Books in French are on www.livres-cinema.info
Reading the Rabbit
Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation
(0 vote)Average rating:
| 0 | rating |  = We can do without |
| 0 | rating |  = Good book |
| 0 | rating |  = Excellent book |
| 0 | rating |  = Unique / a reference |
Your rating: -
Book Presentation:
"A wide-ranging inquiry into an important area of contemporary scholarly interest, and also an engaging, well written and intelligently conceived collection." -Eric Smoodin, author of Animating Culture: Hollywood Cartoons From the Sound Era
Despite the success of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and their Looney cohorts, Warner Bros. animation worked in the shadow of Disney for many years. The past ten years have seen a resurgence in Warner Bros. animation as they produce new Bugs Bunny cartoons and theatrical features like Space Jam as well as television shows like Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs. While Disney's animation plays it safe and mirrors traditional cinema stories, Warner Bros. is known for a more original and even anarchistic style of narration, a willingness to take risks in story construction, a fearlessness in crossing gender lines with its characters, and a freedom in breaking boundaries. This collection of essays looks at the history of Warner Bros. animation, compares and contrasts the two studios, charts the rise and fall of creativity and daring at Warner's, and analyzes the ways in which the studio was for a time transgressive in its treatment of class, race, and gender. It reveals how safety and commercialization have, in the end, triumphed at Warner Bros. just as they much earlier conquered Disney.
The book also discusses fan parodies of Warner Bros. animation on the Internet today, the Bugs Bunny cross-dressing cartoons, cartoons that were censored by the studio, and the merchandising and licensing strategies of the Warner Bros. studio stores. Contributors are Donald Crafton, Ben Fraser, Michael Frierson, Norman M. Klein, Terry Lindvall, Bill Mikulak, Barry Putterman, Kevin S. Sandler, Hank Sartin, Linda Simensky, Kirsten Moana Thompson, Gene Walz, and Timothy R. White.
About the Author:
KEVIN S. SANDLER is an assistant professor of media industries at the University of Arizona. In 1995 he won the Society for Animation Studies Student Essay Contest.
See the publisher website: Rutgers University Press
> From the same author:
The Naked Truth (2007)
Why Hollywood Doesn't Make X-rated Movies
> On a related topic:
A Van Beuren Production (2020)
A History of the 619 Cartoons, 875 Live Action Shorts, Four Feature Films and One Serial of Amedee Van Beuren
by Hal Erickson
Shadow of a Mouse (2012)
Performance, Belief, and World-Making in Animation
That's All Folks? (2011)
Ecocritical Readings of American Animated Features
by Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann
Film Cartoons (2005)
A Guide to 20th Century American Animated Features and Shorts
Hollywood Cartoons (2004)
American Animation in Its Golden Age
The Art of Walt Disney (2023)
From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms and Beyond: Disney 100 Celebration Edition
Subject: Studio > Disney Studios
Walt Disney Film Archives (2022)
The Animated Movies 1921-1968
Dir. Daniel Kothenschulte
(in English and French)
Subject: Studio > Disney Studios
Back
