Animated sitcoms have a complex relationship with time. These are worlds where a character can remain 10 years old from 1989 to nowadays (as is the case for Bart Simpson in The Simpsons), a pregnancy can last seven television seasons…
Festival report
Animated Works at the 2017 Taipei Film Festival
by Jason Cody Douglass • July 24, 2017 • 0 Comments
As I write, the nineteenth iteration of the Taipei Film Festival winds to a close in three cinemas across the city. By and large the festival is an “international” affair, with omnipresent advertisements promising films from over 40 different countries,…
Genesis of New Animated Works
Life: The Universe and Everything
by Eagle Gamma • June 28, 2017 • 2 Comments
Life is a new series of science fiction animations that, by means of 3D images and psytrance electronic music, creates a new world of technology and imagination. Incorporating ideas from the hard and social sciences – such as astrophysics, constructal physics,…
Adaptation
Disney, Nostalgia and Adaptation: Who’s Watching Watson’s Belle
by Lisa Hill • June 19, 2017 • 1 Comment
While discussing the movie poster for Disney’s latest (live-action) rendition of Beauty and the Beast (2017, by Bill Condon) as an introduction to semiotics in a first-year university screen studies course, I was struck by the number of young adults…
Adaptation
Speak of the Devil! The Keys to Cruella’s Success
by Rebecca Rose Stanton • June 12, 2017 • 1 Comment
In 1961 Disney released their classic animation One Hundred and One Dalmatians, a film so successful that it was re-released in cinemas four times over the coming decades. Due to the film’s overwhelming popularity, it has inspired many adaptations. These…
Adaptation
Animation, Adaptation and Superheroes
by Kyle Meikle • June 5, 2017 • 0 Comments
In late 2007, the autumn before Iron Man hit theaters—before audiences’ first foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)—DC Comics released Superman: Doomsday, a direct-to-DVD, 78-minute animated feature inspired by the popular Death of Superman storyline. The film, starring Adam…
Genre and Animation
Embodying the Future: Akira and the Technological Science Fiction
by Jacqueline Ristola • May 22, 2017 • 3 Comments
Few films have made as deep an impact on international popular cultures as Akira (1988) by Katsuhiro Ötomo. This animated feature is a sci-fi apocalyptic opus, deeply political and incisive in how it captures the Japan of the bubble-economy era.…
Genre and Animation
The Intrusion of Live Action in The End of Evangelion
by George Crosthwait • May 15, 2017 • 2 Comments
The original series of Hideaki Anno’s hugely popular anime Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-1996) was set in the aftermath of an apocalyptic event called ‘the second impact’. The show was structured around teenage protagonists piloting gargantuan mecha-organic bipeds (EVAs) in order…
Genre and Animation
When Disney Met Sci-Fi: The Marketing of Lilo & Stitch (2002)
by Eve Benhamou • May 8, 2017 • 2 Comments
With its mischievous smile, big expressive eyes, and red collar, the creature featuring on the promotional poster for Lilo & Stitch (2002, by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders) might recall the numerous pets of the Disney canon. Yet, his blue…
Animation and Stardom, Documentary
Animated Stars and Their Employment in Walt Disney Studios’ Classical Animated Documentaries
by Cristina Formenti • April 25, 2017 • 0 Comments
On the Hollywood Walk of Fame, along with the many stars immortalizing real-life celebrities, there are also some honoring famous animated figures, such as Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck. Indeed, although they are made of lines and colors and not…