Episode 12 - Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight, 2016)

Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight, 2016).

Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight, 2016).

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!

Episode 12 takes Chris and Alex to feudal Japan as they get to grips with LAIKA studio’s stop-motion feature film, Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight, 2016). The thorny question of animation’s inherently self-reflexive identity and status as anti-illusionist art; the magic of fantasy storytelling and spectatorship; and the medium specificity of object animation provide just some of the topics involved in their own critical battle with this popular fantasy/animated samurai epic.

Suggested Readings

  • Buchan, Suzanne. 2011. The Quay Brothers Into a Metaphysical Playroom. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

  • Halberstam, Jack. 2011. The Queer Art of Failure. North Carolina: Duke University Press.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantSTOP-MOTION, FANTASY, REFLEXIVITY, ANIMATIONComment