Coming Soon - Masters of the Universe

Due out this summer - 

Title Reveal Teaser Trailer for Masters of the Universe (2026)

Coming in 2026. More details from Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_the_Universe_(2026_film). 

CFP (Re)Animating the Middle Ages: Adapting the Medieval in Animated Media (In-Person) (7/24/2025; MAPACA Philadelphia 11/6-8/2025)

Call for Papers

(Re)Animating the Middle Ages: Adapting the Medieval in Animated Media (In-Person)

Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Association's 2025 Annual Conference

Sonesta Hotel Philadelphia (1800 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103)

6-8 November 2025


The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture invites proposals for an in-person panel on the theme of "(Re)Animating the Middle Ages: Adapting the Medieval in Animated Media" for the Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Association's 2025 Annual Conference, which will run from Thursday, 6 November, to Saturday, 8 November 2025.

Proposals might cover any aspects of the medieval in animated films, animated shorts, anime, computer-generated images, games, or television cartoons.

We are especially looking for presentations on medieval-themed anime and adaptations of Beowulf, the Robin Hood tradition, and the works of J. R. R. Tolkien but also welcome work on other texts and traditions.

A resource guide for the project is accessible at https://tinyurl.com/ReAnimatingTheMiddleAgesRG.


Please send a short biography and paper proposal (300 words or less) to the organizers at medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com by Thursday, 24 July 2025.


(Be advised that MAPACA will require accepted presenters to create an account in their conference system. There will also be a registration fee to participate in the event.)



For more information on the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture please visit https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/.

For more information on MAPACA please visit https://mapaca.net/.

CFP We Live Again! Disney's Gargoyles as an Evolving Transmedia Text (7/15/2025; NEPCA online 10/9-11/2025)

With apologies for cross-posting.

We Live Again! Disney's Gargoyles as an Evolving Transmedia Text

Co-sponsored by the Monsters & the Monstrous Area and Disney Studies Area

Call for Papers for 2025 Virtual Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA)

Thursday, 9 October, to Saturday, 11 October, 2025

Submissions are open until Tuesday, 15 July by 5 PM EDT

Conceived by creator Greg Weisman, Disney’s Gargoyles began as a television series in the 1990s and has been expanded over the decades through action figures, books, clothing, collectibles, comics, conventions, fan art, fanfiction, games, puzzles, and recurrent rumors of a live-action reboot. Although now over thirty years old, Gargoyles has remained incredibly popular since its initial debut, yet, while other aspects of Disney Studies are flourishing, scholars have mostly neglected the series. Therefore, we seek in this session to offer some critical attention to Gargoyles and its various adaptations and continuations. 

Proposals should display some knowledge of the history and scope of the series, its adaptation history, and its ongoing evolution. We encourage you to make use of the resource guide provided at https://tinyurl.com/WeLiveAgainRG in formulating your approach. 

To submit a proposal, please review the requirements and procedure from NEPCA’s main conference page at https://www.northeastpca.org/conference. Proposals should be approximately 250 words; an academic biographical statement (75 words or less) is also requested. Payment of registration and membership fees will be required to present. More details on exact costs will be forthcoming. 

Direct submissions to the Monsters & the Monstrous Area can be made at https://cfp.sched.com/speaker/sTP9T9X3cW/event. Address any questions or concerns to the area chair at popular.preternaturaliana@gmail.com. 

Further information on the Monsters & the Monstrous Area can be accessed on our blog Popular Preternaturaliana: Studying the Monstrous in Popular Culture at https://popularpreternaturaliana.blogspot.com/.  

Further information on the Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA) can be accessed from our new website at https://www.northeastpca.org/. 

CFP (Re)Animating the Middle Ages: Adapting the Medieval in Animated Media (Virtual) (5/25/2025; MAPACA online 7/20/2025)

 Call for Papers

(Re)Animating the Middle Ages: Adapting the Medieval in Animated Media (Virtual)

 

Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Association's 2025 Virtual Symposium

Sunday, 20 July 2025

The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture invites proposals for another panel on the theme of "(Re)Animating the Middle Ages: Adapting the Medieval in Animated Media" for the Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Association's 2025 Virtual Symposium, which will run on Sunday, 20 July 2025. 

Proposals might cover any aspects of the medieval in animated films, animated shorts, anime, computer-generated images, games, or television cartoons. 

We are especially looking for presentations on medieval-themed anime and adaptations of Beowulf, the Robin Hood tradition, and the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. 

A resource guide for the project is accessible at https://tinyurl.com/ReAnimatingTheMiddleAgesRG.

Please send a short biography and paper proposal (300 words or less) to the organizers at medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com by 5/25/2025. 

