Animation, Fantasy and the Disney/Pixar Dilemma
Animation, Fantasy and the Disney/Pixar Dilemma

The shifting place of fantasy within contemporary animation allows us to make some preliminary discriminations about how fantasy’s own icons and images function in relation to the shaping of Hollywood studios and their brand identity. The continued business strength of the U.S. animation industry in the post-millennial period thanks to Pixar Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation and Blue Sky - as well as the parallel renaissance of Disney Feature Animation - has provided a growing number of critically and commercially successful test cases that showcase where fantasy does (and does not) appear in popular animated media, but also how fantasy has become a default and highly durable viewing strategy utilised by audiences in determining the precise terms of studio authorship.

Read More
EDITORIALChristopher HollidayDISNEY, PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, ANIMATION, FANTASY, INDUSTRYComment
The Fantastical Sonic Ambience: Disney Creating Worlds With Music
The Fantastical Sonic Ambience: Disney Creating Worlds With Music

Imagine if films had no music, would the cinematic medium survive the way it has today? While music can be used as an aesthetic component that enhances the film experience, is also a storytelling device and a language that serves similar purposes to the verbal language in the film context, although it is rarely perceived as such. Despite this, many directors such as Alfred Hitchcock claimed that, in some instances the music works better than spoken words. Both music and imagery are equal - but different - agents of story, which together unite to create a phenomenal end product or a film being.

Read More
VIDEO ESSAYSADEEN ELYASFANTASY, ANIMATION, FAIRYTALE, MUSIC, SOUND, DISNEYComment
“Something Gruesome and Horrible and Real Gory…But Kinda Cute”: Violet Newstead’s Snow White Fantasy Sequence
“Something Gruesome and Horrible and Real Gory…But Kinda Cute”: Violet Newstead’s Snow White Fantasy Sequence

These days, I spend a lot of time thinking and writing about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand, 1937). Call it a professional interest during its eightieth anniversary year. But here, rather than talk specifically about Snow White, instead I would like to look at my favourite non-Disney reference to it: Violet Newstead’s (Lily Tomlin) Snow White-themed revenge fantasy in the 1980 Feminist political comedy classic 9 to 5 (Colin Higgins, 1980). Though any working woman can tell you that 9 to 5 has never lost its relevance (sadly, given that it’s a 38-year-old film about sexism in the workplace), in the current socio-political climate and historical era (with #MeToo, wage stagnation and job insecurities for many in the middle and lower classes, etc.), 9 to 5 has become more relevant than ever — so much so that, in July 2018, Jane Fonda announced a sequel to the film with herself, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton reprising their original roles in what will be (presumably) a look at how things have changed – and how they’ve stayed the same – for working women since 1980.

Read More
SEQUENCE ANALYSISAMY M. DAVISANIMATION, FAIRYTALE, DISNEY, FEMINISMComment
Review: Film as Film Today - On the Criticism and Theory of V. F. Perkins
Review: Film as Film Today - On the Criticism and Theory of V. F. Perkins

A wealth of staff and students both past and present came together across two days at the University of Warwick to celebrate and reflect upon the work of V. F. Perkins (1936-2016). It was Perkins’ immeasurable contribution to Film Studies and his writing on popular cinema that would come to form the basis of the superlative Film as Film Today: On the Criticism and Theory of V. F. Perkins conference co-organised with due fondness and feeling by James MacDowell (University of Warwick) and Andrew Klevan (University of Oxford).

Read More
EVENT REVIEWChristopher HollidayFANTASY, FICTIONAL WORLDS, FILM THEORYComment
The Trouble with Reiniger?
The Trouble with Reiniger?

Over the last eighteen months or so myself and Katharina Boeckenhoff (University of Manchester) have been engaged in archival research on the German animator Lotte Reiniger for a project about craft and animation. During that time I was grateful to be asked to write a chapter in Fantasy/Animation: Connections Between Media, Mediums and Genres on Reiniger by Christopher Holliday and Alexander Sergeant. While this chapter was not directly informed by the archival research we had been involved in, it raised a number of interesting thoughts and potential challenges that informed my writing.

Read More
EDITORIALCaroline RuddellFANTASY, ANIMATION, GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM, LOTTE REINIGER Comments
Review: Saving Christopher Robin - A Review of Two Winnie-the-Pooh Films
Review: Saving Christopher Robin - A Review of Two Winnie-the-Pooh Films

In the past twelve months, cinema audiences have been treated to not one, but two films based on the eponymous children’s book character, Winnie-the-Pooh. Both focus on male protagonists and explore the psychological effects of growing up and the responsibilities associated with adulthood. Both are live action dramas with frequent forays into animated fantasy sequences. And both films are British / American co-productions with a strong emphasis on the past, nostalgia and heritage.  

