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Sassan Niasseri geht in seiner Monographie der Entwicklung des phantastischen Kinos nach. Mit Fokus auf vorwiegend US-amerikanischen Produktionen besticht die Studie weniger mit der historischen Entwicklung des Genres, sondern vielmehr mit seinem Detailwissen zur Herstellung der besagten Filme.

This article focuses on the figure of an aging and powerful witch pitted against younger women in three contemporary fairy-tale movie adaptations: Snow White and the Huntsman (dir. Rupert Sanders, 2012), Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (dir. Tommy Wirkola, 2013), and Maleficent (dir. Robert Stromberg, 2014). Each film transforms the aging witch from stock villain to a more nuanced character. This revision is intriguing for its concern with power and gender and for a reflection of contemporary debates about age and power within so-called wave feminism. The article uses two frames. The first is feminism and ageism, focusing on wave feminism and aging, and the second is the trope of the witch, drawing from fairy-tale studies, social history, and social anthropology. The article reads conflict between an aging witch and a young woman as a clash of feminist waves, and the witch’s ‘monstrosity’ as her refusal to be sidelined in a world obsessed with youth.

This article uses a queer, critical disability studies framework to examine a diverse set of films in which one lover literally changes bodies to be like the other lover, such as in The Little Mermaid (1989), Avatar (2009), and the Twilight saga. The author argues that these films, what she calls "fantastic unlikely couple films," represent the values of companionate love, a relationship form that emphasizes similarity as the key to successful long-term relationships. Significantly, the values of companionate love are aligned with the (neo)liberal state. In the films analyzed, the physically transformed partner is also the weaker, more dependent partner. The shift to a more capable body—one similar to the body of the other partner—not only means that the couple will be more equal companions; it also means that the pair can now fulfill their destiny as productive workers and reproductive parents, independent of state subsidies and assistance.

This article focuses on the figure of an aging and powerful witch pitted against younger women in three contemporary fairy-tale movie adaptations: Snow White and the Huntsman (dir. Rupert Sanders, 2012), Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (dir. Tommy Wirkola, 2013), and Maleficent (dir. Robert Stromberg, 2014). Each film transforms the aging witch from stock villain to a more nuanced character. This revision is intriguing for its concern with power and gender and for a reflection of contemporary debates about age and power within so-called wave feminism. The article uses two frames. The first is feminism and ageism, focusing on wave feminism and aging, and the second is the trope of the witch, drawing from fairy-tale studies, social history, and social anthropology. The article reads conflict between an aging witch and a young woman as a clash of feminist waves, and the witch's 'monstrosity' as her refusal to be sidelined in a world obsessed with youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the nature of fantasy worlds created in literature and in cinema? If these worlds are not impossible in accordance to reality, what is their structure beyond the ontological rupture they generate? I will attempt an answer by discussing C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) and Prince Caspian (1951) and their cinematic adaptations. In my endeavor I will define the structure of the secondary worlds that showcase a mix of eutopian and dystopian spaces infused by a teratological imaginary, one of the main features of such spaces. In the attempt to establish a theoretical framework for the analysis of fantasy novels and films, my own definition of fantasy worlds can become useful in this particular context: fictional worlds in fantasy literature are artifacts created through aesthetic activities that merge cosmological narratives of religion with the alternative designs of reality/the universe (mostly speculated by science). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1994, five made for television movies - Hercules and the Amazon Women by Bill L. Norton, Hercules and the Lost Kingdom by Harley Cokeliss, Hercules and the Circle of Fire by Doug Lefler, Hercules in the Underworld by Bill L. Norton and Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur by Josh Becker - became the forerunners of two popular, even cult, series screened from the mid-1990s: Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (Various, 1995-1999) and its spin-off Xena: Warrior Princess (Various, 1995-2001). Despite being set in a mythical Ancient Greece, the movies and the subsequent programmes were filmed on location in New Zealand. Indeed, New Zealand has become a frequent site for fantasy cinema and television production, perhaps most notably through the work of Peter Jackson, and Film New Zealand have actively promoted the country's potential to be 'many worlds'. The varied and dramatic topography has played a significant role in encouraging filmmakers to base their productions in the country, but New Zealand's own mythology as a land of Edenic, untouched beauty and its relative 'youth' are also integral to understanding its appeal. This article, which primarily focuses on the five Hercules films, will explore the unique relationship and the dynamic interaction between the classical/fantasy narrative and New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses a queer, critical disability studies framework to examine a diverse set of films in which one lover literally changes bodies to be like the other lover, such as in The Little Mermaid (1989), Avatar (2009), and the Twilight saga. The author argues that these films, what she calls "fantastic unlikely couple films," represent the values of companionate love, a relationship form that emphasizes similarity as the key to successful long-term relationships. Significantly, the values of companionate love are aligned with the (neo)liberal state. In the films analyzed, the physically transformed partner is also the weaker, more dependent partner. The shift to a more capable body--one similar to the body of the other partner--not only means that the couple will be more equal companions; it also means that the pair can now fulfill their destiny as productive workers and reproductive parents, independent of state subsidies and assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]