The Peer-reviewed Open Access Online Journal for Animation History and Theory – ISSN 1930-1928
Volume 3, 2008
Exploring Representations of Disability within British Mainstream Animation This article discusses how representations of disability operate within the mainstream animation narratives of the British Creature Discomfort series (2007-8). These images are constructed as a response to concerns about broader social perceptions of the physically disabled and once scrutinized it is apparent that they are […]
Kawamoto’s House of Flame and Švankmajer’s The Fall of the House of Usher Judy clubs Punch with a mallet. Jack the Pumpkin King decides to take Santa’s place one Christmas. Gumby foils the Blockheads’ plans, yet again. In each of these cases, we as the audience focus our attention on the moving figures, finding pleasure […]
Or: Why the commissar shouldn’t vanish “Truth is strange, stranger than fiction.” William Makepeace Thackeray, The tremendous adventures of Major Gahagan (Thackeray 1921, 1) In spring 2008, a vociferous discussion erupted on the Society for Animation Studies’ mailing list on the subject of an extensive definition of animation. More technically-oriented explanations clashed with highly theoretical […]
Theories of spectatorship and cinema are nothing new. In fact, they abound. On the other hand, theories of spectatorship and animation are still rare. Rarer still are theories that implicate animation and cinema, including in the area of spectatorship. For us, beyond as well as between theories of cinema spectatorship that attribute a pure passivity […]
Ulysses 31, a Televised Re-interpretation of Homer’s Classic Myth This paper gives an overview of the animated series Ulysses 31 (1981), a French-Japanese co-production based on the epic poem The Odyssey, which introduced children and young audiences to Greek myths, relocating the original narratives into futuristic contexts such as the 31st century. Twenty-five years later […]
Animation Readership/Authorship on the Internet Introduction Traditional platforms for animation, such as broadcast television or cinema, are rapidly becoming obsolete as a new type of spectator demands more choice, the ability to interact with animated content and access to global distribution for their own user-generated work. Audiences are no longer satisfied with receiving a top […]
In the film industry, historically it seems to be a truism that women have not occupied major positions. Although they have participated in the profession, there has been a relatively small number of female producers, directors, and head writers for many years. A similarly small number of women have held positions of influence in the […]
Ganime is a new corporate project to develop the features of selective animation to provide a more flexible category of anime. Ganime was created jointly by Toei Animation and the publisher Gentosha. The overall project is to promote auteurism in animation by encouraging creators to have the freedom to exercise their imagination instead of conforming […]
Linda Willams (1998) defines melodrama as “a peculiarly democratic and American form that seeks dramatic revelation of moral and emotional truths through a dialectic of pathos and action” (p. 42). This emphasis on moral and emotional truth, as opposed to cinematic realism or adherence to historical fact positions the figure of the “suffering innocent” (p. […]