Books

A Reader in Animation Studies

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Author: Jayne Pilling

"This volume reflects the growing interest in animation as a medium. Cartoons, including those dating from the classic Hollywood era as well as feature films and television series of a more contemporary vintage, offer a rich field for detailed investi..."

American Animated Films: The Silent Era, 1897-1929

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Author: Dennis Gifford

"Arranged chronologically by series, this is a complete annotated listing of all the animated films produced in the US before the advent of sound."

Animating Culture: Hollywood Cartoons from the Sound Era

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Author: Eric Loren Smoodin

"The author analyzes the animated short film and argues that cartoons appealed to a wide audience, not just children, and did indeed contribute to public debate about political matters. He examines issues often ignored in discussions of animated film..."

Animation and America

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Author: Paul Wells

"The author looks afresh at animation, discussing the distinctiveness of the cartoon form, as well as myriad other types of animation production. Insisting upon the "modernity" of the genre, the author examines its importance as a barometer of the soc..."

Animation Art in the Commercial Film

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Author: Eli. L. Levitan

"The author analyzes the animation of a television commercial, because she believes that the techniques used in the production of animated commercials are much varied than those used in theatrical animation. The book describes each process necessary f..."

Animation Art: From Pencil to Pixel, the World of Cartoon, Anime & CGI

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Author: Jerry Beck

"The author provides an overview of the history of film animation. He starts his book by writing about such animation precursors as the nineteenth century's zoetrope and the lantern slides that afforded animated effects as early as the seventeenth cen..."

Animation From Script to Screen

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Author: Shamus Culhane

"The author was an animator who worked for such important animation studios as the Bray Studio, Warner Bros. Animation, The Fleischer Brothers, the Disney Studio and Paramount.  The book covers every aspect of film animation, from basic mechanics to ..."

Animation in the Cinema

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Author: Ralph Stephenson

"This is an examination of animation history, techniques, major creators and characters."

Animation now! : Anima Mundi

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Author: Julius Wiedemann

"The artists behind the cartoons are the focus of this study that brings the readers everything they ever wanted to know about today's best animation specialists. Arranged A-to-Z, this book profiles 80 of the world's most prominent artist/studios, inc..."

Animation, Caricature, Gag and Political Cartoons in the United States and Canada: An International Bibliography

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Author: John A. Lent

"This is a bibliography dealing with animation, caricature, gag, illustrative, magazine, and political cartoons in the United States and Canada. Reflecting the substantial growth of comic art literature in recent years, it is representative of various..."

Animation: Genre and Authorship

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Author: Paul Wells

"The author provides an overview of the distinctive language of animation, its production processes, and the particular questions about who makes it, under what conditions and with what purpose. The book is furthermore a good theoretical approach to ..."

Babes in Tomorrowland: Walt Disney and the Making of the American Child, 1930-1960

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Author: Nicholas Sammond

"The author traces a path back to the early twentieth century sources of the normal American child. He locates the origins of this hypothetical child in the interplay between developmental science and popular media. In the process, he shows that the r..."

Before Mickey: The Animated Film 1898-1928

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Author: Donald Crafton

"The book describes the history of animation from 1898 to 1928. The author explains various techniques of sketching and camera work, characterizes styles of such pioneering animators as Winsor McCay, Otto Messmer and Ladislas Starevitch, places animat..."

Before the Animation Begins: The Art and Lives of Disney Inspirational Sketch Artists

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Author: John Canemaker

"The author documents the lives and works of Disney's "inspirational sketch artists" from the 1930s to the present. These are the people who prepare preliminary sketches and visualize all the details surrounding each character in the initial creative ..."

Building a Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire

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Author: Bob Thomas

"This book depicts the Disney brothers' unique relationship. The book presents the business acumen of Roy in such matters as licensing, the forming of the original Mickey Mouse Clubs and the retention of TV rights of Disney products as early as the 19..."

Cartoon Charlie: The Life and Art of Animation Pioneer Charles Thorson

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Author: Eugene P. Walz

"This is a biography of Charles Thorson, a Canadian animator who was a newspaper cartoonist, children book illustrator and illustrator for Eaton's catalog. The book is richly illustrated."

Cartoon Monickers: An Insight Into the Animation Industry

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Author: Walter M. Brasch

"The book presents the history of cartoons, film and television industries, as well as American social values. This book is moreover interested in why and how things came to be in animation, as they were a part of the birth of motion pictures that occ..."

Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation

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Author: Giannalberto Bendazzi

"This book analyzes animated film as an autonomous art form that has nevertheless been affected by the economics of live-action cinema as well as social and political forces, for instance the dislocation of Continental Europe's animators by World War ..."

Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist

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Author: Chuck Jones

"This is an autobiography of Chuck Jones. The animator provides information on his childhood, and his time in art school, gives advices on how to draw cartoons, shares the stories of creating animated characters, describes the process of making a cart..."

Chuck Jones: A Flurry of Drawings

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Author: Hugh Kenner

"The author first presents the history of animation and then focuses on the Warner Brothers animation studio, out of which came the wildest, most outrageous cartoons of the 1940s and 1950s. The author shows that Warner was the only place in animation ..."

