Last November, crowdsourcing platform Tongal and production company Project Greenlight Digital Studios (PGDLS) teamed up to search for what they termed “The Next Great Animated Series.” Six months later, that contest’s winners have been announced. Senataur, a stop-motion comedy from creator Alec Pinkston, has earned Tongal and PGDLS’ $70,000 grand prize.
Senataur’s titular pun also explains its premise. The project’s protagonist is a centaur — half-man, half-horse — who lands on Earth and decides to win over the American people by becoming a senator and rambling on about family values at every opportunity he gets. The result appears to be, like a centaur, a hybrid of multiple forms: It’s one-half political satire, one-half adult animated comedy.
A clip of Senataur is available through Tongal’s website. On that landing page, you can also check out the other four projects selected as finalists in The Next Great Animated Series.
Subscribe to get the latest creator news
With the funding Pinkston and his team earned through The Next Great Animated Series, they will be able to turn Senataur into an 11-minute pilot. “This collaboration between Tongal and PGLDS is another powerful example of how being open can change the way talent and stories are discovered,” said James DeJulio, President of Tongal, in a press release. “And in this case, we’ve discovered something that is really f***ing funny.”
PGDLS has often used competitions like this one to find and fund up-and-coming creators. Its other contests have included See Yourself, which honed in on LGBT talent, and The New Normal, which highlighted filmmakers of color.
