Posts in FILM REVIEW
Review: Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot, 2024) - Fantasies in the Trash Heap
Review: Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot, 2024) - Fantasies in the Trash Heap

Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot, 2024), the stop-motion story of Grace (or Gracie) a young mollusc-obsessed girl growing up in 1970s Australia, is not a fantasy film. Unless, of course, it is entirely a fantasy. As Grace thinks back over her life, and how she found herself in the ‘present day,’ she offers her pet snail Sylvia (and by extension the audience) a tale as bizarre, incongruous, and carefully curated as the vast array of snail-related memorabilia she has collected over the years.

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FILM REVIEWMarkus BeekenSHORTS, CRAFT, CHILDHOOD, STOP-MOTION, FAMILY Comment
Review: The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, 2023)
Review: The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, 2023)

Miyazaki Hayao’s newest film, The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa dou ikiru ka『君たちはどう生きるか』lit. “How do you live?”) is a Studio Ghibli film about personal growth in a world you cannot control. It’s a tad amusing, too, if you are reading this review before watching the film. I cannot say whether knowing anything before viewing the film is better, as the studio intended, or if context (and warning) are warranted to level any preconceptions based on Ghibli’s and Miyazaki’s reputations or general hype. In either case, perhaps it is best to view the film free of expectations beyond the obvious: beautiful, hand-drawn Ghibli animation.

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FILM REVIEWRosaley GaiJAPAN, STUDIO GHIBLI, CHILDHOOD, FANTASYComment
Review: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers & Justin K. Thompson, 2023)
Review: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers & Justin K. Thompson, 2023)

True to the promise of its title, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson, 2023) is an exhilarating and emotional journey that continues to blaze the narrative and visual trail started by its predecessor. Made by Sony Pictures Animation in association with Marvel, the film does not open with the previous film’s Spider-Man, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as one might expect. Instead, it shifts the focus to Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), also known as Spider-Woman, as she finds herself embroiled in the multiversal machinations of the taciturn, pragmatic Spider-Man 2099, Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), and his spider society.

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FILM REVIEWJonathan MachoHOLLYWOOD, COMPUTER ANIMATION, ADAPTATION, STYLE, FICTIONAL WORLDS, SUPERHERO Comments
Review: Pinocchio (Guillermo del Toro, 2022)
Review: Pinocchio (Guillermo del Toro, 2022)

“Try your best, because that’s the best anyone can do,” says Sebastian J. Cricket, one of Pinocchio’s mentors in the film. This quote aptly encapsulates the moral of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022) (Fig. 1).  An adaptation of the 1883 tale, Pinocchio transports the story to 1930s fascist Italy, firmly under the thumb of dictator Benito Mussolini.

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FILM REVIEWJackson WrightADAPTATION, STOP-MOTION, FANTASYComment
Review: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (Dean Fleischer-Camp, 2021)
Review: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (Dean Fleischer-Camp, 2021)

The extraordinary life of Marcel, a one-inch tall talking shell, first began with three Youtube shorts in the early 2010s. He took the Internet by a storm: Jenny Slate’s crackling timbre, coupled with Dean Fleischer-Camp’s comically awkward script, drew over 31 million views. Now, after more than a decade of slumber, the shorts finally resurfaced, though this time in feature form.

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FILM REVIEWGrace HanFANTASY, STOP-MOTION, GENDERComment
Review: Lightyear (Angus MacLane, 2022)
Review: Lightyear (Angus MacLane, 2022)

The critical and commercial resurgence of Walt Disney’s animation division since the company’s $7.4 billion purchase of Pixar Animation Studios nearly twenty years ago – crystallised by the global success of Frozen (Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee, 2013) and recent hits like Moana (Ron Clements & John Musker, 2016) and Encanto (Jared Bush, 2021) – has coincided with a comparatively fallow period for its famous subsidiary.

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FILM REVIEWChristopher HollidayPIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILM, MASCULINITY, VOICE, HOLLYWOODComment
Review: Flee (Jonas Poher Rasmussen, 2021)
Review: Flee (Jonas Poher Rasmussen, 2021)

Flee (Jonas Poher Rasmussen, 2021) is an animated documentary that explores the nature of memory and trauma by taking the viewer on an emotional journey. It uses animation to present the memories of Amin Nawabi, an Afghan refugee credited under a pseudonym. Encouraged by his anonymity, he tells director Jonas Poher Rasmussen his story (Grobar 2021).

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FILM REVIEWMark ThistlewoodDOCUMENTARY, TRAUMA, GENDER, SEXUALITY, NATIONAL CINEMAComment
Review: Encanto (Jared Bush & Byron Howard, 2021)
Review: Encanto (Jared Bush & Byron Howard, 2021)

Being Colombian is an act of faith. This is how Jorge Luis Borges aptly puts it in his short story ‘Ulrikke,’ published in a 1975 collection. And although I have felt that my identity as a Colombian has always been somewhat unstable or in doubt for a variety of reasons (like growing up in an increasingly globalized world), it was never as affirmed as it was when I went to the cinema to see Disney’s recent computer-animated feature Encanto (Byron Howard & Jared Bush, 2021) in the UK.

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FILM REVIEWJuliana VarelaMAGIC, DISNEY, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILM, FAMILY, NATION, CULTUREComment
Review: SpaceJam: A New Legacy (Malcolm D. Lee, 2021)
Review: SpaceJam: A New Legacy (Malcolm D. Lee, 2021)

To say that there is a lot going on in Space Jam: A New Legacy (Malcolm D. Lee, 2021) – the sort-of-anticipated follow-up to the 1996 live-action/animation sports comedy Space Jam (Joe Pytka, 1996) – would be something of an understatement. The bombastic first trailer for the sequel (released in April 2021) had already given audiences an indication as to the potentially chaotic tone of this new big-screen instalment.

