That Ren & Stimpy reboot is a bad idea for some very obvious reasons. But separate from those, it’s another expression of Hollywood’s misunderstanding of what people actually like about a thing. As ever, the decision makers continue to believe that simply making a thing is enough

Ren & Stimpy has no hook, no heroes, no stories. It’s an utterly unique, bizarre, unholy abberation in the fabric of corporate animated reality. It was too insane for parents to understand. It felt like a cartoon the network didn’t even know was on, which was kind of true.

What Ren & Stimpy also had going for it was a spectacularly idiosyncratic vision. The vision was that of a disgraced, pathological sicko is actually very on-brand, and another reason why it can’t and shouldn’t be replicated. It’s an artifact stuck in time where it must remain.

Presumably there was a meeting somewhere in which some highly paid people discussed the notion that Ren & Stimpy are “beloved characters” or something along those lines. I just don’t think that’s true, not in the way that, like, the Powerpuff Girls are; or Zim or the Rugrats are.

I feel similarly about some of the attempts to revive the Looney Tunes. I think the current incarnation got it right by recognizing that people actually loved the whole package; the aesthetic, the format; everything about the classics.

This is part of our work in corporate superhero comics too. Or it should be. “What is it people ACTUALLY LOVE about this?” is the first thing I ask when I’m given a new character/concept I’ve never worked on or read before. Because over the decades, the answer can be forgotten.