Full Description
Childhood in Animation: Navigating a Secret World explores how children are viewed in animated cinema and television and examines the screen spaces that they occupy.
The image of the child is often a site of conflict, one that has been captured, preserved, and recollected on screen; but what do these representations tell us about the animated child and how do they compare to their real counterparts? Is childhood simply a metaphor for innocence, or something far more complex that encompasses agency, performance, and othering? Childhood in Animation focuses on key screen characters, such as DJ, Norman, Lilo, the Lost Boys, Marji, Parvana, Bluey, Kirikou, Robyn, Mebh, Cartman and Bart, amongst others, to see how they are represented within worlds of fantasy, separation, horror, politics, and satire, as well as viewing childhood itself through a philosophical, sociological, and global lens. Ultimately, this book navigates the rabbit hole of the 'elsewhere' to reveal the secret space of childhood, where anything (and everything) is possible.
This volume will be of great interest to scholars and students of animation, childhood studies, film and television studies, and psychology and sociology.
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Childhood, Through a Looking Glass
Chapter 2: Separation: All the Lost Boys
Chapter 3: Fantasy and the Quest
Chapter 4: Horror and the Child: Agency, Fear and Secret Spaces
Chapter 5: The Child's Gaze: Archives, Audience and the New Media Makers
Chapter 6: 21st Century Kids - Voice, Violence and Disney Pixar
Chapter 7: Locating the Child: The Political, Global and Local
Chapter 8: "Either it's all ok or none of it is": Satire and the Weaponized Child
