During this weekend’s Toronto Animation Industry Conference, Invincible company Skybound Entertainment revealed it’s acquired the rights to Spike & Mike’s Festival of Animation.
Older fans may remember the event—named after Craig “Spike” Decker and the late Mike Gribble—as a showcase for animated shorts defined as “cutting edge, daring, and often hilarious.” Starting with the 1977 Festival of Animation and expanding with the respective Sick & Twisted and New Gen festivals of the 1990s and 2000s, they featured works by those who would eventually become known names in animation today—Pete Docter (Soul), Matt Stone & Trey Parker (South Park), and Mike Judge (King of the Hill), to name a few. For those who weren’t alive (or aware of) Spike & Mike’s back then, the closest equivalent would be the anthology series What a Cartoon! from Cartoon Network (or Oh Yeah! Cartoons from Nickelodeon), both of which led to beloved 90s cartoons like Dexter’s Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, and My Life as a Teenage Robot.
With a new revival of Spike & Mike’s underway, Skybound aims to highlight current and up-and-coming talent in the animation space. Submitted shorts will be made available digitally, and the company is working on securing development opportunities, project stipends, and acquisitions as potential awards. At time of writing, submissions are open to the US, Canada, and the UK, and can be can be put into one of three categories: the aforementioned Festival of Animation (for general audiences) and Sick & Twisted (anything “definitely NSFW”), and the brand new category of Arty Farty (basically the animated equivalent of Oscar bait).
“I’m incredibly appreciative of Skybound’s respect and understanding of what the Spike & Mike brand has accomplished,” wrote Decker, “and what we can continue to offer. I’m excited to see what they’re able to do for existing Spike & Mike work and look forward to developing a new chapter with them.”
“Spike & Mike has been a seminal platform for creative voices in animation,” continued Skybound Entertainment studio head Marge Dean. “There would be no place for shows like Invincible to exist without their efforts to develop a safe space for creators to express both the uplifting and introspective or ‘sick and twisted’ in an incredibly innovative, complex, and boundless art form.”
The full list of rules and requirements to submit to the new Spike & Mike’s festival, along with a general FAQ, can be read here.
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