Artcow Michael John Kricfalusi / John Kricfalusi / John K. / John K. Stuff / Raymond Spum - scammer animator who pissed away his own career, salty blogger, CONFIRMED predator and child rapist

[Someone in a Tree]

I just noticed that John K has been diligently responding to comments on the Kickstarter page, which he hasn't done for years. Mostly answering boring questions. If he's scouting for talent, is it possible he might attempt another crowdfunding campaign? If this were anybody else, I'd dismiss such a notion, but self awareness isn't exactly his strength

 

[UY 690]

One of a few times where I wish TV networks had told him to tone down the humor in Cans without Labels. Jesus! I'm glad to see this shit for free. But I'm like...

John why!

SMH!

 

[LordofCringe7206]

Here you go guys!

Does anybody know why suddenly after all these years the project was finally completed?

 

[AnOminous]

"3,562 backers pledged $136,723 to help bring this project to life."

die john

 

[redbarchetta]

I couldn't help but notice how many young girlie assistants John K. needed to finish this. Surely a Kickstarter this old would have some non-jailbait in the credits, since seven years have passed?

Hardly.

Spoiler: Every girl who worked on Cans

Susie Webb, CG animation

Kali Fontecchio, color cards

Auralynn When (Nguyen), Assistant to John K.

Amanda Lake, assistant

Sarah Harkey, assistant

Sandra Rivas, assistant

(she has no headshots online but I still wanted to include her only photo so you could feel as creeped out as I did knowing there still are tons of super young girls naive or desperate enough to work with John K.)

 

[Trilby]

Ugh, an amateurish effort from a supposedly seasoned animator. The like/dislike ratio on that video is well-deserved.

Why are there so many different fonts in the opening credits? Why is the camera work so wonky? Why does CGI look so dated? Why are the characters animated so weirdly? Why are the backgrounds so sparse-looking?

I'm more amused at the moments the backgrounds/foreground elements become translucent, as if John can't quite frame these shots too well unless he made them invisible!

Seriously, I've seen plenty of way better work from other animated shows (including the so-called """Cal-Arts""" style ones he derides so much) and short films from this decade than this sorry excuse for a Kickstarter-funded project. Hell, even the nearly 30-year-old original run of Ren & Stimpy (including its Games Animation Inc era episodes) is light-years ahead in quality!

True, this is a crock of shit on display.

Well, that was just terrible. Was there any reason for the cans to be 3D?

I like to think John's playing with his 'fancy digital toys' and this is the result.

Ooof. Never thought I'd watch something that would make Last Days of Coney Island look like a crowdfunded slam dunk, but here we are

At least it took Ralph 2 years to finish his film that was twice as long.

 

[uxyxxy]

Nowadays, John K is looked upon as a child predator, back in the day, John was a legend, but now, he just became something we all want to avoid

 

[Exceptionally Exceptional]

That was among the worst goddamn things I've seen in my life. The animation was spastic and unpleasant, the character designs looked like shit, the 3D was unnecessary and dated, it wasn't funny or entertaining, the music was largely obnoxious as fuck, the pacing was awful in many places taking way to long to go anywhere...
This cost John K over 100 grand and more than half a decade to make.
What a fucking joke. I've seen better cartoons from amatuer animators in flash on early 2000s era Newgrounds for fucks sake. And those people were working for free

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

Ugh, an amateurish effort from a supposedly seasoned animator. The like/dislike ratio on that video is well-deserved.

Why are there so many different fonts in the opening credits? Why is the camera work so wonky? Why does CGI look so dated? Why are the characters animated so weirdly? Why are the backgrounds so sparse-looking?

Seriously, I've seen plenty of way better work from other animated shows (including the so-called """Cal-Arts""" style ones he derides so much) and short films from this decade than this sorry excuse for a Kickstarter-funded project. Hell, even the nearly 30-year-old original run of Ren & Stimpy (including its Games Animation Inc era episodes) is light-years ahead in quality!

Speaking of which, actually, this apparently cost about as much as "Big House Blues" did in 1990 money.

I just noticed that John K has been diligently responding to comments on the Kickstarter page, which he hasn't done for years. Mostly answering boring questions. If he's scouting for talent, is it possible he might attempt another crowdfunding campaign? If this were anybody else, I'd dismiss such a notion, but self awareness isn't exactly his strength

I don't think so. He's many things, but stupid isn't one of them.

Does anybody know why suddenly after all these years the project was finally completed?

It was completed two years ago, then he apparently had to do the titles... and, of course, there was that whole BuzzFeed thing.

