Beyond Bagpuss: Exploring the creative world of Smallfilms animation

2022-04-11

6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

COM@xjtlu.edu.cn

Details

  • Time: 18:00-19:30
  • Date: Monday, 11 April 2022
  • Venue: Zhumu (For ZHUMU link, please contact: COM@xjtlu.edu.cn)

Abstract

The multiple works of Smallfilms, the UK-based animation studio founded by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, occupy a prominent position in both the popular imagination and cultural heritage of Britain. Having produced shows such as Bagpuss, Clangers, Ivor the Engine, and The Saga of Noggin the Nog, to name but a few, there is a common understanding of the studio, fuelled in part by Postgate’s own autobiography, which fails to adequately reflect the collaborative nuance of Smallfilms’ works, or the importance of those Smallfilms works that have been pushed to the margins of this popular history. Drawing on original archival research, key informant interviews, quantitative and qualitative survey data, and textual analysis, this talk provides a critical intervention and in the process re-opens the Smallfilms historical narrative for deeper scrutiny.

Speaker

Chris Pallant is a Reader in Creative Arts and Industries at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. As well as publishing numerous journal articles and chapters, he is the author/co-author of the following monographs/collections: Demystifying Disney: A History of Disney Feature Animation (2011), Storyboarding: A Critical History (2015), Animated Landscapes: History, Form and Function (2015), Snow White: New Perspectives on Production, Reception, Legacy (2021), Animation: Critical and Primary Sources (2021), and Beyond Bagpuss: A History of Smallfilms Animation Studio (2022). He also serves as the current President of the Society for Animation Studies (SAS).

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