The Toys Go Winding Down

Today the thirtieth episode of the Skwigly Podcast went up, featuring a trio of stunningly talented animation heroes. I speak with fellow Canuck and stalwart NFB director Cordell Barker (The Cat Came Back/Strange Invaders/Runaway) on his new film If I Was God, while Laura-Beth Cowley catches up with Australian 'clayographer' Adam Elliot to learn about his wonderful new film Ernie Biscuit. Meanwhile Julia Young, who has been absolutely killing it for us on all fronts (in particular with some extensive coverage of this year's Annecy festival) talks to Cartoon Saloon co-founder Tomm Moore, director of the amazing feature film Song of the Sea which has been mesmerising international audiences for months and is now finally out in UK cinemas. For more on the film you can have a read of Julia's review and another written feature from a conversation I had with producer Paul Young on the fascinating and unique circumstances that led to the film getting off the ground.

Back to the podcast, it is of course all tied together with myself and Steve's usual onslaught of cartoon wafflage, delving into such territory as festival highlights, reboot remorse and the Manchester Animation Festival which Steve has been involved with of late. Midst the decline of animation-centric festivals the world over such events are a precious commodity indeed, so if you have an animated film to submit then make sure to get it in before August 15th.
On a more sombre note (not really), the podcast in its current state has come to an end with this episode. After three years and thirty great big gigantic episodes it's just not feasible to continue to produce them as I have done, and I'm not crazy about the increasing gaps between each one going up. Therefore I'll be taking a revised approach that will make for more frequent episodes and better structure overall, getting our Skwigly community of writers and contributors more involved. Quality and quantity! That's the hope, at least.
Until then you can subscribe, stream or download episode 30 and a billion thanks to all of you who've supported the podcast and kept it going. I had no possible idea when it first started that it would last this long but it's largely been a joy and, truly, one of the main reasons I've maintained such enthusiasm for the industry as a whole. So here's to the upcoming Skwigly Podcast v2.0!

Good gravy...