Re-Animate THIS!

Episode recorded: October 8th, 2026 (10/08/2026)
 
00:00:38 - Podcast starts00:01:33 - On Scout’s books on Tobe Hooper, John Ford, Anthony Mann, and Christophe Gans00:11:41 - Researching on Christophe Gans00:16:53 - Our own French director hyperfixation (and some tangents on Julia Ducournau’s Alpha)00:24:51 - Tangent about Andrei Tarkovsky’s influence on video games including Silent Hill00:30:42 - Why did horror storytellers take a lot of inspiration from Tarkovsky?00:47:15 - Christophe Gans and his deep appreciation for genre cinema and its history00:57:33 - Jean Cocteau’s influence on Christophe Gans’ cinematic takes on Silent Hill and Beauty and the Beast01:02:47 - Christophe Gans’s suspicion toward organized religions01:07:18 - Defending bad or undervalued movies and having contrarian views (how Scout differs from someone like Armond White)01:15:15 - What could filmmakers today learn from Christophe Gans?01:18:53 - People finally treating video games like a literature01:23:00 - What if Christophe Gans made an anime?01:27:00 - Is Scout working on another book on a different director?
Film critic, filmmaker, and video essayist Scout Tafoya once again joins with Jay to discuss his latest book The Otherworld, which is about French genre director Christophe Gans and his filmography. We also discussed Gans’s influences from Soviet auteur Andrei Tarkovsky, Polish sexploitation filmmaker Walerian Borowczyk, and French cinematic poet Jean Cocteau and each of their own historical context. Scout also explains why the much maligned Return to Silent Hill (2026) meant to him.
Grab yourself a copy of The Otherworld here: https://www.patreon.com/cw/honorszombie/shop
Read Jay’s review of The Otherworld: https://www.patreon.com/ReAnimateTHISPodcast/posts/otherworld-of-by-167609177
 
Intro music: WANDERLUST (Celest3 mix) by Celest3 - https://celest3.bandcamp.com/track/wanderlust-celest3-mix (CC BY-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Ending music: Arizona Green Tea by Stuffy Doll - https://stuffydollband.bandcamp.com/track/arizona-green-tea (used it with a permission) 
 
Audio Editor: Jay Whang

On September 27th, Jay came to the opening ceremony of Prospect Heights Art Club's the 5th Annual Failed Film Festival, in spite of the wet, rainy weather. There, he talked with its lead organizer Hayden Amaro and many participants who want to make a short film within 30 days.

Episode Recorded: September 12th, 2026 (09/12/2026)
 
00:00:38 - Episode starts and what is September Stinker about?
00:01:55 - What is Quest for Camelot about?
00:07:08 - Pros/Cons of Quest for Camelot (and comparing the 1990s’ Disney audiences pandering to the 2010s’ “We want the Call of Duty audience”).
00:43:07 - What went wrong?
00:54:37 - Ad starts
00:56:14 - What is the original novel The King’s Damosel about, and what Quest for Camelot has completely missed and actually improved from the novel? (And Jay poorly recapping Vera Chapman’s novel).
01:15:38 - Jay’s recommendation of three movies that dealt with similar themes from The King’s Damosel.
01:19:12 - Suggestions for improving Quest for Camelot (or re-adapting The King’s Damosel with some nods to Quest for Camelot).
01:25:54 - What animation style of the hypothetical improved version would be like? (Mentioning Sébastien Laudenbach’s La Jeune Fille sans mains and Isao Takahata’s The Tale of the Princess Kaguya)
01:34:46 - Muppet adaptation of Quest for Camelot?
01:38:10 - Inn, Dust, Throw when it comes to Quest for Camelot.
 
It’s September, and from this month, we are discussing one bad or mediocre animated movie and how to improve it. For this year, we are going to talk about Warner Brothers’ maligned Quest for Camelot, their attempted Disneyfication of Vera Chapman’s Arthurian legend retelling The King’s Damosel. Leslie of The Hunchcast, who previously appeared in the pilot of our Bonus Episode series, liked the movie when she watched it when she was a kid, came onto the show and shared her defense of the movie. We discussed the movie’s overlooked strength, blatant weaknesses, the behind-the-scenes problems, the (accidental) improvements from the novel, and ignoring some good ideas from the novel. 
 
