Posts in EDITORIAL
The Intersection of Spectacle and Storytelling in Redline (2009)
The Intersection of Spectacle and Storytelling in Redline (2009)

Although the action genre may seem like nothing more than pure spectacle, there are very specific methods employed by action films to elicit these reactions and assumptions from the audience. Redline (2009), directed by Takeshi Koike, is a Japanese anime film that uses these techniques expertly. Action-packed in every sense of the word, Redline follows the story of Sweet JP, a racer with dreams of winning the infamous Redline race. However, he must overcome the mafia, authoritarian governments, and other deadly racers to achieve his goals.

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EDITORIALAnika TasnimSTYLE, ANIME, JAPAN, NARRATIVE Comment
An Analysis of The Thief and the Cobbler (Richard Williams, 1995)
An Analysis of The Thief and the Cobbler (Richard Williams, 1995)

Based and inspired by Arabian Nights and other 13th-century folklore, The Thief and the Cobbler (1995) directed by legendary animator Richard Williams follows the parallel stories of a shy cobbler named Tack and a nameless kleptomaniac thief. Tack falls in love with the beautiful Princess Yum Yum of the Golden City after she saves him from the wrath of the grand vizier Zig Zag. Together, they must save their kingdom from death and destruction by retrieve the 3 golden balls that protect the city after the thief's failed attempt at stealing them, causing them to fall into the hands of Zig Zag who plans to marry princess Yum-Yum and rule the city.

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EDITORIALSara DouglassPRODUCTION, HISTORY, HOLLYWOODComment
The 21 (Tod Polson, 2024)
The 21 (Tod Polson, 2024)

In 2019, MORE Productions was contemplating its first animated film project. Having worked on live-action features like The Ticket (2016) with Dan Stevens and Martin Scorsese’s Silence (2016), MORE’s co-producers Mark Rodgers and Mandi Hart knew the world of live-action filmmaking well. They also knew it was not the best creative choice for the story they were seeking to tell - the story of 21 men (twenty Coptic Egyptians, one Ghanaian) kidnapped, tortured and ultimately martyred by ISIS in an infamous video published on February 15, 2015.

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EDITORIALMandi HartREALISM, STYLE, POLITICALComment
To bean, or not to bean? On rabbit toes and lessons from Watership Down
To bean, or not to bean? On rabbit toes and lessons from Watership Down

With Watership Down (Martin Rosen, 1978) newly restored in 4K by the British Film Institute, it’s an appropriate time to reflect on rabbits in animation. From Bugs Bunny to the recent Peter Rabbit films (Will Gluck, 2018-2021), rabbits can be found everywhere within the history of animation. But animation also has a problem with representing these bob-tailed creatures. I was crudely reminded of this about two-thirds into DreamWorks’ latest animated release, The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders, 2024), when something caught my eye that briefly took me out of the film. The film is set on a remote island inhabited only by the titular robot and an assortment of wildlife, including a rabbit or two. In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment approaching the film’s final act, one of the rabbits raises their front paws, revealing soft pink pads on the undersides of their feet.

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EDITORIALCatherine LesterANTHROPOMORPHISM, REPRESENTATION, CHARACTER, BRITISH ANIMATIONComment
Between Humans and Machine: The Iron Giant's Reflection of AI
Between Humans and Machine: The Iron Giant's Reflection of AI

Popular media has often portrayed technology as a looming threat to society and human livelihood. However, animation as a medium has provided a unique lens through which to explore the nuances of humanity's interaction with technological forces. Brad Bird's feature The Iron Giant (1999) stands as a poignant example of this exploration. By analyzing the use of hybrid animation techniques and storytelling in the film, I aim to unravel a metaphorical narrative that delves into humanity's relationship with technology, as well as its modern-day resonance with perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) and assumptions on the threat of machine learning to humanity.

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EDITORIALAlyssa LamellTECHNOLOGY, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, HOLLYWOOD, CEL ANIMATION, DIGITALComment
Fan Service in Chinese and Japanese Animation
Fan Service in Chinese and Japanese Animation

Originating in Japanese anime, fan service refers to elements in fiction, often of a sexual nature, added to please the audience and cater to fans’ desires by incorporating nudity or highly suggestive and erotic scenes. Keith Russell (2008) argues that fan service scenes in anime create an aesthetic of the “glimpse,” where panty shots, leg spreads, and brief flashes of breasts transform mundane moments of daily life into possibilities charged with desire. These anticipated gestures are briefly frozen in time, sustaining moments of sensory gratification where the body and imagination coexist, establishing a connection between gaze and desire (Russell 2008, 107).

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EDITORIALMengxue WeiANIME, JAPAN, CHINA, SEXUALITY, REPRESENTATIONComment
A Look at How to Train Your Dragon (Dean DeBlois, 2010) from a Queer Perspective
A Look at How to Train Your Dragon (Dean DeBlois, 2010) from a Queer Perspective

Based on a book of the same name by Cressida Cowell, How to Train Your Dragon (Dean DeBlois, 2010) was influential on family audiences, and especially children, when it was released in March 2010, with a unique story about a misfit teenage Viking named Hiccup, discovering his sense of self as he ascends to adulthood. We follow Hiccup on his journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance, and, in the end, he gains the trust and admiration of his peers and the surrounding society.

