From 2012 to 2015, Nickelodeon had the Nickelodeon Animated Shorts Program, a project to produce animated shorts lasting from around 2 to 4 minutes in length, with the potential to be developed into full series to air on the channel. Think Oh Yeah! Cartoons on a smaller scale. Entrants ranged from current Nickelodeon employees to independent domestic and international animators, to even folks just entering the industry. There was much, much more of the first category, though. Due to the nature of the program, shorts need not have been created specifically for NASP so long as they fit the guidelines, with some creators submitting previous works.
All the shorts were hosted on Nickelodeon's website until in mid-2016. However a Facebook page
was later created to slowly re-showcase them once more, in addition to being uploaded to the studio's YouTube page.
Of the seventy-two shorts created over the course of the program, only a few of them would go on to be picked up for full series. Breadwinners, The Loud House and It's Pony are the most prominent of these, being the only ones to become official members of the Nicktoons canon. Three others were picked up by international groups as full series, these being Monster Pack by the Canadian studio Nelvana (which became Ollie's Pack), MooseBox by Nicktoons Africa and Summer Memories by Israeli studio Aircraft and Canadian studios Yeti Farm Creative and WildBrain. Additionally, one called Bug Salad was picked up for a series of shorts, although they wouldn't be released until a few years after their creation.
In June 2019, Nickelodeon announced a successor project called the Intergalactic Shorts Program, with submissions beginning later that summer.
List of shorts made for the program:
- Austin Oliver: Created by Greg Worswick.
- Baby 'Stache: Created by Gary Anthony Williams.
- Breadwinners (The remake): Created by Steve Borst and Gary Doodles; First short from the program to be picked up for a series.
- Cabrito and Chewy: Created by Allan Jacobsen and Chuckles Austen.
- Carrot and Stick: Created by Derek Iversen and Miles Hindman.
- Level 15: Created by Wolf-Rüdiger Bloss.
- Lucas: Created by Kyle Dunnigan.
- Marty's Exotic Animals: Created by Andrew Friedman.
- Odyssey Squad!: Created by Ben Adams.
- Pam & Sid's Port-a-Party: Created by Annie Sertich and Mindy Sterling.
- Tallie Peer Counselor: Created by Laura Sreebny.
- Wing Dings: Created by T.J. Fuller.
- Zombie Brothers: Created by Eric Robles.
- Badly Drawn Animals!: International short from the UK created by Hamish Steele
- Bear Wrestler: Created by Deanna Rooney.
- Broats: Created by Jack Cusumano.
- Bug Salad: Created by Carl Faruolo.
- By Request Pizza: Created by Arica Tuesday and Mick Ignis.
- Charlie and Mr. Two: Created by Travis Braun.
- Earmouse and Bottle: Created by Brian Morante.
- Hole: Created by Sam Spina.
- The Loud House: Created by Chris Savino; second short picked up for a series.
- Louis & Georges: International short from France created by Renaud Martin and Raphaël Chabassol.
- Matt & Gus: Created by Matt Braunger.
- Monster Pack: International short from Brazil created by Graham Peterson and Pedro Eboli; picked up in 2020 by Nelvana as Ollie's Pack.
- MooseBox: International short from South Africa created by Mike Scott; greenlit in 2017 by Nicktoons Africa.
- Scoop: International short from the UK created by The Brothers McLeod.
- Tech Oddity: International short from Mexico created by Marco Ibarra and Stefie Zöhrer.
- Tonk's Island: International short from Australia created by Mel Roach.
- Woodstump!: Created by Zach Smith.
- Bad Bad Bunny: Created by Tarryn Henderson.
- Buck & Lou and The Night Crew: Created by Caitlin Boyle and Tara Helfer.
- Crazy Block: International short from Italy created by Iginio Straffi.
- The Cupcakery of Doom: Created by Trevor Reece; picked up through an open audition at San Diegio Comic Con.
- Duckmanboy: International short from the UK created by Louis Hudson and Ian Ravenscroft.
- Feebs and Mr. Timmins: International short from Australia created by Suren Perera.
- Francine: Created by Katie Crown.
- Ice Station Zedonk: Created by Tom Parkinson.
- Jo Minkus: International short from Canada created by Benjamin Anders.
- Magic Children Doing Things: Created by Monica Ray.
- Meat Pie vs. the Dark Ages: Created by Gabe Swarr.
- Off the Shelf: Created by Robert Iza.
