The Ripping Friends (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	279:04 (Case: 260)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	John Kricfalusi
Studio Distributor	Imagine Entertainmnt Madman Entertainment	Starring	Mike MacDonald Michael Anthony Kerr Merwin Mondesir Mark Dailey
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Steve London

    After getting his big break working on a new series of Mighty Mouse, John Kricfalusi developed his own series that would showcase his unique animation style and humour - and Ren & Stimpy was born. The series was snatched up by cable channel Nickelodeon, whose executives had little appreciation for the humour of the show and the creator was soon fired from his own program. Nickelodeon continued to produce Ren & Stimpy episodes, none of which had the edge of John Kricfalusi's politically incorrect humour. Distancing himself from television, John went on to start his own production company, Spumco, and developed many animated shorts for advertising purposes and music videos. In fact, a brilliant clip was made for Tenacious D which involved the duo tutoring Satan in the finer points of love making.

    The Ripping Friends is essentially John K's homage to the clichéd superhero stereotypes of the 50s and onward, with substantially more gross manliness thrown in. Our heroes are Rip, Chunk, Crag and their leader Slab. Adopted at a very young age and via years of intense training at their Haplessville headquarters, Rip Cot have achieved super-human pain thresholds. The brothers answer to no-one except their foster mother, He-Mom - a sweet little lady who rules with an iron fist. Fans of John Kricfalusi's earlier work may be disappointed to find the humour of The Ripping Friends is slightly more mainstream than his other projects, but there is still much to be enjoyed in this series for both kids and adults.

    There are thirteen episodes contained in this two disc set, each running for just over twenty minutes.

• The Indigestible Wad (21:30) - Young Tracey has been chewing the same wad of bubble gum since she was in-utero. A visit to the dentist exposes her to cosmic rays, transforming the chewing gum in her mouth into a moisture consuming entity hell-bent on world domination. The Ripping Friends must find the wad's weakness before it consumes all moisture on the face of the earth.
• The Infernal Wedding (21:27) - In a not-so-subtle nod to the Bosnian-Serb conflict, a maniacal dictator from Euroslavia is slowly annexing his neighbouring countries and forcing their children into the military. Little do the Ripping Brothers know that he has his sights set on the U.S. of A., and their Mom! 
• Flathead's Revenge (21:26) - While the brothers are on a relaxing holiday by the lake, Chunk is attacked by a vicious flatworm parasite that feeds on his armpit stink glands, with the potential to paralyse his stink glands forever. The parasite takes possession of a human backbone and begins reproducing, intent on annihilating the human race.
• Frictor (21:27) - The brothers' halfwit sidekick Jimmy is lacking in the callous department, with hands so smooth he cannot even sew their super suits properly. The brothers decide to donate some of their foot calluses to Jimmy, but the procedure fails and a mighty friction monster called Frictor is born. After bringing the world to its knees, the monster gets lonely and begins searching for a female partner, and the Ripping Friends see an opportunity to strip him of his power.
• Rip's Shorts (21:25) - Rip forgets to have his shorts laundered, and they find their way into outer space - where they are bombarded with cosmic rays and helium gas. Upon their return to earth, the shorts develop a brain and turn evil, with the power to transform their wearer into a brainwashed maniac. When the shorts take control of Pooper Man, the power of the super vigilante is pitted against the four brothers.
• Stinky Butt (21:26) - The evil dictator of Euroslavia returns with amazing new powers emanating from his bottom. An impressive arsenal! The brothers discover the key to disarming him may be in his fuel supply.
• A Man From Next Thursday - Part One (21:30) - The brothers' highly prized DNA has been stolen from the secure bowels of their top secret laboratory by a disgruntled ex-fan who is intent on using the DNA to bring about the brothers' downfall.
• A Man From Next Thursday - Part Two (21:26) - The adventure continues, as the fiendish Man From Next Thursday reveals the origin of the giant opposable thumb obtruding from his chest, and how he plans to use the Ripping Friends' own DNA against them. But have no fear, Crag has an ingenious plan ready.
• The Ovulator (21:26) - A crisis strikes when He-Mom cooks the boys breakfast without their daily dose of meat. Apparently a cruel maniac called The Ovulator has enslaved the meat-giving cows as egg handlers, and the meat-starved brothers begin to suffer from the crippling effects of beef withdrawal.
• Man Man & Boy Boy (21:28) - A new super hero is on the streets, and Crag is concerned that his boy companion is being placed in potentially harmful situations. With Jimmy as his sidekick, Crag sets out to save Boy Boy from the horrid life of a sidekick.
• The Muscle Magician (21:30) - Chunk visits a circus and is held under the influence of a Muscle Magician - who begins to use Chunk's powers to commit crimes across the city.
• Jimmy's Kidnapped (21:33) - The evil dictator of Euroslavia returns once again, hatching a plan to kidnap The Ripping Friends' manservant Jimmy. Without him, the brothers are left to do the most menial jobs that were once done by their friend.
• The Ripping Friends Meet Jean Poole (21:30) - He-Mom decides the boys need to start learning about girls, introducing them to a beautiful genetic scientist by the name of Jean Poole. The four of them fall simultaneously in love, and begin to court the girl together - sharing a romantic first kiss.

    While these characters and their misadventures may not have the same impact as John Kricfalusi's other projects, there are a lot of good reasons for fans of Ren & Stimpy to check out this very funny series.

Video

    The video transfer is presented in the ratio in which it was originally broadcast, 1.33:1 full frame. This is a generally good transfer for an animated series, with very few serious problems.

    There is a lot of sharpness present in the animation, as you would expect for such a recently produced series. Colours are always bold and consistent, and show no signs of bleeding or oversaturation at all. There is no low level noise present.

    MPEG artefacts and grain are nowhere to be seen. The most significant issue that I could discern from the viewing experience was the consistent presence of ugly interlacing, most visible during sweeping pans and intense screen activity. This was distracting at times, but I can imagine it would have appeared much worse in a live action film. Aliasing was only very mild when it did occur, and is not worth being too concerned about. The big bonus of most modern animation is the absence of film artefacting, which was thankfully nowhere to be seen here.

    There are no subtitles available.

    Of this two disc set, only disc one is dual layered. There is no pause present in the feature, so I would presume that the episodes are evenly spread over the two layers of the disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one audio track available, a rather ordinary Dolby Digital 2.0 effort that manages to suffice, but at the very least a Dolby Surround encoded mix would have been nice.

    Character voices are always at the top of the very busy stereo track, and are always easy to understand amid the numerous sound effects and music. Audio sync isn't really an issue - the recorded dialogue appears to flow well with most character's lip movements.

    Composer Steve London has contributed an absolutely magnificent accompanying score, reminiscent of the classic years of Warner Bros. animation. Fresh and energetically jazzy one moment, and frenetically expressive the next - this is one of the most impressive scores I have heard from an animated series.

    There are a couple of brief examples of left-to-right panning in the stereo mix, but that's about it. A brief attempt to process the stereo soundtrack with Pro Logic II proved fruitless, so my surround speakers and subwoofer remained unused.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Nothing.

Menu

    The video transfer is good, but suffers from some annoying interlacing.

    The audio track is about as impressive as it would have sounded when it was broadcast.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall