Looks at the lives and careers of more than three hundred animators.

Provides comprehensive, step-by-step guidelines for creating a quality animated series and getting it shown, drawing on examples from such programs as Spongebob Squarepants and Rocko's Modern Life.

Few morose thoughts permeate the brain when Yosemite Sam calls Bugs Bunny a “long-eared galut” or a frustrated Homer Simpson blurts out his famous catch-word, “D’oh!” A Celebration of Animation explores the best-of-the-best cartoon characters from the 1920s to the 21st century. Casting a wide net, it includes characters both serious and humorous, and ranging from silly to malevolent. But all the greats gracing this book are sure to trigger nostalgic memories of carefree Saturday mornings or after-school hours with family and friends in front of the TV set.

Did you know that O'Malley, the alley cat from The Aristocats, is actually named Abraham DeLacey Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley? Or did you realize that Mickey Mouse has had many different careers, including firefighter, astronaut, detective, and truck driver? You will discover this and more in the brand-new, updated paperback edition of Disney Junior Encyclopedia of Animated Characters! Go from Abu to Zazu . . . with stops at Lightning McQueen, Tinker Bell, and Wall-e along the way. Get fun facts, tricky trivia, and cool quotes from the animated stars you’ve come to know and love. Find out when they made their debut, what films they have appeared in, what are their most famous character traits, and much, much more!

This pioneering book makes the case that iconic cartoon characters, such as Mickey Mouse, are legitimate cinematic stars, just as popular human actors are. Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop, Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny, Felix the Cat, and other beloved cartoon characters have entertained media audiences for almost a century, outliving the human stars who were once their contemporaries in studio-era Hollywood. In Animated Personalities, David McGowan asserts that iconic American theatrical short cartoon characters should be legitimately regarded as stars, equal to their live-action counterparts, not only because they have enjoyed long careers, but also because their star personas have been created and marketed in ways also used for cinematic celebrities. Drawing on detailed archival research, McGowan analyzes how Hollywood studios constructed and manipulated the star personas of the animated characters they owned. He shows how cartoon actors frequently kept pace with their human counterparts, granting “interviews,” allowing “candid” photographs, endorsing products, and generally behaving as actual actors did—for example, Donald Duck served his country during World War II, and Mickey Mouse was even embroiled in scandal. Challenging the notion that studios needed actors with physical bodies and real off-screen lives to create stars, McGowan demonstrates that media texts have successfully articulated an off-screen existence for animated characters. Following cartoon stars from silent movies to contemporary film and television, this groundbreaking book broadens the scope of star studies to include animation, concluding with provocative questions about the nature of stardom in an age of digitally enhanced filmmaking technologies. “[Animated Personalities] is impressive for its lucid historical structure and exceptionally enjoyable content . . . McGowan breathes life into celluloid figures, giving readers a backstory for some of the most enduring iconic characters of screen history. This is a truly gratifying book.” —Choice “Combining historical, formal, and theoretical modes of analysis, Animated Personalities represents a vital contribution to both star studies and the study of animation in classical Hollywood and beyond. By embracing a key problematic of the study of stardom―the inability to take any element of its construction as authentic―McGowan does not undermine the validity of this approach so much as craft a more honest and complete understanding of it.” —Synoptique

La 4e de couv. indique : "This is the most comprehensive book on the animated cartoons ever produced, with inside stuff on every series made between the years 1909 and 1981. Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Popeye, Rocky & His Friends, Huckleberry Hound, Top Cat, Spider Man, The Flintstones - they're all here along with information on their creators, directors, producing studios, episode titles, voices, running times, dates of release, and little-known items about the origin of each series. Jeff Lenburg provides plot summaries, character descriptions, easy reference guides, and more than 160 cartoon illustrations. For cartoonatics, film societies, or anyone who half-remembers Saturday morning TV episodes of the Roadrunner, here is a rare and entertaining treat."

Iwao Takamoto (1925?2007) spent a lifetime in the animation industry and was influential in the creation of some of the most beloved characters in the medium's history, including Scooby-Doo, Atom Ant, The Jetsons? Astro, The Flintstones? Great Gazoo, and The Wacky Races? Penelope Pittstop and Muttley, all of whom he designed. Iwao Takamoto: My Life with a Thousand Characters is the story of this legendary American artist, told in his own words. Takamoto records his experiences growing up in the heart of Los Angeles as a self-described ?street kid? and his wartime ordeal of being sent to a government internment camp for Japanese Americans. He recalls stories of how he and his teenaged friends still managed to function as normal teens despite the confinement of Manzanar. The book chronicles his career, first with the Walt Disney Studios, where he worked directly with the famous ?Nine Old Men, ? and later for Hanna-Barbera, where he was a key artistic force. Packed with memorable stories of working in the trenches of two of Hollywood's most notable animation studios and filled with photographs and artwork, much of which has never before been published, this book is essential for any fan of animation and twentieth-century popular culture

“A thoroughly captivating behind-the-scenes history of classic American animation . . . A must-read for all fans of the medium.” —Matt Groening In 1911, famed cartoonist Winsor McCay debuted one of the first animated cartoons, based on his sophisticated newspaper strip “Little Nemo in Slumberland,” itself inspired by Freud’s recent research on dreams. McCay is largely forgotten today, but he unleashed an art form, and the creative energy of artists from Otto Messmer and Max Fleischer to Walt Disney and Warner Bros.’ Chuck Jones. Their origin stories, rivalries, and sheer genius, as Reid Mitenbuler skillfully relates, were as colorful and subversive as their creations—from Felix the Cat to Bugs Bunny to feature films such as Fantasia—which became an integral part and reflection of American culture over the next five decades. Pre-television, animated cartoons were aimed squarely at adults; comic preludes to movies, they were often “little hand grenades of social and political satire.” Early Betty Boop cartoons included nudity; Popeye stories contained sly references to the injustices of unchecked capitalism. During WWII, animation also played a significant role in propaganda. The Golden Age of animation ended with the advent of television, when cartoons were sanitized to appeal to children and help advertisers sell sugary breakfast cereals. Wild Minds is an ode to our colorful past and to the creative energy that later inspired The Simpsons, South Park, and BoJack Horseman. “A quintessentially American story of daring ambition, personal reinvention and the eternal tug-of-war of between art and business . . . a gem for anyone wanting to understand animation’s origin story.” —NPR