Book review: The Animation Studies Reader

As co-editors Nichola Dobson, Annabelle Honess Roe, Amy Ratelle and Caroline Ruddell establish in their concise introduction, the legitimation of animation has already taken place, so it is not this volume’s charge to perform any function of that kind. Rather, what the volume offers is a dynamic collection of insights from an impressive roster of specialists into the ways in which debates have developed across the field. Historical panoramas of animation are plentiful (see key works by Gianalberto Bendazzi, 2015–2016, and Maureen Furniss, 2017), but less available is an up-to-date survey of the ‘key lines of enquiry’ (p. 1) that this volume seeks to provide.

Part one, ‘Theory, Philosophy and Concepts’, opens with Lilly Husbands’ and Caroline Ruddell’s co-written chapter on approaches to the medium. The authors identify the prevailing ontological and phenomenological themes that undercut much of the field, drawing attention to the tricky question of what animation is and marking it out, finally, by its constructedness. This chapter is illustrative of both the qualities and limitation of the collection as a whole; more probing work on the philosophical underpinnings of the field exists in Dan Torre’s Animation: Process, Cognition, and Actuality (2017), though Husbands and Ruddell’s chapter works as a strong, well-explained introduction to some of the knotty discussions at the core of animation studies. The two chapters that follow are re-printings of Tom Gunning’s ‘The Cinema of Attractions’ (1986) and Aylish Wood’s ‘Re-Animating Space’ (2006). Both articles are important to the field, a matter re-established by their inclusion here, and are good to own if one does not do so already, yet are nevertheless widely available, especially the Gunning chapter.

The following series of new chapters set up a series of key discussions on the topics of realism (Mihaela Mihailova), the ‘uncanny valley’ theory (Lisa Bode), animated performance (Annabelle Honess Roe), and memory (Victoria Grace Walden). In Mihailova’s chapter on realism, what begins as a broad literature review with examples ends with thoughtful prompts on the ontological evolution of a medium with ‘dreams of re-ordering and (computer-)programming [reality]’ (p. 55) before offering suggestions for research to be taken up in light of new forms of technological hybridity (p. 56). The chapter segues nicely into Bode’s discussion of the ‘uncanny valley’ theory. Bode contextualizes the term and its usage, and litters her concise chapter with examples, but might have paused to consider the phenomenological effects of stop-motion versus 3D specifically in the rendering of humanoid characters. Annabelle Honess Roe then considers both the history of animation and performance, and animation as a type of performance, a theme which nicely draws attention to the technical and creative labours that make animation possible (pp. 76–77), a theme that is returned to in Paul Ward’s re-printed chapter at the end of the section.

Victoria Grace Walden’s chapter on animation and memory is a thoughtful survey of the ways in which the material properties of the medium lend themselves to complex and, at times, interwoven discussions of trauma, national identity and nostalgia. Walden argues that these themes are given new dimensions by animation’s entirely constructed nature which ‘foregrounds creativity, embodiment, and the subjective, which are fundamental to memory’ (p. 88). Part one closes with a re-printing of Ward’s (2006) article on avenues of theoretical correspondence with the practice of making animation. It is a good piece that covers a lot of ground, but mostly draws attention to an overall lack of work in the rest of the volume on the act of making and its critical intersection with existing and emerging theoretical work. It seems that further work on animation as a creative practice and industry, and the various roles of animators might have been the basis of another useful section of this book.

Part two, ‘Forms and Genres’, considers the multiplicity of animated modalities. This part of the book opens with a re-printing of Annabelle Honess Roe’s (2011) chapter on animated documentary. Honess Roe would go on to develop these ideas later in a dedicated monograph (Animated Documentary, 2013), but this chapter is an effective illustration of her incentive to use the competing formats of animation and documentary to answer epistemological questions about the essential nature of each. Paul Taberham’s chapter on experimental animation suggests that experimental animation is made possible by industrial independence. There are problematic inferences in his suggestion that ‘in experimental animation, images come from the quick-of-the-soul’ (p. 142) that implicate the chapter with the idea that experimental animation is a higher form. There is clear space here to consider cross-over animators – or rather, commercial auteurs with a tendency for experimentation such as Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir, 2008; The Congress, 2013) – which would add nuance to an otherwise binary view of commerical versus experimental animation.

Christopher Holliday’s chapter on features and shorts opens discussion about the ways in which animation’s history has been homogenized to an extent that it denies a distinction between the two formats. While a strong overview, this chapter might have considered how the practical reality of making animation, especially given the labour required, might give prominence to shorts. However, there is certainly enough here to prompt discussion on animation’s variances. Malcolm Cook’s chapter on advertising and public service films nicely follows Holliday, establishing a sense of how ‘animation and advertising [has been] inextricably linked historically and conceptually’ (p. 164). As with Holliday’s chapter, Cook draws attention to the ways in which conceptualizations of animation’s history have often privileged commercial features over its various other modes. Eric Herhuth follows with a largely historical survey of political animation and approaches to it. His chapter offers an important view on animation’s discursive uses, observing the propagandistic function of state-produced animation against less explicitly coercive media, such as studio animation that nevertheless exhibits latent ideological elements.

