- Purchase this entertainment book and get 12 issues to either Rolling Stone, Men's Journal or Us Weekly for $2.95 each. That's less than $0.25 an issue. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Join Amazon Prime and ship Two-Day for free and Overnight for $3.99. Already a member? Sign in.
|
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons; Revised and Updated (Plume Books) by Leonard Maltin |
by Steven Watts
|
The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney by Richard Schickel |
by Susan J. Napier
|
by Donald Crafton
|
Editorial Reviews
From Kirkus Reviews
An aggressively didactic history of the animated cartoon from the days before Mickey Mouse to the rise (or fall, depending on your feelings about the Flintstones) of Hanna-Barbera's 137 TV programs. Unlike Eric Smoodin's Animating Culture (p. 516), Klein's history insists on maintaining a sharp focus: It's interested almost exclusively in how and why the shape of the seven-minute cartoon short changed from Felix the Cat to Disney and Warners to the UPA cartoons (Gerald McBoing-Boing, Mr. Magoo) of the 50's. What modes of space and entertainment have different cartoons drawn their inspiration from? The earliest cartoons, argues Klein (California Institute of the Arts), were staged in the depthless space of vaudeville gags, their jokes typically depending on spatial transformations between foreground characters and background objects (Felix using his tail as a crank to start a prop car). What Disney brought to the cartoon short was a fascination with the same deep space that marked live-action movies, with a corresponding emphasis on realistic melodrama, full animation, and the artful illusions of the multiplane camera. Even as Disney was turning increasingly to features and merchandising tie-ins (which alone kept the studio solvent in the 30's and 40's), Tex Avery and Chuck Jones at Warners were leading a more formulaic return to the anarchic chases of the earliest animation. Meanwhile, UPA pioneered the stripped-down style of ``consumer cubism,'' inspired not by painting but by advertisements, architecture, and consumer spaces like shopping malls and amusement parks. Klein's often schoolmarmish tone gets in the way of his ambitious secondary goal--to provide a history of the American audience's perception. As a brief history of the evolution of Hollywood cartoons, though, this could hardly be improved. (B&w illustrations) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Norman Klein in his remarkable Seven Minutes: ""The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon has accomplished what is by no means a mior miracle... the work is erudite, witty, comprehensive and just plain fun."" Chuck Jones Animation Director ""A Volume that should be on every toon fan's bookshelf... genuine food for thought with a mass of fascinating detail"" Sight and Sound ""This is an important contribution to the history of American popular culture and a god mine of suggestive insights into the inner workings of the cartoon business."" American Historical Review
See all Editorial Reviews
An aggressively didactic history of the animated cartoon from the days before Mickey Mouse to the rise (or fall, depending on your feelings about the Flintstones) of Hanna-Barbera's 137 TV programs. Unlike Eric Smoodin's Animating Culture (p. 516), Klein's history insists on maintaining a sharp focus: It's interested almost exclusively in how and why the shape of the seven-minute cartoon short changed from Felix the Cat to Disney and Warners to the UPA cartoons (Gerald McBoing-Boing, Mr. Magoo) of the 50's. What modes of space and entertainment have different cartoons drawn their inspiration from? The earliest cartoons, argues Klein (California Institute of the Arts), were staged in the depthless space of vaudeville gags, their jokes typically depending on spatial transformations between foreground characters and background objects (Felix using his tail as a crank to start a prop car). What Disney brought to the cartoon short was a fascination with the same deep space that marked live-action movies, with a corresponding emphasis on realistic melodrama, full animation, and the artful illusions of the multiplane camera. Even as Disney was turning increasingly to features and merchandising tie-ins (which alone kept the studio solvent in the 30's and 40's), Tex Avery and Chuck Jones at Warners were leading a more formulaic return to the anarchic chases of the earliest animation. Meanwhile, UPA pioneered the stripped-down style of ``consumer cubism,'' inspired not by painting but by advertisements, architecture, and consumer spaces like shopping malls and amusement parks. Klein's often schoolmarmish tone gets in the way of his ambitious secondary goal--to provide a history of the American audience's perception. As a brief history of the evolution of Hollywood cartoons, though, this could hardly be improved. (B&w illustrations) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Norman Klein in his remarkable Seven Minutes: ""The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon has accomplished what is by no means a mior miracle... the work is erudite, witty, comprehensive and just plain fun."" Chuck Jones Animation Director ""A Volume that should be on every toon fan's bookshelf... genuine food for thought with a mass of fascinating detail"" Sight and Sound ""This is an important contribution to the history of American popular culture and a god mine of suggestive insights into the inner workings of the cartoon business."" American Historical Review
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Look Inside This Book
Citations
(learn more)
9
books
cite this book:
See all 9 books citing this book
- Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation by Kevin S. Sandler on 4 pages
- Cuba and the Tempest: Literature and Cinema in the Time of Diaspora (Envisioning Cuba) by Eduardo Gonzçlez in Front Matter, page 76, and Back Matter
- Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture by Jason Mittell in Back Matter
- The Blackwell Cultural Economy Reader (Blackwell Readers in Geography) by Ash Amin on page 402
- The Case of Peter Rabbit: Changing Conditions of Literature for Children (Children's Literature and Culture, Vol 7) by Margaret Mackey in Back Matter
See all 9 books citing this book
What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
 |
93% buy the item featured on this page: Seven Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon $24.95 |
 |
7% buy The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects $20.40 |
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search
No one has tagged this product for Amazon search yet. Why not be the first to suggest a search for which it should appear?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Customer Discussions
Beta (What's this?)
New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.
|
This product's forum
(0 discussions)
Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Active discussions in related forums
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Information from the Amapedia Community
Beta (What's this?)Be the first person to add an article about this item at Amapedia.com.
› See featured Amapedia.com articles
So You'd Like to...
Look for Similar Items by Category
Shop in a Box with Power-Tool Combo Packs |
Buy Three Books, Get a Fourth Free |
Plow Your Way Through Winter |
||||||||
|
Your Recent History
(What's this?)|
You have no recently viewed items or searches.
After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session. |
Continue shopping: Top Sellers
| ||||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