- The Outsiders: Created by Eric Bravo.
- Planet Claire: Created by Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi.
- Somewhere Awesome: International short from Ireland created by Eamonn O’Neill and Marah Curran.
- Summer Memories: International short from Israel created by Adam Yaniv. (Picked up by Aircraft Pictures, WildBrain and Yeti Farm Creative as a full series in 2022)
- The Tall Tales of Urchin: International short from the UK created by Hamish Steele.
- Ugly Mutt: Created by Dave Hagen and Shadi Petosky.
- Werebeast: International short from the UK created by James Lancett.
- Woodchips: International short from Spain created by Christian Villacanas.
- Best Baddies: Created by Max Wittert.
- Burger Bros.: Created by Kevin Li.
- Dog and Squirrel: Created by Andrea Gerstmann.
- Farkel's: Created by Greg Kletsel, Valerie Lockhart, and Jaime Bassi.
- Girl from Dinosaur Island: Created by Celestino Marina.
- Lazybones: Created by Casey Alexander and Lizz Hickey.
- Mini Cops: Created by Nicolette Groome.
- Monster Taco: Created by Vincent Scala.
- My Friend Pancake: Created by Rikke Asbjoern.
- Myth of Robo Wonder Kid: Created by Joel MacKenzie.
- P.E.T. Academy: International short from the UK created by Robert Smith.
- Pig and a Blanket: Created by Brendon Ingvy Gillas.
- Planet Panic: Created by Gene Goldstein.
- Pony: International short from the UK created by Ant Blades. The third short to be greenlit from this program, becoming the show It's Pony.
- PRONTOsaurus: Created by Evan Sussman and Allison Dressler Kramer.
- Ramblers: Created by Brett Jubenville and Morghan Fortier.
- Sharkdog: International short from Singapore created by Jacinth Tan and Raihan Harun.
- Slimelab: Created by Nick Arciaga.
- Someone Needs to Stop Aunt Phyllis: Created by Lisa Vandenberg.
- Space Mission: Danger: Created by Lynn Wang and Ed Skudder.
- The Super Dooper Studios: Created by Sabine Ravn and Stine Buhl.
- Trufax: Tot Cop: International short from Ireland created by Jason Tammemägi and Méabh Tammemägi.
- A Boy and His Dude: Created by Mike de Seve.
- BroDuel: Created by Mike Annear.
- Earth to Allen: Hunger Pains: Created by Mike Annear and Dave Schlafman.
- Face Face: Created by Chris Prynoski.
- Fun Times with Rez: Created by Chris Conforti.
- Happy Zoo
- Kid Impressive
- Learn Something with Luther and AJ: Created by Bill Cleveland and Kylar Loya.
- Low Life: Created by Mike Hollingsworth.
- The Magic Hour: Created by Nath Milburn and Andrew Melzer.
- Menehunes: Created by Chris Albrecht.
- Russel and Fox
- The Squatch Scouts: Created by Christopher Jammal.
- Torom Tellum: Created by Jim Mortensen.
- Ziptronik Megablast: Created by Nathan Jurevicius.
List of tropes found in the shortsnote :
- Acrofatic: The title character of Planet Claire.
- Burger Fool: The Brickhouse in By Request Pizza; Petey's main problem is that he's not allowed to be creative with his pizzas, as Pizza Boss only allows for the creation of the traditional kind. Pizza Boss is eventually won over with a pizza in his likeness, so he changes his mind...by only allowing Petey to make that kind of pizza.
- Cannot Tell a Joke: Sir Richard Battenburger, the villain in Duckmanboy:Battenburger DUCKMANBOY! We "meat" at last! As in "meat" meat, like pork. Or chicken.Dwayne: Well that joke sucked.Battenburger: This will suck even more! (vaccums Dwayne and Neil into a bag)
- Deranged Animation: Any short that's not Slice of Life is generally this.
- Downer Ending: Bug Salad ends with the main characters getting electrocuted by a bug zapper.
- Gonk: Ugly Mutt obviously stars one.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: Kid Impressive combines live-action with Flash animation.
- Shown Their Work: In The Girl From Dinosaur Island, Chuuk has feathers like real dromaeosaurids.
- Take Over the World: The motivation of the leads in The Cupcakery of Doom.
- Toilet Humor: Pam & Sid's Port-a-Party has some of this, though given where it takes place, it's not much of a surprise.
