King's College London

Fantasy/Animation is a collaborative, open access online educational resource that examines the relationship between fantasy cinema and the medium of animation. It engages with several interdisciplinary fields, projects, and activities, and provides a space for discussion and debate among academics, artists, curators, practitioners, special interest groups/organisations and fans of fantasy and animation. The website publishes a weekly blog (featuring critical editorials; media analyses; film, television, and book reviews; conference reports; video essays) that holds a monthly readership of 1800+ users, as well as a fortnightly Fantasy/Animation podcast. The podcast has featured numerous interviews with guests from the worlds of academia, film journalism, film curation and archiving, the global VFX industry, stop-motion animation, graphic illustration, and organised fan communities.

Fantasy/Animation has appeared on an English language broadcasting TV channel in Turkey (TRT World’s flagship arts and culture programme Showcase); been featured on the BBC website (for Mark Kermode’s editorial on Christmas programming in December 2019), and in Vulture magazine (January 2022). In December 2020 it was recommended by Film Stories magazine as the “British Movie Podcast of the week.” The podcast has also entered Apple’s Top 250 “Film and TV” podcasts in Austria, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Estonia, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Russia, Sweden, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Uruguay, and the U.K., and – alongside the blog – has appeared on university reading lists at the following Higher Education institutions (in the U.K., U.S.A. and Australia): Bournemouth University, Edge Hill University, Falmouth University, King’s College London, Marshall University, Monash University, Savannah College of Art and Design, Staffordshire University, University of East Anglia, University of Kent, University of Michigan, University of Portsmouth, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and University of Warwick.

In February 2021, the Fantasy/Animation podcast joined Tribes Media, subscription/SVOD service, and is currently ranked #12 on Feedspot’s list of 45 Best Animation Podcasts, #7 in the 25 Best London Education Podcasts, and #7 on 20 Best Film Studies Podcasts. In May 2024, Fantasy/Animation was ranked #4 in Feedspot’s 5 Best UK Animation Podcasts You Must Follow in 2024. Episodes of the podcast have currently reached 40,000+ downloads.