Feeling Animated’s First Anniversary

We’re celebrating a very special birthday here on Feeling Animated – one whole year! CAN I GET A WOOP WOOP!

Ahem. Seriously, though – I can’t believe it’s been twelve whole months since I launched this blog. Looking back, it’s amazing to see how what started out as a little “pet project” has grown and evolved since the beginning. When I set out on this journey into the wonderful world of animation last spring, I finished the month with just two articles and twenty-three page views to my name (admittedly, it didn’t help that I went on holiday right after launching). Now, I’m sitting here with seventy-eight articles under my belt and over two thousand page views a month. That’s crazy! For a chronic procrastinator like me it’s also a huge achievement, as I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to make it this far. I’ve had a passion for writing for as long as I can remember, and over the years I’ve explored a variety of different outlets for it, both fiction and nonfiction, but I always struggled to complete any project I started. After university, I had the idea of setting up a blog – the prospect of being able to write about a subject I cared deeply about with no restrictions excited me, but I also hoped that the pressures of writing for an actual audience would help me to overcome my procrastinating once and for all.

But what to write about? I considered book reviews or film reviews, before hitting upon the idea for an animation blog which could combine both and would provide endless opportunities to expand. After doing a bit of digging, I settled upon WordPress as my chosen platform and began to put together a site. I’m no tech wizard, so I kept things as simple as possible – honestly, I cobbled my logo together on Paint – but at the same time, I was keen to make the site as eye-catching and welcoming as possible. If you’ve been here since the beginning, you might remember that I had to go through a number of different “themes” before I settled on the current one!

From that point on, I was a blogger. It hasn’t always been easy meeting the deadlines I set for myself, but knowing that even a few people were out there reading my content gave me the encouragement I needed to continue. Gradually, I’ve begun to find my feet with this whole blogging lark and established a few specific “series” of articles, the main one being my Disney canon reviews.

So, if you’re new to Feeling Animated, you might be wondering – where are we now?

You can find links to all of my content (by category) over on the right, but for now, here are some samples:

Understanding the Disney Eras A bite-sized break-down of Disney history

Film Reviews

Film Review: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) The one that started it all

Film Review: The Jungle Book (1967) Nobody can resist Baloo’s charms…

Film Review: Robin Hood (1973) … even when he’s painted a different colour!

Film Review: Oliver & Company (1988) Gotta say, I didn’t realise this one had such a fan-base!

Film Review: The Little Mermaid (1989) The one that kicked off the Renaissance

Film Review: The Lion King (1994) The highest-grossing traditionally-animated film ever made

Short Reviews

Short Review: Steamboat Willie (1928) Witness the dawn of Mortimer (ahem) Mickey Mouse

Short Review: Duck Amuck (1953) Daffy Duck’s finest hour

Short Review: What’s Opera, Doc? (1957) And Bugs Bunny’s, too!

Book Reviews

Book Review: Disney’s Art of Animation A golden oldie

Book Review: The Illusion of Life The “animator’s bible”

Book Review: Tale as Old as Time A fabulous volume on one of Disney’s greatest classics

Book Review: The Art of The Lion King The first of the “Big Seven” Hyperion editions

First Thoughts

First Thoughts on The Wind Rises / Kaze Tachinu (2013) I complete the “Ghibli canon”

First Thoughts on Coco (2017) My thoughts on one of Mexico’s biggest hits

First Thoughts on The Red Turtle (2016) A hidden gem, well worth checking out

Listicles

Top 50 Credits Songs from Animated Films I’m a sucker for these

Top 20 Songs from Animated Films A difficult list to make!

Top 10 Villain Songs from Animated Films Because we all know they get the best songs

 

In the coming months, this is what you can expect to see here:

1. First of all, we still have ten Disney classics to go on our epic eighty-year marathon: Meet the Robinsons, Bolt, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Winnie the Pooh, Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia and Moana. If I can manage to stick to my one-review-per-week rule, then we should be wrapping up in the middle of June – just in time for summer!
2. To celebrate the completion of the canon, I’ll then be doing a series of posts exploring it in more detail – ranking the films, picking out the best and the worst, and all sorts of other things we animation buffs just love to argue about.
3. After that, I’m excited to sink my teeth into a whole bunch of other fantastic classics, such as The Iron Giant, The Prince of Egypt and Spirited Away. For anyone who’s getting tired of Disney, variety is coming, I promise!
4. Once the Disney canon reviews are done, I’ll also have time to start looking at classic animated shows in a new segment for the site, beginning with Rugrats.
5. And of course, alongside all of this will be the usual short reviews, book reviews and my first thoughts on new (or older) animated pieces as I see them for the first time. We’re in the midst of the Hyperion era in the book reviews, so keep an eye out for the rest of those if you’re a collector!

Now, I’m not great with the mushy stuff, but I just want to take a moment to thank you guys for the time you’ve spent here over the last year. It’s been a lot of hard work and I wasn’t always totally sure what I was doing, but seeing so many of you stopping by has provided me with endless motivation and made it all feel worthwhile. The fact that I have visitors from as far away as Australia, Russia, Brazil and Japan never fails to amaze and delight me, and I welcome you all warmly every time you visit. Every comment, every like and every page view is greatly appreciated, and I’m especially grateful to my regulars who’ve stuck around and kept reading week after week – the site would be nothing without the support of its readers. Really, it means a lot.

If any of you out there are harbouring a dream of starting a blog of your own, don’t hesitate – it’s a hugely rewarding experience. Sure, it may be a lot of work, but just pick a topic you truly care about and you’ll never look back. As long as that topic is broad enough to prevent you from running out of things to say, you’ll be typing up a storm in no time. A lot of online articles make it seem intimidating (not to mention expensive), but not all blogs have to be run like a business and with WordPress, you can do it all for free. I look forward to preparing and writing my posts each week, and you get such a rush when you post something you’ve put so much effort into and see readers from around the world enjoying it. Blogging is a fun and creative way to engage with like-minded people, so what are you waiting for? If it’s something you’ve always wanted to try, go for it!

I shall see you again later this week for a review of Meet the Robinsons, and until then, once again, thank you so much for visiting – you’re always most welcome. Stay animated!

Thank you, اﺮﻜﺷ, благодаря, děkuji, dank u, merci, danke, ευχαριστώ, mahalo, .תודה, dhanyavād, takk, terima kasih, grazie, どうもありがとう, 감사합니다, 谢谢, terima kasih, Xièxiè, dziękuję, спасибо, gracias, kop khun and ngiyabonga!