Episode 110 - The Snowman (Dianne Jackson, 1982) (with James Walters)
The Snowman (Dianne Jackson, 1982).
The Fantasy/Animation podcast takes listeners on a journey through the intersection between fantasy cinema and the medium of animation. Available via Apple Podcasts, Spotify and many of your favourite podcast hosting platforms!
The 2022 Fantasy/Animation Christmas special is here, with Chris and Alex well and truly ‘walking in the air’ (!) for Episode 110 of the podcast as they wonder at the delights of The Snowman (Dianne Jackson, 1982), the 26-minute television special released on Channel 4 in the early 1980s and based on Raymond Briggs’ picture book. Joining them for this tale of festive fantasy and to celebrate the film’s 40th anniversary is Dr James Walters, who is Reader in Film and Television Studies in the Department of Film and Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham. James’ work embraces film and television aesthetics, and he is the author of two monographs regularly cited on the podcast - Fantasy Film: A Critical Introduction (2011) and Alternative Worlds in Hollywood Cinema (2008) - among other recent work on television comedy and performance. Listen as they discuss the relationship between British and Hollywood fantasy cinema in the 1980s; the contribution of Channel 4 to the evolution of British television animation; depth, energy, movement, and sincerity in The Snowman’s cosy construction of fantasy, and the spectators’ ability to ‘take off’ with its defining images of flight; childhood and the power of snow as an enchanting (if always fleeting) force; texture, detail, and stillness in Brigg’s original drawings; divisions between interior/order and exterior/chaos; and the way that fantasy - like Christmas - can mean different things to different people. Oh, and there’s a bit about David Bowie too. Happy holidays!
**Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo**
Suggested Readings
Attebery, Brian. 1992. Strategies of Fantasy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
Fife Donaldson, Lucy, and James Walters. 2019. Television Performance. London: Red Globe Press.
Norris, Van. 2014. British Television Animation 1997–2010: Drawing Comic Tradition. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Walters, James. 2008, Alternative Worlds in Hollywood Cinema: Resonance Between Realms. Bristol: Intellect.
Walters, James, and Tom Brown, eds. 2010. Film Moments: Criticism, History, Theory. London: British Film Institute.
Walters, James. 2011, Fantasy Film: A Critical Introduction. Oxford & New York: Berg.
Walters, James. 2016. The Thick of It (TV Classics). British Film Institute, London.