While fans of Star Wars will have to wait patiently for the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story , they are invited to create their own “Rogue” tales and post them online for the upcoming “Go Rogue” contest. To inspire them, a team of “superfans” at Tongal came together to create some original stop-motion animation shorts created from Rogue One- themed toy products created by Lego, Hasbro, Funko, JAKKS Pacific, Mattel, and Disney Store. Dan MacKenzie and Tucker Barrie shared directing responsibilities with scripts written by Kevin Ulrich. The new shorts are posted on their own YouTube channel with more to come.
The new contest kicks off September 30 and fans are invited to write their own short Rogue stories. The winning entries will be given the royal treatment by Tongal led by director Gareth Edwards. Teens and adults are encouraged to submit their entries to StarWars.com/GoRogue and kids between the ages of 8-12 can enter at Disney.com/MyRogueStory . The selected winners will not only be invited to a special screening of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in San Francisco in December, but they will also see their short story come alive on the big screen as well. Two premieres in one! Complete rules for the contest can be found on the YouTube page .
Founded in 2009 in Santa Monica, Tongal is an online business that connects creative people needing work and companies needing creative people. It’s an online community that includes 120,000 writers, directors, and animators from 150 countries. It is unique in that Tongal allows anyone to contribute to any of the needed steps to complete a project. Together, these professionals have created work for Lego, Mattel, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, and even NASA. And now, Tongal is inviting kids and adults to join in on their latest assignment.
“These fan-created shorts are a tribute to the incredible content that the Star Wars community posts online every day,” said Jimmy Pitaro, Chairman, Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media, in a recent press release. “The Go Rogue campaign was designed with Star Wars fans in mind – we want them to be front and center in the run up to Rogue One by imagining and creating their own Rogue stories.”
While the YouTube competition seems novel, according to research fans have posted 838,000 pieces of Star Wars-related content on YouTube in just the last year which breaks down to about 2,396 pieces a day or 96 pieces an hour. And others are watching this stuff as well — more than 16.3 billion viewers last year.
“I’ve been a Star Wars fan my whole life so this is a dream project,” says James DeJulio, co-founder of Tongal. “It’s been amazing to see what an inspiration Star Wars has been to so many members of our creative community, whether that’s coming up with their own Star Wars storylines, or playing out scenes with Star Wars toys at home with their kids. I’m excited to share this first Rogue story with the world and hope it inspires other fans to share theirs.”
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Some of the new Rogue One toys can be pre-ordered now at mass retailers including Disney Stores and DisneyStore.com, but the entire line of these new Star Wars products will be on store shelves by September 30.
[Image via Disney Consumer Products]