Abstract
This open issue of animation: an interdisciplinary journal features writings from a range of authors. We start with an article on Disney; the popularity and, indeed hegemony of Disney’s contribution to animation and entertainment is undeniable and in its close to 100 year history and development of various studios and partnerships, it continues to dominate a range of old and new entertainment screens. Authorship about Disney’s ‘wonderful (animated) world’ comprises anything from heavily illustrated coffee table books and hagiographies – often in conjunction with or approval from the conglomerate – to extended scholarly books and edited collections. There is a community of scholars that works on the early shorts, films make in a time when cinema was experimenting, and when Walk Disney’s production company was competing with others for a share of the animated short film market. Viewed alongside recent digital blockbusters, today, these early films, black and white, ‘rubber hose’ animation, are endearingly simple and complex at the same time, and in their playfuless allow for creative intellectual interpretation. Cary Elza, who has recently completed her PhD at Northwestern University, has contributed an article that investigates the spaces of the Alice cartoon’s mix of live action and animation: ‘Alice in Cartoonland: Childhood, Gender, and Imaginary Space in Early Disney Animation’. Working with cultural notions of Victorian childhood and others emerging at the time, she makes an interesting proposition that Disney’s particular interpretation of Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland – one of many at the time – was important for the company’s future in part because it placed emphasis on the presence and performance of the Alice figure in both animated realms and stage settings. As much as the various serial Alices in early cinema were based on literature, and indeed many Western animation films made (mainly) for children originate in folk and fairy tales, the next article takes us to the a more contemporary anime series made in the Far East. ‘Folktales and Other References in Toriyama’s Dragon Ball^’, by Xavier Minguez-López, demonstrates how Dragon Ball references a mix of textual, religious and cultural sources and traditions – mainly Japanese and Chinese – cross a range of media formats. Working with textual and character analysis, Minguez-Lopéz explores the omissions and additions in the anime series tha tallow parody to emerge, but he also shows how language play and puns are at work, and how magic is transformed as visual superpowers. The article helps correct oft times Western readings so the series by presenting it through the cultural contexts it is made in.
With the centrality of the human as ‘addressat’ – the recipient – of animation, methods for and analysis of animation as a visually (and aurally) perceived moving image form has much to learn from some branches of philosophy. The next two articles take two notably distinct approaches, thought they share an interest in movement: one through process philosophy and cognition, the second a self-assessed ‘naïve’ set of observations. Drawn from a larger research project, Dan Torre’s ‘Cognitive Animation Theory: A Process-Based Reading of Animation and Human Cognition’, offers what the author proposes as a new cognitive theory of animation, that he suggests is distinct from cognitive film theory. He narrows his approach to the visuo-spatial working memory, and discusses areas of meaning and movement thorugh some notable philosophers, to then focus on cognition and movement, and how the layers of (cel) animation, the complexities of which Thomas Lamarre has written extensively on in The Anime Machine (2009), to then describe how cognition is also a form of ‘compositing’. Torre then considers the fluidity of cognition as process akin to animated metamorphosis, and he dedicates a section to sound, language and the almost exclusively separate audio track of most animation, and how this is relevant for visuo-spatial cognition. Starting out with some reflections on why animation may be of lesser interest to philosophers, in ‘With a Philosopher’s Eye: A ‘Naive’ View on Animation’ Jeff Malpas frames this as the self-reflexive philosophic / literary conceit of his title. In his preliminary reviews of some philosophical dealing with animation, he discerns that animation is rarely the focus, and, as he writes, that it is rather subsumed within philosophical agendas or inquiries, and that many philosophers come into fields from the outside – and as the discipline of animation ‘theory develops, this is indeed the case for a great deal of writing on animation from scholars from other disciplines as well. Malpas then makes a brief excursion into Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (2011) to then address his main focus – two forms of movement: a unity of movement and a movement immediately perceived (the latter resonating with Torre’s interest in cognition). He also discusses Aristotle, whose writings are often (summarily) cited as the origin of the concept of the anima, to develop an extended discussion of further implications of the philosopher’s thinking on animation and movement. Malpas then segues into a framing of animation and movement as a topos worthy of topographic, or topological analysis, a topic he has written about extensively, positioning this as an alternative to what he calls a ‘temporalist prejudice’ (2014: 74) within animation theory, and, more broadly in modern thought. In both his and Torre’s articles are food for thought for developing a wider spectrum of knowledge around the spectator of animation.
