The Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams will be recommended to countless students beginning animation classes in the next few weeks. Cited by Paul Wells in his SAS Toronto keynote in a shortlist of texts commonly found in professional studios,…
Gender and Animation
Hidden from view/ing?
by Nichola Dobson • August 18, 2014 • 0 Comments
There seems to have been a resurgence of discussion of all things feminist recently, from the online campaigns of #everydaysexism, the attempts to outlaw Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) practises[i], to the increasing voices of dissent among young female audiences, in…
Gender and Animation
To Miyazaki, with Gratitude
by Kodi Maier • August 18, 2014 • 4 Comments
The first time I saw Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away I was in BJ’s, a wholesale club store like Costco or Sam’s Club that my parents frequented for our weekly groceries. I never loved anime as much as some of my…
Gender and Animation
Effeminate Ponies?
by Claire Burdfield • August 11, 2014 • 0 Comments
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (2010- ) is one of the most discussed children’s cartoon programmes of the 21st century, receiving academic interest (for example, the “My Little Pony: A Transcultural Phenomenon” research conference at University of Brighton in…
Gender and Animation
Disney Princesses…What harm can they do?
by Bella Honess Roe • August 4, 2014 • 10 Comments
When I taught my module on the History and Theory of Animation to my final year undergrads at the University of Surrey last semester I was really looking forward to the week on representation of gender. I’ve taught this class…
"National" Animation
Not One for Rumours
by Anitha Balachandran • June 23, 2014 • 1 Comment
The Films Division was created in 1948, the year after India’s independence. Imbued with a new discourse of official nationalism, it was to reflect the shifting ideologies of the emergent nation state. Describing the performative pedagogical functions of nationalism, historians…
"National" Animation
Tracing the Heart of Thai Animation’s National Characteristics
by Millie Young • June 2, 2014 • 5 Comments
The Thai industry is still relatively new, having had a slow staggered start in the 1940’s, and a flourish of a feature in 1979, the industry only really started in earnest early this century. This post is a precursor to…
"National" Animation
Rebuilding the Nation Through Iraqi National Animation
by Amber Shields • May 26, 2014 • 2 Comments
Embarking on an all-Iraqi animation project within a country still recovering from the last few decades of upheaval presents particular problems and possibilities. Completing the short 3D animation Baghdad Night (2013), Iraqi/German artist Furat al-Jamil and her team were confronted…
"National" Animation
Animators in Exile
by Lauren Carr • May 19, 2014 • 2 Comments
Are animators in exile? Yes, as well as all the other positions that entail production for feature animation. August 2000 was my entry in the industry, the tail end of in-house traditional feature animation in California. Los Angeles had been…
"National" Animation
‘Irish’ Animation
by Harvey O'Brien • May 12, 2014 • 3 Comments
Each year I ask my students who has seen the Oscar-nominated indigenous Irish feature The Secret of Kells (2009). Each year just a few hands go up. This might be unremarkable other than that I teach at an Irish University.…