Hollywood Cartoons

Catalog description

A history of mainstream animation in the United States during the 20th and 21st centuries, covering early experiments in sequential art, the rise of Hollywood animation studios in the 1930s, the transition to television animation in the 1950s, and the renaissance of animation of the 1980s. In addition, various critical and theoretical approaches to animation will be studied. Frequently directed to children as their main audiences, cartoons nonetheless tend to be freighted with considerable amounts of ideological content. Studying these animated films will lead us to difficult questions of politics, nationalism, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, and ability, and we will find in these animations a range of utopian hopes, disruptive visions, and dystopic nightmares. Satisfies Film, Media, and Digital Studies major requirement. Satisfies Film and Media Studies minor requirement. Prerequisites & Notes ART 111, DIG 101, or FMS 220