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FILM REVIEWChristopher HollidayHOLLYWOOD, INTERTEXTUALITY, CARTOONS, HOMAGE, COMEDY, WARNER BROTHERSComment
Review: Luca (Enrico Casarosa, 2021)
Review: Luca (Enrico Casarosa, 2021)

Luca is a love letter to Italy – and it is written beautifully. In May 2016, I was on a train from La Spezia to Manarola, Italy, one of the five villages of Cinque Terre. Manarola had been on my bucket list since I saw the photo of this place, with its picture-postcard perfection, as a background on the Windows log-in screen. I remember when I got off the train and saw Manarola before me for the very first time, becoming teary at its beauty, as well as being overcome by fulfilling a long-held wish to see it for myself.

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FILM REVIEWAnna ZsuboriPIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILM, REALISM, PRODUCTION DESIGNComment
Review: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)
Review: Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021)

I’m going to say straight off: I thoroughly enjoyed Cruella (Craig Gillespie, 2021) and I think you will, too. A prequel to One-Hundred-and-One Dalmatians (Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske & Wolfgang Reitherman, 1961) and a re-framing (sort of; more on that shortly) of the beloved Disney villain Cruella deVil, Cruella purportedly tells the story of how the great enemy of dalmatians everywhere became a crazed villain.

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FILM REVIEWAMY M. DAVISADAPTATION, DISNEY, SPECIAL EFFECTS, ANIMALS, GENDERComment
Review: Rebel Dykes (Harri Shanahan & Siân A. Williams, 2021)
Review: Rebel Dykes (Harri Shanahan & Siân A. Williams, 2021)

Reading through the LGBT+ History Month blog posts on Fantasy/Animation, I was struck by the fact that of the few depictions and readings of queer women in animation, all of them feature in films or television series targeted primarily towards younger audiences, e.g. Princess Bubblegum and Marceline in Adventure Time (Pendleton Ward, 2010-18), She-Ra in She-Ra: Princesses of Power (Noelle Stevenson, 2018-20), and Elsa in Frozen (Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee, 2013).

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FILM REVIEWSarah WingroveLGBTQ+, REPRESENTATION, QUEER IDENTITY, FESTIVALComment
Review: Raya and the Last Dragon (Don Hall & Carlos López Estrada, 2021)
Review: Raya and the Last Dragon (Don Hall & Carlos López Estrada, 2021)

In his business memoir, Bob Iger, the (former?) CEO of The Walt Disney Company, raised a question in connection with Disney princesses: “[w]hat are the attributes of a Disney princess in today’s world and how should they manifest in our products?” (Iger 2019, xx). Iger’s query outlines both the commodification of the Disney princess, and the notion that her portrayal must reflect the societal changes of the 21st century.

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FILM REVIEWAnna ZsuboriFANTASY, DISNEY, STAR WARS, MAGIC, EAST, GENDERComment
Review: Lava (Ayar Blasco, 2019)
Review: Lava (Ayar Blasco, 2019)

When I heard Lava’s premise, I was intrigued. Giant alien cats launching an attack on Earth? You’ve got my attention! (To be honest, anything that features cats will at least get a glance from me.) Though I was lured in by the promise of extraterrestrial felines and madcap entertainment, I was disappointed to find Lava poorly paced, dubiously constructed, and falling short of its loftier thematic goals.

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FILM REVIEWAyanni C. H. CooperMAGIC, MYTHOLOGY, FANTASY, GENDER, RACEComment
Review: Soul (Pete Docter, 2020)
Review: Soul (Pete Docter, 2020)

If the narrative of Soul sounds complex, that’s because it is. In a similar vein to Pixar’s Inside Out (Pete Docter, 2015), which explores the abstract concepts of emotions (and, specifically, emotional development) through animation, Soul explores existentialism and the many manifestations of what having a soul can really mean, as well as how these connect to the idea of our lives having a specific “purpose” that we were born to fulfil.

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FILM REVIEWDevon DouiebPIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, REPRESENTATION, COMPUTER ANIMATION, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILM, ICONOGRAPHY, RACE Comment
Review: Wolfwalkers (Tomm Moore & Ross Stewart, 2020)
Review: Wolfwalkers (Tomm Moore & Ross Stewart, 2020)

Cartoon Saloon has carved out a niche in the indie animation scene. With the exception of The Breadwinner (Nora Twomey, 2017), which was adapted from the Deborah Ellis book of the same name, all of the Irish animation studio’s films have drawn their influence from Celtic myths and legends. Various fantastical creatures, from faeries to selkies, are woven into the fabric of the stories they tell.

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FILM REVIEWIssy MacleodFANTASY, HISTORY, CELTIC, IMAGERY, REPRESENTATION, NATIONComment
Review: Dollhouse: The Eradication of Female Subjectivity from American Popular Culture (Nicole Brending, 2018)
Review: Dollhouse: The Eradication of Female Subjectivity from American Popular Culture (Nicole Brending, 2018)

Although Nicole Brending’s feature animated film originally toured festivals as early as January 2019, Dollhouse’s general release coming in the wake of the #FreeBritney campaign feels somewhat auspicious. The film rides a satirical wave over US celebrity-centric media, focusing on the abuse and exploitation of a child singer, told through the medium of plastic dolls and puppets.

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FILM REVIEWJed EdwardsSTOP-MOTION, PUPPETRY, SATIRE, CELEBRITY, CULTURE Comments