I couldn't help but notice how many young girlie assistants John K. needed to finish this. Surely a Kickstarter this old would have some non-jailbait in the credits, since seven years have passed?

Hardly.

Spoiler: Every girl who worked on Cans

View attachment 811943
Susie Webb, CG animation
View attachment 811946
Kali Fontecchio, color cards
View attachment 811944
Auralynn When (Nguyen), Assistant to John K.
View attachment 811945
Amanda Lake, assistant
View attachment 811948
Sarah Harkey, assistant
View attachment 811947
Sandra Rivas, assistant

(she has no headshots online but I still wanted to include her only photo so you could feel as creeped out as I did knowing there still are tons of super young girls naive or desperate enough to work with John K.)

Kali went back a good while with John. He was in a relationship with her as well, got her onto DVD commentaries, etc.

Here's a thought for the rest of you. Consider that Mike Pataki provides George Liquor's voice in this - but he died in 2010, long before the Kickstarter was announced. So how long was this idea in production anyway?

 

[Someone in a Tree]

Here's a thought for the rest of you. Consider that Mike Pataki provides George Liquor's voice in this - but he died in 2010, long before the Kickstarter was announced. So how long was this idea in production anyway?

Hell, that was a long time before the idea of crowdfunding gained any traction.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

Ugh, an amateurish effort from a supposedly seasoned animator. The like/dislike ratio on that video is well-deserved.

Why are there so many different fonts in the opening credits? Why is the camera work so wonky? Why does CGI look so dated? Why are the characters animated so weirdly? Why are the backgrounds so sparse-looking?

Seriously, I've seen plenty of way better work from other animated shows (including the so-called """Cal-Arts""" style ones he derides so much) and short films from this decade than this sorry excuse for a Kickstarter-funded project. Hell, even the nearly 30-year-old original run of Ren & Stimpy (including its Games Animation Inc era episodes) is light-years ahead in quality!

If I had to guess about any of this, It'd have to do to the fact that it was getting mocked for its lack of presence, it's scam-like nature, and with the accusations leveled against him for diddling, figured he had to rush it out.

Really, it should have remained unfinished until the end of time. Because this somehow looks worse than the test reel that got leaked a while back. The tweening is crappier than a "kid's channel" on YouTube, the CGI is late-80s tier, and as for the characters, that's just John being John- Over-exaggerated and putting in animation where it shouldn't be (this isn't 3D, John, you don't need to make every character move every single frame). And even then there's plenty of technical issues, like when George is hovering over the middle of the table, or constant tracking issues.

Dunno what the deal is with the fonts, but it's jarring as all hell.

Here's a thought for the rest of you. Consider that Mike Pataki provides George Liquor's voice in this - but he died in 2010, long before the Kickstarter was announced. So how long was this idea in production anyway?

It sounds like John doing George's voice in several spots of the short. The end scenes in particular make him sound like Ren.

 

[Meowthkip]

"3,562 backers pledged $136,723 to help bring this project to life."

die john

Almost $137K for an exercise in crass misery.

 

[Trombonista]

Almost $137K for an exercise in crass misery.

Yeah, I really didn't need to hear George Liquor take a dump.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

"3,562 backers pledged $136,723 to help bring this project to life."

die john

What a fucking joke. I've seen better cartoons from amatuer animators in flash on early 2000s era Newgrounds for fucks sake. And those people were working for free

Watching this made me think of Harry Partridge, who took 4 years to animate Starbarians Episode 3 with no fan financial backing and animated it entirely by himself. The result was a spectacularly animated, if slow-paced affair.

Basically what I'm saying is that there are far more talented animators doing way more on way less than John K. and are much more worthy of support. I mean Christ, Cans Without Labels started development back when Harry released the first Starbarians episode and looks way worse than Harry's earliest animations.

Almost $137K for an exercise in crass misery.

Yeah, I really didn't need to hear George Liquor take a dump.

Am I the only one who caught that he didn't wipe?

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

Yeah, I really didn't need to hear George Liquor take a dump.

I didn't need him announcing it in the first place.

 

[Mazinkaiser]

I couldn't help but notice how many young girlie assistants John K. needed to finish this. Surely a Kickstarter this old would have some non-jailbait in the credits, since seven years have passed?

Hardly.

Spoiler: Every girl who worked on Cans

View attachment 811943
Susie Webb, CG animation
View attachment 811946
Kali Fontecchio, color cards
View attachment 811944
Auralynn When (Nguyen), Assistant to John K.
View attachment 811945
Amanda Lake, assistant
View attachment 811948
Sarah Harkey, assistant
View attachment 811947
Sandra Rivas, assistant

(she has no headshots online but I still wanted to include her only photo so you could feel as creeped out as I did knowing there still are tons of super young girls naive or desperate enough to work with John K.)

