Animation: A World History: Volume I: Foundations - The Golden Age

by Giannalberto Bendazzi

A continuation of 1994’s groundbreaking Cartoons, Giannalberto Bendazzi’s Animation: A World History is the largest, deepest, most comprehensive text of its kind, based on the idea that animation is an art form that deserves its own place in scholarship. Bendazzi delves beyond just Disney, offering readers glimpses into the animation of Russia, Africa, Latin America, and other often-neglected areas and introducing over fifty previously undiscovered artists. Full of first-hand, never before investigated, and elsewhere unavailable information, Animation: A World History encompasses the history of animation production on every continent over the span of three centuries.

Volume I traces the roots and predecessors of modern animation, the history behind Émile Cohl's Fantasmagorie, and twenty years of silent animated films. Encompassing the formative years of the art form through its Golden Age, this book accounts for animation history through 1950 and covers everything from well-known classics like Steamboat Willie to animation in Egypt and Nazi Germany. With a wealth of new research, hundreds of photographs and film stills, and an easy-to-navigate organization, this book is essential reading for all serious students of animation history.

Genres: Art

239 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 4, 2015

Reviews

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly extraordinary work tracing the history of animation from its beginnings all the way to the end of the Golden Age in the early 1950s. This book, while a bit dry at times (and having some occasional minor grammar and syntax issues that likely come from being translated from Italian), is something all serious animation fans, and anyone interested in the history of animation, should have on their shelves. I can't wait to read Volume II!

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting content but the execution was kind of dry. I wanted more from the Walt Disney chapters.