A Sight & Sound Book of the Year Jez Stewart charts the course of this extraordinarily fertile area of British film from early experiments with stop-motion and the flourishing of animated drawings during WWI. He reveals how the rockier interwar period set the shape of the industry in enduring ways, and how creatives like Len Lye and Lotte Reiniger brought art to advertising and sponsored films, building a foundation for such distinctive talents as Bob Godfrey, Alison De Vere and George Dunning to unleash their independent visions in the age of commercial TV. Stewart highlights the integral role of women in the industry, the crucial boost delivered by the arrival of Channel 4, the emergence of online animation and much more. The book features 'close-up' analyses of key animators such as Lancelot Speed and Richard Williams, as well as more thematic takes on art, politics and music. It builds a framework for better appreciating Britain's landmark contributions to the art of animation, including Halas and Batchelor's Animal Farm (1954), Dunning's Yellow Submarine (1968) and the creations of Aardman Animations.

Formed by a small group of university students in the early 1980s, Studio Gainax is now one of the most adventurous and widely esteemed anime companies on the scene. Although the company's immense popularity is a factor that of itself could justify a study of its members and their diverse creations, the studio is even more intriguing for its unique approach to animation. Formal experimentation, genre-straddling, self-reflexivity, unpredictable plot twists, a gourmet palate for stylishness, proverbially controversial endings, and a singularly iconoclastic world view are some of the hallmarks of Gainax's output.This documentation of the studio's achievements provides a critical overview of both the company and its prolific catalog of films. It begins by detailing Gainax's rise to success, outlining the most salient aspects of the company's professional development and assessing the studio's distinctive aesthetic vision. Next follow in-depth examinations of particular Gainax titles that best represent the company's overall work, including television series such as ""Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water"" and ""Neon Genesis Evangelion"", and feature films such as ""Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise"" and ""Gunbuster vs. Diebuster"". Each chapter highlights the specific contribution made by a production to the progressive evolution of the company's mission. A final chapter offers a panoramic recapitulation of Gainax's impact on the world of anime, with a focus on the studio's aesthetic and ethical priorities.

An exceptionally unique look at the development of the newest film from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Strange World! The Art of Strange World highlights the stunning artwork from the film's creation-including character designs, storyboards, color scripts, and much more-and features exclusive interviews from the creative team along with behind-the-scenes details. The next in this fan-favorite, collectible series of Art Of titles, this book is the perfect gift for Disney fans, animation students, film buffs, and more. EXCLUSIVE BEHIND-THE-SCENES DETAILS: Fans will want to delve into and explore this new Walt Disney Animation Studios film through production art, stories, and making-of details exclusive to this book. PART OF THE FAN-FAVORITE SERIES: The collectible Art Of series from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar is perfect for animation enthusiasts, filmmakers, students, and fans of Disney alike. Add it to the shelf with other books like The Art of Encanto, The Art of Raya and the Last Dragon, and The Art of Frozen. Copyright (c) 2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc.. All rights reserved.

Be a fly on the wall as industry leaders Bill Kroyer and Tom Sito take us through insightful face-to-face interviews, revealing, in these two volumes, the journeys of 23 world-class directors as they candidly share their experiences and personal views on the process of making feature animated films. The interviews were produced and edited by Ron Diamond. Your job is not to be the one with the answers. You should be the one that gets the answers. That's your job. You need to make friends and get to know your crew. These folks are your talent, your bag of tricks. And that's where you're going to find answers to the big problems - Andrew Stanton It's hard. Yet the pain you go through to get what you need for your film enriches you, and it enriches the film. - Brenda Chapman Frank and Ollie always used to say that great character animation contains movement that is generated by the character's thought process. It can't be plain movement. - John Lasseter The beauty of clay is that it doesn't have to be too polished, or too smooth and sophisticated. You don't want it to be mechanical and lifeless. - Nick Park The good thing about animation is that tape is very cheap. Let the actor try things. This is where animation gets to play with spontaneity. You want to capture that line as it has never been said before. And, most likely, if you asked the actor to do it again, he or she just can't repeat that exact performance. But you got it. - Ron Clements

