The recent post by Chris Pallant on the value of archives was indeed a great rally call for the value of the hidden treasures which archives can provide. As many of you know, I am one of those Chris identifies…
Animation Archives
Archiving Animation: A 10,000 Foot View
by Chris deWitt • March 2, 2020 • 2 Comments
Our society is either at the precipice of the most significant informational loss or the beginning of a new golden age of recorded information. The capabilities of the Internet, much like film and the printing press, has skewed our collective…
Alternative/Forgotten Histories, Animation Archives
Animation Archives: We’ve Got Your Back
by Chris Pallant • February 24, 2020 • 2 Comments
Archives are divine. They have the power to transport us back to a forgotten time; they can suggest, with tantalizing incompleteness, new revelations about a hitherto familiar subject; and they can bend, warp, break, and remake history. Archives are also…
Animation Archives
A Treasure Still to Digitalize: Arthur Humberstone’s Private Archive
by Nigel Humberstone • February 17, 2020 • 1 Comment
When our late father, Arthur Humberstone, died on the eve of the millennium, we did not anticipate that we were to inherit a historical animation archive. It was ordinary everyday life for us to pass the door of his pencil-scented…
Alternative/Forgotten Histories, Animation Archives, Women in Animation
Neglect and Omission: Irish Animation Archives
by Yvonne Hennessy • February 10, 2020 • 2 Comments
Ireland’s geographical position is an important factor to consider when taking into account the animation practices and techniques that were developing in both North America and Europe during the early-twentieth-century. Irish artists and filmmakers traveled widely for education and exhibition…
Into the Frozen Universe
“You Are Not Responsible for Their Choices, Elsa”: The Lion King (2019), Frozen II (2019) and the Theatre of Photorealist Achievement
by Christopher Holliday • February 3, 2020 • 1 Comment
In early January 2020, Variety reported that Walt Disney’s feature film Frozen II (Jennifer Lee & Chris Buck, 2019) was now “officially the highest-grossing animated movie in history” (Rubin, 2020). In what was emphatically described as a “box-office achievement fit…
Into the Frozen Universe
This Guy is Just a Dick. Viewing Twist-Villain Trends through Expectancy Violations Theory
by Bailey Nicole Patterson • January 27, 2020 • 1 Comment
Usually, Disney villains are popular and profitable. Characters such as the Evil Queen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, 1937), Jafar (Aladdin, 1991), and Ursula (The Little Mermaid, 1989) are showcased in theme park attractions, clothing lines, and even have…
Adaptation, Into the Frozen Universe
If You Heat It, It Melts: How Andersen’s Icy-Cold Queen Evolved into a Heart-Warming Sister
by Dora Vrhoci • January 20, 2020 • 1 Comment
It is well-known that a major source of inspiration for Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee’s Frozen (2013) was Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen (1844). Buck and Lee follow the Danish writer’s story by building the feature’s plot…
Into the Frozen Universe
“Frozen II” and the Material Necessity of Decolonization
by Jacqueline Ristola • January 13, 2020 • 1 Comment
I have seen Frozen II (2019) twice now. I think it is pretty great, yet, I have been quite disappointed in the number of bad takes on the film. Many critics have pegged the film as a retread of Frozen…
Book Review
Crafty Fingers and Imperfect Frames
by Laura-Beth Cowley • January 6, 2020 • 1 Comment
Review of Caroline Ruddell and Paul Ward (eds.). The Crafty Animator: Handmade, Craft-Based Animation and Cultural Value. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. The Crafty Animator: Handmade, Craft-based Animation and Cultural Value is a coherent collection of essays centered around the production of…