At the 2025 Academy Awards ceremony, the actress Goldie Hawn announced that the winner of the Oscar for Best Animated Film was Flow – a moment where global audience members discovered the film’s creator and director, the Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis. Yet another previous feature of his awaits such attention. The 2019 film Away, Zilbalodis’ the director’s debut feature, laid the foundation upon which Flow is built.
Read MoreWhen we watch a movie, what exactly do we feel? The answer to this question is different from person to person. It is very obvious to someone who has studied sociology to analyse the movie using their own thoughts and embodied knowledge. Similarly, as a student in the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, when I watch a movie, I always try to interpret it through a theatrical lens and to understand the method followed by the characters. Animated movies are no exception in this case.
Read MoreMost movie reviews are just a plot summary wearing a star rating. They walk you through the whole story, then end with “it was good” or “it was boring.” That is a recap, not a review. Nobody needs you to retell the film. They can watch it themselves. What they want to know is whether it is worth their time and why. Learning how to write a movie review is really about learning to make that case clearly. It follows a repeatable process, whether you are posting on a blog, turning in a school assignment, or building your own site.
Read MoreJune 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the film AI: Artificial Intelligence, written and directed by Steven Spielberg. This month also sees the release of the latest Steven Spielberg science fiction film, Disclosure Day. For Fantasy/Animation, writer James Clarke (@jameswriter72) speaks with concept artist John Bell about his memories of working on AI: Artificial Intelligence and also on Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993) and Back to the Future Part II (Robert Zemeckis, 1989).
Read MoreIn Part 1, I introduced Digital Vérité — a framing of documentary image-making practices that assert their truth claims specifically through the use and application of digital tools. I argued that this rhymes with cinema vérité's earlier technological truth claim, and that the same scepticism should be attached to it. This second part works through that scepticism via a case study.
Read MoreIn 1960, a small film crew followed John F. Kennedy through hotel corridors and union halls during the Wisconsin Democratic primary. Primary (1960) might not appear to be pushing technological boundaries to modern viewers but, at the time, its apparatus of handheld cameras, synchronised sound, and, crucially, minimal narration over intimate scenes was a small revolution. The filmmakers (Robert Drew, Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, Albert Maysles) took advantage of these advancements to claim that what their cameras could now do bordered on the metaphysical. They could "be part of the woodwork." They could capture reality "as it really happens."
Read MoreHey raiders, if you've ever chased that perfect pull or celebrated a world-first kill, you know raids are World of Warcraft's ultimate proving ground. These huge PvE fights have been endgame since the very beginning, with a combination of lore, strategy, and pure grit that have made the nights to be memorable. Whether you are a veteran of vanilla or a fresh recruit to the newest tier, one thing stays the same: raid nights are where strangers become guildmates, and guildmates become something closer. We will begin with how they have influenced WoW in the last twenty years, and then highlight the new Season 1 lineup of Midnight, with Void shadows and Light colliding in a manner that will redefine the grind. Buckle up; now it is time to unpuzzle the past and ready the future.
Read MoreI am pleased and proud to announce the publication this month of Animation and the Ancient World, a collection of sixteen essays edited by myself and C.W. Marshall and published by Oxford University Press. This volume surveys how the myths, histories, and philosophies of ancient Greece and Rome have been remixed and revitalized in all sorts of wonderful ways by modern-day animators. At first glance, it may seem surprising that there is a whole volume to fill on this topic. We are all familiar with Disney’s Hercules (Ron Clements & John Musker, 1997), and some of us who are anime fans are likely aware of the mythological themes that underlie Sailor Moon (Naoko Takeuchi, 1992-) or the adventures of the time-traveling Roman bath architect in Thermae Romae (Mari Yamazaki, 2024-) but beyond that how much is there to discuss? As it turns out there is an abundance of animated material from all over the globe that takes its direct inspiration from classical antiquity, or draws on themes, images, and narratives that were originally developed by ancient authors and artists.
Read MoreA book sits quietly on a shelf. Then, years later, it breathes fire on a cinema screen. This transformation — from static words to vivid animation — is one of the most complex creative journeys in modern entertainment. It is not simply a copy-paste process. Everything changes: pace, tone, visual language, even the emotional core of the story itself. Fantasy, above all genres, demands the most from animators. Why? Because fantasy worlds exist only in the reader's imagination until someone decides to build them for real.
Read MoreThinking about Clarence Boddicker’s glasses from the film RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987) while sitting on the bench outside of the library at around quarter past two in the afternoon, Sebastian sits next to me.
I ask the following: “If Hazbin Hotel became novelised, each book dedicated to a character, when it hits Valentino, who would you want to write him?’”
“George Saunders. He’d get into his head.”
Sebastian’s answer rang a fresh thought across my mind that lingered in my brain for a while until, feverishly, I started noting the bones of this down.
Read MoreThe line between authentic and synthetic has become as thin as it can get, whether by choice or because of the way the world is today. When we look into it deeper, we can see the similarities with Jean Baudrillard's “simulacrum,” a copy without an original, where the representation of something becomes more real than the actual object itself. Animation is an ideal way to explore the concept of “simulacrum” and how it translates into our reality.
Read MoreA history of animation aesthetics could be written simply by watching a Gaul drink the potion of Getafix the druid, in that famous quarrelsome village nonchalantly defended from Roman conquest by Asterix and Obelix, the indomitable duo born from the imagination of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo in 1959. In the recent Netflix television series Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight (2025), Asterix, having downed a sip of the magic brew, soars into the air and begins to change colour, transforming into cyan, magenta, and then yellow; the three colours of print.
