Skittles Goes to the Amazing Digital Circus! Announcement (+ Casting Call)
Hiya, fellas! I've got a very special and important announcement to drop out of the blue today. For the past couple months, I've been hard at work starting up pre-production on an Amazing Digital Circus fan film!!!
Skittles Goes to the Amazing Digital Circus! is a passion project I've been slowly developing with some close friends of mine, including @mikiib, @cluelesscleo, @jeggyweggy, @tomatertate, @endomentendo, @apatchydragon, @pizzycrisisline, @sillycringychaoskitty and MANY, MANY more! You all are some of the funniest, sweetest, most talented artists I've ever known and I love you all so much. I am so honored and thankful to be able to call you all friends <3
Skittles Goes to the Amazing Digital Circus is, in it's current state, intended to be a feature length animatic fan film. It acts as both a continuation of Digital Circus' story, and as unofficial backdoor pilot to the Skittles universe. I originally envisioned it as being fully animated, but of course if we took that route, we'd end up working on this twice as long as we need to. The compromise is that it'll be made as a (hopefully) colored animatic (just the key frames with limited animation), fully voiced and scored.
(Note: It'd be a good idea to look at my previous post where I discuss the character Skittles in-depth, otherwise some aspects of this story might not make sense!)
The story (so far) follows Skittles, a pre-teen axolotl boy who, while browsing Gbay, finds a listing for a blank disc with the words "TADC (NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION) scrawled on it in red, blue, and yellow marker. After checking the description, he realizes that it's a recovered copy of the game The Amazing Digital Circus, described as "an experimental early/mid-ninties game of mysterious origin and design". Skittles likes the sound of it and buys it. After some initial trouble with the installation process, Skittles is sent an email from a mysterious sender who claims to be someone trapped inside the game. They plead with him NOT TO PLAY THE GAME, but to look into it and figure out a way to free them from the outside.
So Skittles does what any of us would do. He plays the game after this obviously-disheveled stranger pleads with him NOT to. Of course, this leads to him being sucked straight through his monitor into The Amazing Digital Circus! Once inside, he meets the circus gang and is given his orientation by Caine.
As the humans get to know Skittles, they begin to notice a few strange things about him. For starters, unlike them, he (apparently) looks the same here as he did before he dropped in. He also remembers his name and retains most of his memories from the outside world. It isn't until the next morning, when Caine awakes without his powers, that things get really odd.
Evidentially, sometime in the night, some fluke in the game's code causes Skittles to be bumped up in the digital hierarchy, giving him all of Caine's powers, effectively making him the ringmaster by default! Caine becomes disheartened, feeling this is some divine punishment for his shortcomings as ringmaster and his constant inability to please his guests. Feeling unwanted and useless, Caine leaves behind his hat and cane and exiles himself from the circus, travelling far off into the Void where he can't cause anybody and harm.
Meanwhile, the bewildered circus gang are left to deal with the newly appointed Ringmaster Skittles, who makes it clear that he has no idea what he's doing. Despite his newfound powers, he's still just a kid and proves to be utterly incompetent at running the circus. Not only is his young brain not mentally ready for the responsibility, but the "ringmaster protocol" gradually starts to take over his mind, making him just as bonkers as Caine was if not worse. With the fate of the circus hanging in the balance, it's up to the circus crew, realizing how much they truly need Caine, to bring him back and restore order... or the Digital Circus may never be the same...
Originally, this started off as more of a "what-if" scenario with no real story behind it, but the more I mulled over it with friends, the more we realized this could actually make for a really cool story. Once it was decided that Skittles should take over the circus and become the ringmaster, the rest of the premise fell into place. Granted, the story isn't completely plotted out yet, but the beats are all there. In the end, Skittles helps the circus gang to further appreciate one another, but most importantly, to appreciate the asset they have in Caine. For his part, Caine learns how to listen better, to relate, and also how he can make life in the circus better for everyone, hopefully without compromising his vision or ideas.
Currently we're looking for artists (concept/storyboardists, line artists, background artists mainly) voice actors (for Ragatha, Jax, Kinger, Caine and Bubble) a couple writers and composers. Production isn't super far along in terms of content, but I'll post a handful of sketches and concepts that everyone's drawn up! In order, the artists are @jeggyweggy, @cluelesscleo, @jeggyweggy, @apatchydragon, @cluelesscleo x3, and @tomatertate :3
If anyone is interested and would like to take part, feel free to DM me, either here on Tumblr or at my Discord (anunmadebed)! I'm really looking forward to working with ppl and hearing what y'all think Abt this! Words cannot describe how damn EXCITED I am I'm stimming so hard rnnn
(So sorry if that seemed like a mess, I get really nervous talking about things I'm passionate about in public ^^)
