Last year, The Simpsons ran an opening couch gag from British street artist Banksy that satirized the working conditions of animators overseas.
This year, as the animated show embarked on its amazing 23rd season, the producers ran a new couch gag from Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi.
The 35-second spot was truly amazing as it liberated our favorite family from the confines of its usual animation style, giving it a much more Ren and Stimpy-like vibe.
Here’s what John had to say about the spot:
At first they just wanted me to do a storyboard and have their regular crew animate it. If we had done it that way, no one would even have known that I had anything to do with it because it would have ended up on model and all pose to pose. I showed them the Adult Swim shorts I had been doing and pointed out that the way things happened was even more important than what was happening in my work. You can’t write visual performance. You have to actually draw it.
This project was the most fun I’ve had in years. It has really hammered home (to me) the importance of animation in animation. I think it’s possible to bring animation back to this country and make the core of it fun again, not be a mere tertiary addition to some high concept or executive’s “vision.” The pure act of animating is the most fun part of animation. I am so grateful to Matt for letting me have some real fun this summer.
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