(Be advised that MAPACA will require accepted presenters to create an account in their conference system. There will also be a registration fee to participate in the event.) 

For more information on the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture please visit https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/.  

For more information on MAPACA please visit https://mapaca.net/.

Sponsored Sessions on Animation (and More) for NeMLA 2025

Cross-posted from the Mass Mediævalisms blog:

We are organizing the following sessions for the 56th Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association to be held in Philadelphia, 6-9 March. The full schedule is available online and registration is required to attend. 

Thursday, Mar 6 - Track 4 (02:15-04:15 PM)

4.12 Saving the Day for Medieval Studies: Using Comics for Teaching the Middle Ages (Roundtable)
Chair: Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College
Chair: Karen Casebier, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
Location: 402 (Media Equipped)
Pedagogy & Professional & Cultural Studies and Media Studies

"The Medieval Comics Project: Ongoing Efforts to Expand the Field of Medieval Comics Scholarship" Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College

"From Borders to Panels: Integrating Comic Books into Medieval Studies Pedagogy" Rachael Warmington, Seton Hall University

"Reshaping Literary Canon: Graphic Novels as the Future of Classics" Derek Castle, University of New Hampshire

"Marvel 1602 and its Connection to the Scientific Enlightenment" Madison Cothern, University of Memphis

Sunday, Mar 9 - Track 22 (08:15-10:15 AM)

22.20 (Re)Animating the Middle Ages: Adapting the Medieval in Animated Media (Seminar)
Chair: Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College
Chair: Karen Casebier, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
Location: 410 (Media Equipped)
Cultural Studies and Media Studies & Interdisciplinary Humanities

"Animating Marie de France : Emile Mercier’s Bisclavret (2011)" Karen Casebier, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga

"Possibilities and Pitfalls in Arthurian Animation: An Exploration of the Darkstalkers Series (1995)" Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College

"The Black Knight: Women “Passing” as Knights in Children’s Entertainment" Megan Arnott, Lakehead University

"Cartoon Saloon's Wild Women: Monstrous Genders in Irish Animated Medievalism" Colin Wheeler, Kennesaw State University

"A Modern Look at Late Medieval Religion and Literacy in Obsidian Entertainment’s Pentiment" Olivia Mathers, Lehigh University

"Heresy and Crusades: How Modern Fascists Appropriated the Medieval Aesthetics of Warhammer 40k" William Weiss, Independent Scholar

Coming Soon - The Last Unicorn in 4K

The latest news from Shout Factory...

Disney's Robin Hood on CD!

I recently came across a reference to the Walt Disney Records The Legacy Collection Robin Hood two-disc set on Amazon.

The initial news and cover art were released in late May on the various Disney Music Emporium media sites (see, for example, the news on its Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyMusicEmporium/photos/a.1417819401816272.1073741828.1417567548508124/1850095375255337/).

Further details on the set can be found on the WDW News Today website (http://wdwnt.com/blog/2017/05/d23-expo-2017-disney-music-emporium-returning-album-signings/), where Jesse DeRosa wrote on 26 May 2016:

Disney Music Emporium, a pop-up store that sells collectable Disney music-related products, will be returning to the D23 Expo 2017. During the event, fans will be able to purchase new limited music releases from various Disney artists and composers.

Walt Disney Records The Legacy Collection Robin Hood, a two-disc set, will be released for the first time during the expo. Disc one of the collection includes songs and score from the film. Disc two includes unreleased demos and bonus tracks performed by Louis Prima. The CD collection contains liner notes, as well as a 20-page booklet featuring new artwork inspired by Robin Hood from Lorelay Bove, a visual development artist who’s worked on various Disney films including Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, and more. Those that purchase the collection will receive a special lithograph featuring the back cover artwork, though there will only be a limited quantity available.

CFP Animating the Medieval (proposals by 9/15/16)

Animating the Medieval: Research on Animated Representations of the Middle Ages in Memory of Michael N. Salda
Sponsored by The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture
52nd International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan
11-14 May 2017
Proposals due by 15 September 2016

Medievalist Michael N. Salda passed away in October 2015. He was, perhaps, best known for his work on Chaucer and Malory, but scholars of the medieval on screen owe him a greater debt for his pioneering work on animated films, television programming, and theatrical shorts based on medieval subjects. Much of his activities in this field focused on the Matter of Britain. He began these efforts in the mid-1990s, and they culminated in his monograph Arthurian Animation: A Study of Cartoon Camelots on Film and Television published in 2013. In addition, Salda’s interests in animated representations of the medieval extended beyond Arthurian subjects; he also contributed an essay on the Vikings in animation for Vikings on Film: Essays on Depictions of the Nordic Middle Ages (2011) and was working on a venture devoted to cataloging the more general use of the medieval in animation, a project that now seems unlikely to appear given his untimely death. However, as advocates of the Once and Future King have sustained the ideals of their fallen Arthur, we, too, are able to follow Salda’s model and honor his memory in continuing his work by building upon his scholarship in our own contributions to studies of the medieval on screen and by tracking down and discussing additional representations of the medieval in animation. We believe these efforts both further the mission of The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture (successor to the Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages) in promoting original research on the medieval in popular culture and acknowledge the lasting impact of a colleague that changed the field of Medievalism Studies for the better.

