Posts in EDITORIAL
Analysis of (OO) (Seoro Oh, 2017)
Analysis of (OO) (Seoro Oh, 2017)

(OO) is an animated short film directed by Seoro Oh in 2017 that illustrates the unpleasant experiences that someone encounters when they catch a cold. The unnamed protagonist’s journey begins with a sneeze but escalates into a cold. He is shown struggling with breathing through his nostrils and, as a result, finds himself constantly blowing his nose into a tissue. Everyone, at some point in their lives, experiences the feeling of not being able to properly breathe through their nostrils, whether it is because of a cold, being sick in general, or allergies.

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EDITORIALJessica ShenMETAPHOR, REPRESENTATION, IDENTITY, STYLEComment
Rider On The Storm: a stop-motion animated film
Rider On The Storm: a stop-motion animated film

In the ever-evolving world of animation, one independent studio dares to push the envelope. Located on a mountain top, surrounded by fields and forests Grateful Motion Studios’ unique setting provides the freedom and space to create exceptional works of art. The latest project from Harrison Killian, founder of Grateful Motion Studios, is an animated short film Rider On The Storm.

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EDITORIALHarrison KillianSTOP-MOTION, ANIMATIONComment
Strange Magic: Lucas, Leyendecker, and Parrish
Strange Magic: Lucas, Leyendecker, and Parrish

The focus of these notes is the animated feature film, Strange Magic (Gary Rydstrom, 2015). Based upon a screen story by George Lucas, who also executive produced the film, it was the last of a group of narratively unconnected animated features that he had an involvement with since the 1980s: namely, Twice Upon A Time (John Korty & Charles Swenson, 1983), The Land Before Time (Don Bluth, 1988), and Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Dave Filoni, 2008).

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EDITORIALJames ClarkeSTAR WARS, FANTASY, MAGIC Comment
Hollywood’s Big Little Lie: why are digital VFX still cinema’s bad objects?
Hollywood’s Big Little Lie: why are digital VFX still cinema’s bad objects?

Judging from both the pre-release marketing materials and industry narratives that have surrounded both Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Christopher McQuarrie, 2023) and Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, 2023), one would be forgiven for thinking that Hollywood still retains something of an aversion to digital VFX.

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EDITORIALChristopher HollidaySPECIAL EFFECTS, DIGITAL, COMPUTER ANIMATION, HOLLYWOOD, FRANCHISEComment
Mortality over Legacy: An Analysis of The Last Unicorn
Mortality over Legacy: An Analysis of The Last Unicorn

The Last Unicorn is a fantasy feature-length animation that studies the essence of mortality. Adapted from Peter S. Beagle’s 1968 novel of the same name, it was produced by Rankin and Bass Production in 1982 and animated by Topcraft, the Japanese studio that would later splinter to become Studio Ghibli. The film follows an immortal unicorn’s journey to find the rest of her species, and it is in representing her interactions and personal struggle with the other characters she encounters, The Last Unicorn weaves an allegorical tale about the nature of humanity and the framework of mortality. Throughout her journey, the unicorn encounters characters wrestling with their own brief lives, and after an eternity of eternal youth confronts what a mortal life truly means. As I will demonstrate in this blog post, The Last Unicorn is a complex piece of memento mori literature due to its profound and intricate explorations of death, immortality, and the essence of a transient life.

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EDITORIALHayden StaplesHOLLYWOOD, MAGIC, DEATH, MEMORY Comments
Exploitation or Empowerment: Sexual Violence in Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
Exploitation or Empowerment: Sexual Violence in Belladonna of Sadness (1973)

Notable for its erotic tone and psychedelic imagery, Eiichi Yamamoto’s adult art film Belladonna of Sadness (1973) interrogates the depiction of sexual violence against its female protagonist. The film, set against the backdrop of feudal France, follows newlywed villager Jeanne after being raped by the town’s baron on her wedding night.

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EDITORIALSerena RamseyAESTHETICS, STYLE, ADULT, SEXUALITYComment
Strange Waters: Filming Imagined Spaces in Fantasy Blockbusters
Strange Waters: Filming Imagined Spaces in Fantasy Blockbusters

Had Disney’s Strange World (2022) made more of an impact the internet might well be flooded with articles comparing Don Hall’s latest work with James Cameron’s behemoth sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). Both explore magnificent simulated environments, examine the complicated dynamics arising from father-son relationships, and tackle the destructive land-grabbing hunger associated with colonial sentiment.

