The Great Outdoors (The Ren & Stimpy Show)
Ren and Stimpy's camping trip goes disastrously wrong.
The Great Outdoors is the fifteenth episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on March 27, 1993.
Quick Facts
- Series
- The Ren & Stimpy Show
- Season
- 2
- Episode
- 15
- Air date
- 27 March 1993
- Production
- RS5-13B
- Story
- John Kricfalusi; Vincent Waller
- Director
- Vincent Waller; Ken Bruce
Facts from the source article.
Plot
Ren and Stimpy head into the wilderness for a camping trip. Stimpy is full of excitement, while Ren is, as always, irritated. When Ren gets hungry, Stimpy offers him dehydrated food pills. Ren finds the idea disgusting but, ignoring Stimpy’s warnings, eats the meat pill. This causes Mr. Horse to instantly materialize inside Ren. Stimpy then decides to go skinny-dipping, and it turns out his fur is detachable. After convincing Ren that privacy isn’t an issue, Ren removes his own fur—though it barely changes his look—and joins in. They start enjoying themselves until park ranger Old Man Hunger shows up, explaining that he likes skinny-dipping. Disturbed by his presence, they are finally driven away when he invites his mother, Mrs. Buttloaves, to join them.
Stimpy goes off to pick berries, leaving Ren behind to start a fire. Unable to find twigs, Ren uses squirrels as fuel instead. Despite being abused, the squirrels remain calm and munch on food. Ren then takes a shortcut with gasoline, accidentally setting himself on fire. Old Man Hunger saves him by stepping on Ren to put out the flames, then pours water on him while stirring, because he likes skinnystomping. Refusing to admit his error, a charred Ren punches a bewildered Stimpy, who had completed his berry-picking without any trouble.
Later, Ren and Stimpy watch the stars, appreciating their beauty before falling asleep. Ren wakes up to a strange feeling and finds a mosquito drinking his blood. He kills it and goes back to sleep, but a swarm of mosquitoes retaliates, feasting on him until nearly all his blood is gone. Thirsty, Ren tries to drink from the lake, but Stimpy stops him, warning that the water carries pathogens causing Beaver Fever. Stimpy has prepared a water dispenser, so Ren drinks from it. Unbeknownst to them, a beaver has snuck inside. Ren gradually transforms into a beaver, which enrages him, and he slaps Stimpy with his new tail. Old Man Hunger then appears, having also contracted Beaver Fever from the contaminated water, because he loves skinnyslapping.
Production
Development on this episode began at Spümcø in 1992, with Vincent Waller as the primary planner. The plot shares elements with an earlier rejected first-season pitch called "The Wilderness Adventure," which was never made. Production hit delays, and to cut costs, the layout phase was handled by Rough Draft Korea in Seoul. While Waller was there supervising layouts, series creator John Kricfalusi was fired from the show on September 21, 1992.
A horrified Gregg Vanzo gave Waller the news late. Waller chose not to return when the series moved to Games Animation. Ironically, his return to animation in 1999 later led to his role as a showrunner and key cast member on SpongeBob SquarePants. Ken Bruce from Games Animation was assigned to complete the work Waller had started.
Billy West provides Ren's voice in this episode, as voice recording had not yet occurred before Kricfalusi's dismissal. Peter Avanzino worked as a storyboard artist on the episode.
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