Posts tagged GENDER
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
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
Representations of Femininity: International Perspectives - Liyana (Aaron and Amanda Kopp, 2017)
Representations of Femininity: International Perspectives - Liyana (Aaron and Amanda Kopp, 2017)

This blog post examines the 2017 film Liyana, directed by Aaron and Amanda Kopp, which describes itself as a “genre-defying documentary” that weaves together both animation and live-action scenes to tell the story of five orphaned children in the Kingdom of Eswatini. Yet its reflexive framing narrative focuses on the children’s creation of their own fictional tale featuring the fearless Liyana, who as part of the film’s story-within-a-story structure embarks on a treacherous quest to save her younger brothers.

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EDITORIALRosie ThomsonGENDER, IDENTITY, RACEComment
Review: Stella Hockenhull and Frances Pheasant-Kelly (eds.), Tim Burton’s Bodies: Gothic, Animated, Corporeal and Creaturely (2021)
Review: Stella Hockenhull and Frances Pheasant-Kelly (eds.), Tim Burton’s Bodies: Gothic, Animated, Corporeal and Creaturely (2021)

Tim Burton’s Bodies provides a distinctive body-centric approach to the analysis of Burton’s back-catalogue of animated and live-action films (see Fig. 1 for book cover). Tim Burton is an internationally celebrated filmmaker, animator and artist who has worked in the industry since the 1980s. His work is commercially and critically acclaimed and is mostly associated with the fantasy horror sub-genre, the macabre and spectral, animated corpses and grotesque outsider protagonists.

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BOOK REVIEWAnna BlagroveTIM BURTON, STOP-MOTION, GENDER, FEMINISM, ANIMATIONComment
Pride without Prejudice: Queer Animation of the 2020s
Pride without Prejudice: Queer Animation of the 2020s

Just a little over three and a half years into the 2020s, the seeds of the tropes and trends that future generations shall refer to as “2020's cinema” began to sprout. Be it the new string of self-aware whodunits following the success of Knives Out (Rian Johnson, 2019), such as Bodies, Bodies, Bodies and See How They Run (both released in 2022), or the slow resurgence of slashers with Scream sequels, X and Freaky (starting a new chapter for the genre after its self-referential era post-Scream and ‘neo-slasher’ period in the 2000’s), an exciting foundation for this new decade’s cinema has been set.

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EDITORIALAnant NambiarQUEER IDENTITY, GENDER, SEXUALITY, NETFLIX
Reclaiming personal memory through Hollywood fantasy in Neil Jordan’s Breakfast on Pluto (2005)
Reclaiming personal memory through Hollywood fantasy in Neil Jordan’s Breakfast on Pluto (2005)

In the first act of Neil Jordan’s Breakfast on Pluto (2005), a tale of a young transgender woman growing up in small town Ireland during the height of the troubles in the 1970s, there is an extended fantasy sequence in which Kitten (Cillian Murphy) imagines her own conception by her parents. It is one of many fantasy sequences that are scattered throughout the film, and one that relies heavily on manifesting a fictional memory which most likely did not happen.

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EDITORIALLuke BrookmanGENDER, REPRESENTATION, TRANSGENDER, GENREComment
Reflecting futures in fantastic media: who do we think we can become?
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?

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EDITORIALMichelle Anya AnjirbagLITERATURE, CHILDHOOD, GENDERComment
Review: The Factual Animation Film Festival (FAFF) 2022
Review: The Factual Animation Film Festival (FAFF) 2022

The Fall of 2022 marked the 9th year of running of The Factual Animation Film Festival (FAFF). Following the success of 2021, this time the festival maintained its hybrid format offering both in-person and online events. Those who found themselves in Berlin on September 24th, could attend a screening at local Z-inema moderated by Marina Belikova, one the festival’s producers.

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EVENT REVIEWAnastasiia GushchinaREPRESENTATION, GENDER, DOCUMENTARY, FANTASY, IDENTITYComment
Redefining Gender Representation in Dua Lipa’s “Hallucinate” (2020) Music Video
Redefining Gender Representation in Dua Lipa’s “Hallucinate” (2020) Music Video

Dua Lipa’s animated music video “Hallucinate” was released during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The song is taken from Lipa’s second album, Future Nostalgia, and was influenced by the studio 54 aesthetic (Daly, 2020). Dua Lipa's animated character in the music video has been compared with the features of Betty Boop, a figure who epitomized the hedonistic nature in America in the 1920s.

