Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Spümcø

Spümcø International was a North American cartoon animation studio. It was founded in 1988 by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi and his partners Jim Smith, Bob Camp, and Lynne Naylor. The company’s Canadian studio closed down around early 2005. A significant portion of the company’s material was given to ASIFA-Hollywood’s animation archives; Kricfalusi owns the rights to the characters. As of 2007 he lives in Los Angeles.
Works produced by Spümcø International

Spümcø produced and designed animation and products for just about every medium during its existence, from television to internet to comic books. For a period, Spümcø even designed and released toys based on their characters and other classic characters such as the Three Stooges.

Movies

* Troop Beverly Hills (beginning credits)

Television

* The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil (1988, co-production with DiC Entertainment)
* Ren and Stimpy (1991–1996) (Games Animation was commissioned to take over after season two)
* The Ripping Friends (2001–2002)
* Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon (2003)

Internet

These two cartoons are credited with being the first syndicated internet-only program designed exclusively for the internet, ten years before online programming became mainstream with the advent of YouTube.

* The Goddamn George Liquor Program: Babysitting the Idiot (1996)
* Weekend Pussy Hunt for Icebox.Com (1999)

Cartoon Network shorts

* Boo Boo Runs Wild (1999)
* A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith (1999)
* Dexter's Laboratory: Chicken Scratch (2002, co-production with Cartoon Network Studios).

CartoonNetwork.com animated shorts

These new Jetsons shorts were eventually broadcast on Cartoon Network although they debuted on their website initially.

* The Jetsons: Father & Son Day (2000)
* The Jetsons: The Best Son (2001)
* Boo Boo and the Man (2000)

Music videos

* “I Miss You” by Björk (1997)
* “Fuck Her Gently” by Tenacious D (1999)
* “Classico” by Tenacious D (2006)
* “Close But No Cigar” by Weird Al Yankovic (2006)

Video games

* Go! Go! Hypergrind (2003) for Gamecube by Atlus (Artwork and Character Design)
* Yoake no Mariko by Sony for Playstation 2 (Artwork & Character Design)
* Pizza Packing Moron, a downloadable Flash game sold for $2

Animated spots and commercials

* Various animated IDs for NBC
* Aoki Pizza Commercial
* Nike Commercial
* Probono advertisement for UFC starring George Liquor
* Barqs Rootbeer Commercial starring George Liquor
* Quisp Cereal
* Old Navy Big Hood/Flares/Big Pocket Jeans/Girls Fleece Commercial
* Cadbury Commercial
* Village Pantry Commercial
* Wagwells Dog Treats Commercial

Comics

* Spümcø Comic Book Volume 1 Issues 1-3 (Dark Horse Comics)
* Spümcø Comic Book Volume 1 Issue 1 (Marvel Comics)

Future

On July 18, 2006, Kricfalusi stated in his blog that “Spümcø is no more. I’m trying a new experiment now.” He later added “My experiment is to do more freelancing with artists I already know are great and I can count on them to do good and unique work, rather than waste all my money on studio overhead and training unknowns. It’s what HB (Hanna-Barbera) did when they first started their TV studio in 1957 and it produced their best cartoons.”

No comments: