![\"SpikeMike03\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/SpikeMike03.jpg\")
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When Craig “Spike” Decker\u2014half of the animation superhero duo that created the Spike & Mike\u2019s Festival of Animation (SMFA)\u2014says him and his partner, Mike Gribble, are the best curators of animated art in the world, he\u2019s not exaggerating.<\/p>\n
We are, after all, talking about the festival that introduced Wallace & Gromit<\/em> to the U.S., John Lasseter\u2019s Tin Toy<\/em> (the precursor to Toy Story<\/em>) to the world, and screened Tim Burton\u2019s first animated film ever, Vincent<\/em>\u2014and they\u2019re bringing the best of contemporary animation to Long Beach\u2019s Art Theatre beginning June 9.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were always creating events and parties\u2014so part of the festival came from that,\u201d Spike said. \u201cBut it was truly from a desire stemming from the fact that the community didn\u2019t have much going on culturally. There was a lotta boredom and it was something that we created in order to bring art and animation to us instead of having to seek it out all the time. It was a response to bring a jolt to what is sometimes a mundane society.\u201d<\/p>\n Soon, the pair’s endevour was growing too fast for their Belushi-evoking abode and had to be relocated to Riverside City College to provide space for their growing fan base. Thereafter, SMFA was dependent upon the university and school circuit\u2014from Berkley to UC Irvine, University of Washington to USC\u2014because they had spaces already prepped with equipment to get the festival up-and-running quickly.<\/p>\n The 90s also marked a dark part on the festival\u2019s history with the passing of Mike in 1994 due to cancer. Spike, however, continues to truck on, globetrotting to find the best animation that creative minds have to offer.<\/p>\n![\"SpikeMike01\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/SpikeMike01.jpg\")
SMFA is the stuff of legend for any arts or culture or film nerd. Back in 1977, Spike and Mike were situated in a vastly artless Riverside, twiddling their thumbs while parked in their three-story Victorian-style home\u2014\u201ca truly Animal House<\/em>-style house, straight outta the movie,\u201d in the words of Spike\u2014starving for cultural stimulation.<\/p>\n![\"SpikeMike02\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/SpikeMike02.jpg\")
After over a decade of hitting school after school, SMFA finally upgraded to movie theaters in between 1989 and 1990. It was during the 90s that SMFA solidified itself as the premiere festival for the animated arts when it morphed into two festivals: its classic version and the popular Sick and Twisted circuit, where Mike Judge\u2019s first versions of Beavis and Butthead<\/em> were born and the place where Matt Stone and Trey Parker brought The Spirit of Christmas<\/em>, two shorts that acted as precursors to their famed South Park<\/em> series.<\/p>\n