Animation

A Global History

VM402-07-SP25
Animation: A Global History
4 credits
Department of Visual & Media Arts
Emerson College
Spring Semester 2025
Friday 17 January—1 May 2024 10:00-13:45
Ansin Building 205
Dr. Martin Roberts

Overview

Animation has historically been seen as a sub-category of cinema primarily intended for children; yet it has been suggested that since the arrival of computer-graphic imagery (CGI) since the 1990s cinema itself has increasingly become a subset of animation with photorealistic content. This course reconsiders the place of animation in the history of motion pictures and seeks to recenter it as a fundamental component of cinema itself.

Beginning with optical toys such as the zoetrope and the time-motion experiments of Marey and Muybridge, it then considers the origins of animated cinema in the 1920s and 1930s, from the early cartoons of Disney and Fleischer to the groundbreaking silhouette animation of Lotte Reiniger in Germany.

Particular attention is given to the role of music in the historical development of animation, from the visual music of Oscar Fischinger to Disney’s Fantasia and Raymond Scott’s soundtracks to the Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoons of the 1940-1950s.

The course then turns to the wave of experimental animation in Russia, Czechoslovakia (Švankmajer), and Poland from the 1950-1980s, and its later impact on contemporary avant-garde animators such as the Quay Brothers. Parallel to this, it also considers the rise of anime in Japan, from the first anime franchise, Tezuka Osama’s Astro Boy, to Studio Ghibli and the emergence of global fandom for Japanese anime since the 1970s.

From the 1990s, the course considers the transformation of animation by digital technologies, including the shift from 2D to 3D animation in the movies of Pixar and Dreamworks; the stop-motion claymation of British animator Nick Park; and the digital puppetry of motion capture and green-screening.

Returning to the present, it considers the ongoing transformation of the animation industry by today’s algorithmic tools (AI) and the new wave of generative animation.

Through this global overview of the history of animation, the course seeks to demonstrate that far from being marginal to the history of cinema, animation has in fact been one of its fundamental principles all along.

Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will:

have acquired a detailed understanding of the global history of animation as a media form;
understand differences between drawn 2D (cel) animation and digital animation, as well as the different aesthetics associated with these;
be able to apply critical thinking to contemporary developments in animation industries using relevant analytical concepts.

Course Texts

Required
Stephen Cavalier, The World History of Animation. Foreword by Sylvain Chomet (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011).

Please order this text as soon as possible.

Recommended
Some chapters from the texts below will be made available as PDFs; you are encouraged to purchase at least several of texts that are of interest and read more of them.

Marie Beardmore, John Coates: The Man Who Built ‘The Snowman’ Epilogue by John Coates, Epilogue by Raymond Briggs (New Barnet, Hertfordshire: John Libbey Publishing Inc., 2011).

John Culhane / Walt Disney Productions, Walt Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1983).

Nichola Dobson, Annabelle Honess Roe, Amy Ratelle, Caroline Ruddell, eds., The Animation Studies Reader (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019).

[E] Maureen Furniss, ed., Animation: Art and Industry (New Barnet, Hertfordshire, UK: John Libbey Publishing Ltd., 2012).

[E] Daniel Goldmark and Yuval Taylor, eds., The Cartoon Music Book (Chicago: A Cappella Books, 2020).

Lenny Lipton, The Cinema in Flux: The Evolution of Motion Picture Technology from the Magic Lantern to the Digital Era (New York: Springer, 2021).

Research Resources

Animation Studies (peer-reviewed academic journal)

Mechademia (older academic conference and theory-oriented academic journal on anime and manga cultures)

Mechademia Second Arc (current iteration of Mechademia)

Great Women Animators

USSR Animation (YouTube playlist curated by Lev Manovich)

Skywigly (online animation magazine)

100 Greatest Animated Shorts (by Stephen Cavalier, on Skywigly)

The Crankie Factory

Baltimore Crankie Festival 2025

Center for Visual Music

Assignments & Evaluation

Brief Histories (20%)
In-class presentations (2) on animation in a specific national context, related to North America, Western/Eastern Europe, Asia, or Central/South America.

National Case Study (20%)
Case study of an aesthetic movement or style, 1,000 words (4 pages, double-spaced). Due mid-semester.

Midterm paper (20%)
Take-home. 1,000-word essay (4 pages double-spaced) on a selected topic related to global animation history (topics will be provided).

Research Paper/Project (25%)
Research on an approved topic relevant to the course. Individual or group. Further details will be provided after Spring Break. 1,250-1,500 words.

Engagement (15%)
Includes attendance, punctuality, preparation, participation in class and/or online discussion,individual conferences.

