New animation incubator project from Sony Pictures Animation and Fred Seibert’s Cartoon Hangover now accepting submissions.
Culver City, CA -- Sony Pictures Animation announced today that it would partner with animation pacesetter Fred Seibert to forge GO! Cartoons, a new idea incubator project that will provide emerging artists an incredible opportunity: a chance to turn their ideas into animated shorts that will debut on Seibert’s Cartoon Hangover YouTube channel, with its more than 1.3 million subscribers. Sony Pictures Animation will fund 12 five-minute animated shorts, with one premiering every month on Cartoon Hangover’s YouTube channel. One of those shorts will then become a limited series for the channel. This, in turn, will bring promising talent and animated content to the attention of Sony Pictures Animation through an alternative development method.
“Fred Seibert is a force of nature in animation, and we are thrilled to expand our current relationship with him by partnering on this,” states Bob Osher, President of Sony Pictures Digital Productions. “This is a great opportunity for Sony Pictures Animation to find new talent that might not emerge from more traditional platforms. Fred has a proven track record with this type of incubator project, with series after series launched from them, including The Powerpuff Girls, The Fairly OddParents and Adventure Time. Hotel Transylvania director Genndy Tartakovsky was also an incubator find—Fred and I were in the first meeting where he pitched the idea for the hit series Dexter’s Laboratory.”
Fred Seibert -- whose boundless creativity has given rise to multiple networks like MTV, pioneered the reinvention of TV animation and helped establish tumblr -- explains, “We’ve discovered amazing young talent through these unique incubators, and for the artists, this is an easier way to be seen. For Sony Pictures Animation, it provides different methods to develop projects. And for Cartoon Hangover, it’s a great way to shake the trees for new talent thanks to the involvement of a major animation studio like Sony Pictures Animation—and we’ll continue to fund and produce content our own unique way.”
Seibert and his team at Frederator Studios, his independent animation studio, have successfully expanded the appeal of new animation beyond the expected demographics. Cartoon Hangover’s most recent incubator lab, Too Cool! Cartoons, has brought “cartoons from new and innovative creators all over the world, right to your eyeballs,” including Bee & PuppyCat, from Natasha Allegri -- which garnered more than 4 million views, with 50 percent female viewers. Frederator Studios went directly to viewers via Kickstarter, and more than 18,000 fans ponied up in excess of $850,000 to bankroll the series, a record-breaking amount for any animation project start-up.
Sony Pictures Animation is the Academy Award nominated studio responsible for blockbuster comedy hits such as Open Season, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania, and The Smurfs. The animation studio will be releasing Hotel Transylvania 2 next Fall, once again directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, and a fully animated, as yet untitled Smurfs feature in summer 2016.
To pitch a cartoon, please read the GO! Cartoons FAQ: cartoonhangover.com/gocartoonsfaq.
Source: Frederator Studios
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
