it on his MyShopify store within a week or two, with backers receiving first priority. The short received negative reviews for its animation, humor, sound design, storyline and repeatedly delayed production, as well as Kricfalusi's decision to release it following the sexual abuse allegations made against him the previous year. However, some praised Pataki's voice acting performance.
Retirement In the 2020 documentary
Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren and Stimpy Story, Kricfalusi stated in an interview that he was "officially retired" from the animation industry, "though not by choice". ==Influences==