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SEQUENCE ANALYSISDemikel EvansMUSIC VIDEO, REPRESENTATION, GENDER, SEXUALITY, QUEER IDENTITYComment
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: 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
Childhood Reimagined: Navigating Difficult Terrain in The Breadwinner (2017)
Childhood Reimagined: Navigating Difficult Terrain in The Breadwinner (2017)

The world that children occupy is full of secrets, and is a world not shared with adults. It is one concerned primarily with fantasy and imagination. Every child has a right to occupy that secret world; it’s part of childhood development and is an important locator of child identity as a ‘non-adult’.  As Chris Jenks tells us, “the child is familiar to us and yet strange, he or she inhabits our world and yet seems to answer to another” (2020, 3). The child exists in its own distinct world and separation and agency are at the core of that world. 

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EDITORIALJane BatkinGENDER, FEMINISM, CHILDREN, FANTASY, REALISMComment
Beyond Heroes and Villains? Establishing Character Duality Through Formal Sequence Arrangements
Beyond Heroes and Villains? Establishing Character Duality Through Formal Sequence Arrangements

This blog post follows on from an earlier sequence analysis of Disney’s Moana (Ron Clements & John Musker 2016) in which I explored the redemption of Te Kā by the opening of an anthropomorphised ocean. In this second post, I will analyse the moments immediately following the opening of the ocean, which sees Moana and Te Kā to come face to face.

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SEQUENCE ANALYSISCharlotte DurhamDISNEY, GENDER, CHARACTER, MUSICAL, FEMINISMComment
“Let her come to me”: Opening the Ocean in Disney’s Moana
“Let her come to me”: Opening the Ocean in Disney’s Moana

Since its DVD release, Moana (Ron Clements & John Musker 2016) has carved a home in my heart. When I’m not re-watching it captivated and in love with its artistry, I’ll watch it thinking about the voyage Disney takes into Polynesian histories and the representation of culture which, although efforts were made through the formation of the Oceanic Story Trust to depict authentic Polynesian cultures, often falls short – as one indigenous rights advocate puts: “having brown advisers doesn’t make it a brown story” (Ngata, 2016).

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SEQUENCE ANALYSISCharlotte DurhamWATER, REPRESENTATION, GENDER, FEMINISM, DISNEY, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILM Comment
Orientalism and Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Orientalism and Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

Eighty-four years after its first animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand, 1937) and fifty-eight movies later, Disney finally has its first Southeast Asian princess with Raya and the Last Dragon (Paul Briggs, Don Hall & Carlos López Estrada, 2021). The titular character, Raya, joins the ranks of their other princess-of-colour from the Disney canon including Tiana from The Princess and the Frog (Ron Clements & John Musker, 2009), Jasmine from Aladdin (Ron Clements & John Musker, 1992), and the titular characters from Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel & Eric Goldberg, 1995), Mulan (Tony Bancroft & Barry Cook, 1998) and Moana (Ron Clements, Don Hall & John Musker, 2016).

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EDITORIALPrakash Krishnan and Patricia Petit LiangDISNEY, ASIAN ANIMATION, REPRESENTATION, IDENTITY, FANTASY, GENDER, RACEComment
Fantasy, Femininity and Heroism: A look into Miyazaki’s female characters
Fantasy, Femininity and Heroism: A look into Miyazaki’s female characters

The representation of femininity within animation can sometimes indulge in and reflect problematic modes of gender representation. There is, of course, a long history of demonising forms of femininity, with stereotypical and socially constructed feminine traits including empathy, kindness, warmth and nurturance (see Kite 2001, 563). Not only are these traits often enforced onto women (Wing Sue 2010, 172), but are also conventionally considered signs of weakness (Windsor 2015, 893-897).

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EDITORIALSabrina BessalemSTUDIO GHIBLI, GENDER, REPRESENTATION, JAPANComment
Pixar’s Loop (Erica Milsom, 2020) – Celebrating Difference
Pixar’s Loop (Erica Milsom, 2020) – Celebrating Difference

Pixar’s Loop (Erica Milsom, 2020) is an animated short film from Pixar Animation Studios, and part of the “SparkShorts” program that was designed to discover new storytellers and artists by producing short films on a smaller time frame and budget, giving directors freedom to explore new stories, techniques and workflows.

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EDITORIALJessica GibsonPIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, DISABILITY, GENDER, COMPUTER ANIMATION, DIGITALComment