current posts — Fantasy/Animation

The Hunchback of Notre Dame's "Hellfire"

Adapted from Victor Hugo’s gothic novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise, 1996) tells the story of bellringer Quasimodo (Tom Hulce), born with a physical deformity that gives him a hunched back. The Disney animated film first depicts Quasimodo as a baby, when he was stolen from his Romani parents by Judge Claude Frollo (Tony Jay) during one of his nighttime raids on the streets of Paris. The judge reluctantly raises Quasimodo as his own child, but keeps him locked high in a belltower away from all outside contact, until one day, a Romani dancer named Esmeralda (voiced by Demi Moore) enters Quasimodo’s life.

SEQUENCE ANALYSISAlyson HendersonJune 30, 2023VILLAINY, DISNEY, ANIMATION, MUSIC, HOLLYWOOD, ADAPTATION, GOTHICComment

Music, Symbolism, and Generational Trauma in Encanto (2021)

Disney’s Encanto (Jared Bush & Byron Howard, 2021) focuses on the Madrigal family and their life in their magical house, or Casita. Every member is given a unique power or “gift” from Casita, as referred to in the film, once they hit a certain age, except for protagonist Mirabel. One night she sees cracks start to form around Casita and realizes that the magic and her family are breaking apart and that she is the only one who can save them. Throughout the film, several characters, including Mirabel’s sisters Isabella and Luisa, exhibit tension and unhappiness in the family that is later revealed to come from matriarch Abuela’s generational trauma (as discussed in an earlier blog).

SEQUENCE ANALYSISJacqueline Gonzalez CastroMay 26, 2023DISNEY, MUSICAL, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILM, LATIN AMERICAComment

Private Snafu: Going Home (1944): Politics and Propaganda

The American government utilized the rising popularity of animated films during the 1930s and 1940s to curate several propaganda shorts during the Second World War. The Private Snafu series aired from 1943-1946 and followed the eponymous Private Snafu whose mishaps functioned as a cautionary tale against misbehaving in the military.

SEQUENCE ANALYSISSarena DubignonJanuary 27, 2023PROPAGANDA, POLITICAL, WARNER BROTHERS, FILM HISTORY, HOLLYWOODComment

Redefining Gender Representation in Dua Lipa’s “Hallucinate” (2020) Music Video

Dua Lipa’s animated music video “Hallucinate” was released during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The song is taken from Lipa’s second album, Future Nostalgia, and was influenced by the studio 54 aesthetic (Daly, 2020). Dua Lipa's animated character in the music video has been compared with the features of Betty Boop, a figure who epitomized the hedonistic nature in America in the 1920s.

SEQUENCE ANALYSISDemikel EvansAugust 26, 2022MUSIC VIDEO, REPRESENTATION, GENDER, SEXUALITY, QUEER IDENTITYComment

Political oppression and resistance in Jiří Trnka’s Ruka/The Hand (1965)

In 1965, the Czech draughtsman, book illustrator, puppet and toy designer, painter, animated film-maker and sculptor Jiří Trnka released his last short animation film Ruka/The Hand (1965). The silent 18 minute animation delivers a powerful and chilling dynamic; allegorically and metaphorically representing the influence of the communist political regime on the freedom of people through the framing of Trnka as the main character (a harlequin) and the accompanying image of the hand, which overpowers harlequin’s agency.

SEQUENCE ANALYSISRenée-Marie PizzardiJuly 29, 2022CZECH, POLITICAL, ALLEGORY, STOP-MOTION, SYMBOLISM, METAPHORComment

The Story of O.J (Jay-Z & Mark Romanek, 2017)

In this blog post I will explore the ways in which Jay Z’s 2017 music video ‘The story of O.J’ (2017) evokes the problematic politics of representation in animation, and the damaging effects that these representations have historically had on understanding of American black identity and culture.

SEQUENCE ANALYSISMeghna JohalApril 28, 2022RACE, AMERICA, MUSIC, POLITICAL, CARTOON Comment

Beyond Heroes and Villains? Establishing Character Duality Through Formal Sequence Arrangements

This blog post follows on from an earlier sequence analysis of Disney’s Moana (Ron Clements & John Musker 2016) in which I explored the redemption of Te Kā by the opening of an anthropomorphised ocean. In this second post, I will analyse the moments immediately following the opening of the ocean, which sees Moana and Te Kā to come face to face.