Wait, Sandra Rivas? Hasn’t she worked for Studio Yotta for the last few years? How did she get roped into something with John K?

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

Wait, Sandra Rivas? Hasn’t she worked for Studio Yotta for the last few years? How did she get roped into something with John K?

It was made over several years. I doubt she did all that much.

The general reaction on the Internet, needless to say, is little different from the responses here. But one person offered a pretty good summary of it - what you see in this cartoon is unfiltered John, without any other cartoonists to help him by putting jokes and characterization amongst the daddy issues and spastic animation, lost in his own self-referential jokes and completely unmoored to any plane of reality.

Also, one of the bonus features on the DVD is John’s idea for this supposed R&S short that would have gone before the third SpongeBob film. Here it is:

Ren & Stimpy - SpongeBob Movie Short (Animatic) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Found on the Cans Without Labels DVD as a hidden Easter egg.

archive.org

 

[Kulee Baba]

That was among the worst goddamn things I've seen in my life. The animation was spastic and unpleasant, the character designs looked like shit, the 3D was unnecessary and dated, it wasn't funny or entertaining, the music was largely obnoxious as fuck, the pacing was awful in many places taking way to long to go anywhere...
This cost John K over 100 grand and more than half a decade to make.
What a fucking joke. I've seen better cartoons from amatuer animators in flash on early 2000s era Newgrounds for fucks sake. And those people were working for free

I don't think it was that awful, imo you're letting the controversy and the depravity of the creator color your judgement.

I think some of the lines are funny, the boys screaming "We don't wanna eat a face." is good.

I think there was a solid cartoon short in here, but it just needed a better writer to bounce off ideas with John. Not like I'm a real pro myself but the joke of Donald The Bastard would have been way more amusing had the character looked just like a cute parody of Donald The Duck. It would have then been funny for Donald to become monsterous and bite the kid's face off.

See this is why Networks made the often dreaded "notes" and you always hear about how said notes made things worse but in John's case he has always needed some exec telling him how to make his product have broader appeal. That John's had what 20+ years to make real replacememts for Ren and Stimpy but just holds onto the very gross and unlikable George Liquor shows that he really doesn't get how to market to anyone beyond the small base of people who recognize his name.

 

[The Pink Panther]

I don't think it was that awful, imo you're letting the controversy and the depravity of the creator color your judgement.

I think some of the lines are funny, the boys screaming "We don't wanna eat a face." is good.

I think there was a solid cartoon short in here, but it just needed a better writer to bounce off ideas with John. Not like I'm a real pro myself but the joke of Donald The Bastard would have been way more amusing had the character looked just like a cute parody of Donald The Duck. It would have then been funny for Donald to become monsterous and bite the kid's face off.

See this is why Networks made the often dreaded "notes" and you always hear about how said notes made things worse but in John's case he has always needed some exec telling him how to make his product have broader appeal. That John's had what 20+ years to make real replacememts for Ren and Stimpy but just holds onto the very gross and unlikable George Liquor shows that he really doesn't get how to market to anyone beyond the small base of people who recognize his name.

I think as time went on and the more he started deluding himself with "animation is more important than story and the story should be made up by the animators", the worse he got.

OG Ren and Stimpy episode Fire Dogs was written and directed singlehandedly by John (although not animated singlehandedly) and yeah you could say "muh executive meddling", and it's one of the finest of the show...not really because of animation, but because it was fucking well-written. It was a simple episode with good gags and good jokes (CIRCUS MIDGETS and No sir, I didn't like it, for example) John K. is good at cartoon writing...when he focuses on it. I personally don't remember Ren and Stimpy for the animation, I remember it for the lines. The lines were fucking hilarious, but the animation adds to the greatness of the lines. That's why scenes like this work:

The animation and the writing combine together to make a great joke. Boom. I think John getting kicked off of Ren and Stimpy kind of took a toll on him psychologically though. Note that most of John's lolcow behavior didn't come until the late 90's/early 2000's.

 

[Someone in a Tree]

Note that most of John's lolcow behavior didn't come until the late 90's/early 2000's.

That's just when it became more public. Yeah, being removed from Ren & Stimpy exacerbated things, but if he hadn't been a lolcow in the first place, he wouldn't have been fired. Only difference back then was he could talk up a big game and didn't have the litany of post-R&S failures to prove him otherwise.