Fire Dogs 2 (Ren and Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon")

Fire Dogs 2 (Ren and Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon")
Why call this "Fire Dogs 2" when it barely has anything in common with the original?
Part of Season: 1 Episode Number: 3 Air Date: July 17, 2003 Writer: John Kricfalusi Vincent Waller Richard Pursel Eddie Fitzgerald Jim Smith Director: John Kricfalusi Previous episode: Ren Seeks Help Next episode: Naked Beach Frenzy

Fire Dogs 2 is the third episode of Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon".

Plot

Ralph Bakshi, who somehow was dressed like a fireman, invites Ren & Stimpy (who he mistakenly names Eddie and Tommy) to hang out at his apartment house with random activities.

Why It's Not The Sequel of Fire Dogs

1. The episode portrays Ralph Bakshi like an annoying human being and a mentally disturbed weirdo who manipulates both Ren and Stimpy after the day he took them home after the events of the original "Fire Dogs" episode from the old show Nickelodeon aired. They also made him look like an incredibly annoying, manipulative, unfunny, brain dead version of Fireman Sam, except if Fireman Sam was American, had black hair, let himself go (meaning he gained weight), and lost all sight of who he was.
2. Not only does this episode mislead people into thinking this is really a "sequel" to the first "Fire Dogs", but it's also a major insult and a giant middle finger to the fans of the original. Not even Teen Titans Go! was that insulting (except TTG was released 10 years after Adult Party Cartoon).
3. After the fire chief transformed into Ralph Bakshi, there is no explanation as to why he turned himself into a cartoonist and animator like Ralph was in real life.
4. The episode wasted so much potential talent for the real Ralph Bakshi, and tainted his reputation. Keep in mind that this is the guy who resurrected Mighty Mouse back in the 1980's and pioneered adult animation with Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic, and Coonskin to this. And even worse, this was also the same guy who was John K.'s mentor, but this episode made a huge mockery of him after all John did for him, as if Ralph Bakshi meant nothing to him.
5. Lousy and painfully unfunny attempts at humor as usual, especially with the gross-out gags.
   • Including one scene where Stimpy tries to plunge all of Ralph's poop down the toilet after Ralph took a violent dump on the toilet, with Ralph yelling at him about how his girlfriend is here, and Stimpy later taking the giant crap out of the toilet trying to hide it somewhere. That scene right there is disgustingly unfunny and pure vomit-retching.
6. Speaking of gross-out gags, another thing usual is that the constant gross-out gags never take a break or even stop. That has always been a main problem with the reboot of the Nickelodeon show compared to the original itself.
7. Lots of completely weird and random stuff happens such as Ralph screaming like a maniac and going crazy about circus midgets and goes full on crazy enough to try and assault Ren and Stimpy with an ax, terrorizing the main duo.
8. The scene where Ralph and his girlfriend kiss is hugely gross and grotesque.
9. During the first part of the episode airing on TV, along with showing the original "Fire Dogs" episode, it showed the series of live-action wraparounds that parody the 1950s sitcom The Honeymooners, which are considered to be highly unfunny and inappropriate.
10. False advertising: This sequel to the original Fire Dogs does not focus on any action of fighting fires or even rescuing people like in the original, it is all replaced with Ren and Stimpy hanging out with Ralph, with a lot of random crap (literally) thrown in to fill the time slot.
11. Stimpy's first attempt to smoke a cigarette is very unpleasant, unfunny, and extremely cringeworthy to watch.
12. The close-up of Ralph's face during the bed scene is really creepy and ugly.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The Flute Dance is the only entertaining and officially good moment from the episode in general and it also become the taunt for Ren and Stimpy in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl.
2. The beginning of the episode has the ending of the original, so this episode could be an aftermath of the original.
3. Mrs. Buttloaves, Jasper, and the Fire Chief return on this episode.
4. "CIRCUS MIDGETS! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!"

Reception

Well-known cartoon devotee Thad Komorowski gave this episode a "Bomb" rating on his Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story book. He said in regards to it: "More unpleasantness without a thing going for it". He also called it "the most devastating catastrophe of Adult Party Cartoon", "an outright embarrassment" and noted that "there is no reason for Ren and Stimpy to be in Fire Dogs 2. Opportunities for them to act are nonexistent". As for the references to Ralph Bakshi's behavior, he wrote that "one can gain a better sense of who Ralph Bakshi really is by watching one of Bakshi's own films". John Kricfalusi himself admitted on his blog that this episode suffers abysmal animation timing and slow pacing and encouraged the viewers to play the episode at double speed.

Trivia

• Fire Dogs 2 was going to be a sequel to the original Fire Dogs episode from the show's first season, but was not planned for an episode of the original show for Nickelodeon, and the idea was put on hold until a decade later when Adult Party Cartoon was announced.
• As mentioned earlier, when this episode first aired, the original Fire Dogs episode aired before it, but with the Log commercial and Ask Dr. Stupid segments removed.
• This was the last episode of the Adult Party Cartoon that aired on TV in North America.
• The close-up scene of Ralph became an internet meme.

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