Nick opens Cupcakery

Nickelodeon has commissioned an animated short called Cupcakery of Doom after taking more than 100 pitches at the recent Comic-Con International confab.

The short comes from Californian resident Trevor Reece, who writes for The Press Democrat newspaper’s comic blog. The comedy will follow a nefarious bear and mouse duo that have designs to take over the world and open a ‘cupcakery’ to raise money for their schemes.

Viacom-owned Nick had took more than 100 pitches over three days at Comic-Con in San Diego in July. Coincidentally, Reece’s was the first it heard.

Cupcakery will now go into Nick’s Animated Shorts Program, which seeks to develop short-form content into longer-form series for the US cable network, or as content for the nick.com and Nick App platforms.

The scheme has already lead to the greenlight of 13-part series The Loud House.

“We loved Trevor’s clever angle and adorable characters, but overall, Cupcakery just made us laugh,” said Jenna Boyd, senior VP, animation development, Nick. “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.”

“It was a grueling and gratifying three-day open call, and everyone who pitched us was talented and passionate,” she added. “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.”