Chuck Jones: Conversations

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Author: Chuck Jones, Maureen Furniss

"This book consists of interviews with Chuck Jones, which span more than thirty years, beginning with a 1966 Jones's conversation with Ray Bradbury. The interviews illustrate topics such as the development of Jones's career, shifts that came after the..."

Creators of Life: A History of Animation

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Author: Donald Heraldson

"This is a history of animation from the beginning to the 1970s."

Dazzled by Disney? : The Global Disney Audiences Project

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Author: Janet Wasko

"Products and characters created and distributed by the Walt Disney Company have played important roles in the popular culture of many countries. In some Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck comic books and films have been popular since the 1930s; in others, ..."

Deconstructing Disney

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Author: Eleanor Byrne

"The author deconstructs the political culture and the cultural politics of the Disney canon in the years since the emergence of the so-called New World Order. The author offers a critical account of Disney by examining such issues as race, gender, an..."

Disney A to Z: The Updated Official Encyclopedia

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Author: Dave Smith

"This book contains more than 6,500 entries and 1,000 photos and illustrations, many in color, covering all aspects of Disney's world, from brief synopses of all the Disney cartoons, films, and television programs to the names of the restaurants and s..."

Disney TV

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Author: J. P. Telotte

"The author examines the history of the Disney television series while placing it in context of the film industry's reaction to television in the post-World War II era, the Disney Studios place in the American entertainment industry, and Walt Disney's..."

Disney: The First 100 Years

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Author: Dave Smith

"The book explores the Disney story, the story of a man, a family, and a company. You'll meet the people who helped Walt make his dreams come true, see a museum's worth of classic photos, and participate in the opening day of the most famous tourist a..."

Disney’s Aladdin: The Making of the Animated Film

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Author: John Culhane

"This book examines the production of Aladdin. The author  writes about the techniques and music used in this animation, the construction of story and the problems that occurred during the production. The book is richly illustrated."

Disney’s World

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Author: Leonard Mosely

"This is a biography of Walt Disney, which tries to contrast his public image as a perfect hero with the reality and his true personality. The book examines Disney's life from his childhood to his death."

Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, 1939-1945

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Author: Michael S. Shull, David E. Wilt

"The golden age of animation stretched from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, with movie cartoons reaching an extraordinarily high level of artistry. Nearly 1,000 cartoons were produced by the seven major animation studios in the US between January 1,..."

Drawn to Television: Prime-Time Animation from The Flintstones to Family Guy

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Author: M. Keith Booker

"The author shows that prime-time animated series have had a profound effect on American television and American culture at large. The author shows that the advent of cable and several new channels devoted exclusively to animated programming have brou..."

Emile Cohl, Caricature and Film

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Author: Donald Crafton

"This is a biography of Emile Cohl (1857-1938). The author provides not only a wealth of information on Cohl's life but also analyzes his contribution to the development of the animation film in both France and the United States, and examines how the ..."

Film & TV Graphics: An International Survey of the Art of Film Animation

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Author: Walter Herdeg

"It is a survey of the best international film and television animations and cartoons. The book contains a lot of black and white and color illustrations."

Film Cartoons: A Guide to 20th century American Animated Features and Shorts

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Author: Douglas L. McCall

"This is a guide to 180 animated feature films, 58 features with animated sequences, and some 1,500 animated shorts. This book provides more basic information on animations rather than the more technical aspects behind the landmark cartoons. The autho..."

Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America

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Author: Karl F. Cohen

"This book looks at censorship of animation in cinema and television. The author examines how the risqu頧ags in some silent cartoons were replaced by rigid standards in the sound film era, the perpetuation of racial stereotypes in many early cartoons..."

From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture

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Author: Elizabeth Bell

"This is a collection of essays addressing the legacy of Disney films from feminist, Marxist, poststructuralist and cultural studies perspectives. The contributors examine Disney's dual role as American icon and as cultural production industry. The is..."

From Walt to Woodstock: How Disney Created the Counterculture

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Author: Douglas Brode

"The author overturns the idea of Disney as a middlebrow filmmaker by detailing how Disney movies played a key role in transforming children of the Eisenhower era into the radical youth of the Age of Aquarius. The author argues that Disney films conta..."

Hanna-Barbera Cartoons

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Author: Michael Mallory

"This is an examination of the career of Bill Hanna and Joe Barberra from the 1940s to 1990s. The topics covered in this book include the MGM years, the beginning of their own studio, and the description of the most famous animations and cartoons prod..."

Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age

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Author: J. Michael Barrier

"This is a guide to American animation in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s. The author discusses black-and-white silent cartoons and offers an insightful account of early New York studios and such Hollywood giants as Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM. The author..."

Hollywood Flatlands: Animation, Critical Theory and the Avant- garde

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Author: Esther Leslie

"With ruminations on drawing, colour and caricature, on the political meaning of fairy-tales, talking animals and human beings as machines, the book brings to light the links between animation, avant-garde art and modernist criticism. Focusing on the ..."

