Radical Children's Film and Television

Noel Brown is Associate Professor in Film at Liverpool Hope University, UK. He has written several books on aspects of children’s film, family entertainment and animation, including Contemporary Hollywood Animation (2021), The Children’s Film (2017), British Children’s Cinema (2016) and The Hollywood Family Film (2012). He is also editor of The Oxford Handbook of Children’s Film (2022), and series editor of ‘Children’s Film and Television’ for Edinburgh University Press.

• AcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsNotes on ContributorsIntroduction - Noel BrownPart I: Questions of Theory and Practice1. Is a Radical Children’s Film and Television Possible? - Noel Brown2. What is Radical Television for Children? A Transnational and Historical Exploration from Left to Right - Helle Strandgaard Jensen3. Revolt in a Boarding School: Aesthetic and Political Radicalism in the French Children’s Film Zéro de conduite (Zero for Conduct) by Jean Vigo - Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer4. The Problem of Audience: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T., Dr. Seuss and the Children’s Film - Adrian Schober5. What do you Mean, ‘Horrible’? The Radicalism of Horrible Histories - Máire Messenger DaviesPart II: Subversive Social Commentary6. Dick and Dom in da Place/Space to Be: ‘Bogies’ as Situationist-Carnival - Richard Berger and Ashley Woodfall7. Children’s Films and Cosmology - Ian Wojcik-Andrews8. Worlds Apart: Growing Pains and Radical Politics in Xhanfise Keko’s Pas Gjurmëve - Jonida Gashi9. ‘No, there will never be a dictatorship again in Argentina’: Remembering the Dictatorship (1976–1983) and Empowering the Child Citizen in Argentinian Animation - Vladimir Cotal San Martin and Georgia AitakiPart III: Manifestos for Change10. Radical Rodents and Suffering Hounds in Don Bluth’s The Secret of NIMH and Martin Rosen’s The Plague Dogs - Helena Bacon and Adam Whybray11. ‘How Far Would You Go?’: Conceptualising Extremist Youth Activism in International Screen Adaptations of The Third Wave Social Experiment - Carla Plieth12. (Re)orientations for Living with Toxicity in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind - Teresa Humphrey and Cory JobbPart IV: Radical Experiments13. Breaking Taboos: Swedish Children’s TV in the Radical Era of the 1970s - Malena Janson14. Welshness, Class and Sexuality: A Thematic Reading of The Owl Service (1970) - Robert Shail15. Animated Traumas: The Films of Anita Killi - Ole Christoffer Haga16. Assemblages of Wonder and Ecologies of Sound in Bluey and Summer Camp Island - Penni RussonPart V: Audiences, Participation and Appropriation17. Do Babies and Toddlers Need Radical Films and TV? - Cary Bazalgette18. A Message Movie (Un)Suitable for Children? Public Debates About the Politics and Audiences of Avatar (2009) - Peter Krämer19. From Courage the Cowardly Dog to the Creepypasta: Formal Destabilisation and Direct Address in Children’s Horror Television - Bence Bardos20. F is for Friends, G is for Gay: Bert, Ernie, and the Radical Potential of Childhood’s Queer Friendships - Ryan Bunch21. Children’s Film Festivals as Potential Spaces for Radical Content/Consumption - Barbora Kyas and Noel BrownAfterword - Kimberley Reynolds

What an exciting collection: scholarly yet accessible, international in focus and also drawing from outstanding contributors from all over the world, dealing with controversial subjects but doing so in a balanced way. This book is an essential reference for anyone interested in transformative children’s culture, past and present.