This journal intermittently presents a section called Interstices that features articles with a leaning to creative process and practice, curation, artistic self-reflection and animation exhibitions. In the Interstices section of this issue Anne Rutherford blends a number of these topics on in her article about artist and curator Kentridge as an example of new formats for experiencing animation and film in a number of innovative spaces. ‘Space, Body and Montage in the Hybrid Installation Work of William Kentridge’ is a wealth of information and interpretation not only of he artist’s curatorial and artistic processes, but also in a wider theoretical framework around museology, hapticity and kinaesthesia. The writing also has a sensitive and observant focus on the experience of the artist’s installations; in places, one can almost gain an olfactory impression from her descriptions of the rooms in which he places his installations. We hope that our readers are able to experience one of Kentridge’s remarkable exhibitions in future, and other exhibitions too, as they are steadily increasing in diversity of content and geographic spread. 2013 saw major scale presentations of the Quay Brothers (MoMA New York) and the EYE Film Museum in Amsterdam, The Barbican’s 2012 WATCH ME MOVE is finishing a word tour (ending in Detroit, Michigan in January 2014), a revival of the 2005 Pixar 25 Years of Animation (first shown at MoMA at Paris’s new Art Ludique Le Musée dedicated to the art of entertainment. In China, still the source of much of the labour of animated series and films, the Tianjin Art Gallery presented 200 artworks specifically created for the short exhibition that had a remit to showcase the nearby National Animation Industry Park. As one of the first artists working specifically in and with animation, William Kentridge will no doubt continue to amaze museum and gallery visitors with new exhibitions.
We present three book reviews in this issue, all published by notable university presses; two on anime, from distinctly different approaches, and one that proposes a ‘world history’ of animation. Brian Ruh’s review of Jolyon Baraka Thomas’s Drawing on Tradition: Manga, Anime, and Religion in Contemporary Japan (2013) first takes us through each chapter with a concise description of the book’s structure and contents and its investigation of relationships and influences of religion and belief in anime and manga. then providing some constructive critique of what could be improved, while still noting the book’s strengths and contribution. He also provides some guidance for a range of potential readerships who may wish to explore Thomas’s and ends with an encouragement to the author to continue to work with his concepts in future. Dario Lolli’s review of Ian Condry’s new book introduces a concept of ‘soul, but one that is more relevant for cultural and industrial reasons. Lolli frames his discussion of The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story in wider theoretical debates, and explains how the author’s ethnographic perspective is effective in understanding both more prosaic aspects of the anime industry and the reasons for its global success. The review is enthusiastic in parts and argues this convincingly, but it is not simply praise, and his comments on some missed opportunities are generous but also a guide to potential readers in terms of expectations that such a book might give rise to. Our third book review by Mihaela Mihailova is of Stephen Cavalier’s The World History of Animation (2011), that joins a number of previously published titles that aim to provide a comprehensive overview of animation practice. Mihailova starts out by discussing the rise of the digital and mentions a few publications that address this trend, to then examine and assess Cavalier’s contexts that include digital animation. She notes the Western bias in his introductory ‘brief histories’ (that is also found in other writings on animation too), and then gives an account of the books thematic periodisation and structure, its case studies and what she calls’ ‘encyclopedic entries. Undertakings of a history of any art form will inevitably have some shortcomings, such as a focus on Oscar winners, and little mention of international animation festivals, and Mihailova balances her critique of these with positive commentary on its strengths, including its range of information and extensive illustrations.
The Back Office
We are currently preparing the July 2014 issue, which will be a Special Issue edited by Sylvie Bissonnette. As with a number of our Special Issues, it originated in a post-panel discussion at Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2012, and an invitation to Sylvie to submit a proposal. Sylvie developed an exciting set of themes and gathered an impressive cohort of authors. ‘Animating Space and Scalar Travels’ is an issue that explores animated media in new ways and other disciplines, including animation in and beyond narrative cinema. It has been a delight to work with Sylvie on the issue, and a pleasure, as we finalise production, to anticipate its publication.