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Disney animation studio redefined its creative vision in the wake of Walt Disney's death. This latest volume from renowned Disney historian Didier Ghez profiles Ken Anderson and Mel Shaw, whose work defined beloved classic Disney characters from films like The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Robin Hood, and The Rescuers. With vivid descriptions of passages from the artists' autobiographies and interviews, accompanied by never-before-seen images of their art and process, this visually rich collection offers a rare view of the Disney leg ends whose work helped shape the nature of character and story development for generations to come. Copyright (c)2019 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved

In Birth of an Industry, Nicholas Sammond describes how popular early American cartoon characters were derived from blackface minstrelsy. He charts the industrialization of animation in the early twentieth century, its representation in the cartoons themselves, and how important blackface minstrels were to that performance, standing in for the frustrations of animation workers. Cherished cartoon characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat, were conceived and developed using blackface minstrelsy's visual and performative conventions: these characters are not like minstrels; they are minstrels. They play out the social, cultural, political, and racial anxieties and desires that link race to the laboring body, just as live minstrel show performers did. Carefully examining how early animation helped to naturalize virulent racial formations, Sammond explores how cartoons used laughter and sentimentality to make those stereotypes seem not only less cruel, but actually pleasurable. Although the visible links between cartoon characters and the minstrel stage faded long ago, Sammond shows how important those links are to thinking about animation then and now, and about how cartoons continue to help to illuminate the central place of race in American cultural and social life.

This box of postcards representing Disney's modern classics collects concept art-many pieces never before published-and final frames from ten iconic films made since Disney's renaissance in the 1990s, spanning from The Little Mermaid in 1989 to Big Hero 6 in 2014. Copyright (c)2015 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

The official art book for the animated movie Spies in Disguise.

Super spy Lance Sterling (Will Smith) and scientist Walter Beckett (Tom Holland) are almost exact opposites. Lance is smooth, suave and debonair. Walter is… not. But when events take an unexpected turn, this unlikely duo are forced to team up for the ultimate mission that will require an almost impossible disguise - transforming Lance into the brave, fierce, majestic… pigeon. Walter and Lance suddenly have to work as a team, or the whole world is in peril.

In this coffee table hardback, uncover the concept designs, character sketches, storyboards, and production art, alongside insight from the artists, filmmakers, and directors for this animated buddy comedy set in the high-octane globe-trotting world of international espionage.

Enhance your animated features and shorts with this polished guide to channeling your vision and imagination from a former Disney animator and director. Learn how to become a strong visual storyteller through better use of color, volume, shape, shadow, and light - as well as discover how to tap into your imagination and refine your own personal vision. Francis Glebas, the director of Piglet's Big Day, guides you through the animation design process in a way that only years of expertise can provide. Discover how to create unique worlds and compelling characters as well as the difference between real-world and cartoon physics as Francis breaks down animated scenes to show you how and why to layout your animation.

The thought-provoking, aesthetically pleasing animated films of Hayao Miyazaki attract audiences well beyond the director's native Japan. "Princess Mononoke" and "Spirited Away" were critically acclaimed upon U.S. release, and the earlier "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service" have found popularity with Americans on DVD. This critical study of Miyazaki's work begins with an analysis of the visual conventions of manga, Japanese comic books, and anime; an overview of Japanese animated films; and a consideration of the techniques deployed by both traditional cell and computer animation. This section also details Miyazaki's early forays into comic books and animation, and his output prior to his founding of Studio Ghibli. Part Two concentrates on the Studio Ghibli era, outlining the company's development and analyzing the director's productions between 1984 and 2004, including "Castle in the Sky", "My Neighbor Totoro" and his newest film, "Howl's Moving Castle". The second section also discusses other productions involving Studio Ghibli, including "Grave of the Fireflies" and "The Cat Returns". Appendices supply additional information about Studio Ghibli's merchandise production, Miyazaki's global fan base, and the output of other Ghibli directors.

