To the Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973) Living in Each of Us Including People Behind The Lion King (2019)
Episode recorded: August 8th, 2026 (08/08/2026) 00:00:35 - Episode starts. 00:00:55 - Introducing Adam Zanzie. 00:03:50 - What is Jonathan Livingston Seagull about? 00:11:18 - Some background behind Richard Bach’s book, its theme, its root in the self-esteem movement of that time, and the production of its film adaptation. 00:38:45 - A brief discussion on the documentary subgenre with a fictional narrative. 00:50:43 - Why Walt Disney has a fixation with anthropomorphizing animals in any medium, even long after his death. 00:59:59 - Ad break! 01:02:21 - Would live-action movies with CGI animals still be considered as animation? (Trigger warning: the 2019 remake of The Lion King). 01:05:29 - Jay’s own Jonathan Livingston Seagull moment. 01:15:36 - Why Hall Bartlett, of all people, wanted to turn Jonathan Livingston Seagull Into a live-action movie instead of animation? 01:31:06 - That time the production team housed many seagulls in the Holiday Inn hotel room. 01:33:37 - Why no animator during the 1970s tried to turn Jonathan Livingston Seagull into an animation as it seemed like a fitting medium? 01:36:31 - Would Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973) be something that the 2019 remake of The Lion King tried to be? 01:38:59 - Jay’s question to Madzy: How should animators have responded to the 2019 remake of The Lion King? 01:40:56 - Jay’s pitch for his Brechtian CG animated movies involving photorealistic CGI animals. 01:56:34 - Final question for all of us: Why can’t you do it in animation when it’s a lot safer? This took a long while to get released because Jay is having a hectic month and got a new job. In this episode about a movie about a daredevil seagull rebelling against his flock, Jay and Madzy invited filmmaker and local Richard Bach expert Adam Zanzie. They talked about Bach’s self-help novel Jonathan Livingston Seagull and its film adaptation of the same name by Hall Bartlett, the historical context behind its rugged individualist message, Adam’s life-long research into the movie’s production, and the shaky relation between him and Richard Bach during his time making his video essay on the movie. And some details about how wealthy Hall Bartlett was and he used his money to make his most personal yet esoteric movie in his career. In the wake of movies made with photorealism CGIs and redoing animated movies with them (such as the 2019 remake of The Lion King), could Jonathan Livingston Seagull be made with that technology? Help the Prospect Heights Art Club to become a non-profit entity: https://www.gofundme.com/f/phac-year-five?attribution_id=sl:b6c96f14-9a4e-4066-b6f7-960c65670711&lang=en_US&ts=1786250862 Here is some info on the Prospect Heights Art Club’s exhibition at Studio Contro: https://partiful.com/e/p75Lk5DqoW6vV1qAhD2W Follow Adam Zanzie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adam_zanzie Watch Adam’s video essay on JLS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P817PgBqfmg Media we have mostly discussed during the episode (spoilers ahead): Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973), directed by Hall Bartlett Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970), written by Richard Bach Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883 – 1892), written by Friedrich Nietzsche Encounters at the End of the World (2007), directed by Werner Herzog The Lion King (1995), directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff The Lion King (2019), directed by Jon Favreau Mufasa: The Lion King (2014), directed by Barry Jenkins Watership Down (1978), directed by Martin Rosen Donnie Darko (2001), directed by Richard Kelly Bambi (1942), directed by David D. Hand, James Algar, Bill Roberts, Norman Wright, Sam Armstrong, Paul Satterfield, and Graham Heid Roar (1981), directed by Noel Marshall The Fox and the Hound (1981), directed by Art Stevens, Ted Berman, and Richard Rich The Adventures of Milo and Otis (子猫物語) (1986), directed by Masanori Hata
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