The Story
It all began with two dolphins. I had always been fascinated by dolphins’ reputation for nastiness (bullying, murder, aggressive mating habits). To me, it felt like the perfect premise for a cartoon.
So I created two shorts out of construction paper and animated it using stop motion. Phinna Phloat starred one foul mouthed, poorly behaved dolphin and his morally conflicted pal.
After three episodes of playing with scummy dolphins, I decided to challenge myself by entering a film sprint, where each filmmaker was given a verb and a noun for a prompt. My prompt was “waste mouth”.
I immediately set to work brainstorming a creative story to go with my prompt. I thought to myself, “humans constantly create waste, and then force the earth to swallow it.”
With that bare concept, I picked up a case of Twisted Tea — sometimes called “Twea” — and spent two days banging out a short called Dale Wastemouth: Lawncare Professional, which took home second place in the film sprint.
After a lot of encouragement from friends and loved ones, I produced three more award winning shorts, Stillness, Governor Mothman, and Panhandlers.
Since my little construction paper creations were doing so well, I decided they needed a home.
Thus, Studio Twee was born.
— Trey Cobb, Creator of Studio Twee
