Nickelodeon said it greenlit an animated short, Cupcakery of Doom, after hearing a pitch for the project at the network's first-ever open call for animated projects at this year's Comic-Con International. Nick said the project will have the potential to air on the network, or on Nick.com or the Nick App, or possibly be developed into a long-form animated series.
Created by Trevor Reece of Eureka, Calif., a writer for The Press Democrat newspaper's comics blog, it's a "comedic story about two nefarious friends -- a bear and a mouse -- with designs on taking over the world," Viacom-owned Nick said in a release. Reece's was the first pitch heard, from among more than 100, by Nick's animation development team at the convention.
“We loved Trevor’s clever angle and adorable characters, but overall, Cupcakery just made us laugh,” Jenna Boyd, senior vice president, Animation Development, Nickelodeon, said in the release. “Trevor is a life-long Nick fan who told us he actually sent in a story idea to our very own Stick Stickly when he was a kid back in the ‘90s, so we had a hunch he understood our sensibility.”
Boyd said: “It was a grueling and gratifying three-day open call, and everyone who pitched us was talented and passionate. They had terrific ideas and stories to tell. Besides Trevor, there are some people we met whom we will have continuing relationships with, possibly to join our production teams or talk further about their concepts and ideas.”
Nick heard the pitches July 24-26 at Comic-Con in San Diego as part of its Animated Shorts Program, which most recently greenlit 13 episodes of The Loud House by 2013 graduate Chris Savino.
