Throughout this weekend’s Toronto Animation Business Convention, Invincible firm Skybound Entertainment revealed it’s acquired the rights to Spike & Mike’s Competition of Animation.
Older followers might bear in mind the occasion—named after Craig “Spike” Decker and the late Mike Gribble—as a showcase for animated shorts outlined as “innovative, daring, and sometimes hilarious.” Beginning with the 1977 Competition of Animation and increasing with the respective Sick & Twisted and New Gen festivals of the Nineties and 2000s, they featured works by those that would finally turn into recognized names in animation right this moment—Pete Docter (Soul), Matt Stone & Trey Parker (South Park), and Mike Choose (King of the Hill), to call just a few. For individuals who weren’t alive (or conscious of) Spike & Mike’s again then, the closest equal can be the anthology collection What a Cartoon! from Cartoon Network (or Oh Yeah! Cartoons from Nickelodeon), each of which led to beloved 90s cartoons like Dexter’s Laboratory, The Powerpuff Ladies, and My Life as a Teenage Robotic.
With a brand new revival of Spike & Mike’s underway, Skybound goals to focus on present and up-and-coming expertise within the animation area. Submitted shorts will probably be made obtainable digitally, and the corporate is engaged on securing improvement alternatives, undertaking stipends, and acquisitions as potential awards. At time of writing, submissions are open to the US, Canada, and the UK, and may be may be put into one in every of three classes: the aforementioned Competition of Animation (for normal audiences) and Sick & Twisted (something “positively NSFW”), and the model new class of Arty Farty (principally the animated equal of Oscar bait).
“I’m extremely appreciative of Skybound’s respect and understanding of what the Spike & Mike model has achieved,” wrote Decker, “and what we are able to proceed to supply. I’m excited to see what they’re capable of do for present Spike & Mike work and look ahead to growing a brand new chapter with them.”
“Spike & Mike has been a seminal platform for artistic voices in animation,” continued Skybound Leisure studio head Marge Dean. “There can be no place for exhibits like Invincible to exist with out their efforts to develop a protected area for creators to precise each the uplifting and introspective or ‘sick and twisted’ in an extremely progressive, advanced, and boundless artwork kind.”
The complete checklist of guidelines and necessities to undergo the brand new Spike & Mike’s competition, together with a normal FAQ, may be learn here.
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