Animator Spotlight: Kelly Armstrong
Today, we’re going to look at one of my favorite animators of the modern age, Kelly Armstrong. Armstrong has done all kinds of work in the animation industry, from storyboarding (Spongebob Squarepants) to directing (The Baby Huey Show). However, she’s best known for her animation work on the 1990s Nicktoon The Ren & Stimpy Show, the most gloriously psychotic series to ever find its way onto a children’s tv network.
Some of the finest Ren & Stimpy episodes of the first two seasons were animated at Carbunkle Cartoons in Vancouver, a studio formed by Armstrong and her husband Bob Jaques. Armstrong animated countless iconic scenes, including Ren being forced to smile under the control of the Happy Helmet in “Stimpy’s Invention.” The crazy shapes of Ren’s mouth combined with his sudden jerky movements result in an animated performance that is remarkably original, hysterically funny, and slightly horrifying… but mostly funny.
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Armstrong’s history with Ren & Stimpy goes back to the very first episode. As you can see in this standout scene from the pilot “Big House Blues,” the acting and fluid motion she pulls off are worlds away from the norm in tv animation at the time. Check out the crazy amount of detail on Ren’s lips and gums. This scene was cut when the episode aired on Nickelodeon.
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Armstrong was one of the most talented animators on Ren & Stimpy, and she frequently took on the most challenging scenes. She animated the majority of the yak’s mental breakdown in “The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen,” which reaches a spectacular level of mania that even Bob Clampett would be proud of. Billy West shrieking like a lunatic on the soundtrack is also a plus.
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One thing I love about Armstrong’s work is that even though her specialty is big, meaty acting with lots of movement, she also knows how to do a lot with a little. This great sequence from “Stimpy’s Invention” is full of held frames, but the little eye and mouth movements are so funny and so specific that Stimpy appears fully alive at all times. Any additional animation would be superfluous with poses and expressions as good as these.
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Armstrong has expressed her love of cartoon violence in the past, and very few animators are better at pulling it off. I’m always mesmerized watching that oar smack George Liquor in the face in this Raging Bull-inspired moment from “Man’s Best Friend,” the episode Nickelodeon refused to air.
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To finish things off, here’s the Stay-Put Socks scene from “Stimpy’s Invention” that Armstrong told me is a personal favorite of hers. She said, “I was the last person still in the studio, so I had no pressing other work and was able to put some time and angst into it.” She also mentioned to me that she loves animating and had so much fun doing it, and you can see that sense of fun shine through every frame of this gleefully twisted scene.
— Cartoon Study (@CartoonStudy) January 19, 2024
Pictured at top: The Ren & Stimpy Show
