INTRODUCING “BEST FIENDS BOOT CAMP”
Today, we’re launching “Best Fiends Boot Camp,” our first animated short. To date, 70 million people have downloaded Best Fiends games, and now, for the first time, we’ve extended the experience beyond the games, bringing our world to life in a new way.
About nine months ago, we set out to create an animation that could stand the test of time. We aimed to develop a high quality short that could run before a major motion picture in movie theaters. Rather than spoil the story, you can watch it here!
To get there, we were fortunate to partner up with some incredible creative talent.
We worked with production partner ReelFX to animate the short that features full 3D CG. ReelFX is well known for The Book of Life and work on Ice Age, Looney Toons and other top animated properties. And where we really lucked out was getting to work with the irrepressible Augusto Schillaci, an up and coming director who immediately saw the potential for the characters and comedy we had created within the Best Fiends world.
The animation features an all-star voice cast including Kate Walsh (Grey’s Anatomy, 13 Reasons Why), Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Pamela Adlon (Better Things, Californication), David Herman (Office Space), Billy West (Futurama) and Alan Oppenheimer (‘Skeletor’ from HeMan, The NeverEnding Story).
We were thrilled when Kate Walsh said she would play the role of ‘JoJo’ after we originally worked together last year on the YouTube brand video “Don’t Download Best Fiends.”
The team also included the writer J. Stewart Burns (The Simpsons), music composer Heitor Pereira (Despicable Me, Best Fiends games) and producer Claudia De La Roca (Futurama).
We have a vision that entertainment brands will be built on mobile first. And just like Netflix that is producing 70 original productions this year alone and leverages the network effect with their direct connection to the audience, we are inspired by the same model.
To complete the mobile experience, a live Boot Camp event will be simultaneously released inside the Best Fiends game, where the stars of the short — Hank and Roger — make a special guest appearance. We work hard to keep an audience of 2,000,000+ daily players engaged with regular updates, treating our app like a live service.
We’ve got the second short in the series called ‘Visit Minutia’ launching later this summer and we just green lit development of two further shorts that we’re working to release by the end of the year that will include matching in-game experiences that build out the story.
Hope you enjoy Best Fiends Boot Camp as much as we enjoyed creating it.
That’s all (for now) folks!
PS if you would like to read more, here’s further background in Fast Company, Variety and VentureBeat.
