INDUSTRY — current posts — Fantasy/Animation

The post-Spiderverse boom: New developmental styles in the Hollywood computer-animated film - Part 3

As discussed in our two most recent blog posts, Hollywood mainstream studio computer-animation post-Spider-Verse has shifted from Pixar’s photorealistic aesthetic towards a more developmental style. Sam Summers argues that Sony’s franchise adapted the comic-book language itself (2019, 190), creating an aesthetic including Ben-Day dots and visible ink lines. The franchise transformed the genre’s “visual currencies” (Holliday 2018, 1) which Spider Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers & Justin K. Thompson, 2023) has only pushed further. Each world has a unique style: Miguel’s futurism, Spot’s minimalism, Gwen’s painterly, Spider-Punk’s collage, and Prabhakar’s is inspired by Indrajal Comics.

EDITORIALRachel ReillyOctober 16, 2026HOLLYWOOD, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILM, DIGITAL, AESTHETICS, STYLE, INDUSTRYComment

The post-Spiderverse boom: New developmental styles in the Hollywood computer-animated film - Part 2

This is the second blog post of three discussing the emergence of a new developmental computer-animated style in mainstream studio animation. This week will leave Pixar behind, focusing on the DreamWorks studio as we analyse Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Joel Crawford 2022), the most recent instalment in the Shrek (2001-) franchise, and the second standalone film featuring the character of Puss in Boots. Prior to this film, DreamWorks had primarily produced 3D hyperrealism films; The Last Wish diverges from the studio's usual formula and instead takes on more stylized, “painterly” visuals (Fig.1). While the animation remains computer-generated, the style is distinct from previous films as it was intended to emulate the look and texture of a storybook, using “painterly” rendering to blend softer brush-like textures with expressive, frame-conscious movement (Basset et al. 2013, 156). This shift in style stemmed from the influence of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, with director Joel Crawford noting that although earlier films like Shrek were celebrated for their technical realism, post Spider-Verse audiences expected greater stylistic innovation (Weiss 2024).

EDITORIALLucy ScarrowOctober 9, 2026HOLLYWOOD, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILM, DIGITAL, AESTHETICS, STYLE, INDUSTRYComment

The post-Spiderverse boom: New developmental styles in the Hollywood computer-animated film - Part 1

For many decades, mainstream animation has maintained a relatively uniform visual identity. Following the release of Pixar’s 1995 debut film Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995), a dominant visual style emerged within computer-generated filmmaking, as major animation studios began to adopt a shared set of stylistic conventions, resulting in films that appeared similar (Holliday 2018, 1). However, in 2018, mainstream animation experienced a notable shift in both its aesthetic and industrial priorities following the release of Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey & Rodney Rothman, 2018). The film achieved both critical acclaim and box office success, being widely praised for its distinct visual style and its use of animation as a medium to enhance storytelling. Traditionally, mainstream animated films have followed an orthodox form, which is a mode that, despite depicting fantastical or exaggerated events, adheres to conventional narrative structures and realist frameworks (Wells 1998, 51).

EDITORIALMinxi ZhengOctober 2, 2026HOLLYWOOD, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILM, DIGITAL, AESTHETICS, STYLE, INDUSTRYComment

Animating Ambivalence: Quebec Contemporary Animation and Death Does Not Exist at the Ottawa International Animation Festival 2025

Over the last twenty years, the province of Quebec in Canada has built an internationally recognized cultural and digital ecosystem, particularly in the visual effects (VFX) (Mikros Animation, Rodeo FX) and animation (Cinesite, National Film Board) sectors. In 2023, these production studios and facilities represented more than $1.4 billion in revenue and thousands of jobs in Quebec, thanks largely to heavy involvement in successful foreign productions and fiscal benefits. However, in recent years, this business model has shown its weaknesses: the workers strike from the American entertainment union SAG-AFTRA in summer 2023, followed by the Quebec government's decision in May 2024 to cap tax credits for foreign entertainment companies employing in Quebec – reducing the credit rebate from 100% to 65% (Bongiorno 2024) – highlighted the structural precariousness of the local workforce (Arsenault, 2024).

