There’s plenty of twisted, four-legged fun to be found at video retailers today as The Ren & Stimpy Show–Seasons Five & Some More of Four and Heathcliff & the Cadillac Cats arrive as multi-disc sets. The cartoon favorites are joined on shelves by episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants and the 2004 German animated feature, Boo, Zino and the Snurks (a.k.a. Back to Gaya).
The Ren & Stimpy Show–Seasons Five & Some More of Four is a three-disc release featuring 17 episodes of the Nickelodoen cartoon created by animation maverick John Kricfalusi and produced by his Spumco Inc. Fans can enjoy watching installments from the second half of season 4 and all of season 5, as well as the featurette Ren & Stimpy on Ren & Stimpy and 13 audio commentaries from both the Spumco and Games animation teams.
Launched on Nickelodeon in 1991, The Ren & Stimpy Show earned an Emmy nomination in 1993. Kricfalusi left the show after the first season due to creative differences and later resurrected the characters for Ren & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon, which ran for a season in 2003 on Spike TV. He now has aspirations of taking the property to the big screen.
The Ren & Stimpy Show recently returned to Nickelodeon via its 24-hour animation network, Nicktoons. All three original seasons of series began airing in late July at 9:30 p.m., marking the property’s return to kids’ TV for the first time since 2002. The new DVD release from Paramount Home Entertainment lists for $39.99.
Heathcliff & the Cadillac Cats offers 24 episodes of the classic DIC animated series on four discs. Featuring legendary Warner Bros. Animation icon Mel Blanc as the voice of the original fat, orange tabby, Heathcliff follows the feline practical joker as he struts through the town of Westfinster in search of new ways to torment neighborhood bulldog Spike, woo his beloved Sonja and annoy his human Grandpa. Each Heathcliff episode is followed by a Cats and Co. cartoon, starring a comical junkyard gang of feline hustlers known as the Catillac Cats.
Bonus features on the Heathcliff & The Catillac Cats set include original promos, a click-thru gallery of panels from the syndicated newspaper cartoon from its 1973 inception to present day and an interview with current Heathcliff comic panel illustrator Peter Gallagher. The set from Shout! Factory carries a suggested retail price of $34.98.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Absorbing Favorites offers handful of adventures from the hit Nickelodeon series. "Ripped Pants," "Mermaidman and Barnacleboy," "Karate Choppers," "Gary Takes a Bath," "Jellyfish Hunter," "Frycook Games," "Club SpongeBob," "Plankton’s Army," and "The Sponge Who Could Fly" are all packaged on one disc, along with a What SpongeBob Character Are You? game and Ripped Pants Karaoke. The release is available from Paramount Home Entertainment for $16.99.
The English dub for Boo, Zino and the Snurks features the voices of Patrick Stewart (X-Men, TV’s Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Emily Watson (Corpse Bride, Equilibrium). A production of Morena Flimes, Ambient Ent. GmbH and Recorded Picture Cp. (RPC), the CG-animated fantasy feature is reportedly the final project for renowned composer Michael Kamen, who died during the course of production. DVD bonus materials include a making-of featurette focusing on the creation of the digital characters and a feature titled Throughts from your favorite Characters. The First Look Home Entertainment release lists for $19.98.
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