Skybound Leisure, the corporate behind Strolling Lifeless and the animated sequence Invincible, is reviving the legendary Spike & Mike’s Pageant of Animation. It’s now accepting submissions for the 2024 version.
A date for pageant hasn’t been nailed down but, however the first window of submissions will likely be free and open to residents of the U.S., U.Ok., and Canada (excluding Quebec) till January 5, 2024. Skybound is accepting submissions in three classes: Pageant of Animation, Sick & Twisted, and Arty Farty.
Initially launched in 1977, Spike & Mike’s festivals performed a key position in legitimizing unbiased and grownup animation in america. The touring pageant turned famend for showcasing the artistry of animation and providing a platform to younger and skilled artists alike. The pageant’s heyday was within the Eighties and Nineties, nevertheless it was a sufferer of its personal success. As animation turned an accepted mainstream grownup artwork kind, the occasion’s relevance tapered off, earlier than lastly ending within the 2010s.
However Spike & Mike’s significance throughout its glory days can’t be overstated. The pageant screened the work of a whole lot of iconic filmmakers, lots of whom had been nonetheless within the early phases of their careers. A number of the filmmakers whose work was offered on the pageant embody Pete Docter, Tim Burton, John Lasseter, Karen Aqua, John Dilworth, Alison Snowden, Brad Fowl, Craig McCracken, Mike Decide, Nick Park, Chris Wedge, Andrew Stanton, Wendy Tilby, Amanda Forbis, Marv Newland, Invoice Plympton, Erica Russell, Will Vinton, Joanna Priestley, Barry Purves, and Joan Gratz.
The Spike & Mike relaunch is about extra than simply the Pageant of Animation, although. In line with Skybound, the plan is to:
- Relaunch Animation Festivals: Revive the Spike & Mike animation occasions, inviting creators worldwide to have interaction of their distinctive, unconventional type.
- Distribute Content material Digitally: Make handpicked animated shorts out there on-line, enhancing international accessibility to each latest and legacy library content material whereas honoring the festivals’ gonzo roots.
- Forge New Partnerships: Search collaborations with up to date animation creators throughout quite a lot of mediums and platforms to highlight at present’s expertise.
- Reintroduce The Library: Assess alternatives to both rejuvenate iconic tales from the previous or craft recent narratives influenced by its library.
Skybound is encouraging animators, universities, and organizations around the globe to submit authentic works for the possibility to be featured within the library of Skybound Presents: Spike & Mike. A phrase of warning to Cartoon Brew readers: fastidiously assessment the phrases earlier than submitting something by means of the Spike & Mike web site, because the contract shouldn’t be creator-friendly. The straightforward act of submitting your movie grants an inexplicably broad license to Skybound to do no matter they need together with your animation with no assured compensation, and such phrases might negatively affect extra profitable distribution and licensing alternatives.
Saying the reboot, Skybound Leisure head of studio Marge Dean stated in a launch:
Spike & Mike has been a seminal platform for inventive voices in animation. There could be no place for reveals like Invincible to exist with out their efforts to develop a secure house for creators to precise each the uplifting and introspective or ‘sick and twisted’ in an extremely modern, advanced, and boundless artwork kind.
Rick Jacobs, managing associate of linear content material at Skybound, added:
Bringing this iconic model beneath the Skybound umbrella is a gigantic alternative to deliver Spike & Mike’s insurgent origins to the plenty and broaden upon what we’re already doing in grownup animation. Co-founder Mike Gribble as soon as said that their mission was “to search out probably the most authentic, funniest, and weirdest animation on the planet and play it.” Digitizing the festivals opens the doorways for – and to – tens of millions of proficient of creators throughout the globe who will shepherd a brand new technology of animation.
Spike & Mike’s co-founder Craig “Spike” Decker additionally celebrated the information:
I’m extremely appreciative of Skybound’s respect and understanding of what the Spike & Mike model has completed and what we are able to proceed to supply. I’m excited to see what they’re capable of do for current Spike & Mike work and stay up for creating a brand new chapter with them.