ANCHOR INTRO: The Spike and Mike Festival of Animation 30th Anniversary Edition continues at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla. KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando says this weekend the festival will have an Oscar-nominated director as its special guest. SPIKE 1 (ba) 1:15 Director Rich Moore received an Oscar nomination this year for his first animated feature “Wreck-It Ralph.” But back in 1987 he had just graduated from Cal Arts and his girlfriend’s film had just been selected for a Spike and Mike Festival. He says it was more than just an opportunity to screen a student work. RICH MOORE: Because you are actually dealing with people, it was a good way of exposing us to kind of the business end of the business because we had worked years and years on our films creatively at school and this was just a way to see how films were distributed and it was a very friendly way to be introduced to that side of the business. Moore has good memories of meeting Spike and Mike, and of attending the festivals where he met people like Toy Story creator John Lasseter. RICH MOORE: I really liked meeting at the show, people who were working in the industry because it really gave me hope as an animator, as a filmmaker, that what I was desiring to do was achievable. So I feel like it’s important for me to carry on that tradition. Rich Moore will be at Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation at Sherwood Auditorium tonight and tomorrow night to answer questions from the audience. The festival continues through March 30. Beth Accomando, KPBS News.
The Spike and Mike Festival of Animation 30th Anniversary Edition continues at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla through March 30 but tonight and tomorrow night you can meet an Oscar-nominated director.
Director Rich Moore received an Oscar nomination this year for his first animated feature “Wreck-It Ralph” (out on DVD and Blu-ray March 5). But back in 1987 he had just graduated from Cal Arts and his girlfriend’s film had just been selected for a Spike and Mike Festival. He says it was more than just an opportunity to screen a student work.
"Because you are actually dealing with people, it was a good way of exposing us to kind of the business end of the business because we had worked years and years on our films creatively at school and this was just a way to see how films were distributed and it was a very friendly way to be introduced to that side of the business."
Moore has good memories of meeting Spike and Mike, and of attending the festivals where he met people like Toy Story creator John Lasseter.
"I really liked meeting at the show, people who were working in the industry because it really gave me hope as an animator, as a filmmaker, that what I was desiring to do was achievable. So I feel like it’s important for me to carry on that tradition."
Rich Moore will be at Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation at Sherwood Auditorium tonight and tomorrow night to sign autographs and answer questions from the audience. The festival continues through March 30.
Also of note is the addition of a new film not included on the program listing. Mike Salva's clever animation "Pound Dogs" was just added to the festival program by Craig "Spike" Decker. Decker was in negotiations to get the film and when contracts were signed he decided not to wait for another festival but to include it immediately in the 30th Anniversary Edition. But that, apparently is how Spike rolls. Making changes at the last minute doesn't phase him, his only goal is to get the best films out there for the public to see.
Salva, a Tennessee filmmaker, had both"Death Row Diet" and "Max the Hero" screened at the Comic-Con International Film Festival in recent years. "Death Row Diet" is currently being developed as a web series with Jonathan Katz voicing the main character of a death row inmate concerned with his weight. "Pound Dogs" deals with a different kind of incarceration as it looks to a pair of dogs trying to get out of the pound by getting adopted... no matter how crazy the people may be.
