Book Review: Animation (Pocket Essentials) by Mark Whitehead
Skwigly
“Animation” is an ideal short introduction to the medium and I would especially recommend it to anyone who is just starting their love affair with it. Reading this will provide a valuable potted history and review to date of the medium and hopefully will suggest many areas to explore. There is a lot more to animation than Shrek, Mickey Mouse and Sponge Bob and “Animation” covers a great deal of it. “Animation” gives a very brief but useful description of the technologies and people leading to the birth of animation, (I was glad to see Emile Reynaud given his due). Hopefully this will disabuse newcomers of the idea that Walt Disney invented animation. The book then mostly deals with the countries and personalities that made animation the endlessly diverse medium it has become.
As you will see from the heading above, the book is both slim and very cheap; don’t therefore open it looking for pictures – there ain’t none. More disappointing, there is no index; but Mark Whitehead has no pretensions to having written a reference book. The book is a knowledgeable attempt to describe and introduce the topic of animation as a whole from the perspective of a genuine enthusiast. Inevitably, some feathers will be ruffled amongst the trainspotters of the animation world who will be offended by the book’s many omissions. The author takes pains to explain why he has had to omit so many names, but doubtless there will be arguments over the issue. Just to confirm my own very minor anorakish tendencies, here are a few names from the Hall of Fame I missed:
Alexander Alexieff, Michaël Dudok de Wit, The Iron Giant, Walerian Borowczyk, Jan Lenica, Felix the Cat….there are hundreds (maybe thousands) more deserving films, animators and their creations absent; all this shows is just how rich the history of animation is and how difficult to summarise it in a small book. It is certainly not a criticism; Mark Whitehead has done a pretty good job of pointing the curious animation newcomer in all the right directions. Doubtless, too, there are details with which the trainspotters will quibble, (was Winsor McCay born in Ontario or Michigan?). The important thing is that the subject is described in an entertaining and approachable way rather than as in a dry textbook. If something or someone mentioned in the book intrigues you, type it into Google and the chances are you will discover countless websites created by animation fans. You should then do your best to actually view the animation; easy with mainstream fodder, but the older and non-commercial films are far more of a challenge.
Criticisms? The very personal approach that the author uses does mean that his opinions tend to be stated as facts. Humour, in particular, is down to individual taste. For instance, he seems to have a very low opinion of Family Guy whereas I found some episodes in season 3 to be infinitely more funny than recent episodes of The Simpsons, which I find dire and clapped out….but, that’s just me. I do agree with his views concerning Stressed Eric and Monkey Dust, though. This very personal approach also means peculiar choices of emphasis: Richard William’s astonishing achievement The Little Island isn’t even mentioned in passing, yet the storyline for Spirited Away gets a full half page synopsis to itself. But again, this isn’t a real criticism; the book admits from the outset to leaving out great swaths of animation history and I appreciate all those people and titles that have made it in.
Perhaps space could have been found to show a timeline for the technical milestones of animation; there are relatively few, after all. I did have a laugh reading again the opinions of experts that sound was just a passing fad.
I suspect that the author shares unease with some of us about just where the triumph of 3D is taking us. It would be sad if 2D animation died out altogether; with even Disney ceasing 2D animation production, this is not a wholly unreasonable fear.
One of the most tiresome things for me when I see degree shows, (apart from the fact that a lot of the work is crap), is that it is blatantly obvious that people wanting to enter the animation industry have no idea what has been done before. New animation should build on the old; the paucity in both variety and skill of drawing and animation techniques being used is a sure sign that each graduating year is to a large extent ignorant of the heritage of the past. One of the worst trends is the attempt to use technologies such as Flash and 3D software without first having acquired basic animation or story-telling skills. Lack of awareness of the rich and almost limitless ingenuity that has gone into making animated films in the past, means many graduates are producing work without substance. I hope this book will open a few eyes to possibilities being missed.
Is this book worth 499 of your pennies? If you are a long-time animation fan, you will probably only want to go through it looking for things you disagree with; in that case it’s worth a fiver, just for the entertainment value that will give you. For animation newbies, the answer is an unequivocal “yes”. For anyone interested in setting out to discover the huge and lavish banquet that is animation, this book is an excellent aperitif.
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