PERFORMANCE — all episodes — Fantasy/Animation

Episode 166 - Kung Fu Panda (John Stevenson & Mark Osborne, 2008) (with John Yorke)

Episode 166 of the Fantasy/Animation podcast high kicks its way into the world of DreamWorks’ successful Kung Fu Panda franchise (2008-) with this look at the series’ first big-screen instalment, Kung Fu Panda (John Stevenson & Mark Osborne, 2008), with very special guest John Yorke. John is a television producer, screenwriter, editor, and author, who was Head of Channel 4 Drama (2003–2005), controller of BBC drama production (2006–2012) where he founded the BBC Writers Academy, and more recently managing director of Company Pictures (2013–2015). He is now teaching screenwriting via his own company, John Yorke Story, and is the author of Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them (Penguin, 2014) and Trip to the Moon: Understanding the True Power of Story (Penguin, 2026).

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantJanuary 26, 2026STARDOM, HOLLYWOOD, PERFORMANCE, COMPUTER ANIMATION, RACE, IDENTITY, MUSICALComment

Episode 165 - Wicked: For Good (Jon M. Chu, 2025)

Just as it did to kick off 2025, the Fantasy/Animation podcast returns once again following the festive break to celebrate the New Year with another visit to Oz, with Chris and Alex reflecting on movie musical Wicked: For Good (John M. Chu, 2025) that as with the first instalment released in 2024 discussed a year ago adapts Stephen Schwartz’s successful 2003 theatre production.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantJanuary 12, 2026STARDOM, HOLLYWOOD, PERFORMANCE, COMPUTER ANIMATION, RACE, IDENTITY, MUSICALComment

Episode 164 - The Polar Express (Robert Zemeckis, 2004)

The Fantasy/Animation Christmas special pulls into the proverbial station with this look at The Polar Express (Robert Zemeckis, 2004), a computer-animated adaptation of the 1985 children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg and a film noted for its pioneering - if at times highly uncanny - application of motion capture technology as it portrays the magic of Christmas Eve through a young boy as he journeys to the North Pole.

Episode 75 - Chicken Run (Peter Lord & Nick Park, 2000) (with Lynn Ferguson)

For Episode 75, Chris and Alex revisit the work of Aardman Animations, taking a look at their debut feature film Chicken Run (Peter Lord & Nick Park, 2000), whose narrative of meat pies and morality remains underwritten by the Bristol-based studio’s signature stop-motion style and very British sense of anarchy. Joining them for this discussion of the art of poultry-in-motion is Chicken Run’s very own Mac, the loveable Scottish genius engineer chicken voiced by writer, actress, and story coach and consultant Lynn Ferguson.

Episode 66 - Happy Feet (George Miller, 2006) (with Hannah Hamad)

Episode 66 is a real toe-tapper, as Chris and Alex dance to the beat of George Miller’s 2006 computer-animated musical feature Happy Feet (George Miller, 2006), produced by U.S. studio Village Roadshow Pictures in collaboration with Australian animation and VFX studio Animal Logic. Joining them to discuss this digital tale of all-singing all-dancing penguins is Dr Hannah Hamad, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture, having previously been Lecturer in Film Studies at King’s College London, and Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at the University of East Anglia.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantFebruary 1, 2021RACE, MOTION CAPTURE, HOLLYWOOD, AMERICA, PERFORMANCE, VISUAL EFFECTSComment

Episode 64 - Captain Marvel (Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, 2019) (with Trixter VFX Studio)

2021 kicks off with a supersonic bang as Chris and Alex return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to explore the world of Kree Empires, alien shapeshifters, flerkens, and digital de-aging in American superhero feature Captain Marvel (Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, 2019), based on the celebrated Marvel Comics character. Joining them for a discussion of Hollywood special effects production and the labour of fantastical imagery are the film’s VFX Producer Christine Neumann and VFX Supervisor Dominik Zimmerle of German visual effects studio Trixter based in Munich, whose work also includes a number of Hollywood blockbusters and other MCU entries Spider-Man: Homecoming (Jon Watts, 2017), Thor: Ragnarok (Taika Waititi, 2017), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (James Gunn, 2017), Black Panther (Ryan Coogler, 2018) and the upcoming Black Widow (Cate Shortland, 2021).

Episode 57 - Rango (Gore Verbinski, 2011) (with Neil Brand)

Performer, composer, silent film accompanist and television presenter Neil Brand is the special guest joining Chris and Alex for Episode 57 of the podcast, which celebrates the musical beats and Mariachi owls of Rango (Gore Verbinski, 2011). Listen as they discuss how this curious 2011 computer-animated film revels in the power of telling tales alongside its broader relationship to folk ballads; Rango’s cinephilic evocation of canonical Hollywood Westerns and U.S. cinema history; themes of ambition, isolation, and aimlessness, and how this ties into a film whose existentialist narrative is predicated on the question of inevitability.

Episode 40 - BoJack Horseman (Raphael Bob-Waksberg, 2014-2020)

With its last episode recently broadcast on Netflix, the web television series BoJack Horseman (Raphael Bob-Waksberg, 2014-2020) provides a timely and topical subject for Episode 40. Join Chris and Alex as they take a canter through the programme’s status as ‘adult animation’ (and what this term might mean as a label); the dark truth of its themes of narcissism, depression and self-destructive behaviour; how its shifting chronology and narrative ellipses places BoJack Horseman within contemporary Hollywood ‘puzzle film’ storytelling traditions; its complex anthropomorphic register and cartoonal forms of representation; and how BoJack Horseman’s ensemble cast navigates modes of cross-species sexuality at the same time as it collectively disavows any presence of a concrete moral centre.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantFebruary 17, 2020SURREALISM, TELEVISION, AMERICA, PERFORMANCE

Episode 36 - The Muppet Christmas Carol (Brian Henson, 1992) (with Meredith Braun)

The festive season has well and truly arrived, so join Chris and Alex as they get into the Christmas spirit by discussing Yuletide classic The Muppet Christmas Carol (Brian Henson, 1992). Helping to roast the fantasy chestnuts on the animated open fire is actress, singer and West End performer Meredith Braun, who starred alongside Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, The Great Gonzo, Rizzo the Rat and Fozzie Bear in The Muppet Christmas Carol as Ebenezer Scrooge’s (Michael Caine) neglected fiancée Belle.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantDecember 16, 2019MUSICAL, PUPPETRY, LIVE-ACTION, CHRISTMAS, CHILDREN, PERFORMANCEComment