CARTOON — current posts — Fantasy/Animation

“Two Cadaverous Vultures”: Disney’s Gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

In January 1939, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced its acceptance of an animation cel set-up from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand, 1937) and “presented by the artist, Walt Disney” (Burroughs, 1939) (Fig. 1). The gift — an ink and gouache painting on transparent celluloid, laid over a hand-painted background — was duly hung with the museum’s other “recent accessions,” and immediately generated considerable coverage in the nation’s major newspapers, magazines, and wire services.

EDITORIALHeather HolianMarch 1, 2024ARCHIVES, HOLLYWOOD, CARTOON, DISNEY, CEL ANIMATION, ARTISTComment

The Story of O.J (Jay-Z & Mark Romanek, 2017)

In this blog post I will explore the ways in which Jay Z’s 2017 music video ‘The story of O.J’ (2017) evokes the problematic politics of representation in animation, and the damaging effects that these representations have historically had on understanding of American black identity and culture.

SEQUENCE ANALYSISMeghna JohalApril 28, 2022RACE, AMERICA, MUSIC, POLITICAL, CARTOON Comment

Review: Cartoon Animation - Satire and Subversion

The University of the Creative Arts (UCA) in Farnham, UK, was the setting for a recent one-day interdisciplinary symposium that confronted the irreverence and subversive potential of caricature and cartoons, pitting together multiple forms of animation with alternate modes of printed and graphic communication to illuminate the power of political (and politicised) pictures.

EVENT REVIEWChristopher HollidayMarch 6, 2020CARTOON, SATIRE, SUBVERSION, ANIMATION, BRITISHComment

Review: Todd James Pierce, The Life and Times of Ward Kimball: Maverick of Disney Animation (2019)

Despite working at the Walt Disney studios during the Golden Age of American animation, Ward Kimball is in some ways an odd choice of subject for a biography. The animator worked mostly behind the scenes, never directed a feature film, most of his work on famous films was cut, and he was never a household name in his own lifetime. On the other hand, he is as fascinating a subject as a biographer could hope for: a talented, creative craftsman, an eccentric who built a stretch of railroad and drove a steam train around his suburban backyard, and a skilled musician who played trombone in a long-running Dixieland jazz band.

BOOK REVIEWJohn A. RileyJanuary 31, 2020DISNEY, CREATIVE PRACTICE, HOLLYWOOD, INDUSTRY, CARTOONComment

Louis Armstrong’s Flying Head, Clothing as Food, and Renegade Angels: Queering Animation through Fantasy

If a dragon were to suddenly swoop down from the clouds, spread its huge wings over London, and wrap its mighty body around Big Ben, it would certainly be strange. Unusual. Weird. Fantastic. Maybe even queer. Of course, such an incredible event is not about to happen. Dragons, faeries, wizards, elves, hobbits – all remain firmly in the realm of fantasy.

EDITORIALKodi MaierJuly 6, 2018FANTASY, ANIMATION, QUEER IDENTITY, CARTOON, TELEVISION Comments