Super-Psych: Into the Discourse Verse
Super-Psych: Into the Discourse Verse

Released in 2018, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey & Rodney Rothman, 2018) explored the visual storytelling possibilities of animation. A computer-animated superhero feature film that retells the story of Miles Morales, a boy bitten by a radio-active spider giving him similar powers to those of Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse bucks many of the traditional techniques of animation, and the production team used novel techniques to depict motion, depth of field, and emotion. Particularly notable is the combination of comic book elements within an animated feature. How do these novel techniques, alongside the combination of comic book mythology and animated storytelling, impact viewers’ comprehension of and experience of the story?

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EDITORIALHeather NessAESTHETICS, STYLE, CGI, COMPUTER ANIMATION, ADAPTATIONComment
Review: Spider-Man: Far From Home (Jon Watts, 2019)
Review: Spider-Man: Far From Home (Jon Watts, 2019)

Now that the proverbial dust has settled on Avengers: Endgame (Anthony Russo & Joe Russo, 2019), the fallout from the almost-three hour epic can well and truly begin. To immediately follow a film that is, to date, the highest-grossing film of 2019 and now the second-highest of all time (behind, of course, Avatar [James Cameron, 2009]) was always a tricky, if not borderline impossible, act. Yet coming a mere three months after Endgame and just two years (and six films) after Spider-Man: Homecoming (Jon Watts, 2017), the next instalment Spider-Man: Far From Home (Jon Watts, 2019) does a more than admirable job of taking up the reins left slack in a post-Endgame world.

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FILM REVIEWChristopher HollidaySUPERHERO, MARVEL, FRANCHISE, DIGITAL, CGIComment
Thoughts about Halo: Race and Violence and the Muslim Superhero
Thoughts about Halo: Race and Violence and the Muslim Superhero

Set in the DC universe, North American animation television series Young Justice (2010-) follows a large ensemble of superheroes who undertake various covert missions. While iconic figures such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman do make fleeting appearances, the programme deliberately spotlights lesser-known characters and sidekicks (Fig. 1). The first season followed the first Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martian, and Artemis. The second introduced a plethora of new team members but mostly focused on the second Blue Beetle and Impulse, the Flash’s time-traveling grandson.

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EDITORIALFrancis M. AgnoliRACE, IDENTITY, TELEVISION Comment
Review: Toy Story 4 (Josh Cooley, 2019)
Review: Toy Story 4 (Josh Cooley, 2019)

Since Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995) hit cinema screens worldwide in November 1995, audiences have witnessed a series of dramatic changes within the animated medium, particularly in Hollywood. Having signed a contract with Pixar Animation Studios in 1991, Disney were initially hesitant to give the very first computer-animated film about a collection of toys the same commercial backing as their traditional cel-animated features. Until, that is, they saw the toys come to life.

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FILM REVIEWHannah Newman-SmartPIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILM, SEQUEL, FRANCHISE, DIGITAL, DISNEYComment
‘Come Along with Me’: Adventure Time’s Invitation for Imaginative Complexity
‘Come Along with Me’: Adventure Time’s Invitation for Imaginative Complexity

In September 2018, after ten seasons following a human boy named Finn, his adoptive brother, a shape-shifting, talking dog named Jake (Fig.1), and their zany hijinks, quests, and adventures in the post-nuclear apocalyptic land of Ooo, cult-pop cartoon series Adventure Time (Pendleton Ward, 2010-2018) finally drew to a close. With themes of temporality, cyclicality, the apocalypse, and growing up, the narrative of Adventure Time seems to be in direct conversation with its time-constricted episodic television format, as well as the time-and-physics-bending medium of animation.

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EDITORIALHanna GreenblottTELEVISION, NARRATIVE, MUSIC, TEMPORALITY, CARTOON NETWORKComment
Review: Annecy International Animation Film Festival (2019)
Review: Annecy International Animation Film Festival (2019)

Located in Annecy, France, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival was founded in 1960 and has been held annually since 1997. This year, the festival took place 10th-15th June, boasting its usual range of screenings and events: features, shorts, student films, television shows, commissioned works, and VR works (Fig. 1). The shorts in particular displayed a wide collection of animated techniques and materials. Highlights include the clay-on-glass musical retelling of America’s first circus elephant in The Elephant’s Song (Lynn Tomlinson, 2018), the self-reflexive Pinscreen exercise Jim Zipper (Alexandre Roy, 2018), and the impeccably smooth stop-motion porcelain animals of Winter in Rainforest (Anu-Laura Tuttelberg, 2019).

