TECHNOLOGY — all episodes — Fantasy/Animation

Archive Episode - Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014) (with Andrew Whitehurst)

Chris and Alex welcomed Oscar-winning visual effects artist Andrew Whitehurst to the Fantasy/Animation podcast back in November 2019 for this reflection on the posthumanism of science-fiction parable Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014). Andrew kindly spoke with us about his role as Visual Effects Supervisor on the film (for which he received an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 2015), and navigated through Ex Machina’s technologised construction of bodies and the hybrid performance of humanoid robot Ava.

Episode 140 - Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991) (with Yvonne Tasker)

Professor Yvonne Tasker is the very special guest for Episode 140 of the podcast, joining Chris and Alex for this discussion of action spectacle and the gendered body in science-fiction sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991).

Episode 138 - Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995) (with Lucy Fife Donaldson)

The Fantasy/Animation podcast finally tackles the seminal Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995), with Episode 138 looking at Pixar’s computer-animated feature and the film that transformed animation in Hollywood - and beyond - into a digital medium. Joining Chris and Alex to examine Toy Story’s computerised production and the pleasures of its pristine visual illusionism is Dr Lucy Fife Donaldson, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of St Andrews, whose work focuses on film and television style, audiovisual design and 'below-the-line' labour, performance and the body, and videographic criticism.

Episode 137 - Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (James Mangold, 2023) (with Sarah Thomas)

Episode 137 appropriately begins at the end of the commercially and critically successful Indiana Jones franchise with this discussion of the fifth and final feature Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (James Mangold, 2023) featuring special guest Dr Sarah Thomas. Sarah is Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media in the School of Arts, whose research expertise centres on stardom/celebrity, media industries, and screen performance in Hollywood and transnational cinemas.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantApril 8, 2024HOLLYWOOD, SEQUEL, FRANCHISE, STARDOM, TECHNOLOGY, MASCULINITYComment

Episode 129 - Disney: A Tale of Technology and Innovation (Live at the British Film Institute) (with Chris McKenna)

Episode 129 sees Chris flying solo as part of a conversation recorded live at the recent Once Upon A Time: A Disney Day held at the British Film Institute in London back in July, which was part of the Making Magic: 100 Years of Disney two-month season that ran throughout 2023. Discussing the Disney studio’s longstanding relationship to technological innovation is returning special guest Chris McKenna, current Head of Creative Operations at the VFX studio Moving Picture Company, who featured on the earlier Dumbo (Tim Burton, 2019) episode of the podcast.

Episode 127 - They Shall Not Grow Old (Peter Jackson, 2018) (with Lawrence Napper)

For Episode 127 of the podcast, Chris and Alex travel through (film) history to examine the negotiation of the past through computer manipulation, focusing on Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) and its use of digital techniques to re-articulate the sounds and images of the First World War. Joining them to discuss the technological mediation of national traumas and triumphs is Dr Lawrence Napper, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at King’s College London, who is an expert in early silent and British cinemas and author of the monographs British Cinema and Middlebrow Culture in the Interwar Years (2009), The Great War in Popular British Cinema of the 1920s: Before Journey’s End (2015) and Silent Cinema: Before the Pictures Got Small (2017).

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantNovember 6, 2023FILM HISTORY, FIRST WORLD WAR, MEMORY, TECHNOLOGY, NOSTALGIAComment

Episode 111 - Atlantis: The Lost Empire (Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise, 2001) (with Gary Trousdale)

For the first episode of 2023, Chris and Alex are back into the world of Disney Feature Animation, following up earlier discussions of The Emperor’s New Groove (Mark Dindal, 2000) and Treasure Planet (Ron Clements & John Musker, 2002) with Episode 111, which looks at the studio’s 2001 feature film Atlantis the Lost Empire (Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise, 2001), a science-fiction adventure that draws inspiration from Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870).

