REFLEXIVITY — all episodes — Fantasy/Animation

Episode 59 - Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924) (with Peter Adamson)

Episode 59 heralds Chris and Alex’s first foray into silent film comedy via the work of performer Buster Keaton, looking at his feature Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924) that celebrates the dreams and psychology of a movie theatre projectionist. Joining them as the lights go down is Peter Adamson, Professor of Late Ancient and Arabic Philosophy at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Münich and King's College London, and host of the successful History of Philosophy without any gaps podcast that examines the “ideas, lives and historical context” of both major philosophers and more lesser-known figures.

Episode 58 - Roobarb (and Custard) (Grange Calveley, 1974) (with Birgitta Hosea)

The anarchy and artistry of British television animation provides the springboard for Episode 58 of the Fantasy/Animation podcast, which welcomes London-based media artist, animator and curator Professor Birgitta Hosea (who is also the Director of the Animation Research Centre at the University for the Creative Arts) to talk about Roobarb (Grange Calveley, 1974) directed by English animator Bob Godfrey.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantOctober 12, 2020STYLE, TELEVISION, BRITISH, AESTHETICS, BOILING, FANTASY, REFLEXIVITYComment

Episode 44 - The Emperor's New Groove (Mark Dindal, 2000) (with Astrid Goldsmith)

Voted for by the Fantasy/Animation community on social media as the inaugural #feelgoodfananim, Episode 44 of the podcast looks at the Walt Disney studio’s cel-animated feature The Emperor's New Groove (Mark Dindal, 2000). Chris and Alex are also joined by their very first returning guest, award-winning animator Astrid Goldsmith (a.k.a. Mock Duck Studios), to discuss the troubled production history, buddy narrative and anarchic comic structures of a film that marked a seismic formal shift in the familiar Disney style. Or did it?

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantApril 13, 2020WALT DISNEY, CEL-ANIMATION, REFLEXIVITY, SURREALISMComment

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

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.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantFebruary 25, 2019STOP-MOTION, FANTASY, REFLEXIVITY, ANIMATIONComment