Welcome to Move Madly.
What is it?
Animation production has ballooned in recent decades. Journalism hasn’t caught up. The field I’m active in, criticism, covers the art and history of live-action cinema well, but less so animation. David Lynch, Andrei Tarkovsky and Agnès Varda are familiar names even outside film circles; Regina Pessoa, Yuri Norstein and Naoko Yamada, not so much.
Move Madly was sparked by the sense that so much interesting animation isn’t receiving the attention it deserves. I write about new releases that do something unusual or fun, as well as films that are considered classics within the animation community yet which ring few bells elsewhere. There are reviews, essays, interviews with artists and filmmakers.
My focus is on short films, where the work that most excites me happens. But I aim to branch out sometimes to other places where animation is found: features, ads, games and—who knows?—maybe the odd phenakistiscope. I write with newcomers to these subjects in mind, trying to avoid jargon (or explain it when I use it).
Does it cost anything?
Most posts are free to all: I want the works and subjects I write about to find as wide an audience as possible. Bonus posts are exclusively available to those with paid subscriptions, which cost £5/month. Readers who opt to pay are helping support independent journalism and develop this young platform for critical writing about animation.
Who am I?
My name is Alex Dudok de Wit, and I’ve been writing about animation for over a decade. I used to be Deputy Editor at Cartoon Brew, the leading animation news site, and my writing has also appeared in Sight & Sound, Little White Lies, Vulture, Short of the Week, Skwigly, Time Out and the BBC. I’m part of the selection committee for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, focusing on animation.
My book BFI Film Classics: Grave of the Fireflies was published by Bloomsbury in 2021. My translation of Hayao Miyazaki’s graphic novel Shuna’s Journey (First Second, 2022) became a New York Times bestseller and won an Eisner Award in 2023.
(Newsletter logo: Fantasmagorie (1908) by Émile Cohl. Profile image by Joanna Quinn.)
Move Madly was a Substack Reads pick in September 2024, in a post curated by Coleen Baik, author of The Line Between.
“Alex writes clearly, simply, and beautifully about animated short films, and his newsletters are a delight to read.”
— Coleen Baik
“Like the best newsletters, it is a welcome rabbit hole.”
— Sight & Sound
“Can’t recommend it enough.”
— Cartoon Brew
“Thoughtful, informed essays on animation by Alex Dudok de Wit, author of the BFI’s great book on Grave of the Fireflies.”
— Animation Obsessive
