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Book
Author Klein, Norman M., 1945-

Title Seven minutes : the life and death of the American animated cartoon / Norman M. Klein
Published London ; New York : Verso, 1993

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 MELB  791.433 Kle/Smt  AVAILABLE
Description vii, 284 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm
Contents Preface. The American theatrical cartoon, 1928-63 -- Ch. 1. Graphic narrative: 1928 -- Ch. 2. The gag -- Ch. 3. Story -- Ch. 4. Marketing: Mickey becomes a logo, 1930-34 -- Ch. 5. Fleischer: cities, machines, and immigrant life -- Ch. 6. The world upside down: 1930-33 -- Ch. 7. Machina versatilis: how the cartoon pays homage to the machine -- Ch. 8. What makes Betty Boop? -- Ch. 9. How money talks in cartoons -- Intermission. A summary of where cartoons go after 1943 -- Ch. 10. Transition toward full animation: 1936 --
Ch. 11. Depression melodrama: story -- Ch. 12. The whiteness of Snow White -- Ch. 13. Full animation: putting clouds into exterior scenes -- Ch. 14. Production: 1940 -- Ch. 15. The chase cartoon: Machina versatilis -- Ch. 16. The advantages of being boneless and incomplete: Daffy Duck (1937-42) and the zip-crash school -- Ch. 17. Citizen Kane, the cartoon: screwball noir, 1941-46 -- Ch. 18. The anarchy of wartime chase cartoons: Coal Black and de sebben dwarfs -- Ch. 19. 1947: Roger Rabbit then and now -- Ch. 20. Chase cartoons after 1947: consumer graphics -- Ch. 21. Villains and victims: timing the chase -- Ch. 22. Back to the animated line: UPA and the fifties -- Ch. 23. From one screen to the other: Hanna-Barbera -- Conclusion. Felix the cathedral meets the Swan hotel
Summary He traces the development of the art at Disney, the forces that led to full animation, the whiteness of Snow White and Mickey Mouse becoming a logo
Reviewing the graphics, scripts and marketing of each era, Klein discovers the links between cartoon and live action movies, newspapers, popular illustration, and the entertainment architecture coming out of Disneyland. He shows that the cartoon was a perverse juggling act, repeatedly invaded by economic and political pressures: by marketing for sound, by licensing characters to stave off bankruptcies, by Prohibition, the Great Depression, the Second World War and the first wave of television
From the first talking Mickeys to the demise of Warners and MGM theatrical production, Seven Minutes provides an enthralling social history and aesthetic appreciation of the animated cartoon's controlled anarchy. Norman M. Klein follows the scrambling graphics and upside down ballet of Fleischer's Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman, the Wolfie cartoons by Tex Avery and the Bugs, Daffy, Tweety and Roadrunner cartoons from Warners
Analysis Animated films
United States
Notes Spine title: 7 minutes
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-273) and index
Subject American wit and humor, Pictorial.
Animated films -- United States -- History and criticism.
Animated films -- United States -- History.
Cartoonists -- United States.
LC no. 93021203
ISBN 0860913961
1859841503 (Paperback)
Other Titles 7 minutes
7 minutes