Fantasy/Animation

For the final archive episode of 2025, Chris and Alex once again swing their way back into the superhero world of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey & Rodney Rothman, 2018), revisiting their discussion of Sony Pictures Animation’s computer-animated film [../../all-episodes/episode-27-spider-man-into-the-spider-verse-bob-persichetti-peter-ramsey-and-rodney-rothman-2018-with-simran-hans] that featured special guest Simran Hans [https://www.theguardian.com/profile/simran-hans], film critic and culture writer whose work has appeared in The Observer, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, Dazed, The Fader and Sight & Sound. Lots here on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’s unique comic book-style design and the visual “crunch” of its evocative flattened style; the upturned generic qualities of the computer-animated film within contemporary Hollywood; and the growing pervasiveness of superhero cinema that, since the film’s release, has become further reinvigorated by Spider-Verse’s now highly influential design.

Chris and Alex go all the way back to 2020 for the penultimate archive episode of the podcast for this summer, remembering their discussion of Ralph Bakshi’s high fantasy animated epic Wizards (Ralph Bakshi, 1977) [../../all-episodes/episode-42-wizards-ralph-bakshi-1977-live-cinema-museum], which was originally recorded in front of a live audience at the Cinema Museum in Kennington, London in January 2020 [http://www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/2019/fantasy-animation-series-screening-of-wizards-1977/]. Released first time around as Episode 42, the conversation turned to Wizards as a counter-cultural marvel of the 1970s; the politics and propaganda of the film’s adult themes, including its discourses of socio-realism and gender politics; technology versus magic; and the status of Wizards as a masterpiece of U.S. animation. **Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo** **As featured on Feedspot’s 25 Best London Education Podcasts [https://podcasts.feedspot.com/london_education_podcasts/]**

To coincide with the release of Pixar’s science-fiction computer-animated feature Elio (Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi & Adrian Molina, 2025) this summer, Chris and Alex take listeners back a decade to 2015 and the emotional worlds created by the studio’s earlier Inside Out (Pete Docter, 2015). Originally recorded at the 33rd annual Society for Animation Studies conference at Teesside University (and released soon after in October 2022 [../../all-episodes/episode-107-inside-out-pete-docter-2015-with-eric-herhuth]), this episode featured as its special guest Dr. Eric Herhuth [https://liberalarts.tulane.edu/departments/communication/people/eric-herhuth], Assistant Professor of Communication and Director of Film Studies at Tulane University, and author of Pixar and the Aesthetic Imagination: Animation, Storytelling, and Digital Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2017). Relisten to hear the trio discussing animation’s longstanding propensity for metaphor and political allegory; the film’s 11-year-old protagonist Riley and the youthfulness of emotion; and the stakes of Inside Out as a film that encourages audiences to accept both the sadness of joy and the joy of sadness. **Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo** **As featured on Feedspot’s 25 Best London Education Podcasts [https://podcasts.feedspot.com/london_education_podcasts/]**

For this second archive episode, Chris and Alex revisit Episode 81 of the podcast [../../all-episodes/sub-saharan-african-animation-1966-2013-with-paula-callus] that gave listeners a quickfire journey through Sub-Saharan African animation with Paula Callus [https://staffprofiles.bournemouth.ac.uk/display/pcallus], a Professor in the National Centre for Computer Animation at Bournemouth University and an expert in Sub-Saharan African animation. The films covered in this instalment were Moustapha Alassane’s Bon Voyage Sim [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SmIo-28mBw] (1966), Ng’endo Mukii’s Yellow Fever [https://www.ngendo.com/yellow-fever] (2013), Iwa [https://vimeo.com/4488258] (2009) from Nigerian filmmaker, illustrator and art director Kenneth (Shofela) Coker, the British/Kenyan animated television series Tinga Tinga Tales [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95KAgYyrtoI] (2010-2012), and the science-fiction allegory Pumzi [https://vimeo.com/46891859] (2009) from writer and director Wanuri Kahiu. Lots here on the cultural and historical specificity of fantasy storytelling, global animation practices, and the post-colonial legacies that guide how African animation has been culturally and critically understood. **Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo** **As featured on Feedspot’s 25 Best London Education Podcasts [https://podcasts.feedspot.com/london_education_podcasts/]**

To mark the return of the Fantasy/Animation archive instalments, Chris and Alex once more delve into the podcast’s back catalogue for this relisten of Episode 70 and their discussion of Space Jam (Joe Pytka, 1996) [../../all-episodes/episode-70-space-jam-joe-pytka-1996-with-paul-wells], which featured very special guest Professor Paul Wells [https://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/aed/staff/academic/paul-wells/], Director of the Animation Academy at Loughborough University. Listen again at their analysis of Space Jam as emblematic of animation’s longstanding relationship with sport; the nostalgic callbacks that the film makes to Golden Age Hollywood stardom; sport, drama, metaphor, and society; Space Jam’s soundtrack and negotiation of black celebrity identities; and how Joe Pytka’s film provides the spectacle of stylistic hybridity through the lens of NBA basketball. **Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo** **As featured on Feedspot’s 25 Best London Education Podcasts [https://podcasts.feedspot.com/london_education_podcasts/]**