Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation is a presentation of award-winning animated short films, annually touring throughout

theaters Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

film festivals A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent date and depe ...

or college campuses in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Background

The festival premieres annually in the La Jolla (Village) neighborhood seated in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

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 Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. As of the 2020 census, the city has a population of 314,998. It is the most populous city in th ...

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 ''Fantastic Animation Festival'' is a package film of animation segments, set mostly to music and released in theaters in 1977. It was one of the earliest of the sort of collections typified by Computer Animation Festival and Spike and Mike's F ...

'', 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. 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 Nicholas Wulstan Park (born 6 December 1958) is an English filmmaker and animator who created '' Wallace & Gromit'', '' Creature Comforts'', '' Chicken Run'', '' Shaun the Sheep'', and '' Early Man''. Park has been nominated for an Academy ...

Marv Newland Marv Newland (March 9, 1947) is an American-Canadian filmmaker, specialized in animation. Career Newland began a career making animated motion pictures in Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles with the creation of the short ''Bambi Meets Godzilla ...

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and producer. Known for popularizing Goth subculture, Goth culture in the American film industry, Burton is famous for his Gothic film, gothic horror and dark fantasy films. ...

, Barry Purves,

John Lasseter John Alan Lasseter ( ; born January 12, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and animator. He was previously the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disneytoon Studios, a ...

Andrew Stanton Andrew Ayers Stanton (born December 3, 1965) is an American filmmaker. He is best known as the director and co-writer of the Pixar animated films ''Finding Nemo'' (2003), ''WALL-E'' (2008), ''Finding Dory'' (2016), and the upcoming ''Toy Story 5 ...

, and

Will Vinton William Gale Vinton (November 17, 1947 – October 4, 2018) was an American animator and filmmaker. Vinton was best known for his Claymation work, alongside creating iconic characters such as The California Raisins. He won an Academy Awards, Os ...

. 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 Korn (stylized as KoЯn) is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, originally formed in 1993 by James Shaffer, James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald Arvizu, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu and David Silveria, who were members of the band ...

. 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 Skybound Entertainment is an American multiplatform entertainment company founded by Robert Kirkman and David Alpert. It operates in concert with Image Comics. History Skybound Entertainment is the company behind the long-running comic series, ...

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 Craig McCracken (born March 31, 1971) is an American cartoonist, animator, director, writer, and producer known for creating Cartoon Network's ''The Powerpuff Girls'' and ''Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends'', Disney Channel and Disney XD's ''W ...

, Miles Thompson,

Danny Antonucci Daniel Edward Antonucci (, ; born February 27, 1957) is a Canadian animator, director, producer, and writer. He created the Cartoon Network animated comedy series '' Ed, Edd n Eddy'' as well as '' Lupo the Butcher'' and ''The Brothers Grunt'' fo ...

Benjamin Gluck Ben Gluck is an American storyboard artist, film director, and screenwriter. Gluck was a director and head of story at Disney Animation Studios. Early life Benjamin "Ben" Gluck was born in St. Louis, Missouri. As a teenager, he showed his art po ...

, David Smith, Steve Fonti, Craig Kellman, and

Mike Judge Michael Craig Judge (born October 17, 1962) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, and director. He is best known for being the creator of the animated television series ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' (1993–1997, 2011, 2022–present). He ...

. 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 The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence i ...

Emmys The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

, and

Annie Awards The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in American cinema and television. Origi ...

. *

(creator of ''

The Brothers Grunt ''The Brothers Grunt'' is an adult animated comedy television series, and the earliest series made by '' Ed, Edd n Eddy'' creator Danny Antonucci. It originally aired from August 15, 1994, to April 9, 1995, on MTV. It centers on five humanoid ...

'' and ''

Ed, Edd n Eddy '' Ed, Edd n Eddy'' is an animated television series created by Danny Antonucci for Cartoon Network. The series revolves around three friends named Ed, Edd (nicknamed "Double D" to avoid confusion with Ed), and Eddy—collectively known as "th ...

''): '' Lupo the Butcher'' *

Don Hertzfeldt Don Hertzfeldt (born August 1, 1976) is an American animator, writer, and independent filmmaker. He is a two-time Academy Award nominee who is best known for the animated films ''It's Such a Beautiful Day (film), It's Such a Beautiful Day'', the ...