Living Life Inside The Lines: Tales From The Golden Age Of Animation

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Author: Martha Sigall

"The author worked with the most famous animators working at Warner Bros. Animation Studio, for example Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Frank Tashlin, Friz Freleng, William Hanna & Joseph Barbera and others, and at the MGM Studio.  The auth..."

Mouse Morality: The Rhetoric of Disney Animated Film

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Author: Annalee R. Ward

"The author uses a variety of analytical tools based in rhetorical criticism to examine the moral messages taught in five recent Disney animated films: The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, and Mulan. Taking the films on th..."

Multiculturalism and the Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment

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Author: Douglas Brode

"In this work the author argues that Disney's output of films, television shows, theme parks, and spin-off items promoted diversity decades before such a concept gained popular currency in the 1990s. The author argues that Disney had a prophetic visio..."

Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons

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Author: Leonard Maltin

"The author recreates the animation era from the silent days through the Hollywood golden age to Spielberg's An American Tail,  traces the evolution of the art of animation, and portrays the key creative talents and their studios. Drawing on colorful..."

Out Of The Inkwell: Max Fleischer and The Animation Revolution

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Author: Richard Fleischer

"The book is Max Fleischer's biography showing  both his triumphs and disappointments. The topics covered in the book include Fleischer's invention of the rotoscope, running the company, and business matters, especially Max's disastrous 1938 decision..."

Prime Time Animation: Television Animation and American Culture

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Author: Carol Stabile

"The contributors explore a series of key issues and questions, including: How do we explain the animation explosion of the 1960s? Why did it take nearly twenty years following the cancellation of The Flintstones for animation to find its feet again a..."

Quotable Walt Disney

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Author: Dave Smith

"The author presents the triumphs and successes of Walt Disney by examining his philosophies and his dreams."

Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation

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Author: Kevin S. Sandler

"This collection of essays looks at the history of Warner Bros. Animation, compares and contrasts it with Walt Disney Studio, charts the rise and fall of creativity and daring at Warner's, and analyzes the ways in which the studio was for a time trans..."

Remembering Walt: Favorite Memories of Walt Disney

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Author: Amy Boothe Green, Howard E. Green

"More than 100 people, all Walt's contemporaries, recall the ways their lives were touched by him. Disney is portrayed as a perfectionist, storyteller, genius, boss and family member and friend. The book is richly illustrated and contains rare pictures."

Rethinking Disney: Private Control, Public Dimensions

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Author: Mike Budd

"This is a collection of essays on Disney and his empire. The contributors cover such topics as Animal Kingdom, Gay Days at the theme parks, Disney's connection to sweatshops, commodification of The Lion King on Broadway, the transformation of Winnie ..."

Serious Business: The Art and Commerce of Animation in America from Betty Boop to Toy Story

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Author: Stefan Kanfer

"This illustrated history of animation looks at the creation and celluloid careers of such American icons as Felix the Cat, Jiminy Cricket, Mickey and Minnie, Popeye and Olive Oyl, Goofy, Yogi Bear, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Daffy Duck, Tom and Jerry, ..."

Seven Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon

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Author: Norman M. Klein

"This is a history of the animated cartoon from the days before Mickey Mouse to the rise of Hanna-Barbera's animations. The author is interested almost exclusively in how and why the shape of the seven-minute cartoon short changed from Felix the Cat t..."

Sound Theory, Sound Practice

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Author: Rick Altman

"This is a collection of essays that explore the importance of sound to cinema, from a theoretical as well as a historical perspective. Individual essays cover such topics as the conversion to sound, cartoon sound, documentary sound, and the voices of..."

Talking Animals and Other People

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Author: Shamus Culhane

"The author was an animator who worked for such important animation studios as the Bray Studio, Warner Bros. Animation, The Fleischer Brothers, the Disney Studio and Paramount.   This book is both Culhane's memoir of his career and the history of an..."

Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World

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Author: Carl Hiaasen

"The author looks at the Disney monolith, which he argues is destroying the ecology, creating an unhealthy environment(physically and morally), has taken over the media, ruined Florida, New York, Southern California, and France and has its eyes on the..."

Tex Avery: A Unique Legacy, 1942-1955

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Author: Floriane Place-Verghnes

"The author examines the work of Tex Avery.  The author first concentrates on Avery's ability to depict the American attempt both to retrieve the past nostalgically and to catch the Zeitgeist of 1940s America, which confronts the questions of violenc..."

Tex Avery: King of Cartoons

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Author: Joe Adamson

"This is a biography of Tex Avery."

That’s All Folks!: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation

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Author: Steve Schneider

"The author describes the history of Warner Bros. The first part of the book chronicles Warner's growth and development over four decades, while the second one contains short treatments of the major characters and their unique personalities. Factual m..."

That’s Enough, Folks: Black Images in Animated Cartoons, 1900-1960

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Author: Henry T. Sampson

"Using advertisements, quotes from producers, newspaper reviews, & other sources, the author traces stereotypical black images through their transition from the first newspaper comic strips in the late 1890s, to their inclusion in the first silent..."

The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals

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Author: Jerry Beck

"This is a list of the 50 greatest animated cartoons, selected by a panel of more than 1,000 cartoon historians and animation professionals. The book contains a lot of photographs, illustrations and interviews."

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