NETFLIX — current posts — Fantasy/Animation

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.

EDITORIALAnant NambiarNovember 10, 2023QUEER IDENTITY, GENDER, SEXUALITY, NETFLIX

New Fantasy and Animated Series On Netflix in September

Netflix has an extensive library containing an array of licensed movies and series alongside its ever-growing portfolio of original projects. Many titles, such as the thrilling South Korean Squid Game (Hwang Dong-hyuk, 2021-) or Netflix’s own Stranger Things (The Duffer Brothers, 2016-), have garnered worldwide popularity.

EDITORIALTechwarnOctober 21, 2022NETFLIX, STREAMING, TELEVISIONComment

Review: The Cuphead Show! (Dave Wasson, 2022)

Many videogame players awaited the release of Netflix Animation’s The Cuphead Show! (Dave Wasson, 2022). The show is based on the videogame Cuphead (Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, 2017), which was noted for its unique aesthetics within the gaming world. The game’s innovation lay in its inspiration in early 20th century American animation.

TELEVISION REVIEWDevon DouiebMarch 18, 2022TELEVISION, NETFLIX, HOLLYWOOD, ANIMATION, NOSTALGIAComment

Precarious Enchantment: Analyzing Frenemies and Missing Mothers in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Amidst a sea of reboots and remakes, perhaps none have made quite as big an impact on pop culture audiences as Dreamworks’ She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018-2020).

EDITORIALSam LangsdaleMay 14, 2021TELEVISION, DREAMWORKS ANIMATION, NETFLIX, GENDER, REPRESENTATION, QUEER IDENTITYComment

Review: Shadow and Bone (Eric Heisserer, 2021)

he latest fantasy series released by Netflix is an adaptation of Leigh Bardugo’s “Grishaverse” novels. Bardugo’s books consist of the Grisha trilogy: Shadow and Bone (2012), Siege and Storm (2013), and Ruin and Rising (2014); there is also the Six of Crows duology: Six of Crows (2015) and Crooked Kingdom (2016); and there is the King of Scars duology: King of Scars (2019) and Rule of Wolves (2021).

TELEVISION REVIEWAga J. DrendaMay 7, 2021NETFLIX, TELEVISION, FANTASY, NARRATIVEComment

Mythologies Old and New: Netflix’s Blood of Zeus

Blood of Zeus (2020-present) is the brain child of Charley and Vlas Parlapanides, two Greek-American screenwriters best known for their work on the 2011 film Immortals, a live-action fantasy adventure loosely inspired by Greek mythology. This time, the brothers have teamed up with Netflix and Powerhouse Animation Studio to create an animated epic drama series, also set in mythical Greece, which follows the evolution of young Heron, a good-hearted outcast who, upon learning that he is the son of Zeus, steps into his father’s footsteps and becomes a powerful warrior.

EDITORIALChiara SulprizioApril 23, 2021NETFLIX, FANTASY, TELEVISION Comment

How We Learn to Say the Unsayable: Grief in Fantasy/Animation

In many ways, 2020 is a year marked by many different intertwined sources of grief: all the different kinds of loss associated with a global pandemic and its effect on daily lives; the political and economic situations that have forced a reckoning with an acknowledgement of a loss of idealism – that maybe we aren’t, and never have been, the enlightened society we (the Western European and North America, the Anglophone West in particular) have considered ourselves to be.

EDITORIALMichelle Anya AnjirbagJanuary 22, 2021PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, GRIEF, TRAUMA, NETFLIX, DISNEY, REPRESENTATIONComment

#BlackGirlJoy: The Exuberance of Posthuman Black Girlhood in Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Radford Sechrist, 2020-) is a colourful, post-apocalyptic animated adventure series based on the webcomic Kipo, which debuted on Netflix in early 2020 to much critical acclaim (Fig. 1). The story follows the titular Kipo, a 13-year-old “burrow girl” who finds herself thrust from the safety of her underground home to a surface world filled with talking, anthropomorphized animals, or “mutes,” as well as titanic, kaiju-sized “mega mutes.”

Reimagining the Hollywood Teen Movie: Animation, Fantasy, and Teenage Subjectivity

At first sight, Alex Strangelove (Craig Johnson, 2018) starts as a predictable genre film, part of a growing cluster of Netflix teen movies such as The Kissing Booth (Vince Marcello, 2018) and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (Susan Johnson, 2018) available on the streaming platform. It opens with a montage sequence replicating what Roz Kaveney terms as the “anthropology shot” (Kaveney 2006: 56): students representative of social groups and cliques are introduced, as in the opening scenes of 10 Things I Hate About You (Gil Junger, 1999) and Not Another Teen Movie (Joel Gallen, 2001).

EDITORIALEve BenhamouNovember 16, 2018FANTASY, STREAMING, NETFLIX, TEEN MOVIE, ANIMATIONComment