Spite Your Face Productions

Spite Your Face Productions, or SYF, is an animation production company based in London, England. They have created a variety of animated content for broadcast, web and DVD, but are best known for their series of stop-motion animated lego shorts.

Since 2001, SYF have worked on five animated projects for the LEGO company and their respective clients, including SONY, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm and Python Pictures. They have also produced lego animations independently. SYF refer to these works as 'Bricksploitation films' to distinguish them from those of the fan community. Some of their films have been distributed internationally on DVD [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0353751/ Monty Python & the Holy Grail in Lego (2001) ] ] , but all have enjoyed great success online, and are amongst the earliest viral video hits.

Selected filmography

;Spider-Man: The Peril of Doc Ock:Released in support of Spider-Man 2, two alternate ending versions of this film exist. [ [http://www.archive.org/details/peril_of_doc_ock Internet Archive: Details: Spider-Man: The Peril of Doc Ock ] ] [ [http://www.archive.org/details/peril_alt_ending Internet Archive: Details: The Peril of Doc Ock - Alternate Ending Special Edition ] ]

;Star Wars: The Han Solo Affair:Empire Strikes Back spoof, produced in the run up to Attack of the Clones. [ [http://starwars.lego.com/en-us/ScreeningRoom/HanSolo/Default.aspx LEGO.com Star Wars Screening Room - The Han Solo Affair ] ]

;Monty Python & the Holy Grail in Lego‎:Version of the Camelot song and dance sequence. Produced as an extra for the Monty Python and the Holy Grail DVD. [ [http://www.archive.org/details/legopython Internet Archive: Details: Monty Python and the Holy Grail in LEGO ] ] [ [http://www.dailyllama.com/news/2004/llama262.html Daily Llama - NEWS 2004_12_14 - Monty Python is Animators' Delight ] ]

;ONE: A Space Odyssey:One minute lego version of the Kubrick epic. [ [http://www.archive.org/details/oneaspaceodyssey_redux Internet Archive: Details: ONE: A Space Odyssey - Redux ] ]

Trivia

At time of release, "Spider-Man: The Peril of Doc Ock" held the top spot on iFilm, Atomfilm and Yahoo Movies simultaneously. Only SYF's own "Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Lego" nudging it in second place.

"Star Wars: The Han Solo Affair" was the first short film to be made under the Star Wars license since 1978, when a Boba Fett animated short was featured in The Star Wars Holiday Special. It was also the first licensed stand-alone Star Wars animation since the Nelvana Ewoks and Droids animations ended in 1987.

SYF only produced the animated segments for the 2002 LEGO Studios range. They were not involved in the 2000 edition animations, "Jewel Quest" and "Jurassic Bark", as is often cited. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brickfilm]

They were also not involved in the White Stripes Fell in Love with a Girl video, as has been cited. [ [http://www.mvdbase.com/video.php?id=29702 mvdbase.com - the White Stripes - "Fell in love with a girl" ] ]

When [http://www.veoh.com Veoh] beta began operation in 2006, two of the top five clips, and four of the top ten comedy clips, were SYF productions - with "Holy Grail" featuring in the latter chart twice. [ [http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos.html?order=mp&range=a Most Popular Videos for All Time: Online Video Guide | Veoh Video Network ] ]

SYF Director Tony Mines has also directed television commercials, notably for Kellogg's Coco Pops. [http://chillibean.net/perl/reels-9.6.pl?xhtml=CGZT653W&T=WL]

External links

* [http://www.spiteyourface.com Spite Your Face Official Site]
* [http://www.dailyllama.com/news/2004/llama262.html/ SYF interview on official Monty Python site]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1323681/ Tony Mines IMDb]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1291985/ Time Drage IMDb]
* [http://www.archive.org/details/peril_of_doc_ock Spider-Man: The Peril of Doc Ock (2004)] download at the Internet Archive

References