Read MoreWhen Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (Hiroyuki Imaishi, 2022–) was released, it quickly gained attention for its intense action, emotional storytelling, and striking visual style. Set in the same universe as Cyberpunk 2077, the series dives into the chaotic world of Night City—a place where technology is advanced, but human life often feels disposable. At first glance, it looks like a fast-paced sci-fi story about crime and survival. But beneath that surface, Edgerunners offers something more subtle. It presents a sharp critique of capitalism, one that is built directly into its world, characters, and visual language.
Read MoreAs discussed in Part 1, Shiori’s locket in the Japanese anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena (Kunihiko Ikuhara, 1997) begins as a sealed object that preserves an image and holds desire in place. Once opened, it is no longer an object or vessel made to sustain the appearance of stillness and the stable fantasy that it contains. In this second blog post, I will place the “Black Rose Saga” in dialogue with Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours: Blue (1993), drawing on the work of Slavoj Žižek to think through fetish, fantasy, and the strange space “between two deaths.”
Read MoreRevolutionary Girl Utena, the Japanese anime television series that first aired in 1997, follows Tenjō Utena, a tomboyish girl who dreams of becoming a prince and knight in shining armour. Upon entering the fantastical and highly hierarchical Ohtori Academy, Utena soon entangles herself in the ritualised duels of the Student Council, fighting for the mysterious Rose Bride, Himemiya Anthy, a figure objectified by those who compete for her hand. The series has a particular cyclical structure, with each episode lasting less than 30 minutes and structured into three narrative sections—episodes 1 to 13 form the “Student Council Saga”, episodes 14 to 23 comprise the “Black Rose Saga”, and episodes 24 to 39 conclude with the “Apocalypse Saga”. The structural arrangements highlight the series’ heightened theatricality, resulting in a tightly choreographed work with a recursive and self-reflexive mode of storytelling. As the series unfolds, Utena’s story spirals into a vibrant phantasmagoria with variations on themes of adolescence, trauma, desire, and revolution.
Read MoreWhen Arcane (Riot Games/Fortiche Production, 2021–) first came out, most people focused on how beautiful it looked. And that makes sense. The painterly animation is striking right away. But what really makes the series stand out is something deeper. It shows class conflict in a way that feels almost physical. Not just through the story, but through the world itself. In Arcane, inequality is not explained to you. You see it instantly.
Read MoreUpon watching an animated television programme or a feature film, we do not always think about how it came to be. I do not mean what was involved in the production process, or the direction, rather about why it looks the way it does. Indeed, the American animation industry, over the course of a hundred years, has continually changed and evolved from what it has been before in drastic ways. With indie authors becoming more and more prominent within the animated landscape, we might witness a further new tide in the industry regarding the kinds of stories being told and explorations into the medium’s creative freedom. Still, since I was a child U.S. animation has evoked many questions in my mind. How did the American animation industry evolve over the course of its existence? How have it changed to become what it is now?
Read MoreAnyone who has spent some time at film festivals will be familiar with a certain tendency in non-fiction cinema: film-makers turning process into therapy, and their film itself into a document of their psychological and personal journey as they deal with unsolved family issues or the need to find identity or come to terms with loss or (rarely) happier aspects of the human condition. A number of titles come to mind even as I type: from Chantal Akerman’s No Home Movie (2015) to Marusya Syroechkovskaya’s How to Save a Dead Friend (2022). It is very much a formula, the popularity of which owes more than a little to the widely-held belief, among programmers and agents, that these films fulfil their obligation to the art-house crowds (you can’t go wrong with meta-cinema) while also basking in the broader appeal of shared human experiences.
Read MoreOver the last twenty years, the province of Quebec in Canada has built an internationally recognized cultural and digital ecosystem, particularly in the visual effects (VFX) (Mikros Animation, Rodeo FX) and animation (Cinesite, National Film Board) sectors. In 2023, these production studios and facilities represented more than $1.4 billion in revenue and thousands of jobs in Quebec, thanks largely to heavy involvement in successful foreign productions and fiscal benefits. However, in recent years, this business model has shown its weaknesses: the workers strike from the American entertainment union SAG-AFTRA in summer 2023, followed by the Quebec government's decision in May 2024 to cap tax credits for foreign entertainment companies employing in Quebec – reducing the credit rebate from 100% to 65% (Bongiorno 2024) – highlighted the structural precariousness of the local workforce (Arsenault, 2024).
Read MoreWhen Wes Anderson unveiled his new stop-motion film Isle of Dogs in 2018, audiences perhaps expected another symphony of symmetry, irony, and warm absurdity. But here the action had shifted to Japan — a country whose aesthetic seems to reflect Anderson's style: strict and ritualistic, yet poetic and meaningful. Needless to say, Anderson has always been a Japanophile with a profound respect for Japanese art. "Some of the main inspirations for the film were Kurosawa's film noirs of the early 1960s, “The Bad Sleep Well” (1960) and “High and Low” (1963)," said Isle of Dogs production designer Nathan Harrod (qtd. in Desowitz, 2018). Indeed, Megasaki, the fictional city where the story unfolds, looks like a futuristic version of Yokohama from High and Low in particular, while Mayor Kobayashi is based quite directly on actor Toshiro Mifune, who played businessman Gondo in the Kurosawa’s film.
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