Category Archives: animation

David Feltmate and religious satire in adult animation

July 29th, 2021 | Posted in animation, religion, satire

Some of my recent podcasts on religion and culture on another website have application here. This is my conversation with David Feltmate on religion in adult animation, including The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Family Guy. This comes out of David’s book Drawn to the Gods.

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Appreciating Rankin/Bass at the Holiday Season

December 1st, 2018 | Posted in animation, Rankin/Bass, stop-motion animation

I picked up a copy of the Deluxe Edition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer today to introduce to my youngest granddaughter, and was was surprisingly pleased to find several “Enchanting Bonus Features,” include a short on Restoring the Puppets of Rudolph, and a longer documentary titled The Animagic World of Rankin/Bass, a new documentary film. […]

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Coco and the Land of the Dead

March 14th, 2018 | Posted in animation, Day of the Dead, Disney, Halloween

I’m a little slow at watching new film releases. But since Coco won the Best Animated Feature at the 2018 Academy Awards, and my youngest granddaughter is staying with us for a while, I figured it was time to purchase the film and take a look. I can now understand why it has been so […]

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Pop Culture Animation and Religion

December 12th, 2017 | Posted in animation, pop culture, religion

I’ve just become aware of a new book based upon a PhD dissertation. It’s titled Drawn to the Gods: Religion and Humor in the Simpsons, South Park, & Family Guy by David Feltmate (NYU Press, 2017). The dissertation was supervised by Douglas Cowan, a friend of TheoFantastique who has been interviewed here several times previously […]

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“I ain’t afraid of no ghosts”

October 25th, 2015 | Posted in animation, cartoon, Disney, ghost, ghost-hunter

The other day I watched Disney’s animated cartoon, Lonesome Ghosts (1937). I caught a line in it I hadn’t noticed before. Each of the main characters has their encounter with a ghost, from Mickey to Donald to Goofy. In connection with Goofy’s spectral encounter he says, “I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.” In light of […]

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Extraordinary Tales animation coming to a theater near you

October 21st, 2015 | Posted in animation, Edgar Allan Poe, horror

Extraordinary Tales, a new animated horror piece of animation is coming to theaters and On Demand on October 23, right in time for Halloween. As reported by Blumhouse.com: Directed by former Disney animator Raul Garcia, TALES adapts Poe’s classics “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The […]

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Disney’s Dark Side in the News

June 7th, 2015 | Posted in animation, Disney

I recently came across two items that dovetail with the TheoFantastique interests in Disney and his exploration of the dark side through animation. The first is an item in USA Today titled “Walt Disney’s Curious Fascination with Death.” The article not only mentions projects where death is the focal point, as in The Skeleton Dance […]

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Guillermo del Toro and The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XXIV

October 3rd, 2013 | Posted in animation, Guillermo del Toro, Halloween

Guillermo del Toro has taken the reins in providing the opening credits and extended couch gag for the 2013 installment of The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror XXIV” that airs this weekend. How many horror icons can you identify? It airs October 6 on FOX.

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Hi-Tech and Market Preferences: Mourning the Loss of Disney’s Hand-Drawn Animation

March 11th, 2013 | Posted in animation, Disney

I grew up with Disney animation. It was an incredibly formative aspect of both my imaginative life as a youth, as well as an artistic one, and it continues to hold a special place in my mind and heart to the present day. Of course, the quality of 2D animation that came from Disney Studios […]

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Hotel Transylvania Release and Its Glaring Omission

February 9th, 2013 | Posted in animation, cartoon, geek cultures, horror, monsters

Hotel Transylvania is now out on DVD and Blu-ray. My wife and I picked up a copy of the latter yesterday and watched it today. We had already seen it in the theaters and found it worthwhile. (My previous review can be read here.) I was especially looking forward to the Blu-ray extras. While these […]

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