: '' Ah L'amour'', ''

Genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

'', '' Lily and Jim'', '' Billy's Balloon'', ''

Rejected ''Rejected'' is an animated surrealist short comedy film directed by Don Hertzfeldt that was released in 2000. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film the following year at the 73rd Academy Awards, and received 27 a ...

'' *

(creator of ''

Beavis and Butt-Head ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated Animated sitcom, sitcom created by Mike Judge. The series follows Beavis and Butt-Head, both voiced by Judge, a pair of teenage slackers characterized by their apathy, Stupi ...

'' and ''

King of the Hill ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels that initially aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, with four more episodes airing in First-run syndicati ...

''): "'' Frog Baseball''", and " ''Peace, Love & Understanding''" *

Bill Plympton Bill Plympton (born April 30, 1946) is an American animator, graphic designer, cartoonist, and filmmaker best known for his 1987 Academy Award–nominated animated short '' Your Face'' and his series of shorts featuring a dog character starting ...

: '' Your Face'', ''25 Ways to Quit Smoking'', ''Nose Hair'', ''

Guard Dog A guard dog or watchdog is a dog used to watch for and guard people or property against unwanted human or animal intruders. A dog trained to attack intruders is known as an attack dog. History Dogs have been used as guardians since ancient ...

'' and ''Eat'' *

(creator of ''

The Powerpuff Girls ''The Powerpuff Girls'' is an American Superhero fiction, superhero animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera (later Cartoon Network Studios) for Cartoon Network. The show centers on Blossom ...

'', ''

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends ''Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends'' is an American animated television series created by Craig McCracken for Cartoon Network. It was produced by Cartoon Network Studios as the network's first show animated primarily with Adobe Flash, whic ...

'', ''

Wander Over Yonder ''Wander Over Yonder'' is an American animated television series that aired on Disney Channel and Disney XD. Created by Craig McCracken, it follows the adventures of the optimistic Wander, who travels across the galaxy to help the inhabitants of ...

'', and ''

Kid Cosmic ''Kid Cosmic'' is an American animated superhero television series created by Craig McCracken and developed by McCracken, his wife Lauren Faust and Francisco Angones for Netflix. The series was based on his 2009 comic ''The Kid from Planet Earth' ...

''): ''No Neck Joe'' and ''Whoopass Stew'' *

: ''

Bambi Meets Godzilla ''Bambi Meets Godzilla'' is a 1969 black-and-white animated short student film produced entirely by Marv Newland. Less than two minutes long, the film is seen as a classic of animation; it was listed #38 in the book ''The 50 Greatest Cartoons'' ...

'' *

Matt Stone Matthew Richard Stone (born May 26, 1971) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, and musician. He is best known for co-creating ''South Park'' (since 1997) and ''The Book of Mormon (musical), The Book of Mormon'' (2011) with his cre ...

and

Trey Parker Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III (born October 19, 1969) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, director, and musician. He is best known for co-creating ''South Park'' (1997) and '' The Book of Mormon'' (2011) with his creative part ...

(creators of ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...

''): '' The Spirit Of Christmas'' *

(creator of ''

Wallace And Gromit ''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British claymation comedy media franchise, franchise created by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations. The series centres on Wallace, a good-natured, eccentric, cheese-loving bachelor inventor, and Gromit, his ...

''): '' Creature Comforts'', ''

The Wrong Trousers ''The Wrong Trousers'' is a 1993 British stop-motion animated short film produced by Aardman Animations. The film was directed by Nick Park and co-written by Park, Bob Baker, and Brian Sibley. It is the second installment in the '' Wallace & ...

'', ''

A Close Shave ''A Close Shave'' is a 1995 British stop-motion animated short film produced by Aardman Animations. Directed by Nick Park and written by Park and Bob Baker, it is the third installment in the '' Wallace & Gromit'' series, following '' A Grand ...

'' * Breehn Burns (creator of '' Dr. Tran''): ''Beyond Grandpa'' * Kenn Navarro (creator of ''

Happy Tree Friends ''Happy Tree Friends'' (commonly abbreviated as ''HTF'') is an adult animated web series created by Aubrey Ankrum, Rhode Montijo, and Kenn Navarro, and developed by Montijo, Navarro, and Warren Graff for Mondo Media. Disguised as a childr ...