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EVENT REVIEWFrancis M. AgnoliFANTASY, ANIMATION, FESTIVAL, SHORTSComment
Fantasy, Animation, Violence
Fantasy, Animation, Violence

A little while ago I did some work on fantasy cinema and, while I’m keen to avoid the slightly unedifying spectacle of trawling through that material again, I would like to spend a little time thinking about a couple of its omissions: animation and violence. One reason for visiting these topics now is that I wonder whether violence in fantasy and/or animation may run the risk of not being taken seriously at all, possibly on grounds of realism. If the violence is so obviously signposted as fictional through its animated or fantastical nature, aren’t we missing the point if we start talking about its meaning and significance?

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EDITORIALJames WaltersDREAMWORKS ANIMATION, DISNEY, ANIMATION, CGI, VIOLENCE, HOLLYWOODComment
Niggun by Yoni Salmon
Niggun by Yoni Salmon

Niggun is a science-fiction hand drawn animated film that mixes the theme of spiritual quest with a space odyssey. It takes place in a post apocalyptic future where earth is gone and Jerusalem has become a legend. The original idea for the film began with a small illustration I made of David Bowie’s Space Oddity, depicting major Tom floating in a tin can. The theme of being lost in space representing some kind of existential crisis made me look for a story behind that astronaut (Fig. 1). In my point of view, Jews were never meant for space travel.

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CREATIVE REFLECTIONYoni SalmonANIMATION, CREATIVE PRACTICE, FANTASY, RELIGION, SCIENCE-FICTIONComment
Review: Pokémon Detective Pikachu (Rob Letterman, 2019)
Review: Pokémon Detective Pikachu (Rob Letterman, 2019)

Billed as the first “live-action” Pokémon film, Pokémon Detective Pikachu (Rob Letterman, 2019) adapts some of the franchise’s core themes and mechanics. The film also continues the endeavour of augmented reality game Pokémon GO (2016) – which on release sparked a sensation that saw players from all walks of life hunting Pokémon in the spaces around them via their mobile phones – to bring Pokémon into the real world.

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FILM REVIEWJames C. TaylorADAPTATION, ANIMATION, JAPAN, FILM NOIR, TRANSMEDIA, CGIComment
Review: Tolkien (Dome Karukoski, 2019)
Review: Tolkien (Dome Karukoski, 2019)

I probably should admit upfront that I am an avid fan of J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. When Peter Jackson’s trilogy was released back in 2001-2003, I devoured the books and watched each film three times at the cinema. I marvelled at the extended DVD versions (with a complete running time of over 11 hours) and trawled through all the extra bonus material countless times over. I was even lucky enough to visit some of the film locations during a visit to New Zealand, a place that is stunning enough without CGI wizardry.

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FILM REVIEWCarolyn RickardsBIOPIC, FANTASY, FANTASTIC, CGI, SPECIAL EFFECTSComment
Review: Eyes Unclouded - The Films of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli
Review: Eyes Unclouded - The Films of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli

An academic conference on the key creative figures and animated feature films of renowned Japanese production house Studio Ghibli seems an obvious - even borderline ideal - candidate for working through the interplay between fantasy and animation. Our earlier podcast on their third cel-animated feature My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988) - whose primary spirit character Totoro now functions as the company’s logo image (Fig.1) - suggested just how much there was to say not only about the adventures of the eponymous creature, but the studio’s origins and evolution, production practices, and their relationship to anime as a creative medium, if not Ghibli’s longstanding critical repute and ongoing commercial acclaim.

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EVENT REVIEWChristopher HollidayJAPAN, STUDIO GHIBLI, ANIMATION, FANTASY, CHILDREN, CULTUREComment
The Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Superhero’s Ambivalent Relationship with Technology
The Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Superhero’s Ambivalent Relationship with Technology

The term ambivalence was coined by the psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler to describe two opposite ideas that coexist in uneasy union. While superheroes are often understood as narratives of assurance, comfort and security, it is ambivalence, or even anxiety, that provides the more useful concept when it comes to interrogating the dynamics at work in the cinematic superhero phenomena. This is particularly the case in its relationship with technology, both aesthetically and philosophically.

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EDITORIALDavid G. HughesSUPERHERO, MARVEL, FANTASY, ANIMATION, TECHNOLOGYComment
Fantasy Animation & Costume: The Unexploited Potential of Costume Design and Costume Designer in Computer-Animated Films
Fantasy Animation & Costume: The Unexploited Potential of Costume Design and Costume Designer in Computer-Animated Films

From a costume design point of view, a combination of the words ‘fantasy’ and ‘animation’ directly creates an impression of visually innovative costumes. After all, in animation anything imaginative can be designed, breaking the laws of gravity (with costume) or establishing textiles which are not bound to or are replicated from the real life. What a fruitful starting point for costume design!