Be a fly on the wall as industry leaders Bill Kroyer and Tom Sito take us through insightful face-to-face interviews, revealing, in these two volumes, the journeys of 23 world-class directors as they candidly share their experiences and personal views on the process of making feature animated films. The interviews were produced and edited by Ron Diamond. Your job is not to be the one with the answers. You should be the one that gets the answers. That's your job. You need to make friends and get to know your crew. These folks are your talent, your bag of tricks. And that's where you're going to find answers to the big problems - Andrew Stanton It's hard. Yet the pain you go through to get what you need for your film enriches you, and it enriches the film. - Brenda Chapman Frank and Ollie always used to say that great character animation contains movement that is generated by the character's thought process. It can't be plain movement. - John Lasseter The beauty of clay is that it doesn't have to be too polished, or too smooth and sophisticated. You don't want it to be mechanical and lifeless. - Nick Park The good thing about animation is that tape is very cheap. Let the actor try things. This is where animation gets to play with spontaneity. You want to capture that line as it has never been said before. And, most likely, if you asked the actor to do it again, he or she just can't repeat that exact performance. But you got it. - Ron Clements

Meet more than 350 incredible clones, Jedi, droids, bounty hunters and a host of other characters from Star Wars: The Clone Wars. What is the Bad Batch? Who inducted Ahsoka Tano into the Jedi Order? Where does General Grievous keep a secret lair? Why does Captain Rex mutiny against his Jedi General on Umbara? To learn the answers to these questions and more, look no further than Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Character Encyclopedia - Join the Battle! Written by Star Wars expert Jason Fry, this illustrated encyclopedia features more than 350 incredible characters and teams, including Anakin Skywalker, Maul, Bo-Katan Kryze, and Clone Force 99. Perfect for fans of all ages, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Character Encyclopedia - Join the Battle! will enthrall readers for hours on end. (c) & (TM) 2021 Lucasfilm Ltd.

While previous work on the Star Wars universe charts the Campbellian mythic arcs, political representations, and fan reactions associated with the films, this volume takes a transmedial approach to the material, recognizing that Star Wars TV projects interact with and relate to other Star Wars texts. The chapters in this volume take as a basic premise that the televisual entrants into the Star Wars transmedia storyworld are both important texts in the history of popular culture and also key to understanding how the Star Wars franchise-and, thus, industry-wide transmedia storytelling strategies-developed. The book expands previous work to consider television studies and sharp cultural criticism together in an effort to bring both long-running popular series, long-ignored texts, and even toy commercials to bear on the franchise's complex history.

This book describes the dubbing process of English-language animated films produced by US companies in the 21st century, exploring how linguistic variation and multilingualism are used to create characters and identities and examining how Italian dubbing professionals deal with this linguistic characterisation. The analysis carried out relies on a diverse range of research tools: text analysis, corpus study and personal communications with dubbing practitioners. The book describes the dubbing workflow and dubbing strategies in Italy and seeks to identify recurrent patterns and therefore norms, as well as stereotypes or creativity in the way multilingualism and linguistic variation are tackled. It will be of interest to students and scholars of translation, linguistic variation, film and media.

Rolf Giesen's Puppetry, Puppet Animation and the Digital Age explores the unique world of puppetry animation and its application in the digital age. With the advent of digital animation, many individuals see puppetry and 2D animation as being regulated to a niche market. Giesen's text argues against this viewpoint, by demonstrating the pure aesthetic value they have, as well as examples of some of the greatest cinematic uses of puppets. Such samples include, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Ladislas Starevich, O'Brien, Harryhausen and Danforth, Trnka and Svankmajer, Aardman and Laika Studios, ParaNorman, and the Boxtrolls. Even live-action blockbusters, such as the Star Wars saga utilize puppetry for costume applications as noted within the text. The use of puppets not only helps create a wonderous world and memorable characters, but is also one of the purest extensions of an artist. Key Features Includes interviews with past and present practitioners of model animation as well as computer animation Reviews of classic and recent entries in both fields Comparison of what is better in stop motion versus computer animation A detailed history of animation and stop motion films

