As time has progressed, we have become slightly cynical of the dominance the two major animation studios have over the industry – The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Animation are the gold standard, but they have become increasingly lazy, producing works that aren’t nearly as ambitious or wholeheartedly brilliant as the ones made at their…

We all know that familiar feeling – the sun sets, and we make our way to bed. We struggle to fall asleep, wondering what is lurking in the shadows that surround us. The fear of the dark is one of the most common childhood experiences, and the anxiety that comes with the idea that something…

Every era has to come to an end, regardless of its cultural or historical impact, since this is the very nature of viewing the past as a series of extended moments, which can be compartmentalized in various ways based on the influence it had on the future. Starting sometime in the late 1980s, the Walt…

Culture is nothing more than an expanded family history consolidated into historical fact – and there is nothing quite as beautiful as sincere pride in where one comes from. However, life has not always been easy for those who were born into one culture over another, especially when referring to particular moments in the past….

Animation is perhaps the last frontier when it comes to studios asserting enough considerable control over the productions that they become a brand, usually indicating an unimpeachable sense of quality. Whether Pixar, Disney or Studio Ghibli, the idea that these massively successful companies would produce anything below-par is almost unimaginable. Yet, the one studio that…

Perhaps it is presumptuous, but it’s entirely possible that anyone reading this grew up at least aware of Disney. We have gotten to a point where the studio is now older than the vast majority of the global population, which is both a thrilling fact, and an opportunity to reflect on what this company has…

It would seem that every time we discuss the work of Hayao Miyazaki, we usually use the term “magical” to describe the worlds he creates and the atmosphere that sits at the foundation of his work, since they all seem to be shrouded in a kind of upbeat charm that is impossible to describe in…

It is a disappointing experience to discover that a studio once known for its impeccable, flawless run of films has started to produce work that is far beneath their usual standards – however, when it comes to Pixar, this has been something that has been happening for the better part of a decade. Not every…

I have spoken quite regularly about the period in which the Walt Disney Company recovered from a couple of decades of mid-tier work by delivering a string of exceptional films that allowed them to regain a level of respectability (not that it was necessarily lost), and in the process create some of their most inspiring…

For nearly four decades, Studio Ghibli has been regarded as the gold standard for animation, perhaps even more so than Disney and Pixar (which have unsurprisingly collaborated with the Japanese animation studio on a few occasions in recent years), and the reasons are extremely obvious. Few studios have been as committed to capturing quality over…