Animated Films: Virgin Film

by James Clarke

From Disney classics such as 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' to Nick Park's 'The Wrong Trousers' and pioneering films in the field of computer-generated animation, such as 'Toy Story', 'Shrek', and 'Finding Nemo', 'Animated Films' looks at the history of animation through close analysis of the genre's key films in categories such as 'The Disney Effect', 'Stop Motion Miracles', 'Britoons', 'Japanimation', and 'Digital Toons'. It is a fascinating insight into one of cinema's most captivating wonders.

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[David Ellery · Rating 2 out of 5]

While its breadth of coverage is good, and its basic setup is sensible and clear, and there is interesting information to be unearthed, this book is badly let down by the writing. The introduction sets the tone: overlong, sloppy, repetitive and dotted with frankly idiotic errors. True, the rest of the book isn't quite so bad, and the Disney section is almost enjoyable, but the issues persist throughout.

Most notable are: broken sentences, where the author seems to have changed his mind halfway through but not bothered to adjust the first part of the line to suit; reiterating the same information twice in rapid succession, including one face-palm-inducing example where a paragraph ends with an aside, and the very next one starts with the same aside, repeated almost verbatim; and basic informational errors, like calling Chuck Jones' legendary short One Froggy Evening, One Froggy Night. Not including Osamu Tezuka in the anime section feels like a massive oversight, too.

What could have been a useful overview and reference is instead reduced to a frustration by writing so poor it becomes a chore to read. Not recommended.