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EDITORIALTrinity SencindiverQUEER IDENTITY, HOLLYWOOD, FRANCHISE, IDENTITY, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILM Comment
Game Central Station: The Worlds of Wreck-It Ralph (Rich Moore, 2012)
Game Central Station: The Worlds of Wreck-It Ralph (Rich Moore, 2012)

Wreck-It Ralph (Rich Moore, 2012) follows the antagonist of a fictional arcade game known as Fix-It Felix. After escaping his 8-bit pixelated world and joining fellow outcast Vanellope von Schweetz in the brightly tinted world of Sugar Rush, the eponymous Ralph learns that their quest for redemption could lead to a massive shutdown of the arcade. Through its visual style and videogame narrative, Wreck-It Ralph felt as if it was calling me and my sector of young gamers, and the animation team at Disney managed to successfully bring in elements of popular gaming tropes and familiar characters to build the many worlds connecting through Game Central Station.

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EDITORIALRudan DanielDISNEY, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILM, STYLE, FICTIONAL WORLDS, VIDEO GAMEComment
The Role of Animation in Creating New Visions for the Future
The Role of Animation in Creating New Visions for the Future

In the libraries of history and literature, there’s a recurring theme: it’s not enough to have knowledge, you have to be able to navigate it, accessing and linking relevant pieces of information that often seem disparate. The goal of the Library of Alexandria in Ancient Egypt was to amass all the knowledge in the world in one place, and the world’s first known index system, called the pinakes, was developed to organise the expanding collection as it became more and more unwieldy.

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EDITORIALElizabeth CoxARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, KNOWLEDGE, TECHNOLOGY, DIGITALComment
How A Town Called Panic (2009) takes your toys to the next level
How A Town Called Panic (2009) takes your toys to the next level

Keep it simple, stupid. A phrase taught to students in commercial animation so that they will not overwork themselves. Simple is not to be confused with simplistic, however. One Belgian-French film from 2009 sought to prove how much can be achieved with very little. This blog will explore how A Town Called Panic, directed by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar, combines the formal techniques of limited and stop-motion animation with witty dialogue and uniquely ridiculous scenarios in order to maximize the comedic possibilities within the confines of animating plastic figure toys.

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EDITORIALBryce SheehanCHARACTER, PERFORMANCE, REPRESENTATIONComment
That Old Pixar Magic: Reframing our Perception of Computer-Animation’s Beloved Studio
That Old Pixar Magic: Reframing our Perception of Computer-Animation’s Beloved Studio

Undeniably, Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995) changed the global animation industry forever, properly introducing the world to Woody, Buzz and a studio that would come to define the childhoods of millions of people. Following an unprecedented streak of beloved crowd-pleasing computer-animated films, Pixar Animation Studios made a name for itself with a brand built on a gold standard of quality, a reputation that has since become both a blessing and a curse. Ever since the start of the 2010s, and tied to the lacklustre reception of Cars 2 (John Lasseter, 2011), the common refrain that the latest Pixar release is missing that “old Pixar magic” has become a staple of most new releases from the studio.

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EDITORIALOliver VigniINDUSTRY, PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, HOLLYWOOD, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILMComment
4 Iconic Animation Characters Who Wear Glasses
4 Iconic Animation Characters Who Wear Glasses

In animation and film, disability representation is crucial in shaping the portrayal and perception of characters. A previous article took a closer look at Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman, and found that disability can either be a barrier or a defining characteristic that enhances a character’s depth and relatability to audiences. Such representations are often taken for granted, yet they carry significant symbolic and practical weight. This can be particularly evident in how vision disability is depicted through characters who wear glasses. Glasses worn by fictional characters serve as integral elements of character design, reflecting personality traits, intellectual abilities, and personal journeys.

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EDITORIALHollie HobbsCHARACTER, REPRESENTATION, GENDER, COSTUMEComment
An Analysis of George Dunning’s Yellow Submarine
An Analysis of George Dunning’s Yellow Submarine

Based on the music of the British pop band The Beatles, Yellow Submarine (George Dunning, 1968) is a film that perhaps best resembles the tradition of the jukebox musical. It tells the story of Pepperland, a music-loving utopia falling under siege by the music-hating Blue Meanies. By command of the Mayor, Captain Fred boards the titular yellow submarine to seek help. He discovers The Beatles and urges their help given their musical talents and their resemblance to Pepperland’s favourite musical group: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Beatles join Old Fred (Fig. 1) on a journey back to Pepperland, and rally Pepperland’s citizens to rebel against the Blue Meanies. Harnessing the groovy power of psychedelic pop, they sing their way to freedom.

