18 Comments
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Jason Ramasami's avatar

This course is amazing - and highly recommended for anyone who wants to sharpen their skills. For someone out there this would be a brilliant gift https://alexgrigg.studio/animation-basecamp

Cailynn Birts's avatar

Around 60% of our readers live outside the States” a crazy stat! congrats on the international success! very interesting in watching angel’s egg. and suresh’s essay is 100% true.

Animation Obsessive Staff's avatar

Thank you! We're always amazed that folks from so many different countries have come to enjoy the newsletter. And what Suresh wrote is definitely controversial, but it was refreshing to hear someone make this case -- especially someone whose work is already hugely tied to local things. His Desi Oon is one of the best films of 2025, and it 100% supports his argument.

Salix's avatar

A big hooray for Frankelda receiving so much praise and love in far away lands. It has become one of my favorite movies ever.

Great list!

Animation Obsessive Staff's avatar

Thank you! And we're really thrilled to watch Frankelda succeed. Cinema Fantasma is one of the coolest studios out there right now and the team deserves this win.

jakey's avatar

Great list but also thank you for not doing affiliate links for everything. I’m dismayed by that recent development in “journalism” and glad to see some people still have integrity!

Animation Obsessive Staff's avatar

Thank you! And it's definitely a messy situation. Things are hard out there for written publications, and we understand the urge/need to accept affiliate offers and that kind of thing. But it's never been for us, and we're really lucky that paid subscriptions let us cover the costs of running the newsletter without needing to cut deals with outside companies!

Jonah Raye Anthony's avatar

I definitely plan on getting “Treasures of Soviet Animation” Vol. 2 and “Flow” for Christmas! I’ve been waiting forever to get them!

I hope “I Am Frankelda” gets a more expansive distribution deal in the near future. I’ve seen the trailers for it, and it looks amazing! And you know it’s something special when Guillermo del Toro provided some help with it! I’d really love to see it!

Animation Obsessive Staff's avatar

The Treasures collections are really something remarkable. We haven't seen a better copy of Snow Queen anywhere!

As for Frankelda, we're also crossing our fingers that they land more deals. We caught the film at Annecy 2025 and it was two hours of wild imagination. For the theatrical release, they reedited the whole film (cutting scenes and adding new footage) with del Toro's supervision, and we've heard the new version is even better. Looking forward to watching it when we can!

David Perlmutter's avatar

Thank you so much.

Animation Obsessive Staff's avatar

Hope the list is helpful -- we're glad we could share this stuff!

Giuseppe A. D'Angelo's avatar

Hey! Thank you for the gift list! I didn't know about the Miyazaki books, I downloaded the previews on Kindle but I'm sure I'm going to buy them. Question, though: do you know if they're filled with pictures and they're more enjoyable on paper? (In general I prefer owning physical books but sometimes I need to compromise on digital versions for lack of space)

Animation Obsessive Staff's avatar

Happy to share this stuff! As for Starting Point and Turning Point, each of them does have a handful of images, but both books are almost entirely text.

Buckwheat Blues's avatar

Thank you!

Animation Obsessive Staff's avatar

Glad we could share these -- hope they're a help!

Buckwheat Blues's avatar

They’re wonderful ideas!

Joey Clift's avatar

Thank you for the Pow! shoutout!

Animation Obsessive Staff's avatar

Happy to give it a mention! Huge congratulations on the release.