Presentations will be limited to 10-15 minutes depending on panel size, and The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture asks that accepted presenters submit their completed papers for publication on the Medieval Studies on Screen site (https://medievalstudiesonscreen.blogspot.com/) prior to the conference to allow maximum dissemination of their ideas.

Interested individuals should submit, no later than 15 September 2015, (1) an abstract of approximately 500 words, (2) a 500-word biography, and (3) a completed Participant Information Form (accessible at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions) to the organizers at MedievalStudiesonScreen@gmail.com using “Animating the Medieval” as their subject heading.

In planning your proposal, please be aware of the policies of the Congress (available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies).

Kalamazoo Update June 2016

I am pleased to report that our session on medievalism and animation has been accepted for next year's International Congress on Medieval Studies. The officifal call for papers will be posted in July, but do contact me as soon as possible if you might be interested in presenting.

The session proposal follows.

Michael Torregrossa
Founder, The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture


Animating the Medieval: Research on Animated Representations of the Middle Ages in Memory of Michael N. Salda
Sponsored by The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Medievalist Michael N. Salda passed away in October 2015. He was, perhaps, best known for his work on Chaucer and Malory, but scholars of the medieval on screen owe him a greater debt for his pioneering work on animated films, television programming, and theatrical shorts based on medieval subjects. Much of his activities in this field focused on the Matter of Britain. He began these efforts in the mid-1990s, and they culminated in his monograph Arthurian Animation: A Study of Cartoon Camelots on Film and Television published in 2013. In addition, Salda’s interests in animated representations of the medieval extended beyond Arthurian subjects; he also contributed an essay on the Vikings in animation for Vikings on Film: Essays on Depictions of the Nordic Middle Ages (2011) and was working on a venture devoted to cataloging the more general use of the medieval in animation, a project that now seems unlikely to appear given his untimely death. However, as advocates of the Once and Future King have sustained the ideals of their fallen Arthur, we, too, are able to follow Salda’s model and honor his memory in continuing his work by building upon his scholarship in our own contributions to studies of the medieval on screen and by tracking down and discussing additional representations of the medieval in animation. We believe these efforts both further the mission of the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture (successor to the Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages) in promoting original research on the medieval in popular culture and acknowledge the lasting impact of a colleague that changed the field of Medievalism Studies for the better.

Kalamazoo 2017 Advance Notice

The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture has proposed the following sponsored session for the 52nd International Congress on Medieval Studies. The session is pending acceptance by the organizing committee, and an official call for papers will be announced should it act favorably on our behalf. Please contact us at MedievalStudiesonScreen@gmail.com if you might be interested in participating.

Animating the Medieval: Research on Animated Representations of the Middle Ages in Memory of Michael N. Salda
Sponsored by The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Medievalist Michael N. Salda passed away in October 2015. He was, perhaps, best known for his work on Chaucer and Malory, but scholars of the medieval on screen owe him a greater debt for his pioneering work on animated films, television programming, and theatrical shorts based on medieval subjects. Much of his activities in this field focused on the Matter of Britain. He began these efforts in the mid-1990s, and they culminated in his monograph Arthurian Animation: A Study of Cartoon Camelots on Film and Television published in 2013. In addition, Salda’s interests in animated representations of the medieval extended beyond Arthurian subjects; he also contributed an essay on the Vikings in animation for Vikings on Film: Essays on Depictions of the Nordic Middle Ages (2011) and was working on a venture devoted to cataloging the more general use of the medieval in animation, a project that now seems unlikely to appear given his untimely death. However, as advocates of the Once and Future King have sustained the ideals of their fallen Arthur, we, too, are able to follow Salda’s model and honor his memory in continuing his work by building upon his scholarship in our own contributions to studies of the medieval on screen and by tracking down and discussing additional representations of the medieval in animation. We believe these efforts both further the mission of the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture (successor to the Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages) in promoting original research on the medieval in popular culture and acknowledge the lasting impact of a colleague that changed the field of Medievalism Studies for the better.