'') *

Eric Fogel Eric Fogel (born May 11, 1969) is an American director, writer, animator, producer, and voice actor who is best known as the creator of ''Celebrity Deathmatch''. He created the TV shows ''The Head (1994 TV series), The Head'', ''Starveillance'' ...

(creator of ''

Celebrity Deathmatch ''Celebrity Deathmatch'' is an adult stop-motion claymated series created by Eric Fogel and produced by John Worth Lynn Jr. for MTV. A parody of sports entertainment programs, ''Celebrity Deathmatch'' depicted various celebrities engaging ...

''): ''Mutilator'' *

(director of ''

Toy Story ''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the first installment in the Toy Story (franchise), ''Toy Story'' franchise and the Firsts in animation, firs ...

'', ''

A Bug's Life ''A Bug's Life'' (stylized in all lowercase) is a 1998 American animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter from a screenplay written by Andrew Stanton, Donald McEnery, and Bob Shaw, and a story conceived by Lasseter, Stanton, and Joe Ran ...

'' and ''

Cars A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

''): '' Luxo Jr.'', ''

Red's Dream ''Red's Dream'' is a 1987 American animated short film written and directed by John Lasseter and produced by Pixar. The short film, which runs four minutes, stars Red, a unicycle. Propped up in the corner of a bicycle store on a rainy night, Re ...

'', ''

Tin Toy A tin toy, or tin lithograph toy, is a mechanical toy made out of tinplate and colorfully painted by chromolithography to resemble primarily a character or vehicle. History Tinplate was used in the manufacture of toys beginning in the mid-19th ...

'' and ''

Knick Knack ''Knick Knack'' is a 1989 American animated short film produced by Pixar that was written and directed by John Lasseter. The short is about a snow globe snowman who wants to join the other travel souvenirs in a summer-themed party. However, the ...

'' *

(director of ''

Finding Nemo ''Finding Nemo'' is a 2003 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, co-directed by Lee Unkrich, and produced by Graham Walters, from ...

'' and ''

WALL-E ''WALL-E'' (stylized with an interpunct as ''WALL·E'') is a 2008 American animated Romance film, romantic science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, produced b ...

''): ''A Story'' and ''Somewhere in the Artic'' *

Pete Docter Peter Hans Docter (born October 9, 1968) is an American filmmaker and animator, who has served as chief creative officer (CCO) of Pixar since 2018. He has directed the company's animated films ''Monsters, Inc.'' (2001), ''Up (2009 film), Up'' ( ...

(animator, director, and writer of '' Up'', ''

Monsters, Inc. ''Monsters, Inc.'' (also known as ''Monsters, Incorporated'') is a 2001 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Featuring the voices of John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, James Cobu ...

'', '' Inside Out'' and ''

Soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

''): ''Winter'', ''Palm Springs'', ''Next Door'' * Alison Snowden and David Fine (creators of ''

Bob and Margaret ''Bob and Margaret'' is an adult animated sitcom created by David Fine and Alison Snowden and co-produced by Nelvana Limited and Channel 4 as a collaboration, both financial and artistic. The last two seasons were co-produced without Channel 4 ...

''): ''

Bob's Birthday ''Bob's Birthday'' is a 1993 Canadian-British animated short by Alison Snowden and David Fine, winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 67th Academy Awards, and serves as the pilot to the animated series ''Bob and Marga ...

'' *

: ''Man’s Best Friend'' * John A. Davis (director of '' Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius'' and '' The Ant Bully''): ''Nanna & Lil' Puss Puss'' *

Chris Wedge John Christian Wedge (born March 20, 1957) is an American filmmaker, animator, and voice actor. He is best known for being the lead animator of the sci-fi action film ''Tron'' (1982), co-founding the now defunct animation studio Blue Sky Studios ...

(director of ''

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

'', ''

Robots" \n\n\n\n\n\n\nrobots.txt is the filename used for implementing the Robots Exclusion Protocol, a standard used by websites to indicate to visiting web crawlers and other web robots which portions of the website they are allowed to visit.\n\nThe sta ...

'' and ''

Epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

''): ''

Bunny Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated form ...