Following Herhuth, Nichola Dobson considers questions of genre in relation to modern animated television. Dobson’s timely chapter covers a lot of ground, tracing various histories of Western animated television to the present. It does seem that the chapter could have afforded to dwell a little more on the new industry paradigms presented by the popular rise of streaming services such as Netflix, which have been responsible for a whole host of original animated series. Amy Ratelle’s chapter on children’s animation takes a similarly broad view which results in some grand historical assessments of the medium’s history. Nevertheless, it is a well-written piece that emphasizes the commercial and educational applications of the mode. One wonders if there is space to include the use of animation for strictly adult purposes, be they dramatic or even pornographic (though Rayna Denison’s later chapter does touch upon this theme). As important as children’s animation is to the medium’s history, it is well-trodden terrain, and it would be interesting to consider how its prominence in that regard has influenced provocative uses of the form to counter or exploit its primary cultural utility. The final chapter in part two finds Chris Pallant writing on video games and animation. Pallant provides an insightful piece that erodes the line of distinction between the two forms. He considers how some video games, especially recent narrative-driven games, move beyond the purely ludological and demonstrate core elements that are demonstrative of animated traditions.

In part three, ‘Representation: Frames and Contexts’, the volume turns towards one of the key issues for animation studies, the matter of representation. Since Paul Wells (1998: 187, emphasis in original) declared that ‘the idea that animation is an innocent medium, ostensibly for children . . . has done much to inhibit the proper discussion of issues concerning representation’, there has been much scholarship attempting to unpick it. It is a shame that many of the chapters included here are either re-printings or abridged versions of existing work as this part of the book, more than any other, would have benefitted from updating.

Nicholas Sammond’s chapter on racial depictions in early animation history compellingly exposes and rebuts the idea that ‘the racist stereotypes that inform these sorts of cartoons emerged from a specific iconographic lexicon and have circulated in animation as commonplace expressions of contempt that dismiss the harm they express as ultimately harmless’ (p. 219). The following chapter is a re-printing of Alison Reiko Loader’s (2019) article on Asian-American representation in King of the Hill, which reveals in the show’s Souphanousinphone family ‘an assimilationist discourse that, perpetuated by the myth of the model minority, privileges white male hegemony’ (p. 244). Both chapters are strong introductions to two particularly pervasive and harmful forms of representation, but might have been expanded, even briefly, to situate their findings more directly in relation to new directions that are emerging in contemporary animation and animation studies. Nichola Dobson’s chapter on representation in disguise offers an interesting follow-up, illustrating how covert matters of representation announce themselves in unconventional ways in the Transformers franchise, observing how non-human characters are coded and how that coding can expose the nature of their construction.

Rayna Denison’s re-printed chapter, ‘Anime’s Bodies’ (2015), is an excellent discussion on the themes of sex, violence and sexual violence that recur so frequently in anime. Denison considers how violent anime, particularly Urotsukidōji, has impacted anime studies across global markets, noting how its challenging re-appropriation of anime’s iconography has proved challenging for outsider audiences unfamiliar with them. Amy M Davis’s chapter on ‘Women in Disney Animated Features’ is a useful introduction to an enduring topic. This chapter, more than any other, appears in desperate need of an update. It is a shame that Davis’s work here only goes as far as 2005, given that Disney has continued to negotiate its own history of female representation in seemingly revisionist features such as Tangled (2011) and Frozen (2013). The final chapter of the book is a re-print of Van Norris’s (2008) article on the British animated series Creature Discomforts (2003–2007) in which the author considers animated representations of disability against a general rubric for animated comedy that relies upon ‘essential . . . experience system[s]’ (p. 308). It is an important piece that outlines the need to move away from ‘staid representation’ in order to access ‘richer truths’ (p. 316) about access, identity and experience.

Overall, The Animation Studies Reader is an impressive collection of scholarship that substantially fulfils its purpose as an introductory reader for students and researchers of animation. As such, this volume should be considered a well-conceived and expansive pedagogical asset that will be a key text for all libraries of universities offering undergraduate courses in animation and adjacent media. From a pedagogical perspective, in its scope The Animation Studies Reader might be the book that teachers and students of animation have been waiting for, an accessible overview of the prevailing debates and concerns of the field. For researchers, the volume will no doubt provide a useful point of reference, yet the brief treatment of topics, largely symptomatic of the reader format, might not offer the depth that seasoned researchers might require. Indeed, there are more detailed enquiries into all of the topics covered here, which experienced scholars might prefer to turn to, but for many this will be an essential purchase that has diverse scholarly and pedagogical applications.