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EDITORIALKirstin Stevens SchmidtMUSICAL, SURREALISM, BRITISH ANIMATION, STYLE, AESTHETICS, COLOURComment
Maintaining Identity over Time in Animated Bodies during Metamorphosis Transitions
Maintaining Identity over Time in Animated Bodies during Metamorphosis Transitions

A character’s body in animation is believed to be a fluid form (Wells 1996) due to its ability to take on any intended form. Characters can manipulate their bodies to assume new identities, hiding, or losing their sense of self in the process (Clarke 2022), whether intentionally or not. However, when discussing identity in animation through the technique of metamorphosis, the body tends to be overlooked despite being mostly affected in these acts of transformation, as audiences are more focused on anticipating the outcome of metamorphosis (Torre 2010) rather than the transition between the two bodies and the reasons behind the way the body transitions.

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EDITORIALRui Han TeoMETAMORPHOSIS, BODY, CHARACTER, REPRESENTATION, ABSTRACTComment
The Bruno Edera Project: Archiving Adult Animation
The Bruno Edera Project: Archiving Adult Animation

It is easy to argue that pornographic animation is always transgressive, for it directly confronts hard-won stereotypes that animated films are somehow a children’s medium, or that it is a type of media watched solely for laughs that cannot be taken seriously. To consider the creative potentials of pornographic animation is to therefore theorize the plurality of what animation truly is as a medium. But the very existence of pornographic animation also threatens preconceived ideas that there would be such a thing as authentic pornography, that is a kind of pornography in which performers are actually enjoying themselves and not ‘lying,’ versus faking and over-performing.

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EDITORIALAurélie PetitADULT, PORNOGRAPHY, HISTORY, ARCHIVESComment
Animation vs Automation: Labour, Artificial Intelligence, and the Silent Crisis in the Animation Industry
Animation vs Automation: Labour, Artificial Intelligence, and the Silent Crisis in the Animation Industry

In 2009, Vivian Sobchack asked: “what might it mean to bring together the concepts and practices of ‘animation’ and ‘automation’”? At the time Sobchack was writing on the visibility of labour within a modern computer-generated cinematic framework, where computers have become advanced enough that they appear to “have a life of their own” (2009, 375). In her examination of Pixar’s computer-animated film WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008), Sobchack notes that it is the machines, the robots like WALL-E and EVE, who are imbued with “the movement of life,” while the humans are left motionless.

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EDITORIALOliver VigniANIMATION, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, LABOUR, HOLLYWOOD, INDUSTRYComment
Wizards: Flaws of Human Nature through Fantastical Animation
Wizards: Flaws of Human Nature through Fantastical Animation

Western culture has long had a preconceived notion that animation is primarily for children. Two prominent reasons for this positioning were the arrival of the Hays Code, a motion picture guideline that made censorship stricter starting in 1934 up until 1968 (and which included the censoring of animated stars such as Betty Boop), and the dominant influence that the Walt Disney Studios had upon shaping the identity of the medium as family-friendly (see Lewis 2021). These two forces converged to create cartoons marketed primarily towards younger audiences, leaving future generations of animators and studios to adopt and perpetuate this convention.

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EDITORIALJames GorczycaADULT, RALPH BAKSHI, REPRESENTATION, FANTASYComment
They Were More than Roommates: An Analysis of Ramona’s Growth in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023-)
They Were More than Roommates: An Analysis of Ramona’s Growth in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023-)

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023-) is an anime adaptation of the original graphic novel by Bryan Lee O’Malley and directed by Abel Góngora, released in November 2023. One of the many adaptations of the original story, Góngora’s retelling shifts its focus to its female lead, Ramona Flowers while featuring a new narrative of forgiveness and reconciliation with past relationships.

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EDITORIALJada CarterADAPTATION, TELEVISION, GENDER, REPRESENTATIONComment
Annecy and Animafest Zagreb in the 1980s: Building Bridges for the Sino-European Opening-up in Animation
Annecy and Animafest Zagreb in the 1980s: Building Bridges for the Sino-European Opening-up in Animation

The following excerpts are taken from my recent book Chinese Animated Film and Ideology. Tradition, Innovation, Interculturality (2024) published by the CRC Press. This book will be of great interest to those in the fields of animation and film studies, political science, Chinese area studies, and Chinese philology. It especially considers animation film festivals history, paying particular attention to the culture-building role of the festivals Annecy (France) and Animafest Zagreb (former Yugoslavia) in the 1980s.

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EDITORIALOlga BobrowskaCHINA, FESTIVAL, SHANGHAI ANIMATION FILM STUDIOComment
The Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Magic, the lost art history of the Walt Disney Studio The Courvoisier years, 1938-1946
The Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Magic, the lost art history of the Walt Disney Studio The Courvoisier years, 1938-1946

This article is dedicated to Giannalberto Bendazzi, Italian historian and writer.

There is no glitter that plays with the souls of film fanatics like the art produced by the Walt Disney Studio. The films made by Disney hold an emotional spot in the hearts of their fans and this is not by accident. Their characters are drafted to connect to how we feel about ourselves and where we feel we fit within our own lives. The good-versus-evil plot lines that come out of Disney sell us the fantasy that people in power are punished when they try to hold other people back, and the way these narratives are designed to exploit our need to believe in these happy endings has created a cash machine for Disney that is almost unique in the realm of big box office animation.

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EDITORIALRon BarbagalloDISNEY, FILM HISTORY, CEL ANIMATION, ARTISTComment