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EDITORIALMaarit KalmakurkiFASHION, COSTUME, FANTASY, CGI, TEXTURE, DREAMWORKS ANIMATION, DISNEY Comments
The Relationship Between Fashion Film and Animation/Fantasy
The Relationship Between Fashion Film and Animation/Fantasy

My own initiation into fashion film was a hesitant one, uncertain as to whether fashion films could ever be situated on the same spectrum as traditional film. The role that fashion film plays within cinema is still relatively undiscovered. Films dissected by Stella Bruzzi (1999) have often explored both fashion and film as two separate entities, which combine in challenging identity and metaphorical gestures, as well as aesthetics; whilst an auteur of the early fashion film, Guy Bourdin, created voyeuristic moving images which have only in recent years, begun to emerge to a wider audience.

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EDITORIALMarianna MichaelFANTASY, FASHION, ANIMATION, ADVERTISING, CGIComment
Review: Carol Mavor, Aurelia: Art and Literature Through the Mouth of the Fairy Tale (2017)
Review: Carol Mavor, Aurelia: Art and Literature Through the Mouth of the Fairy Tale (2017)

If any readers are expecting a definition to be provided in this review as to what exactly the term aurelia refers to in Carol Mavor’s recent book, they are likely to be disappointed. Having now read Aurelia: Art and Literature Through the Mouth of the Fairy Tale (London: Reaktion Books, 2017), I am still unsure what it means. In fact, I get the sense that this might indeed be partially the point. Aurelia is not a book which aims to clarify and explain so much as it seeks to provoke and inspire. It is nominally a book about fairy tales.

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BOOK REVIEWAlexander SergeantFAIRYTALE, FOLKLORE, PHOTOGRAPHY, SCULPTURE, LITERATUREComment
Review: Dumbo (Tim Burton, 2019)
Review: Dumbo (Tim Burton, 2019)

It was with a degree of trepidation that I went to see the “live-action” (in reality, animation/live-action hybrid) remake of Dumbo (Tim Burton, 2019). After all, the 1941 original, both narratively and in terms of its characters, is such that it cannot be easily translated into the hyper-real form of CG animation that is typically billed (inaccurately) as “live-action,” and simultaneously retain the whimsy and sweetness of the original.

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FILM REVIEWAMY M. DAVISREMAKE, DISNEY, CGI, MUSICComment
Making Delirium
Making Delirium

My name is Mani Haider and I am an indie games developer. In this post, I would like to discuss the creative and technical process behind my latest game, Delirium, explaining how I became inspired to produce this sci-fi/horror game as my latest project. I was first inspired to work in games design in 2016, when I was working as a runner within the film industry and was exposed to the work of amazing concept artists working in the visual effects studio.

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CREATIVE REFLECTIONMani HaiderVIRTUAL REALITY, VIDEO GAME, GAME DESIGN, LIGHTING, SOUND DESIGNComment
Review: Emerald City Comic Con 2019
Review: Emerald City Comic Con 2019

The Emerald City Comic Con attracts guests of upwards of 100,000 fans and 100s of celebrity guests from the worlds of fantasy, science-fiction, animation and gaming (Fig. 1). Now in its fifteenth year and still going strong, the three-day event held at the Washington State Convention Center, Seattle – of which we had the pleasure of attending just one day, Friday 15th March – is professional in every sense of the word, and worthy of every connotation it denotes. What the convention perhaps lacks in personality and quirk it makes up for in the sheer sophistication of its organisation.

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EVENT REVIEWChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantFANDOM, COMIC BOOK, SCIENCE-FICTION, ANIMATION, COSPLAYComment
Soho: An imagined space of fantasy?
Soho: An imagined space of fantasy?

Wardour Street, Soho was once referred to as “Film Row.” In 1951, Sight and Sound published a list of British and Hollywood companies and studios in active production. The list featured over twenty-seven British film production companies, British subsidiaries of major Hollywood studios and documentary/short film production with headquarters located on Wardour Street and the surrounding Soho district.

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EDITORIALJingan YoungFANTASY, INDUSTRY, LONDONComment
Review: Captain Marvel (Anna Boden and Ryan Flack, 2019)
Review: Captain Marvel (Anna Boden and Ryan Flack, 2019)

Running parallel to the ongoing battles about women superheroes is another that flashes across the surface and into the depths of Captain Marvel (Anna Boden and Ryan Flack, 2019): a fight about the status of animation within the blockbuster (Fig. 1). Christopher Holliday (2018), Stephen Prince (2012) and Paul Wells (2008) are among those to have discussed the integration of CG animation technologies into the fabric of Hollywood filmmaking, in guises as diverse as character animation and digital grading.

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FILM REVIEWRayna DenisonSUPERHERO, MARVEL, DIGITAL, CGIComment