A very detailed account of animated cartoons, strongly emphasizing
the influence and personality of Walt Disney. This genre's history
is still undercovered, so cartoon expert Barrier's book should come
as a welcome addition to researchers and fans. The former editor of
Funnyworld magazine opens his text with an assessment of pioneers
Bray, Barre, and McCay, focusing on the businesses and systems (as
opposed to the artistry) that went into their cinematic
experiments. Barrier situates the cartooning pioneers in their
office environs, detailing the management and scut work necessary
for the films' production. Moving on quickly to the meat of his
book, the Walt Disney studios, the author takes an interesting tack
in contrasting Disney's self-image (garnered from letters to his
wife) with the views of his associates and underlings. While fellow
animators considered him something of a bully and philistine, Walt
saw himself more as a driven businessman. Barrier extensively
covers cartooning's business transactions, noting specific dollar
amounts paid to animators, studios, and distributors and exploring
the deal-making that brought cartoons from the East to the West
Coast. Nor does he neglect the art's mechanics, providing
reasonably in-depth analysis of its growth from simple series of
drawings to multilayered cel animations. The book also covers the
later years of cartooning, up through the mid-1960s, with a brief
appendix on the longer animations of the '70s and '80s. While
Warner Bros. and MGM each get chapters, the narrative continually
returns to Disney's output; some may question whether this is the
definitive text on cartooning's history, or merely a Disney-centric
take on it. The book's strongest point is also its weakest:
Battler's in-depth coverage of every squabble, transaction, and
mode of cartooning. This makes it appealing to the historian and
cartoon geek, but a bit dull for the average reader. (Kirkus
Reviews)
In Hollywood Cartoons, Michael Barrier takes us on a glorious
guided tour of American animation in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, to
meet the legendary artists and entrepreneurs who created Bugs
Bunny, Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, Wile E. Coyote, Donald Duck, Tom
and Jerry, and many other cartoon favorites.
Beginning with black-and-white silent cartoons such as Winsor
McCay's "Gertie the Dinosaur," Barrier offers an insightful account
of animation's first flowering, taking us inside early New York
studios and such Hollywood giants as Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM.
Barrier excels at illuminating the creative side of
animation--revealing how stories are put together, how animators
develop a character, how technical innovations enhance the
"realism" of cartoons. Here too are colorful portraits of the
giants of the field, from Walt and Roy Disney and their animators
(including Ub Iwerks, Bill Tytla, and Ward Kimball), to Dave and
Max Fleischer, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, and Bill Hanna
and Joe Barbera. And along the way, Barrier gives us an inside look
at the making of such groundbreaking cartoons as "Out of the
Inkwell" (with KoKo the Clown), "Steamboat Willie" (the first
successful sound cartoon), "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," and
"Bambi."
The years from the Depression through World War Two witnessed a
golden age of American animation. Based on hundreds of interviews
with veteran animators, Hollywood Cartoons gives us the definitive
inside look at this colorful era and at the creative process behind
these marvelous cartoons.
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