‘Super Epico,’ ‘Spending Days’ To Be Pitched at Segovia’s 3D Wire
Animated TV series “Spending Days with Mr Cthulhu” and “Súper Epico,” movies such as “Knight & Monkey” and “Little Bastards” and transmedia project “Girl and Wolf” will be presented at the 8th 3D Wire Animation, Video Games and New Media, a fest-mart starting Thursday Oct. 6 in Spain’s historic city of Segovia.
20 in all, 3D Wire’s projects are mostly Spanish fare and at an early stage of development. Of potential standouts, SalBa Combé’s “Cthulhu” weighs in a short format TV series turning on a small girl who, in her quest for true friendship, summons a primitive creature from another dimension. “Cthulu” marks the directorial debut of Combé, an art director on the popular Spanish series “Jelly Jam.”
Also a market debut, “Súper Épico” represents the new series from Niko (“Animal Crisis,” “Calico electrónico”). A Spanish-Mexican co-production, between Nikotxán and Anima Studios, “Epico” turns on a friendly, fulsomely tattoed fighter who faces off with famous opponents such as Sonic, Lara Croft or Chuck Norris.
The best-known features projects at 3D Wire are Salvador Simó’s “Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles,” co-produced by Sygnatia and The Glow, and the Spanish-Canadian co-production “Klaus,” directed by the celebrated Sergio Pablos, an executive producer and co-creator of “Despicable Me.”
A third ambitious feature project is “Little Bastards” which depart from a provocative premise: What if Hitler, Mengele, Mussolini, Stalin, Franco and Castro met at a high-security boarding school? Directed by Manuel Sicilia (“The Missing Lynx”), this adult irreverent comedy was presented at March’s Cartoon Movie in Lyon to an upbeat reception.
“Our event is changeable, moving in the direction the industry determines, though from the beginning we’ve focused on synergies between animation, videogames and new technologies,” said event director José Luís Farias adding that another main interest is “discovering and boosting new talents.”
In a multi-platform world, an increasing number of projects have difficulties in defining their main distribution platform, he added.
As an example Farias cites “Knight & Monkey,” a feature project departing from an interactive graphic novel. Directed by first-timers Santi Riscos and Khris Cembe, animators on Pedro Rivero and Alberto Vázquez’s Goya Award winner “Birdboy,” “Knight” is set in a very distant future , featuring middle-aged chicken-looking creatures.
Fest also includes a 45-title shorts competition, whose winner opts for a prestigious Cartoon d’Or Award.
Spanish animation frames a paradox. It has a weak domestic financing base, has battled economic downturn for going on a decade, turning to international markets and investors, and exploring new digital outlets.
Nobody doubts the strength or depth of its talent pool, however.
“Spanish creators are very singular and highly talented,” said France’s Didier Brunner, the dean of upscale Europe’s 2D animation (“The Triplets of Belleville,” the “Kirikou” franchise) said at June’s Annecy.
Brunner’s company, Folivari, has recently boarded “My Family and the Wolf” an anticipated new animated feature from Barcelona animation trio Headless, made up of Adrián García, Alfredo Torres and Víctor Maldonado, whose animation work in ‘’A Monster Calls” has won high praise.
Segovia 3D Wire fest-mart runs Oct. 6-9.
3D WIRE SEGOVIA
PROJECTS
FEATURES
“Animagika,” Javier Martínez, Spain, Belgium
“Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles,” Salvador Simó, Spain
“Knight & Monkey,” Santi Riscos, Khris Cembe, Spain
“Little Bastards,” Manuel Sicilia, Spain
“Klaus,” Sergio Pablos, Spain, Canada
TV SERIES
“Action!,” Pablo Peñalver, Spain
“Momochi,” Carlos Tschuschke, Spain
“Mutant Busters,” Freddy and Roger Córdoba Schwaneberg, Spain
“Spending Days with Mr Cthulhu,” SalBa Combé, Spain
“Súper Épico,” Niko, Spain, Mexico
VIDEOGAMES
“DrawFighters,” Wildbit Studios, Spain
“M. The City in the Center of the World,” Gammera Nest, Spain
“Moerakis,” Animatoon Studio, Spain
“Project Sally,” Stage Clear Studios, Spain. VR
TRANSMEDIA
“Girl and Wolf,” Roc Espinet, Spain
“Grand Banda,” Łukasz Kacprowicz, Marek Lachowicz, Germany, Poland
“Granny, Butch and Waffles,” Lukasz Kacprowicz, Marcin Wasilewski, Robert Jaszczurowski, Szymon Adamski and other, Poland
“Tesla – The Invention of a Dream,” Branislav Brkich, Croatia, Serbia
SHORTS
“Hair,” Christian Villacañas, Ramón Escolá, Manuel Suárez, Spain
“Mum’s the Word,” Khris Cembe, Spain
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