The World History of Animation Hardcover – 1 Sept. 2011

Great book chronicling the history of animation globally.

Very interesting, handy for project work in animation.

Brilliant and interesting book. Perfect for budding animators or those with an interest.

Bought this as a Christmas present so need to find out from my husband.

This book contains all facts you need to know in an easy to read format.

Received (and of course picked!) as a present for Christmas just gone, I have only just about managed to finish reading this scrutinisingly researched piece of work. Not sure what kind of scale that is? Well, this is a book that covers as many animated features that you could wag a stick at, and possibly more.I was quite dubious as to what the product entailed at first, given the ambiguous title, but I was quite pleased to find that the author had attempted a tricky operation of chronologically listing and describing almost every animated series of cartoons or films that have ever been produced. I should point out here that this book doesn't list 'every' cartoon, but lists them and explores only a chosen few in detail.Of course, although the academic benefits are extraordinary, you'll also be trudging through some periods and cultures that haven't exactly lit the medium alight. This is no disrespect to those producers, because not every film or cartoon has stood out as a classic or aged well. But this somewhat helps to appreciate many of the animations even more, for the book can go from discussing the bleak tone of 'When The Wind Blows', to the extraordinary heights of 'The Lion King'.Given it is not biased to any particular form of animation, origin or time/place, this is a broad piece of reading material that is really only going to appeal to those who have a deep interest in the medium itself - not their favourite film.

This book represents a real labour of love. With a lovely Betty Boop cover and a great foreword by Sylvain Chomet, Stephen Cavalier has written a comprehensive book excellently covering all aspects of animation.This includes its origins, such as Eadward Muybridge's sequential photos, French motion photographs, George Mèliés' important work A Trip to the Moon, Winsor McCay's Gertie the Dinosaur and other wonderful experimentation.There are biographies of key animators from around the world, including Zlatko Grgic from Zagreb Film Studios, an excellent chronology of international animation from its origins up to 2010, lots of great photos of characters, scenes, and an excellent glossary covering all aspects and types of animation in detail.There is info on studios as diverse as Disney, Studio Ghibli, Bruce Bickford, Paul Terry, and on and on. We get great detail on everything from Steamboat Willie to the stop-motion used in music videos for the White Stripes.Why just four stars? It must be a copyright problem, but there are many articles with no illustrations. There are no images from any Warner Brothers work, no Ren and Stimpy, no Spongebob Squarepants, no Astro Boy, among others. This is, I'm sure, not the publisher's fault. The book is still excellent and highly recommended. Maybe I just wanted it to be perfect!

the world history of animation stephen cavalier lavish volume desite its short length at 416 pages illustrated with stills and reads like a very good website excellent value for the price detailing animation from 1899 to 2010 a book of memories great on mr magoo, bugs, porky and woody but also having room for len lye the canadian film board zagreb films and the whole range of techniques from anime to motion capturechecked out most of the original animation on youtubea book to give hours of pleasure knowledge and happy memories of some of the best cartoons ever