EDITORIALAurélie PetitFebruary 27, 2026NATIONAL CINEMA, HISTORY, AESTHETICS, INDUSTRYComment

That Old Pixar Magic: Reframing our Perception of Computer-Animation’s Beloved Studio

Undeniably, Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995) changed the global animation industry forever, properly introducing the world to Woody, Buzz and a studio that would come to define the childhoods of millions of people. Following an unprecedented streak of beloved crowd-pleasing computer-animated films, Pixar Animation Studios made a name for itself with a brand built on a gold standard of quality, a reputation that has since become both a blessing and a curse. Ever since the start of the 2010s, and tied to the lacklustre reception of Cars 2 (John Lasseter, 2011), the common refrain that the latest Pixar release is missing that “old Pixar magic” has become a staple of most new releases from the studio.

EDITORIALOliver VigniOctober 4, 2024INDUSTRY, PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, HOLLYWOOD, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILMComment

Animation vs Automation: Labour, Artificial Intelligence, and the Silent Crisis in the Animation Industry

In 2009, Vivian Sobchack asked: “what might it mean to bring together the concepts and practices of ‘animation’ and ‘automation’”? At the time Sobchack was writing on the visibility of labour within a modern computer-generated cinematic framework, where computers have become advanced enough that they appear to “have a life of their own” (2009, 375). In her examination of Pixar’s computer-animated film WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008), Sobchack notes that it is the machines, the robots like WALL-E and EVE, who are imbued with “the movement of life,” while the humans are left motionless.

EDITORIALOliver VigniJune 28, 2024ANIMATION, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, LABOUR, HOLLYWOOD, INDUSTRYComment

Review: Todd James Pierce, The Life and Times of Ward Kimball: Maverick of Disney Animation (2019)

Despite working at the Walt Disney studios during the Golden Age of American animation, Ward Kimball is in some ways an odd choice of subject for a biography. The animator worked mostly behind the scenes, never directed a feature film, most of his work on famous films was cut, and he was never a household name in his own lifetime. On the other hand, he is as fascinating a subject as a biographer could hope for: a talented, creative craftsman, an eccentric who built a stretch of railroad and drove a steam train around his suburban backyard, and a skilled musician who played trombone in a long-running Dixieland jazz band.

BOOK REVIEWJohn A. RileyJanuary 31, 2020DISNEY, CREATIVE PRACTICE, HOLLYWOOD, INDUSTRY, CARTOONComment

Soho: An imagined space of fantasy?

Wardour Street, Soho was once referred to as “Film Row.” In 1951, Sight and Sound published a list of British and Hollywood companies and studios in active production. The list featured over twenty-seven British film production companies, British subsidiaries of major Hollywood studios and documentary/short film production with headquarters located on Wardour Street and the surrounding Soho district.

EDITORIALJingan YoungMarch 22, 2019FANTASY, INDUSTRY, LONDONComment

Animation, Fantasy and the Disney/Pixar Dilemma

The shifting place of fantasy within contemporary animation allows us to make some preliminary discriminations about how fantasy’s own icons and images function in relation to the shaping of Hollywood studios and their brand identity. The continued business strength of the U.S. animation industry in the post-millennial period thanks to Pixar Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation and Blue Sky - as well as the parallel renaissance of Disney Feature Animation - has provided a growing number of critically and commercially successful test cases that showcase where fantasy does (and does not) appear in popular animated media, but also how fantasy has become a default and highly durable viewing strategy utilised by audiences in determining the precise terms of studio authorship.

EDITORIALChristopher HollidayOctober 5, 2018DISNEY, PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, ANIMATION, FANTASY, INDUSTRYComment