20 Jan Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story

Premiering at this month’s Sundance as part of the Documentary Premieres section is Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story, co-directed by Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood. The pair set out with the task of illuminating “the joy, beauty, and lasting impact of Ren & Stimpy” while also examining the cartoon’s creator as a deeply flawed person.

Through archival footage, production artwork, and interviews with the artists, actors, and executives behind the show, Happy Happy Joy Joy explores what happens when “artistic genius goes awry.”

Pop Sequentialism host Matt Kennedy was an early interviewee in the project, which began shooting several years ago–long before troubling allegations about creator John Kricfalusi’s abusive, inappropriate, and even criminal behavior came to light. The film had been 99% completed by then, but these new revelations (first reported by Buzzfeed) necessitated a change of direction and the scheduling of new interviews to address an all-too-common conundrum about how to separate the art from the artist.

Kennedy kicks off this new clip.

The doc will have its press and industry screening January 24 at the Park Avenue Theatre before its world premiere Tuesday, January 28 at the Library Center Theatre.

UPDATE! You can order it on Blu-ray now!