Aniboom and Sesame Street Partner on Animation Contest

I tell ya, that Elmo guy sure does get around. First he creates a monster iPhone app and now he (along with the whole Sesame Street) has partnered with Israeli-based Aniboom to create an animation contest. The animations are targeting pre-school age children.

Each category winner will win $5,000 and the top winner receives an additional $5,000. The winners will also be considered for development deals post-contest. The contest award categories include:

• school readiness videos
• pro-social (no, not Facebook but actually helping kids go outside and meet other people)
• Pinball
• Open category they call “Sky’s the Limit”
• Community favorite

The entry period runs from March 1 through April 26, 2010. I was hoping that the Sesame Street characters (e.g. Cookie, Big Bird, etc.) could be used in the animations but sadly my hopes were quickly dissolved when I read the official rules which states, “Do not animate existing Sesame Street characters or you will be disqualified.” After many years managing icons like the SS characters, I get the corporate fear of allowing people to play with the icons but c’mon. This is 2010, you can let the animators have a stock set of icons and parts to work with. Maybe the post-contest development deals will allow for icon animation.

In other Sesame Street news, our sources tell us that Oscar is looking for angel funding to expand his garbage can.

Here’s an example of the type of animation video that Sesame Street is looking for. WARNING: watching this video may drive you crazy as the song gets stuck in your head all day!