Chris and Alex take to the basketball court for a sports-themed instalment of the podcast by looking at Space Jam (Joe Pytka, 1996), the part-animated, part-Michael Jordan sports comedy that has lots to say about the spectacle of stylistic hybridity, animation’s longstanding relationship to sport, and nostalgia via its many callbacks to Golden Age Hollywood cartooning all through the lens of NBA basketball. Joining them for Episode 70 is Professor Paul Wells, who is Director of the Animation Academy at Loughborough University, as well as being an internationally established scholar, screenwriter and director, working across and within both academia and industry contexts. Paul’s work has been central to the study, practice and research of animation as a field, and he has also written and directed numerous projects for theatre, radio, television and film. Listen as they discuss Space Jam as a laboratory for thinking about sport as a social metaphor for how societies should run; animation’s status as controlled drama (versus the unscripted nature of sport); notions of the professional versus the amateur in relation to sport’s rules, codes and conventions; the cultural practice of stars Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny, and their ability to act as ciphers for the contemporary moment; how the medium provides a version of ‘perfect motion’ through its excessive lyricism; the politics of race and what Space Jam tells us about black identities and whiteness through its black musical vernacular; and how Joe Pytka’s film reveals how animation can manage the very metaphors of sport.
Footnote #3 - Fantasy
Fantasy/Animation supports the #UCUstrike
Fantasy/Animation supports the #UCUstrike
Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Footnote #2 - Animation
Rio (2011) (with Michael Tanzillo)
Footnote #1 - Introduction
See You Yesterday (2019) (with Ebony Elizabeth Thomas)
Mickey‘s Christmas Carol (1983) (with Amy M. Davis)
Gremlins (1984) (with Catherine Lester)
Chinese Animation and the Shanghai Animation Film Studio (1956-1988) (with Yuanyuan Chen)
The Secret of NIMH (1982)
Lovecraft Country (2020) (with Bambi Haggins)
Shrek 2 (2004) (with Sam Summers)
By the Time It Gets Dark (2016) (with Felicity Gee)
The Land Before Time (1988) (with Mark Witton)
Sub-Saharan African Animation (1966-2013) (with Paula Callus)
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)
Bagpuss (1974) (with Chris Pallant)
Treasure Planet (2002) (with Ron Clements and John Musker)
Join Podbean Ads Marketplace and connect with engaged listeners.
Advertise Today
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Multiverse Fancast
Cinema: A to B
I Finally Watched...
Pod Meets World
Kill James Bond!