Schedule of Classes

Week 1

Introduction: Mickey-Mousing

2025-01-17_Fri

Early Disney cartoons: Steamboat Willie (1928); The Skeleton Dance (1929); The Art of Mickey Mousing (YouTube)

Introduction to pre-cinematic animation

Week 2

Pre-history of animation

2025-01-24_Fri

Cavalier, World History of Animation: “Pre-1900: The Origins of Animation”

Lipton, The Cinema in Flux: “The Zoëtrope and the Praxinoscope” (ch. 6); “Muybridge and Anschütz” (ch. 10)

Rehak, “The Migration of Forms: Bullet Time as Microgenre” (Film Criticism 32: 1 (Fall 2007): 26-48)

Robert A. Gonsalves, “Muybridge Derby: Bringing Animal Locomotion Photographs to Life with AI” (Medium, 25 July 2023)

Screenings: excerpts from Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer

Week 3

Lotte Reiniger

2025-01-31_Fri

Cavalier, “1925-1926 Germany” in World History of Animation

Moritz, “Some Critical Perspectives on Lotte Reiniger” (in Furniss, Animation: Art and History, ch. 2)

Justin Joffe, “How Swedish Band Dungen Scored the Oldest Surviving Animated Film” (Observer, 24 March 2017)

Dungen presents The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Getty Museum, 21 March 2017)

Milestone Film press release for The Adventures of Prince Achmed

Dungen, Häxan (soundtrack)

Screening: The Adventures of Prince Achmed (in full)

Brief Histories: North America I

Week 4

Visual Music: Walter Ruttmann and Oskar Fischinger

2025-02-07_Fri

Cavalier, World History of Animation

Center for Visual Music

Paul Friedlander, “What is Visual Music?”

Brief Histories: North America 2

Week 5

Silly Symphonies

2024-02-14_Fri

Cavalier, “1928-1957: Film Animation: The Golden Age of Cartoons” (USA sections, especially “1941 USA: Disney: Fantasia”) in World History of Animation

Charles Granata, “Disney, Stokowski, and the Genius of Fantasia.pdf)”

Culhane/Walt Disney Productions, “The Making of Fantasia”

Plumb, “The Future of Fantasound” (1942)

Watch: Disney, Fantasia (1940)

Policies

Academic Honesty

It is the responsibility of all Emerson students to know and adhere to the College’s policy on plagiarism, which can be found at emerson.edu/policies/plagiarism. If you have any question concerning the Emerson plagiarism policy or about documentation of sources in work you produce in this course, speak to your instructor.

Diversity

Every student in this class will be honored and respected as an individual with distinct experiences, talents, and backgrounds. Issues of diversity may be a part of class discussion, assigned material, and projects. The instructor will make every effort to ensure that an inclusive environment exists for all students. If you have any concerns or suggestions for improving the classroom climate, please do not hesitate to speak with the course instructor or to contact the Social Justice Center at 617-824-8528 or by email at sjc@emerson.edu.

Discrimination, Harassment, or Sexual Violence

If you have been impacted by discrimination, harassment, or sexual violence, I am available to support you, and help direct you to available resources on and off campus. Additionally, the Office of Equal Opportunity (oeo@emerson.edu; 617-824-8999) is available to meet with you and discuss options to address concerns and to provide you with support resources. Please note that I because I am an Emerson employee, any information shared with me related to discrimination, harassment, or sexual violence will also be shared with the Office of Equal Opportunity. If you would like to speak with someone confidentially, please contact the Healing & Advocacy Collective, the Emerson Wellness Center, or the Center for Spiritual Life.

Accessibility

Emerson is committed to providing equal access and support to all students who qualify through the provision of reasonable accommodations, so that each student may fully participate in the Emerson experience. If you have a disability that may require accommodations, please contact Student Accessibility Services (SAS) at SAS@emerson.edu or 617-824-8592 to make an appointment with an SAS staff member.

Students are encouraged to contact SAS early in the semester. Please be aware that accommodations are not applied retroactively.

Writing & Academic Resource Center

Students are encouraged to visit and utilize the staff and resources of Emerson’s Writing Center, particularly if they are struggling with written assignments. The Writing Center is located at 216 Tremont Street on the 5th floor (tel. 617-824-7874).

In-Class Recording

Regardless of modality or whether this course is being recorded by the College with the permission of the students for classroom purposes, this class is considered a private environment and it is a setting in which copyrighted materials, creative works and educational records may be displayed. Audio or video recording, filming, photographing, viewing, transmitting, producing or publishing the image or voice of another person or that person’s materials, creative works or educational records without the person’s knowledge and expressed consent is strictly prohibited.