Please support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ReAnimateTHISPodcast
 
The Hunchcast of Notre-Dame: https://open.spotify.com/show/0hppNrm0Mn1ayP5u5TQbH4?si=cb16ca306fd946b6
 
Shout outs (mentioned and not mentioned in the podcast)
Bad Princess Movies Podcast: https://bsky.app/profile/badprincessmovies.bsky.social
Kristi O (Bad Princess Movies Podcast producer and the artist behind Princess Bride Muppets crossover): https://bsky.app/profile/komakesthings.bsky.social
This Film is Lit Podcast: https://bsky.app/profile/thisfilmislit.bsky.social
 
Intro music: WANDERLUST (Celest3 mix) by Celest3 - https://celest3.bandcamp.com/track/wanderlust-celest3-mix (CC BY-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Ad break music: Early Riser by Kevin MacLeod - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Best_of_2014_1461/Early_Riser (licensed under a Attribution 3.0 International License)
Ending music: Arizona Green Tea by Stuffy Doll - https://stuffydollband.bandcamp.com/track/arizona-green-tea (used it with a permission)
 
Media we have mostly discussed during the episode (spoilers ahead):
Quest for Camelot (1998), directed by Frederik Du Chau
The King’s Damosel (1976), written by Vera Chapman
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), directed by Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam
Excalibur (1981), directed by John Boorman
Shrek the Third (2007), directed by Chris Miller
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), written by Thomas Hardy
Sorry, Baby (2025), directed by Eva Victor
The Chronology of Water (2025), directed by Kristen Stewart
The Nightingale (2018), directed by Jennifer Kent
The Girl Without Hands (La Jeune Fille sans mains) (2016), directed by Sébastien Laudenbach
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語) (2013), directed by Isao Takahata

Episode recorded: September 1st, 2026 (09/01/2026)
0:00:00 - Announcement from Dom
0:00:21 - Episode starts
0:01:44 - Introducing Patrick and Leslie of The Hunchcast of Notre-Dame (and how Jay discovered them)
0:06:40 - What is The Hunchback of Notre-Dame II about?
0:10:41 - Cons (and Pros) of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame II
0:33:20 - How to fix The Hunchback of Notre-Dame II
0:37:13 - Look into the different Boy-Meets-Girl romance movie set in Paris with a similar premise Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (and why Leslie and Patrick didn’t like it)
0:51:40 - Who is Leos Carax?
0:59:27 - The firework scene in Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (and why Denis Lavant is Jay’s choice for playing King Louis XI in his film adaptation of Notre-Dame de Paris).
1:07:03 - Troubled productions behind Les Amants du Pont-Neuf and whether doing it in animation could work
1:17:06 - Les Amants du Pont-Neuf but everyone is a Muppet except one character (and Jay’s surprising choice)
1:25:43 - Leos Carax got very meta in his later movies (Holy Motors and Annette)
1:31:00 - Inn, Dust, Throw, regarding The Hunchback of Notre-Dame II (Jay and Jessie’s choices only) and Les Amants du Pont-Neuf 
1:41:07 - Conclusion (and elaboration on Jay’s film adaptation of Notre-Dame de Paris)
This is the pilot episode for occasional Patreon-exclusive Bonus Episode. And because of that, it will be free for the public. We will make this an occasional, ad-less bonus episode for Patreon subscribers only.
https://www.patreon.com/ReAnimateTHISPodcast
It's September today, this means we just talked about one bad animated movie and discuss how to improve it.
Jay and Jessie are here with Leslie and Patrick of The Hunchcast of Notre-Dame - a podcast dedicated to Victor Hugo's book Notre-Dame de Paris, its derivative works, and among tangentially related media. They organized the unofficial fans' 30th anniversary celebration of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
For September Stinker, we are going to talk about The Hunchback of Notre-Dame II, the much-maligned direct-to-video sequel to the Disney's animated adaptation of Hugo's book. We will be discussing its redemptive aspects, problems with its premise alone, why Disney Home Entertainment made this movie to began with, how the magenta tint from the film degradation only unintentionally gave the movie a Valentine-like feel, and how to improve it better by brining in stuffs from the original book that the 1996 movie has left out.
We are also going to talk about another misfit romance movie set around a different Parisian monument (and also faced release delays), but received much better reviews and now remembered fondly, titled The Lovers on the Bridge (Les Amants du Pont-Neuf), directed by Leos Carax. We will discuss its nihilistic tone (common during the 1990s), why Leslie and Patrick did not like the movie, its troubled production, and whether doing it in animation could save the movie.
Media we have mostly discussed during the episode (spoilers ahead):
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame II (2002), directed by Bradley Raymond
Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998), directed by Bradley Raymond
The Lovers on the Bridge (Les Amants du Pont-Neuf) (1991), directed by Leos Carax
Holy Motors (2012), directed by Leos Carax
Annette (2021), directed by Leos Carax

Jay and Micah from The Emperor's New Podcast talk about the movie that Warner Brothers tried to put it as tax write off and managed to be rescued by Ketchup Entertainment.
 
