BURBANK, California, May 15, 2024 – The first-ever documentary film from Emmy®, Annie and Clio-winning animation collective Stoopid Buddy Stoodios premieres May 29 during Consensus 2024, the world’s biggest crypto event, and then will be available for free on X beginning June 1.

SHARK, PICKLE, CONE - A Nouns Documentary Premieres May 29 at Consensus 2024

SHARK, PICKLE, CONE A Nouns Documentary, produced in association with Decentral Media, is at once a chronicle of Stoopid Buddy’s creative journey to conceive, design, and build a massive float for the Rose Parade and an introduction to the growing digital arts initiative called Nouns, which funded the project. It also explores the promise—and potential pitfalls—that blockchain technologies hold for mobilizing communities and creating new financing paths, monetization, and distribution for independent artists, filmmakers, technologists, and NGOs.

Infused with irreverent humor and casual approach that are hallmarks of Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, SHARK, PICKLE, CONE was shot in 2022 and 2023, following along as a team from Stoopid Buddy begins working with Nouns on creating a float for the 134th Rose Parade in a plan to bring Nouns to a worldwide television audience.

Even as the film spotlights the global community that has made Nouns one of the most enduring projects to emerge from the NFT and blockchain bubble of 2021, SHARK, PICKLE, CONE also captures the drama and uncertainty that shook the digital finance world in November 2022 when cryptocurrency exchange FTX suddenly and dramatically collapsed.

In advance of its global debut at Consensus in Austin, Texas, SHARK, PICKLE, CONE has also been minted as an NFT itself, in collaboration with Zora. It’s the first full-length documentary to be minted to the blockchain. Through bonfire.xyz, SHARK, PICKLE, CONE will offer token-gated access to hours of original interviews and bonus materials archived from the making of the film. 

“Nouns is a grand experiment, the Rose Parade was a grand experiment, and now creating this documentary continues that innovation—both through its subject and through the process by which it was made, which eschews all traditional methods of financing and distributing a film,” says producer and director Neil Berkeley (Beauty is Embarrassing, Gilbert, Harmontown). “NFTs and the vision of Nouns demonstrate that there are exciting and different ways to bring a film to the screen. Old modes aren’t working. This is a new mode.”

SHARK, PICKLE, CONE A Nouns Documentary features interviews with the founders of Nouns and its most active members. The film looks at many of the real-world projects that have been brought to life with funds raised from daily auctions of digital Nouns avatars while examining the challenges and conflicts that arise within the DAO, or “decentralized autonomous organization,” which by design lacks traditional, centralized leadership hubs to guide its development.  

“There are a lot of people who have no idea what an NFT is or how a DAO works, but it’s very clear that these still-unfamiliar concepts are having enormous influence around the world,” says producer Eric Towner, also a co-founder of Stoopid Buddy Stoodios. “Our goal was to create a film that illuminates these ideas, while still being a fun and engrossing look at the real struggles that exist on any creative project.”

SHARK, PICKLE, CONE is also produced by David Heiman, with Seth Green, John Harvatine IV, Matthew Senreich and Chris Waters joining Towner as executive producers. It will premiere at 7 p.m. Central Time May 29 as part of Consensus in Austin; on June 1, the film will be made available for free on X at @NounsDoc.

About Stoopid Buddy Stoodios

Stoopid Buddy Stoodios is an artist-friendly collective that houses some of the finest talent in animation and entertainment. They have a knack for creating unique visuals and telling character-driven stories with an uncanny and irreverent sensibility. The Stoodio is home to the longest running stop-motion show on TV, the multi-Emmy® Award-winning Robot Chicken, as well as Crossing Swords on Hulu, Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K., Ultra City Smiths on AMC, and several others. Stoopid Buddy’s “Builds” division is behind the Emmy Award-winning costumes on FOX’S Masked Singer, and their “Spots” team has delivered commercials for clients ranging from LEGO to Pepperidge Farms.

Recent and upcoming projects include Disney's first Mickey Mouse stop-motion special, Mickey Saves Christmas; Justin Roiland’s Gloop World; Dominion X with Steve Aoki; The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special for Marvel Studios, and series in development with Nickelodeon, HBO Max, Adult Swim, Disney, and Hulu. For more information about Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, visit www.leagueofbuddies.com.

About Nouns

Founded in 2021, Nouns is a global, community-run organization that uses the proceeds from the sale of digital collectibles to fund open-source technology, art and public-works projects.

For more information and an explanation of Nouns and the Nouns DAO, visit https://www.nounish.com.

Contact

John Singh, john.singh@j2comm.com