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantJanuary 9, 2023WALT DISNEY, CEL-ANIMATION, HISTORY, HOLLYWOOD, MYTHOLOGY, TECHNOLOGYComment

Episode 105 - In Conversation with Nancy Beiman

Chris and Alex return after their belated summer hiatus with Episode 105 of the podcast, and a very special instalment that features them in conversation with renowned animation director, character designer, animator, and teacher Nancy Beiman, who has worked at a number of studios (from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin studio to the Walt Disney Company and Warner Brothers) as well as on feature films including A Goofy Movie (Kevin Lima, 1995), Hercules (Ron Clements & John Musker, 1997) and Treasure Planet (Ron Clements & John Musker, 2002).

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantOctober 3, 2022HOLLYWOOD, CREATIVITY, LABOUR, TECHNOLOGY, ANIMATIONComment

Episode 104 - Speed Racer (Lana Wachowski & Lilly Wachowski, 2008) (with Tim Robey)

Strap in for Episode 104 of the podcast as the thrill ride that is Lilly and Lana Wachowski’s Speed Racer (2008) provides the focus for this latest instalment in all its unwieldy and unruly CG glory. Chris and Alex’s special guest for this episode is Tim Robey, renowned film critic and author who has written widely on all kinds of cinema for The Daily Telegraph for over the last 20 years.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantAugust 22, 2022POLITICS, TECHNOLOGY, DIGITAL, VISUAL EFFECTS, HYBRIDITY, FILM STYLEComment

Episode 93 - Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki, 2004) (with Brian Attebery)

Myth, magic, and technology take to the skies in Episode 93 of the podcast, with Howl’s Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki, 2004) providing a welcome return to the steampunk spectacle and metamorphic marvels of Japanese anime. Joining Chris and Alex to examine Studio Ghibli’s 2004 feature film fantasy of flight is Professor Brian Attebery, writer and professor of English at Idaho State University, who took over as editor of the Journal of the Fantastic in Arts in 2006, and is also a prolific author whose seminal work encompasses all things fantasy literary, history, and storytelling.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantMarch 14, 2022STUDIO GHIBLI, JAPAN, MODERNITY, TECHNOLOGY, FANTASY, CEL-ANIMATIONComment

Episode 77 - The Hunger Games (Gary Ross, 2012) (with Tarja Laine)

The first instalment of The Hunger Games (2012) franchise, directed by Gary Ross, provides the focus of Episode 77 of the podcast, which looks at the film’s connections to ethics, rationality and affect, and what structures our emotional engagement with its narrative of totalitarian systems and panoptic visions. Joining Chris and Alex to examine the immersive world of Panem is Dr Tarja Laine, Assistant Professor in Film Studies at the University of Amsterdam and author of the new monograph Emotional Ethics of The Hunger Games (2021), as well as the books Bodies in Pain: Emotion and the Cinema of Darren Aronofsky (2015), Feeling Cinema: Emotional Dynamics in Film Studies (2011) and Shame and Desire: Emotion, Intersubjectivity, Cinema (2007).

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantJuly 5, 2021ETHICS, CGI, WORLDS, TECHNOLOGY, NATURE, POLITICSComment

Episode 17 & 18 - Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2019

Episodes 17 and 18 come to you live from the 2019 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, held in Seattle, Washington, USA! Hear Chris and Alex report on the ins and outs of attending the largest academic media conference in the world, providing you with insights into the various panels, delegates and procedures of the event through a series of interviews with the best and brightest from the worlds of fantasy and animation.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantApril 1, 2019FANTASY, ANIMATION, IDENTITY, TECHNOLOGYComment

Episode 15 - Tron (Steven Lisberger, 1982)

In episode 15, Chris and Alex log on to Tron (Steven Lisberger, 1982), a watershed moment in the history of computer animation and one that taps into the early electronic spectacle of digital visual effects within a Hollywood context. Representing the wonder of - if not the cultural anxieties surrounding - the newness of computers and virtual reality (as well as the growing popularity of videogames), the film reframes cyberspace as a complex three-dimensional fantasy world.