Van Norris

In the City: Animating 21st Century Britain
(preconstituted panel: ‘Urbanimation’: representations of the city in animation)

Abstract: In the post-The Office afterglow public-service channel BBC3 saw comedy as part of the "consistently innovative and risk-taking programming" specified in their remit. The show embodied a tone which played into criticisms that the channel was pandering to an increasingly populist agenda. It also played into concerns about imagined community and maintained a narrative that actualises comedy's relationship with society which extends all the way back to Henri Bergson. This paper will frame this embrace of animation/comedy against institutional concerns and assess Monkey Dust as being emblematic of this wave of early 21st century UK mainstream TV animation.

Biographical statement: Van Norris teaches in the School of Creative Arts, Film and Media at the University of Portsmouth, UK. His research interests include: American and British graphic narrative form; Classical and Post-Classical Hollywood Animation and British Cinema and Television Animation, British and American comedy form, sitcom and stand up comedy. He is currently completing his PhD on British television animation. Van has presented his research at numerous conferences including the Society for Animation Studies, the Popular Culture Association and the University of Salford’s Comedy Matters conference. He has published in animation: an interdisciplinary journal and Animation Studies, as well as anthologies on television science fiction, animation and cinematic surrealism. Van is an Editorial Board member for Animation Studies.

Keynote Speakers

The opening Keynote address at Animation Evolution will be delivered by Clare Kitson.



Clare Kitson organised animation programmes at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the early 70s and in 1978 became programme officer for the National Film Theatre and London Film Festival. In 1989 she joined Channel 4, where she commissioned many award-winning animated shorts and series. She also launched schemes with the Arts Council and the Museum of the Moving Image, which aimed to encourage innovation and to give young animators their first professional opportunity. In 1999 Clare was awarded the ASIFA Special Award for her contribution to British animation. She left Channel 4 in September 1999 and completed the initial stage of research into Yuri Norstein’s Tale of Tales in the context of a readership at the Animation Research Centre of the Surrey Institute of Art and Design. Her book Yuri Norstein and Tale of Tales: An Animator’s Journey was published in 2005 and her subsequent book, British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor, appeared in November 2008. In 2008 she received the Animafest Zagreb award for outstanding achievement in animation theory. She has also translated two books about animation.


The closing Keynote address will be given by Paul Wells


Professor Paul Wells is Director of the Animation Academy at Loughborough University, UK. He has published widely in the field of Animation Studies, including ‘Understanding Animation’ (Routledge), ‘Animation : Genre & Authorship’ (Wallflower), ‘Animation and America’ (EUP), ‘Fundamentals of Animation’ (AVA Academia), ‘Halas & Batchelor Cartoons : An Animated History’ (with Vivien Halas) (Southbank Publishing), ‘Re-Imagining Animation (with Johnny Hardstaff) and ‘Drawing for Animation’ (with Joanna Quinn) (both AVA Academia).

Paul is also an established scriptwriter and director for theatre, TV and radio, and has conducted workshops worldwide based on his book ‘Scriptwriting’ (AVA Academia), and was a consultant for the BBC’s ‘Animation Nation’. His most recent book is ‘The Animated Bestiary’ (Rutgers) looking at representations of animals in animated films. In the last year, he has directed two short documentaries – ‘From Fab Four to Ethel & Ernest’, about John Coates, pioneering producer at TVC, and ‘Taking a Country Road’, about leading animation editor, Tony Fish.

Paul is at present preparing further publications, including a journal for animation practice, and a major exhibition. He is also involved with script development on a number of projects, and is part of a steering group for an initiative seeking to create a British Animation Archive.