Read More
FILM REVIEWCarolyn RickardsFANTASY, ANIMATION, SPECIAL EFFECTS, ADAPTATION Comments
Making is Thinking: Writing a Fantasy Screenplay for a (hoped-for) Animated Film
Making is Thinking: Writing a Fantasy Screenplay for a (hoped-for) Animated Film

Right around 2004, I speculatively wrote a feature-length screenplay. In that earliest moment of what has become a very long-running project, the core concept, at the level of theme and character types, was determined. This has now been a fourteen-year process of imagining a family film in the initial form of a screenplay (and I subscribe to the view that the screenplay is definitely not the film). In terms of the role of fantasy in the story model for our screenplay, of particular value for me has been the understanding that the genre offers writers and audiences an opportunity to be immersed in the kind of archetypal themes discussed by fantasy film screenwriter Jim V. Hart.

Read More
EDITORIALJames ClarkeFANTASY, ANIMATION, SCREENWRITING, FILM PRACTICEComment
Fantastic Products: The Phantasmagorical Appeal of Animated Advertising
Fantastic Products: The Phantasmagorical Appeal of Animated Advertising

This post explores the way ideas of fantasy can provide new insight into animated advertising, and applies these to analyse the recent Ikea advertisement Ghosts (2018) and its use of digital animation. Exploring the long history of a particular form of fantasy, the phantasmagoria, allows a consideration of the ghostly iconography associated with it, as well as its use as a metaphor for the workings of capitalism. 

Read More
EDITORIALMalcolm CookFANTASY, ANIMATION, ADVERTISING, FILM HISTORY Comment
The Sounds of Silence (or, What Noises Do Animated Fantasies Make?)
The Sounds of Silence (or, What Noises Do Animated Fantasies Make?)

The critical noise surrounding the recent release of horror film A Quiet Place (John Krasinski, 2018) has largely served to amplify its considered (and sparse) application of sound. The film’s narrative certainly explores the implications of selective sound and image arrangement, with the complex interplay between each sonic component used in service of crafting the danger of (largely offscreen) fantasies.

Read More
EDITORIALChristopher HollidayCGI, DIGITAL, SOUND, MOTION CAPTUREComment
The Success of Animated Fantasy and Science-Fiction Cinema
The Success of Animated Fantasy and Science-Fiction Cinema

When researching my contribution to Christopher Holliday and Alexander Sergeant’s collection Fantasy/Animation, I examined a range of sources that demonstrated the enormous box office success, both in the United States and in the rest of the world, of fantasy and science-fiction movies, and of ‘animation’ (a category here understood to include live action films heavily reliant on computer generated imagery) in recent decades.

Read More
EDITORIALPeter KrämerFANTASY, ANIMATION, SCIENCE-FICTIONComment
Review: Incredibles 2 (Brad Bird, 2018)
Review: Incredibles 2 (Brad Bird, 2018)

The Hollywood landscape into which Pixar’s twentieth computer-animated feature Incredibles 2 (Brad Bird, 2018) now sits is very different to the filmmaking climate of the original. Back in 2004 when audiences first glimpsed the superheroic exploits of the Parr family – Bob/Mr. Incredible and Helen/Elastigirl, alongside their three children Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack – the resurrection of contemporary superhero cinema was still very much in its infancy.

Read More
FILM REVIEWChristopher HollidayFANTASY, ANIMATION, SUPERHERO, PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOSComment
The Subversive Horror of Fantasy and Animation
The Subversive Horror of Fantasy and Animation

Fantasy and animation, especially when combined, are often associated within popular discourse with children’s media. Referring predominantly to stop-motion animation, this post offers some thoughts on what the intrinsic association between children, fantasy and animation might mean in the context of another genre that has a more problematic relationship with child audiences: horror. Although horror is rarely considered a children’s genre, horror films addressed to children do exist, and across various forms of animation and live-action: the stop-motion animated Frankenweenie (Tim Burton, 2012), CG-animated Monster House (Gil Kenan, 2006), or the live-action Hocus Pocus (Kenny Ortega, 1993).

Read More
EDITORIALCatherine LesterFANTASY, STOP-MOTION, HORROR, CHILDRENComment
Review: Lilian Munk Rösing, Pixar with Lacan: The Hysteric's Guide to Animation (2016)
Review: Lilian Munk Rösing, Pixar with Lacan: The Hysteric's Guide to Animation (2016)

The title of Lilian Munk Rösing’s recent publication Pixar with Lacan: The Hysteric’s Guide to Animation (London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2016) contains many of my favourite words. With. The. Hysteric. But seriously, the blending of Jacques Lacan’s structuralist re-visioning of psychoanalytic theory with the stable of Pixar animation is both a provocative and insightful one. Lacanian theory – known by many as either as source of theoretical intrigue or frustration – offers a dense, abstract, often impenetrable but always insightful and innovative way of making sense of the world or, rather, a way of envisioning how we as subjects make sense of the world.

