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Full Description
A CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, 2019
Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop, Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny, Felix the Cat, and other beloved cartoon characters have entertained media audiences for almost a century, outliving the human stars who were once their contemporaries in studio-era Hollywood. In Animated Personalities, David McGowan asserts that iconic American theatrical short cartoon characters should be legitimately regarded as stars, equal to their live-action counterparts, not only because they have enjoyed long careers, but also because their star personas have been created and marketed in ways also used for cinematic celebrities.
Drawing on detailed archival research, McGowan analyzes how Hollywood studios constructed and manipulated the star personas of the animated characters they owned. He shows how cartoon actors frequently kept pace with their human counterparts, granting "interviews," allowing "candid" photographs, endorsing products, and generally behaving as actual actors did-for example, Donald Duck served his country during World War II, and Mickey Mouse was even embroiled in scandal. Challenging the notion that studios needed actors with physical bodies and real off-screen lives to create stars, McGowan demonstrates that media texts have successfully articulated an off-screen existence for animated characters. Following cartoon stars from silent movies to contemporary film and television, this groundbreaking book broadens the scope of star studies to include animation, concluding with provocative questions about the nature of stardom in an age of digitally enhanced filmmaking technologies.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Section I. Stages of Theatrical Stardom
Chapter 1. Silent Animation and the Development of the Star System
Chapter 2. Stars and Scandal in the 1930s
Chapter 3. The Second World War
Section II. Conceptualizing Theatrical Animated Stardom
Chapter 4. The Comedian Comedy
Chapter 5. Authorship
Chapter 6. The Studio System
Section III. Post-Theatrical Stardom
Chapter 7. The Animated Television Star
Chapter 8. The Death of the Animated Star?
Notes
Works Cited
Index
