Episode 20 - Peppa Pig (Neville Astley & Mark Baker, 2004-) (with Richard Dyer)
Peppa Pig (Neville Astley & Mark Baker, 2004-).
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 20 welcomes Professor Richard Dyer (Emeritus Professor of Film Studies, King's College London and Professorial Fellow in Film Studies, University of St Andrews) to the podcast, joining Chris and Alex to discuss the popular British animated television series Peppa Pig (Neville Astley & Mark Baker, 2014-). Comparing the programme to the work of modernist painter Henri Matisse and filmmaker Béla Tarr, they examine questions of episodic seriality, simplicity and realism in character design, and the politics of niceness, as well as the idea of children as a social construct via the inscription of ‘the child’ into the animated media text. We also talk about Daddy Pig’s big tummy and the joy of jumping in muddy puddles.
Suggested Readings
Holliday, Christopher. 2018. The Computer-Animated Film: Industry, Style and Genre. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
King, C. Richard, Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo, and Mary K. Bloodsworth-Lugo. 2010. Animating Difference: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Contemporary Films for Children. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Kirkland, Ewan. 2017. Children's Media and Modernity: Film, Television and Digital Games. Oxford: Peter Lang.
Whissel, Kristen. 2014. Spectacular Digital Effects: CGI and Contemporary Cinema. Durham: Duke University Press.
Whitlark, James. 1988. Illuminated Fantasy: From Blake's Visions to Recent Graphic Fiction. London: Associated University Presses.