Music and Lyrics by the stone roses. cover by Ben Mitchell and James

Abbey Road

Skwigly are proud to present the first of a three-part series of exclusive podcast minisodes from the 2024 edition of the Cardiff Animation Festival.
In episode 1 we hear from attending filmmakers in conversation with Skwigly Editor in Chief Ben Mitchell and Features Writer Dr. Laura-Beth Cowley as part of the festival's Filmmaker Brunch sessions.

Featured in this episode:
Samantha Moore - 'Visible Mending'
Greg McLeod - 'Mee and Burd'
Robert Brown - 'Clowning Around'
Katie King - 'Made For Duties Overseas'
Faye Craig - 'Sour Days'

Presented by Ben Mitchell and Laura-Beth Cowley
Produced and edited by Ben Mitchell
Thanks to Ellys Donovan and the CAF team

Skwigly Podcasts

Skwigly at CAF 2024 Podcast Minisode: Filmmaker's Brunch 1

Skwigly are proud to present the second of a three-part series of exclusive podcast minisodes from the 2024 edition of the Cardiff Animation Festival.

In episode 2 we hear from attending filmmakers in conversation with Skwigly Editor in Chief Ben Mitchell and Features Writer Dr. Laura-Beth Cowley as part of the festival's Filmmaker Brunch sessions.

Featured in this episode:
Tanya J Scott - 'The Wolf of Custer'
Gerald Conn - 'Inner Polar Bear'
Hannah Fisher - 'Disparate Threads'
Naomi Crame - 'Rainbow Junktion'
Lleucu Non - 'Painkiller'

Presented by Ben Mitchell and Laura-Beth Cowley
Produced and edited by Ben Mitchell
Thanks to Ellys Donovan and the CAF team

Skwigly at CAF 2024 Podcast Minisode: Filmmaker's Brunch 2

Skwigly are proud to present the third of a three-part series of exclusive podcast minisodes from the 2024 edition of the Cardiff Animation Festival.

In episode 2 we hear from attending filmmakers in conversation with Skwigly Editor in Chief Ben Mitchell and Features Writer Dr. Laura-Beth Cowley as part of the festival's Filmmaker Brunch sessions.

Featured in this episode:
Josh Hicks - 'Spectre of the Bear'
Tova Persson - 'Offerlamm'
Hoching Kwok - 'When Cicadas Sing'
Gus Andrews - 'Whale Fall'
Qianhui Yu - 'In My Garden'

Presented by Ben Mitchell and Laura-Beth Cowley
Produced and edited by Ben Mitchell
Thanks to Ellys Donovan and the CAF team

Skwigly at CAF 2024 Podcast Minisode: Filmmaker's Brunch 3

Skwigly.com presents Animation One-To-Ones featuring Ben Mitchell in conversation with Torill Kove, director of the National Film Board of Canada/Mikrofilm short film 'Maybe Elephants'.

Hailing from Norway and presently based in Canada, Torill has created such films as the Oscar-winning 'The Danish Poet' and the Oscar nominated 'My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts' and 'Me and My Moulton'. Her latest film 'Maybe Elephants' is rooted in family, memory and the fallible nature of both, telling the story of three sisters whose lives are uprooted when their parents relocate them from Norway to Nairobi.

The film will screen at this year's Annecy International Animation Film Festival in the Short Films in Competition - Official 2 programme.

Interview conducted by Ben Mitchell
Produced, edited and presented by Ben Mitchell

Animation One-To-Ones

Animation One-To-Ones 30 - Torill Kove

Presenting episode 114 of the Skwigly Animation Podcast!

In this episode we celebrate the incredible talents and output of the Academy Award-nominated, BAFTA/Emmy-winning Cartoon Saloon, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.
Founded in 1999 by Paul Young, Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey, the Kilkenny-based studio has produced such celebrated work as the feature films The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, The Breadwinner, My Father's Dragon and Wolfwalkers, shorts including Late Afternoon, From Darkness, Somewhere Down The Line and Old Fangs as well as the beloved TV series Puffin Rock.
This podcast retrospective digs into the Skwigly archives to revisit interviews with directors Tomm Moore (The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, Wolfwalkers, The Prophet), Nora Twomey (The Breadwinner, My Father's Dragon), Ross Stewart (Wolfwalkers, The Prophet), Louise Bagnall and Nuria Gonzalez Blanco (Late Afternoon).
Also included in this episode is an all-new interview with studio co-founder Paul Young, who made his directorial debut last year with Screecher's Reach, an acclaimed entry in the Star Wars Visions: Volume 2 series that picked up an Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production as well as a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation.