The Emperor's New Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theemperorsnewpodcast

Episode recorded: August 8th, 2026 (08/08/2026)
 
00:00:35 - Episode starts.
00:00:55 - Introducing Adam Zanzie.
00:03:50 - What is Jonathan Livingston Seagull about?
00:11:18 - Some background behind Richard Bach’s book, its theme, its root in the self-esteem movement of that time, and the production of its film adaptation.
00:38:45 - A brief discussion on the documentary subgenre with a fictional narrative.
00:50:43 - Why Walt Disney has a fixation with anthropomorphizing animals in any medium, even long after his death.
00:59:59 - Ad break!
01:02:21 - Would live-action movies with CGI animals still be considered as animation? (Trigger warning: the 2019 remake of The Lion King).
01:05:29 - Jay’s own Jonathan Livingston Seagull moment.
01:15:36 - Why Hall Bartlett, of all people, wanted to turn Jonathan Livingston Seagull Into a live-action movie instead of animation?
01:31:06 - That time the production team housed many seagulls in the Holiday Inn hotel room.
01:33:37 - Why no animator during the 1970s tried to turn Jonathan Livingston Seagull into an animation as it seemed like a fitting medium?
01:36:31 - Would Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973) be something that the 2019 remake of The Lion King tried to be?
01:38:59 - Jay’s question to Madzy: How should animators have responded to the 2019 remake of The Lion King?
01:40:56 - Jay’s pitch for his Brechtian CG animated movies involving photorealistic CGI animals.
01:56:34 - Final question for all of us: Why can’t you do it in animation when it’s a lot safer?
 
This took a long while to get released because Jay is having a hectic month and got a new job.
In this episode about a movie about a daredevil seagull rebelling against his flock, Jay and Madzy invited filmmaker and local Richard Bach expert Adam Zanzie. They talked about Bach’s self-help novel Jonathan Livingston Seagull and its film adaptation of the same name by Hall Bartlett, the historical context behind its rugged individualist message, Adam’s life-long research into the movie’s production, and the shaky relation between him and Richard Bach during his time making his video essay on the movie. And some details about how wealthy Hall Bartlett was and he used his money to make his most personal yet esoteric movie in his career. In the wake of movies made with photorealism CGIs and redoing animated movies with them (such as the 2019 remake of The Lion King), could Jonathan Livingston Seagull be made with that technology?
 
Help the Prospect Heights Art Club to become a non-profit entity: https://www.gofundme.com/f/phac-year-five?attribution_id=sl:b6c96f14-9a4e-4066-b6f7-960c65670711&lang=en_US&ts=1786250862
Here is some info on the Prospect Heights Art Club’s exhibition at Studio Contro: https://partiful.com/e/p75Lk5DqoW6vV1qAhD2W
Follow Adam Zanzie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adam_zanzie
Watch Adam’s video essay on JLS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P817PgBqfmg
 
Media we have mostly discussed during the episode (spoilers ahead):  
Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973), directed by Hall Bartlett
Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970), written by Richard Bach
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883 – 1892), written by Friedrich Nietzsche
Encounters at the End of the World (2007), directed by Werner Herzog
The Lion King (1995), directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff 
The Lion King (2019), directed by Jon Favreau
Mufasa: The Lion King (2014), directed by Barry Jenkins
Watership Down (1978), directed by Martin Rosen
Donnie Darko (2001), directed by Richard Kelly
Bambi (1942), directed by David D. Hand, James Algar, Bill Roberts, Norman Wright, Sam Armstrong, Paul Satterfield, and Graham Heid
Roar (1981), directed by Noel Marshall
The Fox and the Hound (1981), directed by Art Stevens, Ted Berman, and Richard Rich
The Adventures of Milo and Otis (子猫物語) (1986), directed by Masanori Hata

Jay briefly talks about Bouchra, an indie CG animated movie about an anthropomorphic queer Moroccan jackal.

