BYU animated film 'Pajama Gladiator' on Nicktoons site today

PROVO — Today only, another award-winning short film, "Pajama Gladiator," from Brigham Young University's Center for Animation will be available for online viewing.

The film is one of 30 selected from more than 4,500 submissions as a finalist in the Nicktoons Network Animation Festival. Each of the 30 is posted for one day on the festival's Web site and aired on the network the same night.

Viewers are encouraged to vote for their favorite, with the winner landing the festival's "Viewers' Choice" award. To view the film and vote visit nicktoonsnetwork.nick.com/nnaf/viewshorts.jhtml after 9 p.m. Wednesday.

The film chronicles the adventures of Eli, a boy up past his bedtime who ends up battling aliens in a gladiatorial realm armed only with his trusty blanky.

Students recorded voices at a BYU basketball game to use as crowd noise in the animated short.

BYU's animation center has rounded up seven College Television Awards (commonly known as "Student Emmys") from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and two "Student Academy Awards" from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Ed Catmull, president of Pixar, declared BYU students "the best in the industry" at a press conference on campus in March.