Fig. 1 - The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, 2023). Miyazaki Hayao’s newest film, The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa dou ikiru ka『君たちはどう生きるか』lit. “How do you live?”[1]) is a Studio Ghibli film about personal growth in a world you cannot control. It’s a tad amusing, too, if you are reading this review before watching the film. I cannot say whether knowing anything before viewing the film is better, as the studio intended, or if context (and warning) are warranted to level any preconceptions based on Ghibli’s and Miyazaki’s reputations or general hype. In either case, perhaps it is best to ..read more

Fig. 1 - Peter Pan (P. J. Hogan, 2003). Screen adaptations of the story about the boy who never grew up are plentiful, and there’s certainly a pleasure in plotting the variations and distinctions of each version. Contrary to the idea that a sequel, another retelling, or another iteration, suggests creative bankruptcy might it instead suggest new things of interest to find in each successive contribution to a particular franchise or filmography. Spectators might not like or approve of them all, but there’s interest in seeing what can be done next with the source material. This would seem to be ..read more

In seeking to describe the sensation of something irreducibly different about films made prior to the institutionalisation of cinema in 1915, film historian Andre Gaudreault refers to the “alien quality” of early cinema (2011, 36). In this blog post, I explore a technique found in the first decades of filmmaking which is certainly alien to commercial cinema today – the representation of an object, character or place in multiple styles within the same film e.g. live action, illustration, puppetry, stop motion. The presence of this technique (either by design or driven by technological constrain ..read more

The Seeds of 2020s Cinema Fig. 1 - The boom in queer animated media in recent years. Just a little over three and a half years into the 2020s, the seeds of the tropes and trends that future generations shall refer to as “2020's cinema” began to sprout. Be it the new string of self-aware whodunits following the success of Knives Out (Rian Johnson, 2019), such as Bodies, Bodies, Bodies and See How They Run (both released in 2022), or the slow resurgence of slashers with Scream sequels, X and Freaky (starting a new chapter for the genre after its self-referential era post-Scream and ‘neo-slasher ..read more

Fig. 1 - Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Joel Crawford, 2022) Puss in Boots the Last Wish (2022), directed by Joel Crawford, boasts a sizable cast of characters all racing for the Wishing Star’s one wish to grant. The eponymous protagonist, Puss in Boots, is met with resistance from three antagonistic forces: Goldilocks & The Three Bears, Jack Horner, and Death, each of which in turn plays the role of a villain, albeit in ways entirely unique to one another (Fig. 1). Jack Horner's Machiavellian mannerisms are played to be as humorous as they are threatening; Goldilocks & the Three Bears ..read more

Star Wars: Visions is an anime anthology series created by Lucasfilm and originally released on September 22, 2021. As an anthology series, the episodes of Star Wars: Visions are all independent from each other, both in plot and production, however even with the narrative and stylistic variety in the series, one episode stands out from the rest visually: the first episode, “The Duel” directed by Takanobu Mizuno and produced by the animation studio Kamikaze Douga. As I argue in this blog post, the characteristics that make “The Duel” unique among the other episodes in the series stem from its p ..read more

Fig. 1 - Lucille and Francoeur in A Monster in Paris (Bibo Bergeron, 2011). A Monster in Paris, a French CG animated feature film directed by Bibo Bergeron in 2011, pays tribute to both the popular tale of “Beauty and the Beast” and the musical “The Phantom of the Opera,” but perhaps not in the way that you would expect. One night, cabaret singer Lucille finds herself face-to-face with the "Monster of Paris," a giant singing flea brought into creation through the mishap of the movie's comedic relief, Raoul, who creates the enlarged insect by accident thanks to mixing magical potions at the Bo ..read more

(OO) (Seoro Oh, 2017). (OO) is an animated short film directed by Seoro Oh in 2017 that illustrates the unpleasant experiences that someone encounters when they catch a cold. The unnamed protagonist’s journey begins with a sneeze but escalates into a cold. He is shown struggling with breathing through his nostrils and, as a result, finds himself constantly blowing his nose into a tissue. Everyone, at some point in their lives, experiences the feeling of not being able to properly breathe through their nostrils, whether it is because of a cold, being sick in general, or allergies. In this blog ..read more

In the ever-evolving world of animation, one independent studio dares to push the envelope. Located on a mountain top, surrounded by fields and forests Grateful Motion Studios’ unique setting provides the freedom and space to create exceptional works of art. The latest project from Harrison Killian, founder of Grateful Motion Studios, is an animated short film Rider On The Storm. Rider On The Storm What sets Rider On The Storm apart from other animated films is its groundbreaking animation technique, developed by Harrison Killian, that fuses the artistry of stop-motion with the precision of CG ..read more

Fig. 1 - “We do not want any digital” - Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise on the Light The Fuse podcast. Judging from both the pre-release marketing materials and industry narratives that have surrounded both Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Christopher McQuarrie, 2023) and Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, 2023), one would be forgiven for thinking that Hollywood still retains something of an aversion to digital VFX. Given that each feature film is being relentlessly sold on the pleasures and promises of their practical – rather than computer-generated – effects (and in the cas ..read more