Footnote #66 - Enviro-Toons

The Fantasy/Animation podcast takes listeners on a journey through the intersection between fantasy cinema and the medium of animation. Available via Apple Podcasts, Spotify and many of your favourite podcast hosting platforms!

The first Footnote podcast of the new season kicks off with this discussion of enviro-toons, a category - perhaps even sub-genre - of animation that speaks to the complex relationship that exists between the representations of (and labour processes behind) the animated medium and the environment. Topics include the questionable ‘greenness’ of animation and how specific cartoons might engage ecological concerns within their narratives; anthropomorphic subjectivity as a way to display images of urban sprawl; the environmental impact and sustainability of animation production, from the reuse of cels during Classical Hollywood to the repurposing of biodegradable stop-motion sets; and what the contemporary era of AI and machine learning means for how we understand animation’s growing cost to the environment.

**Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo**

**As featured on Feedspot’s 25 Best London Education Podcasts**

Suggested Readings

  • Formenti, Cristina. 2024. “The environmental footprint of animated realism: An ecomaterialist exploration of contemporary digital animated documentaries.” NECSUS: European Journal of Media Studies 13, no.1: 221–241.

  • Midkiff, Emily, and Sara Austin. 2021. “The Disneyfication of climate crisis: Negotiating responsibility and climate action in Frozen, Moana, and Frozen 2.” The Lion and the Unicorn 45, no. 2: 154–171.

  • Murray, Robin, and Joseph K. Heumann. 2011. That’s All Folks? Ecocritical Readings of American Animated Features. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press

  • Pike, Deidre M. 2012. Enviro-Toons: Green Themes in Animation Cinema and Television. Jefferson: McFarland.

  • Thaker, Parth, Anna-Sophie Jürgens, Karina Judd, Anastasiya Fiadotava, Anne Hemkendreis, and Christopher Holliday. 2021. “Humour for change? Melting ice and environmental fragility in the animated film comedies Ice Age: The Meltdown and Happy Feet Two.” Journal of Science & Popular Culture 4, no. 2 (December): 95-114.

  • Whitley, David. 2016. The Idea of Nature in Disney Animation: From Snow White to WALL-E. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing.

FOOTNOTE PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantANIMATION, NATURE, ENVIRONMENT, ECO-CRITICISM, LABOUR, TECHNOLOGYComment