'' *

: '' Closed Mondays'' *

(director of ''

Corpse Bride ''Corpse Bride'' (also known as ''Tim Burton's Corpse Bride'') is a 2005 stop-motion-animated fantasy musical film, directed by Mike Johnson (in his directorial debut) and Tim Burton from a screenplay by John August, Caroline Thompson, and ...

'' and '' Frankenweenie''): ''

Vincent Vincent (Latin: ''Vincentius'') is a masculine given name originating from the Roman name ''Vincentius'', which itself comes from the Latin verb ''vincere'', meaning "to conquer." People with the given name Artists *Vincent Apap (1909–2003) ...

'' *

Teddy Newton Teddy Newton is an American animator and voice actor, best known for his work at Pixar, Pixar Animation Studios. Career Newton worked as a storyboard artist on ''2 Stupid Dogs'', ''The Iron Giant'', and ''Dexter's Laboratory.'' He was a charact ...

(character designer for ''

The Incredibles ''The Incredibles'' is a 2004 American animated superhero film written and directed by Brad Bird. Produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures, the film stars the voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Spencer ...

''): ''Bulimiator'' and ''Boys' Night Out'' * Barry Purves: ''Screenplay'' * John R. Dilworth (creator of ''

Courage the Cowardly Dog ''Courage the Cowardly Dog'' is an American animated comedy horror television series created by John R. Dilworth for Cartoon Network. It was produced by Dilworth's animation studio, Stretch Films. The eponymous character is an anxious dog who li ...

''): ''The Dirdy Birdy'' * Frederic Back: '' Crac'' * Kevin Kaliher (creator of '' A Kitty Bobo Show''): ''Home, Honey I'm High'' *

Brad Bird Philip Bradley Bird (born September 24, 1957) is an American filmmaker, animator, and voice actor. He has had a career spanning over four decades in both animation and Live action, live-action. Bird was born in Montana and grew up in Oregon. He ...

(director of ''

The Iron Giant ''The Iron Giant'' is a 1999 American animated science fiction film directed by Brad Bird and produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation. It is loosely based on the 1968 novel '' The Iron Man'' by Ted Hughes (which was published in the United ...

'', ''

'' and ''

Ratatouille Ratatouille ( , ; ) is a French Provençal dish of stewed vegetables that originated in Nice and is sometimes referred to as ''ratatouille niçoise'' (). Recipes and cooking times differ widely, but common ingredients include tomato, garlic ...

''): '' Family Dog'' * Brad Ableson (co-creator of '' Good Vibes'' and '' Legends of Chamberlain Heights''): ''

Save Virgil ''Save Virgil'' is a short independent film by Brad Ableson that mixes live action with animation, released on March 3, 2004. It features the voice of Adam Carolla as the title character who is a human cartoon living in real world. It made its te ...

'' *

Bruno Bozzetto Bruno Bozzetto (born 3 March 1938) is an Italian cartoon animator and film director, creator of many short pieces, mainly of a Politics, political or Satire, satirical nature. He created his first animated short "Tapum! the weapons' story" in 19 ...

(director of '' Allegro non troppo''): '' Grasshoppers (Cavallette)'' * Craig Kellman (character designer for '' Madagascar'', ''

Trolls A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human be ...

'' and ''

Hotel Transylvania ''Hotel Transylvania'' is an American media franchise created by Todd Durham and owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. It consists of four animated feature films, three short films, an animated television series, and several video games. The ...

''): ''Bulimiator''

References

Sources

* *

Jerry Beck Jerry Beck (born February 9, 1955) is an American animation historian, author, blogger (person), blogger, and video producer. Beck wrote or edited several books on classic American animation and classic characters, including ''Looney Tunes and ...

. ''Outlaw Animation: Cutting-Edge Cartoons from the Spike and Mike Festivals'', Harry N. Abrams, p. 6–152.

External links

Official webpage on Skybound
*
Animation Outlaws
', a documentary about the festival
Animation Outlaws homepage
*{{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903194924/http://www.spikeandmike.com/ , date=September 3, 2014 , title=Official website 1977 establishments in California Animation duos Animation film festivals in the United States Experimental film festivals Animation compilation Film festivals established in 1977 Defunct film festivals in the United States 1970s in animation 1980s in animation 1990s in animation 2000s in animation Skybound Entertainment 2023 mergers and acquisitions

Background

History

Contributors

See also

References

Sources

Further reading

External links