Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation

Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation is a presentation of award-winning animated short films, annually touring throughout theaters, film festivals or college campuses in the United States.

Background

The festival premieres annually in the La Jolla (Village) neighborhood seated in San Diego, California then tours to theatres, film festivals, and college campuses currently in about a dozen North American cities.

• The Festival of Animation, later renamed the Classic Festival of Animation, was the original format, started in 1977, and continued into the early 2000s.
• The Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation started in 1990 and runs alongside the original festival (which was renamed the Classic festival in this context), becoming the sole festival in the early 2000s as the Classic festival was phased out.
• The New Gen (Generation) Animation Festival was introduced in February 2010, and the latest show distributed along with the Sick and Twisted. "For years now I've had films that didn't quite fit into the Sick and Twisted category, films that are more sophisticated and artistic, - high production value, over-the-top humorous and really an introduction on what's moving into the pop cult landscape." - Spike

History

Mellow Manor Productions, Inc. was founded by Craig "Spike" Decker and Mike Gribble, known as "Spike & Mike" in Riverside, California in the 1970s as a means of promoting rock bands and special screenings of horror films as well as movie classics. It was named after Riverside's notorious Victorian house "The Manor" where Spike, Mike, and many others lived in a communal set. The Manor was the original flagship and production house of the Festival. After spending mid-1977 giving out flyers for the Fantastic Animation Festival, they focused on presenting a flight of animated films and booking the Festival of Animation in venues across the country, which eventually becoming a 50 city tour.

The Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation began in 1990 at Wheeler Auditorium at UC Berkeley. This is an unrated, adult version of the regular program mainly featuring satyric, non sequitur and gross-out cartoons. In the Festival's early days, Spike and Mike took the stage, introduced the films in ringmaster style. 3 foot (0.91 m) balloons were volleyed into fan seating before showtime to burn off street energy. The reel header was flanked by a bagpipe and drum battle march over a cartoon of Spike's Scottish Terrier on screen wreaking havoc on the titles. The dog took the stage and was driven to shred objects.

Before the Festival of Animation, it was difficult to see independent, experimental, and foreign animation. Spike and Mike went on yearly worldwide film hunting expeditions. They signed on animation from the National Film Board of Canada, CalArts, Sheridan, Royal College of Art, Annecy, Zagreb, Hiroshima, Ottawa and select studios active among the art-house scene that did not have a public venue. In the 1990s, Spike and Mike screened early films from animators including Nick Park, Marv Newland, Tim Burton, Barry Purves, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and Will Vinton.

The shows have toured in theaters, film festivals such as (Cannes, Sundance, Annecy), college campuses, and dynamic events such as the Vans Warped Tour, the Winter X Games, ComiCon, and with the nu-metal band Korn.

Initially, Spike and Mike produced the Classic Festival and later both the Classic and Sick and Twisted simultaneously. But by the early 2000s, the Classic Festival of Animation was put on hiatus in favor of the Sick and Twisted Festival. Spike and Mike's New Gen Show was created in place of the Classic Festival to show films that did not fit into the category of "sick and twisted".

A select set of the short films in the festival were produced at Mellow Manor, some partially and others in-full. Artists' conceptualized or unfinished elements were often accepted for financial and pipeline assistance in completing production. Some stages of an artist's production were contracted out for specialized work.

Mike Gribble died from cancer in August 1994, and Spike would continue to produce touring theatrical festivals of animated short film collections.

In November 2023, Skybound Entertainment announced that it had acquired the festival and has plans to revitalize it.

Contributors

In the 1990s, Spike and Mike showed work from animators such as Craig McCracken, Miles Thompson, Danny Antonucci, Benjamin Gluck, Dave Smith, Steve Fonti, Craig Kellman, and Mike Judge. Several films under Spike and Mike's Mellow Manor Productions were funded either partially or entirely from concept to completion (such as Mike Judge's first Beavis and Butthead films). Working beyond their initial projects, many of these artists have become prominent in the industry and independent creatives, commercial artists, painters, screenwriters, and designers. Several have become nominated for or won honors including Oscars, Emmys, and Annie Awards.

• Danny Antonucci (creator of The Brothers Grunt and Ed, Edd n Eddy): Lupo the Butcher
• Don Hertzfeldt: Ah L'amour, Genre, Lily and Jim, Billy's Balloon, Rejected
• Mike Judge (creator of Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill): "Frog Baseball", and "Peace, Love & Understanding"
• Bill Plympton: Your Face, 25 Ways to Quit Smoking, Nose Hair, Guard Dog and Eat
• Craig McCracken (creator of The Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Wander Over Yonder, and Kid Cosmic): No Neck Joe
• Marv Newland: Bambi Meets Godzilla
• Matt Stone and Trey Parker (creators of South Park): The Spirit Of Christmas
• Nick Park (creator of Wallace And Gromit): Creature Comforts, The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave
• Breehn Burns (creator of Dr. Tran): Beyond Grandpa
• Kenn Navarro (creator of Happy Tree Friends)
• Eric Fogel (creator of Celebrity Deathmatch): Mutilator
• John Lasseter (director of Toy Story, A Bug's Life and Cars): Luxo Jr., Red's Dream, Tin Toy
• Andrew Stanton (director of Finding Nemo and WALL-E): A Story, Somewhere in the Artic
• Pete Docter (animator, director, and writer of Up, Monsters, Inc., Inside Out and Soul): Winter, Palm Springs, Next Door
• Alison Snowden and David Fine (creators of Bob and Margaret): Bob's Birthday
• Benjamin Gluck: Man’s Best Friend
• John A. Davis (director of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and The Ant Bully): Nanna & Lil' Puss Puss
• Chris Wedge (director of Ice Age, Robots and Epic): Bunny
• Will Vinton: Closed Mondays
• Tim Burton (director of Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie): Vincent
• Barry Purves: Screenplay
• John R. Dilworth (creator of Courage the Cowardly Dog): The Dirdy Birdy
• Frederic Back: Crac
• Brad Bird (director of The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille): Family Dog
• Brad Ableson (co-creator of Good Vibes and Legends of Chamberlain Heights): Save Virgil

See also

• International Tournée of Animation, also popular in the late 80s-early 90s
• List of international animation festivals
• The Animation Show, contemporary North American collection
• Nicktoons Film Festival
• Animation Show of Shows
• Fantastic Animation Festival
• The Animation Showcase
• Animation Block Party
• KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival

References

Sources

• Spike and Mike's – A Brief History at the Wayback Machine (archived November 4, 2012)
• Jerry Beck. Outlaw Animation: Cutting-Edge Cartoons from the Spike and Mike Festivals, Harry N. Abrams, p. 6–152. ISBN 978-0-8109-9151-4

Further reading

• Cohen, Karl F. (2013-10-18). Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America. McFarland. pp. 104–107. ISBN 978-1-4766-0725-2.
• Beck, Jerry (2003-07-15). Outlaw Animation: Cutting-Edge Cartoons from the Spike & Mike Festivals. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-9151-4.
• Mackin-Solomon, Ashley (2022-05-24). ""Permission to be weird': La Jolla native's film on Spike and Mike festival to be screened at Comic-Con". La Jolla Light. Retrieved 2023-02-11.
• Desowitz, Bill (2020-07-17). "'Animation Outlaws': How Spike & Mike Turned Indie Shorts Into a Cultural Phenomenon". IndieWire. Retrieved 2023-02-11.

External links

• Official webpage on Skybound
• Animation Outlaws, a documentary about the festival
• Animation Outlaws homepage
• Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived September 3, 2014)