Download full-text PDF www.researchgate.net › publication › fulltext › High-Tec

rame by Frame

The publisher and the University of California Press Foundation gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Ahmanson • Murphy Imprint in Fine Arts. The publisher also gratefully acknowledges the generous ­support of the Department of Film Studies at the University of North ­Carolina Wilmington and, at the University of Chicago, the Department of Cinema and Media Studies, the Division of the Humanities, and Yuri Tsivian.

Frame by Frame A Materialist Aesthetics of Animated Cartoons

Hannah Frank Edited and with an introduction by Daniel Morgan Foreword by Tom Gunning

UNIVERSIT Y OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by ­advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Oakland, California © 2019 by Hannah Frank Suggested citation: Frank, H. Frame by Frame: A Materialist Aesthetics of Animated Cartoons. Oakland: University of California Press, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.65 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA license. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Frank, Hannah, 1984–2017, author. | Morgan, Daniel, 1977- editor,   writer of introduction. | Gunning, Tom, 1949- writer of foreword. Title: Frame by frame : a materialist aesthetics of animated cartoons /   Hannah Frank ; edited and with an introduction by Daniel Morgan;   foreword by Tom Gunning. Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2019] |   This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA license.   To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses. |   Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2018044521 (print) | LCCN 2018048471 (ebook) | ISBN   9780520972773 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520303621 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Animated films—History and criticism. | Motion   pictures—Aesthetics. Classification: LCC NC1765 (ebook) | LCC NC1765 .F65 2019 (print) | DDC   791.43/3409—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018044521

28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

FOR MY FAMILY IN MEMORY OF MY FATHER

Apparently he had examined them patiently picture by picture and imagined that they would be screened in the same way, failing at that time to grasp the principle of the cinematograph. —Flann O’Brien

C onte nts

List of Illustrations Foreword: Hannah Frank’s Pause by Tom Gunning Editor’s Introduction by Daniel Morgan

xix

Acknowledgments

xlix

Introduction: Looking at Labor

ix xi

1

1. Animation and Montage; or, Photographic Records of Documents

13

2. A View of the World: Toward a Photographic Theory of Cel Animation

44

3. Pars Pro Toto: Character Animation and the Work of the Anonymous Artist

74

4. The Multiplication of Traces: Xerographic Reproduction and One Hundred and One Dalmatians

108

Conclusion: The Labor of Looking

144

Notes Bibliography Index

157 189 207

vii

Li st of I llustration s

F IG U R E S

1.1. Robert Breer, Blazes (1961)  21 1.2 $21 a Day (Once a Month) (Universal, 1941) and Knock Knock (Universal, 1940)  26 1.3. Pages from newspapers and telephone books in animated cartoons  37 1.4. Tortoise Wins by a Hare (Warner Bros., 1943), Fighting Tools (Warner Bros., 1943), What’s Cookin’, Doc? (Warner Bros., 1944), and the Chicago Sunday Tribune.  39 1.5. Meet John Doughboy (Warner Bros., 1941) and the Los Angeles Examiner  40 1.6. Robert Breer, Jamestown Baloos (1957)  42 1.7. Robert Breer, Jamestown Baloos (1957)  43 1.8. Ken Jacobs, Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son (1969)  43 2.1. The Painter and the Pointer (Universal, 1944) and Gulliver Mickey (Walt Disney, 1934)  47 2.2. Jumping Beans (Fleischer Studios, 1922)  54 2.3. Animated Hair Cartoon No. 18 (Red Seal Pictures, 1925)  54 2.4. Robert Breer, Fuji (1974)  55 2.5. Popeye Presents Eugene the Jeep (Paramount, 1940)  59 2.6. Hair-Raising Hare (Warner Bros., 1946)  59 2.7. Hare Do (Warner Bros., 1949)  61 2.8. Porky Pig’s Feat (Warner Bros., 1943)  61 2.9. Brave Little Tailor (Disney, 1938)  64 2.10. Duck Amuck (Warner Bros., 1953)  69 ix

x      List of Illustrations

2.11. All Wet (Disney, 1927)  73 3.1. Dover Boys at Pimento University, or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall (Warner Bros., 1942)  76 3.2. Blow Me Down! (Paramount, 1933)  77 3.3. Birds of a Feather (Disney, 1931), Now That Summer Is Gone (Warner Bros., 1938), The Hams That Couldn’t Be Cured (Universal, 1942), and Three Little Pups (MGM, 1953)  91 3.4. Bathing Buddies (Universal, 1946) and Daddy Duck (Disney, 1948)  92 3.5. Tall Timber (Disney, 1928) and The Chain Gang (Disney, 1930)  93 3.6. Touchdown Mickey (Disney, 1932) and Donald’s Camera (Disney, 1941)  93 3.7. Donald’s Lucky Day (Disney, 1939), Fai