Episode recorded: July 11th, 2026 (07/11/2026)
 
00:00:00 - Important message (why Jay won't be going to Pennsylvania this month).
00:00:28 - Episode starts.
00:05:16 - What is Santa Sangre about? 
00:10:30 - Madzy’s interpretation of Santa Sangre as an allegory for trans experience.
00:30:30 - Who is Alejandro Jodorowsky?
00:38:18 - Jay loves The Holy Mountain.
00:45:14 - How this could also work in animation?
00:46:02 - Ad break!
01:23:08 - Jay recommends one of his favorite Mexican movies We Are the Flesh (Tenemos la carne).
01:25:27 - Some tangents on Mexico, its surrealist movies, and Mexican animation scenes.
01:39:44 - More about the topic for the next month’s episode
 
Jay is laid off from Troma and his planned trip to Pennsylvania has been cancelled. Though at least he gave himself a chance to watch a Mexican horror movie that he hasn’t seen before, and it’s from his favorite film director Alejandro Jodorowsky. It was recommended by his co-host Madzy Williams herself and it’s one of her favorite movies for a personal reason. 
 
Please support Haneen and her students! https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-haneen-koraz-empower-voices-through-art?attribution_id=sl%3A7c48cd74-d034-4ab2-88e1-dcb39f3a0adc&utm_id=97760_v0_s00_e0_tv3
 
Intro music: WANDERLUST (Celest3 mix) by Celest3 - https://celest3.bandcamp.com/track/wanderlust-celest3-mix (CC BY-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Ad break music: Early Riser by Kevin MacLeod - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Best_of_2014_1461/Early_Riser (licensed under a Attribution 3.0 International License)
Ending music: Arizona Green Tea by Stuffy Doll - https://stuffydollband.bandcamp.com/track/arizona-green-tea (used it with a permission)
 
Movies, shorts, and tv shows we have mostly discussed during the episode (spoilers ahead): 
Santa Sangre (1989), directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky
Fando y Lis (1968), directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky
The Holy Mountain (La montaña sagrada) (1973), directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky
The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito) (2011), directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Amer (2009), directed by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani
The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (L'étrange couleur des larmes de ton corps) (2013), directed by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani
Suspiria (1977), directed by Dario Argento
Punch & Judy (Rakvickarna) (1966), directed by Jan Švankmajer
The works of Haneen Koraz and her students
Dave Made a Maze (2017), directed by Bill Watterson
The works of Kunihiko Ikuhara
The Devil’s Rejects (2005), directed by Rob Zombie
Halloween 2 (2009), directed by Rob Zombie
31 (2016), directed by Rob Zombie
We Are the Flesh (Tenemos la carne) (2016), directed by Emiliano Rocha Minter
The Mansion of Madness (La mansión de la locura) (1973), directed by Juan López Moctezuma
El héroe (1994), directed by Carlos Carrera
Ana y Bruno (2017), directed by Carlos Carrera

Episode Recorded: July 4th, 2026 (07/04/2026)
00:37 - About Ted Efremoff himself.02:53 - Inspiration behind A Refugee’s Guide to Rome.04:43 - How did Ted meet Joseph Peters?06:06 - About Aeneas and Virgil’s Aeneid.13:13 - What’s Ted’s favorite Greco-Roman mythology story?14:16 - What made Ted become a multidisciplinary artist?16:46 - Jay and Ted discuss The Five Obstructions.24:48 - How Ted would reimagine his documentary into an animation.30:39 - The power of oral storytelling.35:42 - Who would be a good animation studio or animator for Ted’s documentary?40:07 - Ted’s personal favorite of his works.43:27 - Do Ted and Joseph still keep in touch?46:23 - “Before we go…..”
Multidisciplinary artist Ted Efremoff came onto the podcast to talk about his documentary A Refugee’s Guide to Rome. Ted Efremoff shared his Felliniesque past as a Russian immigrant who fell in love with Rome, how he met his documentary’s subject Joseph Peters, and how Joseph Peters himself relates his journey with the legendary Aeneas as a LGBTQ rights-supporting refugee fleeing from Sierra Leone, and the power of oral storytelling. Ted also shared how he started his artist career, his fascination with mythology, and his love for the documentary The Five Obstructions. And Jay got confused about archaeoacoustics.
 
