Looking Back at the 2010's and Ahead to the 2020's!

By: Andrew Bermudez

(Mustache Maniacs Film Co. Headquarters; January 3, 2020)

     It's 2020, and we're back after a hiatus! We weren't able to post our annual year in review last year due to our move to the new studio, but we do have something to compensate: a decade in review! We don't want to make this too long, but we want to take a look at where we've come from and where we're going from here. Let's get started!

2010 - 2013: Years of Growth

     After 2009 was mired with the somewhat-failure of The Adventures of Legoman (it has developed somewhat of a cult following), 2010 resurrected us from that failure with the release of Johnny Thunder and the Gift of the Nile. With the release of that film came the announcement that a third film, Johnny Thunder and the Wisdom of the Ancients, would be released in 2014 for our tenth anniversary. But the films made concurrently with that one would prove to be highly successful films in their own right, from the time travel mishaps of Ulysses S. Powell in When Barrels Fly and the highly-popular Forest of Fear to the rebooting of Legoman in A Friend of the Police and the award-winning New Friends ~ An Environmental Fable, which culminated in the release of our first commissioned film, A Bite of MyJobs.

2014: Ten Years of Going Crazy!

     In 2004, we never in a million years would have imagined that Mustache Maniacs Film Co. would be the hit that it is today, so we had to celebrate our first ten years in incredible fashion! Johnny Thunder and the Wisdom of the Ancients was finally released as that year's highlight, but so much more came out that year! Re-releases abounded, new short films made their debut, and Project U officially began!

2015 - 2018: Slowly Slowing Down

     2015 saw the release of three major films, including the long in-development Alpha Team: Mission Deep Jungle, but as the filming for Pharaoh's Quest: The Curse of Amset-Ra began to drag, our output also started to falter. Contests were not entered as frequently, projects became too overly-ambitious and dragged out or were cancelled, and everything became overwhelming. Then, a decision was made.

2019: The Re-Tooling Begins

     With only two releases in 2019 (Ocean of Fear and the long-delayed The Pen), something had to change. So, in late 2019, it was decided that Project U would be re-evaluated, fixable mistakes in the past would be corrected, and efficiency and quality would be emphasized on future projects. A new studio campus was announced to open by the end of 2020, and other changes would be made. And this brings us to today.

2020 and Beyond: What Now?

     We definitely bit off more than we could chew when we promised to release Legends of the Universe this year, but we are still moving ahead with Project U's content, just in a more relaxed manner. This is coupled with other changes. So, what can we expect this year and beyond? Here's a rough run-down.

New Studio Campus and Completed Comics to Celebrate Three Anniversaries!

     Later this year, we will be opening our new studio campus, as already announced, but we will also be completing an old project under a new name! The unfinished comics DINO ATTACK: Saga of a Conflict will be re-christened as DINO ATTACK: The Beginning and will serve as an introduction to the actual RPG, with a link to the RPG's online archive at the end of the comics. These new additions to our library of content will help us celebrate three special anniversaries, which we are proud to share below.

• LEGO Studios (December 1, 2000): 20 Years
• Dino Attack RPG (July 1, 2005): 15 Years
• LEGO Universe (October 26, 2010): 10 Years

Check back later for that content!

Re-Focusing Our Brand!

     We acknowledge that this weekend is THAC XVII, but our current priorities are elsewhere as we look at making our website more streamlined than ever! There have been some problems with legibility and convenience on our website, so we're re-tooling our site to look more like a streaming service. Many streaming services have made navigation a breeze, something that we want to bring to our website, so we're going to bring slight tweaks to all of the pages focusing on films, short films, and series. No content is going to be lost from our website during the transition, but we do want to make navigation a breeze while maintaining a uniform look. This change will be fully implemented by the end of the year.

Still Re-Evaluating Project U!

     We're still working on revising the scripts for all of our future films, but we've had to take a break to move the studio. However, work on this re-evaluation will resume soon. We will keep you informed.

Handling COPPA
     As you may be aware, the YouTube rule changes enacted by COPPA are going to affect our channel and what people can view our content. Well, here's what we're doing to ensure that our content is family-friendly.

1. Each film will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis on whether or not they are kid-friendly. Any films that are appropriate for kids will be marked as such, meaning that comments, searching, and more will be disabled for those films.
2. All of our films will be hosted on our website within the Wix servers, so that fans can still enjoy our content.
3. Since annotations are basically gone because of this move, the original cut for Late for the Soccer Match will soon be removed. The fate of the interactive adventures is undecided.

Just like our other short-term goals, we should have this transition done by the end of the year.

Lead-Out

     We apologize if this article ran a little long, but there has been a lot going on lately that needed to be addressed. We wish you all a Happy New Year and we look forward to this new decade!

1/4/2020 Update: We've added some information on how COPPA is going to affect our channel and what we are doing to ensure our future content is sure to engage fans.