A Lofty Interview with Spike - RJ Cavender

R.J. Cavender: For those unfamiliar, can you give a brief history of the Spike & Mike Festivals?

SPIKE: It all started in 1977 with Spike & Mike’s Festival of Animation and later the popular and infamous Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted. What we have accomplished is quite remarkable, if you really think about it. Creating a whole cottage industry producing, promoting & distributing our own theatrical as well as our own funding, marketing, 35mm lab conversion, producing many of their own shorts, creating yearly sequels that are as good or better than the previous year all without a publicist. US theatrical premiers that include Wallace & Gromit, Beavis & Butthead, the first films of Shane Acker, Andrew Stanton, John Lasseter, Pixar, Bill Plympton, Danny Antonucci, Eric Fogel, Breehn Burns, Tim Burton, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Chris Wedge, Kenn Navarro, Marv Newland, Mike Johnson & Nick Park.


RJC: How is Spike & Mike’s New Generation Animation Festival different from the Sick & Twisted festival?

SPIKE: A New Generation of Spike and Mike Animation is different from the Sick and Twisted for several reasons. It features more award winning, avante garde, international films and filmmakers. It’s more sophisticated, artistic but still very cool, insanely humorous and accessible.


RJC: What special challenges are you facing now with content being so readily available on the internet?

SPIKE: The internet has made our live events more unique because the people are all united together to watch under one big screen and in one theatre, they play off each others energy. And we are working on a bunch of content deals via new delivery systems on the internet as well, so keep an eye out for us there too…


RJC: Where did your love of animation come from?

SPIKE: With exposure to all the world’s great animators you develop a great awareness and appreciation for the animated arts.


RJC: What’s your favorite short animated piece of all time?

SPIKE: My personal favorite is the “Bolero” scene from “Allegro non Troppo” by Bruno Bozzetto.


RJC: What else can we expect from Spike & Mike in the future?

SPIKE: We are currently working on television distribution deals and digital application deals, so keep an eye out for us there as well.