This book critically examines how Walt Disney Animation Studios has depicted - and sometimes failed to depict - different forms of harming and objectifying non-human animals in their films. Each chapter addresses a different form of animal harm and objectification through the theories of speciesism, romanticism, and the 'collapse of compassion' effect, from farming, hunting and fishing, to clothing, work, and entertainment. Stanton lucidly presents the dichotomy between depictions of higher order, anthropomorphised and neotonised animal characters and that of lower-order species, showing furthermore how these depictions are closely linked to changing social attitudes about acceptable forms of animal harm. An engaging and novel contribution to the field of Critical Animal Studies, this book explores the use of animals not only in Disney's best known animated films such as 101 Dalmatians, but also lesser known features including Home on the Range and Fun and Fancy Free. A quantitative appendix supplying data on how often each animal species appears and the amount of times animal harm or objectification is depicted in over fifty films provides an invaluable resource and addition to scholars working in both Disney and animal studies.

This book charts the complex history of the relationship between the Disney fairy tale and the American Dream, demonstrating the ways in which the Disney fairy tale has been reconstructed and renegotiated alongside, and in response to important changes within American society. In all of its fairy tales of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the Walt Disney studios works to sell its audiences the national myth of the United States at any one historical moment. With analyses of films and television programmes such as The Little Mermaid (1989), Frozen (2013), Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Once Upon a Time (2011-2018), Mollet argues that by giving its fairy tale protagonists characteristics associated with 'good' Americans, and even by situating their fairy tales within America itself, Disney constructs a vision of America as a utopian space.

This book assembles ten scholarly examinations of the politics of representation in the groundbreaking animated children's television series Steven Universe. These analyses address a range of representational sites and subjects, including queerness, race, fandom, colonialism, and the environment, and provide an accessible foundation for further scholarship. The introduction contextualizes Steven Universe in the children's science-fiction and anime traditions and discusses the series' crucial mechanic of fusion. Subsequent chapters probe the fandom's expressions of queer identity, approach the series' queer force through the political potential of the animated body, consider the unequal privilege of different female characters, and trace the influence of anime director Kunihiko Ikuhara. Further chapters argue that Ronaldo allows satire of multiple media forms, focus on Onion as a surrealist trickster, and contemplate cross-species hybridity and consent. The final chapters concentrate on background art in connection with ecological and geological narratives, adopt a decolonial perspective on the Gems' legacy, and interrogate how the tension between personal and cultural narratives constantly recreates memory.

This book examines the role of memory in animation, as well as the ways in which the medium of animation can function as a technology of remembering and forgetting. By doing so, it establishes a platform for the cross-fertilization between the burgeoning fields of animation studies and memory studies. By analyzing a wide range of different animation types, from stop motion to computer animation, and from cell animated cartoons to painted animation, this book explores the ways in which animation can function as a representational medium. The five parts of the book discuss the interrelation of animation and memory through the lens of materiality, corporeality, animation techniques, the city, and animated documentaries. These discussions raise a number of questions: how do animation films bring forth personal and collective pasts? What is the role of found footage, objects, and sound in the material and affective dimensions of animation? How does animation serve political ends? The essays in this volume offer answers to these questions through a wide variety of case studies and contexts. The book will appeal to both a broad academic and a more general readership with an interest in animation studies, memory studies, cultural studies, comparative visual arts, and media studies. Chapter "Introduction" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

DreamWorks is one of the biggest names in modern computer-animation: a studio whose commercial success and impact on the medium rivals that of Pixar, and yet has received far less critical attention.The book will historicise DreamWorks' contribution to feature animation, while presenting a critical history of the form in the new millennium. It will look beyond the films' visual aesthetics to assess DreamWorks' influence on the narrative and tonal qualities which have come to define contemporary animated features, including their use of comedy, genre, music, stars, and intertextuality. It makes original interventions in the fields of film and animation studies by discussing each of these techniques in a uniquely animated context, with case studies from Shrek, Antz, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, Shark Tale, Bee Movie, Trolls and many others. It also looks at the unusual online afterlife of these films, and the ways in which they have been reappropriated and remixed by subversive online communities.

