Ren & Stimpy - The Complete First and Second Seasons

"It is not I who am crazy...It is I who am MAD!" Ren & Stimpy was a groundbreaking show when it hit the airwaves in 1991. The combination of retro-style animation with surreal and insane humour was a hit and led the way for a lot of current shows. These early episodes (directed by John Kricfalusi) are the absolute best R&S. I can't watch the "Space Madness" episode without laughing uncontrollably. It's definitely worth getting this show to replace the old video tapes from a decade ago. However, the transfer of R&S to DVD is brutal. Some of the animation comes out pixellated and looking terrible. I don't remember this from the televised episodes, but they have a split second "fade to black" pause in the middle of them that suddenly shows up in DVD format. The extras are decent, especially the interview with John K. himself. I love this show, but the DVDs lose a couple of stars for being lousy -- they should have prepared these way better.

I had poor quality VHS versions of most of these episodes that I had taped when the show originally aired here in Canada. It's nice to have all those same episodes in one nicely packaged DVD set (with bonus features to boot). As far as I remember, it was after the second season that John K. had a falling out with the higher powers-that-be and the show suffered from the 3rd season on (in fact, if my memory serves me correctly he wasn't even involved with the show whatsoever in the end). So what you're getting with this set is the best the show had to offer before everything went sour. And by the way, to my knowledge (despite what was stated in an earlier review) the episodes ARE un-cut. For whatever reasons, we Canadians were fortunate to see the original un-cut versions when the show was aired here. My only very small issue with this box set is that the transfer to DVD seems to be a bit pixelized. In other words, if you look very closely, some of the smoothly drawn lines in the animation look video game-like. A bit of a shame considering how beautifully drawn all the original images were. But this is a very small issue and should not steer any fans from picking this collection up. Now all I need is the Lord of the Rings; Return of the King Special edition and the Star Wars Octology (or whatever they'll call it when it eventually comes out) and my DVD collection will be complete!

Like so many others when Ren & Stimpy hit the airwaves in /91 I was immediately hooked with its' absolute off the wall and irreverant humour courtesy of its' driving force Mr.John Kricfalusi.He and his fellow workers at Spumco created an instant classic that hasn't lost any of its' appeal.
This wonderful set contains the BEST that the series had to offer.
However John K. was constantly having to dodge Nicklodeon bullets throughout the series run and eventually he got hit more than he was missed.Shortly into the second season we can see plain evidence in episodes such as "Stimpys' Fan Club" and " Visit to Anthonys" of Nicklodeons' control starting to take effect on the product,as the John K. touch is absent and the characters go totally mainstream.The frenetically paced humour/cutting has disappeared and they are frankly VERY boring.
The series would really never reach the heights it did again with one of the last eps in this set "The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen".
The series went like a steadily declining graph thereafter with ever deepening valleys and fewer peaks.John K. fed up with the running battles and Nickelodeons' non stop efforts to warp and sanitize the characters eventually threw in the towel and left the show altogether.
So if you are a fan of Ren & Stimpy or are new to the series I couldn't recommend a better set for you to purchase for this is the shows' finest hour....no question.