Resources

Welcome to the resource archive. Here you can find summaries of books, magazine articles, websites, and other media dealing with the history of early animation.

A History of The Musical Vaudeville

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"This is a history of vaudeville in 4 parts. The author   ~ describes the beginnings of vaudeville, the attempt to make vaudeville acts more appropriate for young and female audience, and the day to day operation of vaudeville theatres  ~ defines t..."

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..."

Alla Gadassik Media Research & Films

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"Alla Gadassik is a media scholar, teacher and maker who primarily explores the question of "what happens when we are making moving images?" Through looking at a wide variety of motion media, the role of bodily movement and gesture in filmmaking tech..."

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 Artist

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"Animation Artist provides articles and features on the topic of animation for animators. The predominant focus is on computer animation."

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 Resources

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"Podcasts, articles and images instructing on the art of animation."

Animation World Network

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"Columns, interviews and blogs concerning animation. Emphasis on industry"

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 ..."

asifa: International Animated Film Society

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"Website with news and other posts concerning the world of animation."

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 ..."

bro’Town website

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"Website for bro'Town, which, as the website informs, is "New Zealand's first primetime animated show." It airs on cartoon central. Video clips introducing the site to the uninitiated can be found by following the link."

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 Brew

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"Cartoon Brew is an extensive and frequently updated animation website that provides articles on all facets of animation."

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

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Author: Greg Ford, Richard Thompson

"An interview with Chuck Jones."

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."

Cultural Barometer

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Author: V.F. Calverton

"A review of Disney's  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

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 Discourse: Producing the Magic Kingdom

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Author: Eric Loren Smoodin

"This book is an interdisciplinary examination of the pervasive cultural influence of Walt Disney and his imaginary empire. These essays use an interdisciplinary approach to read through Disney's domestic cultural production "innocent" national icons,..."

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..."

harvey @ deneroff.com

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Author: Harvey Deneroff

"Articles and blogs on animation and film."

History of Animation 1931-1940 (with links to other decades)

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"A history of animation, demarcated yearly, contextualized via a short synopsis of then contemporary world news. Information categories include, deaths, births, animation news, notable cartoons, animation features and comics."

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 ..."

How to Make Animated Cartoons: The History and Technique

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Author: Paul Terry, Harvey Deneroff

"It is an interview with Paul Terry about the history and techniques of animation."

iCreate to Educate

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"Website for educational animation software for children. The easy to use software allows children to create simple animation. Download for free via the link on the website."

Information Aesthetics

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"Creative, visually compelling and often colorful maps, images, graphs and the like representing data."

Inkwell Images

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"Website where you can buy various rare old cartoons or old comedies on DVD or VHS. They also sell animation instruction books and are a video/film production company."

Jazz:: Animated

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"A website which addresses Jazz in animation. Articles range from tackling how bebop and jazz affected studios such as UPA to the musician Harvey R. Cohen's importance via Batman: The Animated Series."

Jerry Beck’s Cartoon Research

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Author: Jerry Beck

"Jerry Beck, many time author of books on animation, blogs, creates lists and writes articles on animation."

Jim Hill Media (A Special “Where’s Wall-E” edition of Why For)

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"Website on animation featuring articles, Podcasts and more. The article that will open with this link describes instances of intertextuality in Pixar films."