QUEER IDENTITY — current posts

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

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.

SEQUENCE ANALYSISDemikel EvansAugust 26, 2022MUSIC VIDEO, REPRESENTATION, GENDER, SEXUALITY, QUEER IDENTITYComment

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: 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).

FILM REVIEWSarah WingroveApril 2, 2021LGBTQ+, REPRESENTATION, QUEER IDENTITY, FESTIVALComment

The Nature of SpongeBob’s Gayness

Last summer, SpongeBob came out—in a way. On June 13, 2020, Nickelodeon, the longtime home of SpongeBob SquarePants (Stephen Hillenburg, 1999-), wrote that it was “Celebrating #Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies,” setting a rainbow-tied SpongeBob alongside trans actor Michael D. Cohen (of Henry Danger [Nathan Kress, 2014-2020] fame) and the bisexual animated character Korra (first seen on Avatar: The Last Airbender [Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko 2012-2014]) in a much-favourited tweet.

EDITORIALKyle MeikleFebruary 26, 2021QUEER IDENTITY, REPRESENTATION, TELEVISION, AMERICA, FAMILY, ADULTComment

A Queer Thing, Indeed: Queering Experimental Animation

In recent years, a number of scholars have pointed out the applicability of the concept of queerness to different forms of animation (Wood 2008; Halberstam 2011; Maier 2018; Ruberg 2019; Ruberg 2020). As Kodi Maier (2018) has suggested on this very blog, fantasy/animation and queerness are all connected by the ways in which they bend, break and question our concepts of the real and the normal, respectively.

EDITORIALLILLY HUSBANDSFebruary 19, 2021QUEER IDENTITY, EXPERIMENTAL ANIMATION, EXPANDED ANIMATION, REPRESENTATIONComment

Pixar's Out (Steven Clay Hunter, 2020)

Featuring Pixar’s first LGBTQ+ lead, Out (Steven Clay Hunter, 2020) is a delightful, whimsical tale of love and queer identity. The short plays out as a comical exploration of the challenges faced by Greg, its lead character, when he finds himself about to be prematurely outed to his parents. Premiering on Disney+ in 2020, Out provides a rare instance of LGBTQ+ representation in the world of Disney (by way of Pixar).

EDITORIALJade EvansFebruary 12, 2021QUEER IDENTITY, GENDER, REPRESENTATION, PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, COMPUTER ANIMATIONComment

Disney’s Queer Queen – Frozen’s Elsa and Queer Representation

Frozen’s (Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee, 2013) protagonist, Elsa, is easily the most obviously queer-coded heroine in Disney’s princess films. Both academic analyses and media outlets, as well as a robust part of her fandom, have argued as much (see, for instance, Charania and Albertson 2018; Mason 2019; Rose 2020).

EDITORIALSabrina MittermeierFebruary 5, 2021DISNEY, QUEER IDENTITY, REPRESENTATION, GENDER, MUSICALComment

#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.”

No More Than Smoke and Mirrors: Queerness and Identity in Lady of the Night (Laurent Boileau, 2014)

Laurent Boileau’s 2014 French animated short Lady of the Night tells the story of Samuel, who retires to his bedroom following the annual commemoration dinner for his deceased lover Cornelius. Samuel is tortured by the closeted nature of their irretrievable relationship, and seeks refuge from his crushing personal regret – as well as wider oppressive social forces – by dressing up in drag and performing a ballad that voices his ‘yearning for the dream of freedom’.

SEQUENCE ANALYSISRosie ThomsonAugust 28, 2020GENDER, QUEER IDENTITY, REPRESENTATION, FRANCEComment

Notes from a Festive Queer: The Misfits of Rankin/Bass's Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

It’s Christmas in the Western world, which, in the United States at least, means it’s time for holiday movie marathons! As per tradition, thousands of Americans gather around the television to watch animated classics like How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Chuck Jones & Ben Washam, 1966), A Charlie Brown Christmas (Bill Melendez, 1965), Frosty the Snowman (Jules Bass & Arthur Rankin, Jr., 1969), A Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick, 1993), and, of course, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (Larry Roemer, 1964).

EDITORIALKodi MaierDecember 13, 2019QUEER IDENTITY, CHRISTMAS, STOP, AMERICA, TELEVISIONComment

Notes from an Angry Queer: Compulsive Heteronormativity in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)

All too often, when a new game or film or television show that includes the barest representation of the LGBTQ+ community is announced, an inevitable, angry chorus of cisgender, heterosexual people shout out in unison: I’m fine with gay people, but why do you have to shove it down my throat like this? Thankfully, the media producers in question usually forge ahead, much to the delight (or chagrin – no one piece of media is perfect) of the LGBTQ+ community. But then, if even the smallest crumb of queer representation is enough to make cishet people choke, then is the same true for a queer person forced to navigate society’s constant stream of compulsive heteronormativity?

EDITORIALKodi MaierMarch 8, 2019DREAMWORKS ANIMATION, FANTASY, QUEER IDENTITY, ANIMATION Comments

Louis Armstrong’s Flying Head, Clothing as Food, and Renegade Angels: Queering Animation through Fantasy

If a dragon were to suddenly swoop down from the clouds, spread its huge wings over London, and wrap its mighty body around Big Ben, it would certainly be strange. Unusual. Weird. Fantastic. Maybe even queer. Of course, such an incredible event is not about to happen. Dragons, faeries, wizards, elves, hobbits – all remain firmly in the realm of fantasy.

EDITORIALKodi MaierJuly 6, 2018FANTASY, ANIMATION, QUEER IDENTITY, CARTOON, TELEVISION Comments