Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation

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Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation is a touring program of animated films (rather than a film festival located in a single place), founded, programmed and packaged by Craig "Spike" Decker and Mike Gribble in 1990. It bills itself as a home for animated pieces "too revolting or adult in nature" for other venues. The festival has also been a launching ground for budding animators, many of who have gone on to promising careers.

Decker and Gribble began by founding Mellow Manor Productions, Inc. in San Diego in the 1970s as a means of promoting rock bands and special screenings of horror films as well as movie classics. By 1977 they focused on presenting packages of animated films, known as the Classic Festival of Animation, in venues across the country, playing alongside the International Tournée of Animation, another annual touring "festival" packaging the best of international animation. The Animated Film Festival began in 1990.

Danny Antonucci’s irreverent Lupo The Butcher, the animated film that inspired Spike and Mike to start their film festival, was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1987. He wanted to have the film seen in USA, but it appears that Spike and Mike were cautious. Both thought that if Antonucci’s films were separated from the New animation program, they might fit into another with the title, Irreverent Animation. The result the Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation, launched in March 1990.

1 Controversy
2 Prominent Animators and Contributions
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Controversy

Over the years, the Sick and Twisted festival has come under fire from critics for exhibiting works that may be perceived as racist, sexist, ageist or otherwise insensitive; its defenders have argued that the festival is meant, by definition, to be controversial and politically incorrect.

Additionally, almost all of the Festival's most popular contributors from the 1990's-2000's (listed below) appear to have more or less abandoned working with the company. Speculation on online animation messages boards paint the picture of Spike and Mike's being an artist-unfriendly company: animators being paid very little for the licensing of their films, or Spike and Mike exploiting their work in ways not agreed upon.

The festival has also come under criticism over its perceived decline in quality in recent years. While the festival has never received favorable reviews from critics, many "sick and twisted" audiences complain of the annual lack of quality material; the festival repeatedly re-runs older cartoons and has also regularly begun to program Internet Flash cartoons, content that is generally not seen as worthy of a full price theatrical admission.

The festival is presented annually in San Diego and then tours to theatres, film festivals, and college campuses in about a dozen North American cities.