SEQUENCE ANALYSISCharlotte DurhamNovember 19, 2021DISNEY, GENDER, CHARACTER, MUSICAL, FEMINISMComment

Feels Like Summer: A Forecast of Animation’s Political and Documentary Function in Music Videos

Childish Gambino’s animated music video “Feels Like Summer” (Childish Gambino, 2018) places many animated representations of hip-hop artists, actors and well-known celebrities in a fictional Atlanta neighbourhood. We see celebrities engaging in various fun summer activities in this fantasy community, including Migos playing basketball, Will Smith washing his car, and J Cole dowsing the hip-hop duo of Slim Jxmmi and Swae Lee with a water hose for annoying him with water guns.

SEQUENCE ANALYSISHrithvikaOctober 22, 2021RACE, REPRESENTATION, MUSIC, AMERICA, CELEBRITYComment

“Let her come to me”: Opening the Ocean in Disney’s Moana

Since its DVD release, Moana (Ron Clements & John Musker 2016) has carved a home in my heart. When I’m not re-watching it captivated and in love with its artistry, I’ll watch it thinking about the voyage Disney takes into Polynesian histories and the representation of culture which, although efforts were made through the formation of the Oceanic Story Trust to depict authentic Polynesian cultures, often falls short – as one indigenous rights advocate puts: “having brown advisers doesn’t make it a brown story” (Ngata, 2016).

SEQUENCE ANALYSISCharlotte DurhamOctober 8, 2021WATER, REPRESENTATION, GENDER, FEMINISM, DISNEY, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILMComment

Porco Rosso: How Hayao Miyazaki evokes emotional closeness through sensory stimuli

Porco Rosso (1992) is the sixth feature-length film in the colourful and expansive repertoire of Japanese animation giant Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki’s film is certainly an unsung masterpiece, frequently branded “underrated,” such as in Rob Bricken’s assertion that “it is unfairly overlooked in [Miyazaki’s] oeuvre.”

SEQUENCE ANALYSISTom NelMarch 12, 2021JAPAN, ANIME, STUDIO GHIBLI, HAPTICS, SENSORYComment

Re-examining “Friend Like Me”

There is considerable scrutiny of the politics of representation in Disney’s animated screen musicals. With appalling depictions of faceless African American workers in “Song of the Roustabouts” in Dumbo (Ben Sharpsteen, 1941), controversy about the representation of indigenous Americans in Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel & Eric Goldberg, 1995), and lightening the skin of Princess Tiana in Ralph Breaks the Internet (Rich Moore & Phil Johnston, 2018), there have been ongoing questions about limited, fetishized, and often racist characterisations of people of colour in the studio’s films.

SEQUENCE ANALYSISHannah RobbinsOctober 16, 2020MUSICAL, RACE, IDENTITY, PERFORMANCE, HOLLYWOOD Comments

No More Than Smoke and Mirrors: Queerness and Identity in Lady of the Night (Laurent Boileau, 2014)

Laurent Boileau’s 2014 French animated short Lady of the Night tells the story of Samuel, who retires to his bedroom following the annual commemoration dinner for his deceased lover Cornelius. Samuel is tortured by the closeted nature of their irretrievable relationship, and seeks refuge from his crushing personal regret – as well as wider oppressive social forces – by dressing up in drag and performing a ballad that voices his ‘yearning for the dream of freedom’.

SEQUENCE ANALYSISRosie ThomsonAugust 28, 2020GENDER, QUEER IDENTITY, REPRESENTATION, FRANCEComment

Poetic Fantasies of Time and Space: From the Eyes of an Old Dog

In Sylvain Chomet’s first animated feature film, The Triplets of Belleville (2003) there is a key scene in which the main event simply concerns the barking of a dog out of the window at a passing train. This scene, which is going to be explored here in this sequence analysis, connects the childhood of Champion, the film’s main character, to the present time (of the film’s narrative, which takes place around 1950s), when we meet him as a young cycling athlete training for Tour du France, accompanied by his ever present, loving and supportive grandmother Madame Souza.

SEQUENCE ANALYSISFatemeh Hosseini-ShakibMarch 13, 2020STYLE, FRANCE, AESTHETICS, ANIMALS, MUSICAL, MUSICComment

Incredibles 2 and Pixar’s “intensified mise-en-scène”

My contribution to this blog will stress the animated more than the fantastical because I am here more concerned with the resemblance certain animated films – specifically Pixar’s CG animated features – possess to the solidity and concreteness of the so called “classical” style of live action cinema.

SEQUENCE ANALYSISTom BrownFebruary 14, 2020HOLLYWOOD, ANIMATION, PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, FRAMING, MISE EN SCÈNEComment

“Something Gruesome and Horrible and Real Gory…But Kinda Cute”: Violet Newstead’s Snow White Fantasy Sequence

SEQUENCE ANALYSISAMY M. DAVISSeptember 21, 2018ANIMATION, FAIRYTALE, DISNEY, FEMINISMComment