A discussion of theology, from the writings of St. Paul through the ironies of Soren Kierkegaard, delves into questions of God, of human nature, of theodicy and the problem of evil, and of incarnation, sacrifice, grace, and salvation. The heavy…
Theology
Animation as Sacred Text: Thoughts on Community Formation
by Erin Jones and Tim Jones • January 31, 2023 • 0 Comments
One of the gifts of most faith-based communities is that they are among the few places in society where people of multiple generations gather together for meaning-making purposes. The task of pastors, rabbis, imams, or other leaders is to offer…
Sound and Music
Animated Intergenerational Interviews
by Ruth Hayes • January 9, 2023 • 0 Comments
In winter, 2021, I and my co-faculty, Laurie Meeker, assigned our students to produce Animated Intergenerational Interviews about individuals’ relationships with their environment. The interviews were to be 30 to 60 seconds long, include at least 30 seconds of animation…
Animation and the Environment
The Ugly Anthropocene: Animated Simulation and Non-Human Perspectives
by Colin Wheeler • October 3, 2022 • 1 Comment
The Anthropocene reveals the ways in which our day-to-day perception of what constitutes ‘normal’ misleads us, as we require time lapse footage to render the melting ice caps perceptible to our biologically limited temporality, for example (see Ehrlich 2021, 42).…
Animation and the Environment
A Town Called Panic!’s “Bricolage” Aesthetic and Low-budget Methods: A New Model for Ecological and Resilient Stop Motion Productions
by Cyril Lepot • September 26, 2022 • 1 Comment
One of the main attractions of stop motion animation is to be found in how the animator plays with materials, since the medium’s specificity, compared to 2D or 3D animation, is to film objects in real space. If any filmic…
Stop Motion
Should the Low Frame Rate of Stop-motion Animation Be Regarded as a Defect?
by SHengwei Zhou • September 19, 2022 • 1 Comment
Compared to the fluent visual effect of nowadays stop-motion animations with a high frame rate like LAIKA studio’s ones, most of the stop-motion animations from early times shared a much lower frame rate. Stop-motion animators seem to treat the low…
Analyzing Animation
Louise (2021): The Unspoken Underside of Ballet History
by Poppy Smith • August 4, 2022 • 1 Comment
Ballet is one of the most elegant art forms of entertainment since the 1500s, being one of the most graceful and popular genres of dance throughout the centuries. However, its unfortunate association with prostitution is often swept under the rug…
Analyzing Animation, Documentary
Flesh (2019)
by Tiffany San • July 25, 2022 • 0 Comments
Flesh (Carne) is a Brazilian animated documentary directed by Camila Kater in 2019. Flesh follows the story of five women in different phases of life as they speak about their ambiguous relationship with their own bodies, as well as their…
Analyzing Animation
Reneepoptosis (2018)
by Thaovy Nguyen • July 18, 2022 • 0 Comments
Renee Zhan’s 2018 2D animated short film Reneepoptosis is inspired by Chinese ink wash painting and follows a trio of her alter ego Renees who embark on a treacherous journey of self-exploration while seeking out God—the animator herself. The trio,…
Analyzing Animation
A Goofy Movie (1995) Character Study
by Nick Mahoney • July 12, 2022 • 0 Comments
Many films claim to be the “Family movie of the year”, but so few match this description. Traditionally, a family movie needs to appeal not only to children, but also to their parents, siblings, and anyone else who might be…