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EDITORIALMarkus BeekenDISNEY, SPACE, FICTIONAL WORLDS, SPECIAL EFFECTSComment
On Tom Cruise's Animated Face
On Tom Cruise's Animated Face

Mission: Impossible II (John Woo, 2000) - the second feature in the evergreen Hollywood blockbuster franchise - is a film fascinated by the creative possibilities of Tom Cruise’s face. The film’s extended opening sequence (comprising ostensibly of two action set-pieces, see left) is structured from the start by the drama and jeopardy engendered by the star’s recognisable physiognomy.

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EDITORIALChristopher HollidayHOLLYWOOD, STARDOM, DIGITAL, FACE, COMPUTER ANIMATION, SPECIAL EFFECTS, DEEPFAKESComment
Haunted by History: Sitcom, Spirits, and Unfinished Business in BBC Ghosts and CBS Ghosts.
Haunted by History: Sitcom, Spirits, and Unfinished Business in BBC Ghosts and CBS Ghosts.

Ghosts (BBC, 2019-) emerged from the creative troupe behind the award-winning British children’s programme Horrible Histories (2009-2014), which across multiple seasons used some of the best sketch comedy since Monty Python to explore both British and world history. Horrible Histories gently mocked attitudes in both the past and present, such as when a witchfinder (Jim Howick) touted his services in the manner of a modern-day injury lawyer’s TV commercial.

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EDITORIALNick CullTELEVISION, FANTASY, ADAPTATION, REMAKEComment
Pros & Cons of Marketing with Animation: 2D vs. 3D
Pros & Cons of Marketing with Animation: 2D vs. 3D

Animation marketing is a type of video marketing that uses various types of animated content to convey ideas and concepts to an audience while also increasing traffic and sales for businesses. When precisely tailored to your target demographic, animation brings the power of imagination and creativity to your marketing strategies and has grown to become an effective marketing tool.

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EDITORIALVideo CaddyMARKETING, TECHNOLOGYComment
Science as Fantasy: Humour and Human Psychology in Pixar’s Inside Out (2015)
Science as Fantasy: Humour and Human Psychology in Pixar’s Inside Out (2015)

Like parody and nonsense, fantasy questions the basis of a known reality. Fantasy is a “flirtation with limits of sense-making” and – with a friendly wink to Alice in Wonderland – “the mirror that sucks the body in” (Shires 1988, 267-268). The effect produced by fantasy has also been described as a “wildly abandoning experience of viewing oneself in a distorting mirror at the circus funhouse for the first time” or, in other words, as ecstasis in sense of the Greek meaning of the term: as “standing outside oneself” (Shires 1988, 268).

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EDITORIALVinhara Goonesekera and Anna-Sophie JürgensPIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILM, EMOTION, HUMOURComment
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
Re-watching The Mandalorian: Insights from a Star Wars Obsession in Uncertain Times
Re-watching The Mandalorian: Insights from a Star Wars Obsession in Uncertain Times

**This post contains spoilers for the first and second seasons of The Mandalorian**

I am not a Star Wars superfan. In fact, though I was born in 1979, my sister and I hadn’t seen the original Star Wars movies until the mid-90s, in high school, when our best friends Scott and Kent realized we had some cinematic deficiencies. They showed us E.T. (Steven Spielberg, 1982), the Star Wars movies, and Star Trek: The Next Generation (Gene Roddenberry, 1987-1994). I had watched the Star Wars prequels and sequels, but I was not obsessed with them, or with anything in the science fiction/fantasy genre, for a long time.

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EDITORIALAmy ScottSTAR WARS, TELE, ADAPTATIONComment
Mouse House sees the value of sequels in post-pandemic Hollywood
Mouse House sees the value of sequels in post-pandemic Hollywood

Recently returned Disney CEO Bob Iger – reappointed to the company following the abrupt dismissal of his successor, Bob Chapek in November 2022 – confirmed late last week that the celebrated animation studio would be producing a slate of sequels to three of its blockbuster films. News of Zootopia 2 within Disney’s upcoming roster of features was a welcome, if not entirely unexpected, surprise given both the box office success of the 2016 original (the film took $1.02 billion and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature) and the recent arrival of spin-off web television series Zootopia+ (Trent Correy & Josie Trinidad 2022), which premiered on Disney+ the same month as Chapek’s acrimonious exit.

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EDITORIALChristopher HollidayDISNEY, SEQUEL, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILM, PIXAR, FRANCHISE, HOLLYWOODComment
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
Vonnworld: The Animated Series
Vonnworld: The Animated Series

On the evening of February 28th 2015 in an East Oakland neighborhood in northern California, Davon Malik Ellis was walking with a couple of his friends to the store from his football coach's home when he was stopped by a random stranger and shot to death. He was only 14 years old with a promising future in football. It was this random violent act that birthed the idea of the animated project Vonnworld: The Animated Series

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EDITORIALBruce BowersTELEVISION, RACE, AMERICA, STORYTELLINGComment