Episode 96 - The Secret of Moonacre (Gábor Csupó, 2008) (with Lucy Shuttleworth)
The Secret of Moonacre (Gábor Csupó, 2008).
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!
Based on Elizabeth Goudge’s 1992 children’s story Little White Horse, the 2008 fantasy The Secret of Moonacre (Gábor Csupó, 2008) is the subject of Episode 96 of the podcast, with Chris and Alex joined in their discussion of morality, class, and the power of the ego by the film’s screenwriter and Associate Producer Lucy Shuttleworth, who is also Senior Lecturer in the School of Film, Media and Communication at the University of Portsmouth. Listen as they examine the influence and inspiration on Gábor Csupó’s film of a number of literary sources, from 14th Century text Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; the wood and forest as a site of technological expressivity as much as narrative hostility and sanctuary with fantasy cinema; comparisons with big-screen adaptations like The Golden Compass (Chris Weitz, 2007) and Enola Holmes (Harry Bradbeer, 2020); VFX technologies and gender representation; and what The Secret of Moonacre tells us about the perils of the adaptation process and the power of effective visual storytelling.
**Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo**
**This episode was produced and edited by Leon Waldo**
Suggested Readings
Attebery, Brian. 1983. “Oz.” In L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz, Critical Heritage Series, ed. M. P. Hearn, 278-304. New York: Schocken Books.
Pheasant-Kelly, Frances. 2013. Fantasy Film Post 9/11. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Sergeant, Alexander. 2019. “The ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Forests of Modern Fantasy Cinema: A Kleinian Topology.” In Beasts of the Forest: Denizens of the Dark Woods, eds. Jon Hackett & Seán Harrington, 93-106. Indianapolis: John Libbey Publishing.
Warner, Marina. 1994. From the Beast to the Blonde: on Fairy Tales and Their Tellers. London: Vintage.
Yorke, John. 2014. Into the Woods: How Stories Work and why We Tell Them. London: Penguin.