MAGIC — all episodes — Fantasy/Animation

Episode 147 - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - Part 1 (with Terry Lindvall)

Episode 147 of the podcast is the first in a two-part special focusing on C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia book series originally published between 1950 and 1956, where Chris and Alex look at a handful of screen adaptations that traverse the fantasy and animation intersection. For this first instalment, they compare the 1979 animated film The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe directed by Bill Melendez with the BBC serial of the same name from 1988, both of which adapted Lewis’ first and perhaps best known Narnia novel.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantDecember 2, 2024ADAPTATION, LITERATURE, TELEVISION, BRITISH, FANTASY, ANIMALS, MAGICComment

Episode 134 - Wish (Chris Buck & Fawn Veerasunthorn, 2023) (with Robyn Muir)

To celebrate Disney’s computer-animated film musical Wish (Chris Buck & Fawn Veerasunthorn, 2023) and the company’s recent centenary year, Chris and Alex are joined by Dr Robyn Muir, Lecturer in Media and Communication in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantFebruary 26, 2024COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILMS, MUSICAL, WALT DISNEY, GENDER, FEMINISM, MAGICComment

Episode 99 - Your Name (Makoto Shinkai, 2016) (Live at the British Film Institute)

Episode 99 is a special instalment of the podcast recorded live at the British Film Institute in London back in May 2022, with Chris and Alex joined by an audience of anime fans to discuss Your Name (Makoto Shinkai, 2016) as part of the BFI’s Anime season.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantJune 13, 2022JAPAN, ANIME, FANTASY, GENDER, CHILDREN, MAGICComment

Episode 98 - Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Sam Raimi, 2022)

Chris and Alex venture (back?) into the multiverse in this entirely unplanned episode on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Sam Raimi, 2022), prompted by both a last-minute cinema trip and a desire to check-in once more with what’s happening in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantMay 30, 2022MARVEL, SUPERHERO, MAGIC, GENDER, FRANCHISE, FEMINISM, NARRATIVEComment

Episode 94 - Encanto (Byron Howard & Jared Bush, 2021) (with Dolores Tierney)

Chris and Alex finally talk about Bruno (among other things) in this latest episode of the podcast, turning to the fantasy and family of Encanto (Byron Howard & Jared Bush, 2021), Disney Feature Animation’s computer-animated musical that tells the story of the magical Madrigal family via protagonist Mirabel, ably supported by lush visuals, colourful abstractions, and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s score inspired by the vallenato, cumbia, bambuco and rock en español genres. Joining them for Episode 94 is Dolores Tierney, Professor of Film at the University of Sussex and an expert in the aesthetics and politics of transnational imaging practices between Latin America, the U.S. and Spain.

Episode 86 - The Secret of NIMH (Don Bluth, 1982)

The result of our latest social media poll charting listeners’ favourite Don Bluth animated film yields the focus of Episode 86, where Chris and Alex uncover The Secret of NIMH (Don Bluth, 1982), the filmmaker’s very first animated feature and one that would set the template for his tone and style to follow.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantNovember 8, 2021DON BLUTH, AMERICA, WALT DISNEY, ANIMATION, MAGICComment

Episode 83 - By the Time It Gets Dark (Anocha Suwichakornpong, 2016) (with Felicity Gee)

Episode 83 sees Chris and Alex trace the magical realist threads and overlapping timelines that build Anocha Suwichakornpong’s often confounding drama By the Time It Gets Dark (2016) (known in Thai as Dao Khanong), replete with its shifting realities, fleeting digital VFX and a pivotal citation of the ‘father of fantasy’ (as well as one of cinema’s first animators) Georges Méliès. Joining them to discuss Suwichakornpong’s mesmerising, kaleidoscopic, and highly original second feature film that dramatises the events of the 1976 Thammasat University massacre is Dr Felicity Gee, Senior Lecturer in Modernism and World Cinema at the University of Exeter, and author of the recent Magic Realism, World Cinema and the Avant-Garde (London: Routledge 2021).

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantSeptember 27, 2021MAGIC, IMAGINATION, WORLD CINEMA, VISUAL EFFECTS, NARRATIVE, SURREALISMComment

Episode 39 - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Chris Columbus, 2001) (with Frances Pheasant-Kelly)

For episode 39, Chris and Alex venture for the first time to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as they take on another highly popular fantasy film franchise by discussing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Chris Columbus, 2001). They are joined by Dr Frances Pheasant-Kelly, who is a Reader in Screen Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, as well as the author of numerous publications on fantasy cinema including Fantasy Film Post-9/11 (London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) that traces fantasy’s cathartic potential as a vehicle to work through traumatic memories in a post-9/11 climate.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantFebruary 3, 2020FANTASY, MAGIC, HARRY POTTER, WITCHCRAFT, WIZARDRY, CHILDREN, FRANCHISEComment