More on Ted Efremoff and his works: https://www.tedefremoff.com/A trailer for A Refugee’s Guide to Rome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Ifbwyz0sU A Refugee’s Guide to Rome: https://www.amazon.com/Refugees-Guide-Rome-Ted-Efremoff/dp/B0FXJQY8Y2
https://tubitv.com/movies/100056923/a-refugee-s-guide-to-rome
 
Ted’s instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/tedefremoff/
Intro music: WANDERLUST (Celest3 mix) by Celest3 - https://celest3.bandcamp.com/track/wanderlust-celest3-mix (CC BY-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)Ending music: Arizona Green Tea by Stuffy Doll - https://stuffydollband.bandcamp.com/track/arizona-green-tea (used it with a permission)
 
Audio Editor: Jay Whang
 

Episode recorded: June 13th, 2026 (06/13/2026)
00:00:00 - Important Message.00:00:54 - Intro and icebreaker.00:04:29 - Begin talking about We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, and its connection with the 2010s creepypasta subculture.00:16:48 - The bridge between the 2010s internet and the 2020s filmmaking.00:18:39 - The queer following of the analog horror subgenre and horror in general.00:27:18 - Begin talking about I Saw the TV Glow.00:37:11 - Jay initially viewed I Saw the TV Glow as a Classic Greek tragedy about a unique transgender experience.00:41:50 - Discussing their childhood media made them realize their core identity or “crack the egg”00:50:22 - Ad break!00:59:02 - About Jane Schoenbrun.01:08:37 - Shout outs to transgender and non-binary animators and puppeteers.01:12:27 - Surrealism and its root in folklores and mythologies around the world.01:29:22 - What would be the animation equivalent to the Jane Schoenbrun movie?01:35:56 - Some discussions on Jane Schoenbrun’s latest movie Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Masima and their Black Hole streaming show.
On this Pride Month, Jay and Madzy saw Jane Schoenbrun’s movies glow like that pink ghost tattoo on the back of Helena Howard and Lindsey Jordan’s necks. And things get very personal.
Jay and Madzy will talk about Jane Schoenbrun, THE non-binary film director of the 2020s, and the first two films of their filmography - We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and I Saw the TV Glow. The hosts also discussed the 2010s creepypasta subculture, the relation between the LGBTQ+ community and the horror genre and surrealism, their own “Pink Opaque” - youth media that realized their core identity, why the world should fund trans and non-binary storytellers to avoid another Emilia Perez situation, Schoenbrun’s upcoming movie Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Masima, and their planned streaming adaptation of Charles Burns’s coming-of-age body-horror graphic novel Black Hole. Jay also made a case for “nostalgia-pessimist” or “nostalgia-cynic” media, using Schoenbrun's filmography and Black Hole as examples, as a counter-response to the current nostalgia-baits.
For inquiries: jay@box.jaywhangmakes.com Some shout out to transgender and non-binary animators and puppeteers that we follow! Please support their work!
https://linktr.ee/Beeragon
https://www.instagram.com/tucker13x/
https://www.youtube.com/@angelafellowsfilms
https://www.instagram.com/mu_cube/
 
Intro music: WANDERLUST (Celest3 mix) by Celest3 - https://celest3.bandcamp.com/track/wanderlust-celest3-mix (CC BY-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Ad break music: Early Riser by Kevin MacLeod - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Best_of_2014_1461/Early_Riser (licensed under a Attribution 3.0 International License)
Ending music: Arizona Green Tea by Stuffy Doll - https://stuffydollband.bandcamp.com/track/arizona-green-tea (used it with a permission)
 
Movies, shorts, and tv shows we have mostly discussed during the episode (spoilers ahead): 
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021), directed by Jane Schoenbrun
I Saw the TV Glow (2024), directed by Jane Schoenbrun
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Masima (2026), directed by Jane Schoenbrun
The Matrix (1999), directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski
Speed Buggy (1973), created by Hanna-Barbera
Greek and Roman Mythology (만화로 보는 그리스 로마 신화) (2000 – 2006), created by Hong Eun-young
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), directed by John Cameron Mitchell
Tux and Fanny (2019), directed by Albert Birney
The Boy and the Heron (君たちはどう生きるか) (2023), directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Mulholland Drive (2001), directed by David Lynch
Angel Hare (2022 – 2025), created by The Mangan Sisters
Black Hole (1995 – 2005), created by Charles Burns