Read More
BOOK REVIEWAlexander SergeantFANTASY, ANIMATION, PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, PSYCHOANALYSIS, JACQUES LACANComment
Louis Armstrong’s Flying Head, Clothing as Food, and Renegade Angels: Queering Animation through Fantasy
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.

Read More
EDITORIALKodi MaierFANTASY, ANIMATION, QUEER IDENTITY, CARTOON, TELEVISION Comments
Review: Society for Animation Studies (SAS) - 30th Annual Conference
Review: Society for Animation Studies (SAS) - 30th Annual Conference

Within the limited space afforded here, it is impossible to do justice to the full scope (and, indeed, the many successes) of the recent Society for Animation Studies (SAS) conference, this year held at Concordia University between 19th–22nd June. Co-chairs Alison Reiko Loader and Marc Steinberg – as well as the rest of the wonderful Concordia team – deserve special mention for putting together a truly dizzying array of international speakers, animation workshops and screenings (including a climactic showing of the emotive Eleven Moving Moments with Evelyn Lambart by Donald McWilliams).

Read More
EVENT REVIEWChristopher HollidayFANTASY, ANIMATION, HISTORY, THEORYComment
Review: Bob Rehak, More Than Meets the Eye: Special Effects and the Fantastic Transmedia Franchise (2018)
Review: Bob Rehak, More Than Meets the Eye: Special Effects and the Fantastic Transmedia Franchise (2018)

The history, theory and reception of visual and special effects occupies a significant place in recent film and media scholarship (Pierson 2002; Turnock 2015). This interest in CGI animation is not surprising given the reliance within the production practices over the past forty years of Hollywood filmmaking. Picking up where previous debates have left off, Bob Rehak’s More Than Meets the Eye: Special Effects and the Fantastic Transmedia Franchise (New York: New York University Press, 2018) seeks to make an important contribution to our understanding of the impact digital CGI effects have had on both the way films are made, and the way they are received by audiences.

Read More
BOOK REVIEWAlexander SergeantFANTASY, FANTASTIC, SPECIAL EFFECTS Comments
Review: Avengers: Infinity War (The Russo Brothers, 2018)
Review: Avengers: Infinity War (The Russo Brothers, 2018)

In his review of the latest in the Marvel-backed behemoths to embark upon an all-out assault against our eardrums, wallets and box office records, BBC Radio Five Live and Observer film critic Mark Kermode described Avengers: Infinity War (The Russo Brothers, 2018) as a having a fundamental problem stemming from a “fundamental lack of consequence”. This, from a movie that takes place across multiple galaxies, deals with a villain hell bent on wiping out half the universe’s population and, in the process of doing so, leaves a trail of destruction across planets, kingdoms and franchises. The culmination of a story arc ten years in the making, Avengers: Infinity War is a move with cross-franchise implications that demands a seemingly galactic level of prior narrative investment for audiences to even understand the opening reel.

Read More
FILM REVIEWAlexander SergeantFANTASY, ANIMATION, CGI, SUPERHEROComment
Review: Animation and Public Engagement Symposium (APES) 2018
Review: Animation and Public Engagement Symposium (APES) 2018

Surprisingly only in its fourth full year since its inauguration as part of the Bradford Animation Festival in 2014, the annual Animation and Public Engagement Symposium is swiftly becoming a staple of the animation studies calendar. Wonderfully co-ordinated by Loughborough University's Melanie Hani and Roberta Bernabei, this year’s event was held at the imposing Beaumanor Hall, Woodhouse, Leicestershire, UK, and offered a vital glimpse into the impressive and wide-ranging work that is enveloping animation practices across a multitude of disciplines and intellectual fields.

Read More
EVENT REVIEWChristopher HollidayFANTASY, ANIMATION, EDUCATION, ENGAGEMENTComment
What is Fantasy/Animation?
What is Fantasy/Animation?

Welcome to Fantasy/Animation! Co-founded by Christopher Holliday and Alexander Sergeant, Fantasy/Animation seeks to examine the relationship that exists between fantasy cinema and the medium of animation.

This network began as an edited collection Fantasy/Animation: Connections Between Media, Mediums and Genres (Routledge AFI Film Reader, 2018). As editors, we worked alongside a number of world-renowned film and media scholars to produce a collection that examined a range of animated fantasy media, from the avant-garde experimental animation of Bret Battey to HBO’s Game of Thrones.

Read More
EDITORIALChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantFANTASY, ANIMATIONComment