The Final Fun-Tier: WALL-E, Treasure Planet and Disney’s Nazi Rocket Scientist

A Conversation with Rowena Squires

If you’re wondering what to watch over the holiday break, this week’s episode will give you all the best film and television recommendations—and make you see your favorites in another light. (As the saying goes: never go to the theatre with a film major.)

I caught up with Rowena Squires, a PhD Candidate at Cambridge University in Children’s Literature. Although most of the tech billionaires cite hardcore sci-fi literature as what inspired them to go to outer space, Rowena introduces us to the neglected but critical history of outer space in children’s animation. We discussed the (not-so-cute-after-all) robot and consumerist environmental collapse of Earth in WALL-E; the re-telling of colonial narratives of the frontier in Treasure Planet and Lightyear; and Walt Disney’s relationship with the former Nazi rocket scientist Werner von Braun in selling the American public on space, and Space Mountain. We also talked about better ways of imagining outer space and humans’ relationship to nature, on Earth and in the stars — and some good viewing recommendations for your holiday break this year.

Be sure to take a listen!

As always, you can listen to it here or subscribe here (Spotify) or here (Apple Podcasts). If you like us, please rate, review and share the Anti-Dystopians to help us get new listeners.

Leaving Twitter? Follow me on Bluesky at @alinau27.bsky.social or Rowena Squires @rowenasquires.bsky.social.

---

---

Reading From the Episode:

From the Episode:

• Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race

• Alina Utrata, Lost in Space

• Catherine Newell, The Strange Case of Dr. von Braun and Mr. Disney: Frontierland, Tomorrowland, and America’s Final Frontier

• Wayne Biddle, Dark Side of the Moon – Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race

• Dietmar Meinel, Pixar's America: The Re-Animation of American Myths and Symbols

• Dietmar Meinel, Space: The Final Fun-Tier — Returning Home to the Frontier in Pixar’s WALL-E

---

What I’m Reading

• Elizabeth Warren introduces Senate bill to hold capitalism ‘accountable’, including requiring worker governance and approval for political donations

• Jeff Bezos Bends the Knee to Trump as Amazon Plans Hefty Donation

• Meta donates $1m to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund

• BuzzFeed sells “Hot Ones” studio for $82.5 million in order to focus on AI-driven content (spoiler alert: this is a silly idea)

• TikTok Loses Appeal on Challenge to Law Requiring its Sale

• Kennedy’s Lawyer Has Asked the F.D.A. to Revoke Approval of the *checks notes* Polio Vaccine

  • Speaking of good news in health, 5th person confirmed to be cured of HIV

• Musk’s Foundation Gave Away Less Money Than Required in 2023 (and mostly to entities he controlled)

• A Peter Thiel–Backed Startup City Wants to Be Africa’s Delaware

• White House weighing executive action to spur data centers

• Arctic tundra is now emitting more carbon than it absorbs, US agency says

• Average student rents in London overtake the maximum maintenance loan

• Britain bans puberty blockers for transgender minors, a medication that is commonly prescribed to children experiencing gender dysphoria

  • Teenage trans activists begin an encampment outside the office of Wes Streeting constituency

• Cambridge University urged to apologise over jailing of thousands of ‘evil’ women without evidence or trial: A 1561 charter granted powers to imprison young working-class women found walking with undergraduates after dark

---

Post of the Week

Go ahead and pre-order friend of the show Matt Mahmoudi’s amazing book!!!