CHILDHOOD — current posts — Fantasy/Animation

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.

FILM REVIEWMarkus BeekenJune 21, 2024SHORTS, CRAFT, CHILDHOOD, STOP-MOTION, FAMILY Comment

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.

FILM REVIEWRosaley GaiDecember 8, 2023JAPAN, STUDIO GHIBLI, CHILDHOOD, FANTASYComment

Reflecting futures in fantastic media: who do we think we can become?

Children are frequently asked who or what they want to be when they grow up, and the possibilities can seem pretty endless. Racecar drivers and dolphin trainers, chefs, presidents, sometimes out and out supervillains – but also doctors and teachers, writers and artists. After my experience as a postdoctoral researcher with the European Research Council-funded research project Constructing Age for Young Readers (CAFYR) at the University of Antwerp, I have spent a lot of time wondering what we might hear if we were asked those same questions again while in our thirties, or even our forties. Who would we want to become? Who are we shown as inspiration for who we might be able to become?

EDITORIALMichelle Anya AnjirbagJanuary 20, 2023LITERATURE, CHILDHOOD, GENDERComment

‘Take Me Back’- The Fantasy of Childhood in Modern Pixar Films

For a long time, the work of Pixar Animation Studios was routinely presented as something of a gold standard for animation. A critical darling and box office juggernaut, Pixar’s run of early films from Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995) to Toy Story 4 (Josh Cooley, 2019) were mostly unquestioned hits delivering nuanced meditations on everything from emotion to connection to self-actualisation.

EDITORIALMarkus BeekenAugust 12, 2022PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, CHILDHOOD, CHILDREN, FANTASY, HOLLYWOOD, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILMComment

Review: Turning Red (Domee Shi, 2022)

Franz Kafka once wrote that Gregor Samsa awoke one morning to find himself in the body of an enormous insect. This Metamorphosis caused Gregor some difficulties, and both Kafka’s novella as well as the stage adaptation by Steven Berkoff explored issues of class and identity.

FILM REVIEWVincent M. GaineApril 15, 2022PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, ANIMATION, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILM, CHILDREN, CHILDHOOD, GENDERComment