Presented by Ben Mitchell and Steve Henderson
Interviews conducted by Ben Mitchell, Steve Henderson and Julia Young
Edited, produced and music by Ben Mitchell

Skwigly Podcast 114 - Summer 2024: Cartoon Saloon Special

Presenting episode 115 of the Skwigly Animation Podcast!

In this episode we welcome Chris Sanders, director of the Dreamworks feature 'The Wild Robot' out in UK cinemas now and adapted from Peter Brown’s #1 New York Times bestseller.

The epic adventure follows the journey of a robot—ROZZUM unit 7134, “Roz” for short — that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling.

Also discussed in this episode: Remembering Emma Calder, upcoming Manchester Animation Festival highlights, Cardiff Animation Festival's special presentation of Robert Morgan's 'Stopmotion', the return of Feathers McGraw in Wallace and Gromit's upcoming feature 'Vengeance Most Fowl', kvetching about 'Carol and the End of the World' and 'The New Norm', the furore around 'Velma', Mackinnon and Saunders' brilliant work on 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice', and the completion of the second Skwigly book 'Intimate Animation' (due March 2025)

Skwigly Podcast 115 - Autumn 2024 (Chris Sanders)

Skwigly.com presents Animation One-To-Ones featuring Ben Mitchell in conversation with Job Roggeveen, Joris Oprins and Marieke Blaauw of the Utrecht-based animation studio Job, Joris & Marieke.

Graduating as product designers at the Design Academy Eindhoven, the trio came together with a shared interest in storytelling, moving into animation to create an impressive portfolio of commissioned work as well as children’s books, installation pieces and music videos including spots for Roggeveen's musical outfit Happy Camper.

Having produced such work as the short films 'Mute', '(Otto)', the Emmy-winning 'Kop Op (Heads Together)' (which would go on to be adapted into the 12 episode series 'Swop') and the Oscar-nominated 'A Single Life', the studio recently made the the ecological short 'Quota', a darkly-comic cautionary tale in which every global citizen is mandated to participate in a program that tracks their CO2 emissions, which they ignore until it’s all too late. 

See more of the work of the studio at https://jobjorisenmarieke.nl

Interview conducted by Ben Mitchell
Produced, edited and presented by Ben Mitchell


Animation One-To-Ones 33 - Job, Joris & Marieke

Presenting the 116th episode of the Skwigly podcast!

In this episode we meet some of the talents behind the 2024 holiday animated feature films 'The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland' (director Peter Baynton and producer Ruth Fielding of Lupus Films) and Locksmith Animation's 'That Christmas' (writer Richard Curtis, director Simon Otto and producer Nicole P. Hearon) as well as the 22-minute BBC special 'Tiddler' (producer Barney Goodland of Magic Light Pictures).

Presented by Ben Mitchell and Steve Henderson
Interviews conducted and edited by Steve Henderson
Edited and produced by Ben Mitchell
Music by Ben Mitchell


Skwigly Podcast 116 (13/12/2024) - Seasonal Animations

Presenting episode 117 of the Skwigly Animation Podcast!

In this episode we look back at the incredible world of Wallace & Gromit, whose hotly-anticipated new feature-length outing 'Vengeance Most Fowl' will premiere in the UK on Christmas day!

We also welcome the film's co-directors Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham as well as star Ben Whitehead (voice of Wallace) to learn more about the duo's latest adventure, which sees the return of the franchise’s most beloved villain Feathers McGraw, known for his chillingly mute performance in 1993’s BAFTA and Oscar-winning The Wrong Trousers.

Gromit’s concern that Wallace is becoming too dependent on his inventions proves justified, when Wallace invents a “smart” gnome that seems to develop a mind of its own. When it emerges that a vengeful figure from the past might be masterminding things, it falls to Gromit to battle sinister forces and save his master… or Wallace may never be able to invent again!

The 70-minute long film will be the pair’s first feature-length outing since 2005’s Curse of the Were-Rabbit and is set to premiere on the BBC/BBC iPlayer this Christmas followed by a global release on Netflix in the new year.

Presented by Ben Mitchell and Steve Henderson
Produced, edited and music by Ben Mitchell
Interviews conducted by Ben Mitchell and Steve Henderson

Skwigly Podcast 117 - Winter 2024 (Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl)

Join Ben Mitchell, Steve Henderson, Laura-Beth Cowley and guests for Skwigly's animation podcasts, where interviews with world famous industry legends and skilled craftspeople go alongside cheery conversations about the world of animation. You can select from our sub-categories: Skwigly Film Club, Intimate Animation, Independent Animation and the main Skwigly Animation Podcast.

New tracks tagged #Ben Mitchell