Uncanny computer-generated animations of splashing waves, billowing smoke clouds, and characters' flowing hair have become a ubiquitous presence on screens of all types since the 1980s. This Open Access book charts the history of these digital moving images and the software tools that make them. Unpredictable Visual Effects uncovers an institutional and industrial history that saw media industries conducting more private R&D as Cold War federal funding began to wane in the late 1980s. In this context studios and media software companies took concepts used for studying and managing unpredictable systems like markets, weather, and fluids and turned them into tools for animation. Unpredictable Visual Effects theorizes how these animations are part of a paradigm of control evident across society, while at the same time exploring what they can teach us about the relationship between making and knowing.

Throughout its history, animation has been fundamentally shaped by its application to promotion and marketing, with animation playing a vital role in advertising history. In individual case study chapters this book addresses, among others, the role of promotion and advertising for anime, Disney, MTV, Lotte Reiniger, Pixar and George Pal, and highlights American, Indian, Japanese, and European examples. This collection reviews the history of famous animation studios and artists, and rediscovers overlooked ones. It situates animated advertising within the context of a diverse intermedial and multi-platform media environment, influenced by print, radio and digital practices, and expanding beyond cinema and television screens into the workplace, theme park, trade expo and urban environment. It reveals the part that animation has played in shaping our consumption of particular brands and commodities, and assesses the ways in which animated advertising has both changed and been changed by the technologies and media that supported it, including digital production and distribution in the present day. Challenging the traditional privileging of art or entertainment over commercial animation, Animation and Advertising establishes a new and rich field of research, and raises many new questions concerning particular animation and media histories, and our methods for researching them.

This study of 'independent' animation opens up a quietly subversive and vibrant dimension of contemporary Chinese culture which, hitherto, has not received as much attention as dissident art or political activism. Scholarly interest in Chinese animation has increased over the last decade, with attention paid to the conventional media circle of production, distribution and consumption. The 'independent' sector has been largely ignored however, until now. By focusing on distinctive independent artists like Pisan and Lei Lei, and situating their work within the present day media ecology, the author examines the relationship between the genre and the sociocultural transformation of contemporary China. Animation, the author argues, has a special significance, as the nature of the animation text is itself multilayered and given to multiple interpretations and avenues of engagement. Through an examination of the affordances of this 'independent' media entity, the author explores how this multifaceted cultural form reveals ambiguities that parallel contradictions in art and society. In so doing, independent animation provides a convenient 'mirror' for examining how recent social upheavals have been negotiated, and how certain practitioners have found effective ways for discussing the post-Socialist reality within the current political configuration.

This book reveals and explores the thriving animation culture in midtown Manhattan, the World's Fair, art galleries and cinemas during a vibrant period of artistic, commercial and industrial activity in New York City. Alongside a detailed investigation of animated film at the time - ranging from the abstract works of Mary Ellen Bute and Norman McLaren to the exhibition practices of the Disney Studios and the New York World's Fair - New York's Animation Culture examines a host of other animated forms, including moving dioramas, illuminated billboards, industrial displays, gallery exhibitions, mobile murals, and shop windows. In this innovative microhistory of animation, Moen combines the study of art, culture, design and film to offer a fine-grained account of an especially lively animation culture that was seen as creating new media, expanding the cinema experience, giving expression to utopian dreams of modernity, and presenting dynamic visions of a kinetic future.

Confronting shifts in the status and aesthetics of the real, Nea Ehrlich analyses how contemporary technoculture has transformed the relationship of animation to documentary by mapping out two parallel trends: the increased use of animation within documentary or non-fiction contexts, and the increasingly pervasive use of non-photorealistic animation within digital media. As the virtual becomes another aspect of our contemporary mixed reality (physical and virtual), the book aims to understand how this visual paradigm shift influences viewers, both ethically and politically, and questions the wider ramifications of this transformation in non-fiction aesthetics.