The Animated Film: from Warner Brothers to Pixar

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label Diverse autorenew 2025-09-29, 17:01 history_edu Silviu Marinescu
Giving you an exciting insight into the histories, traditions and styles of animated film, this course also highlights the real time issues being hotly debated at the industry's cutting edge.As a student, you'll examine a range of feature-length animated films and rare cartoons, from the pioneers of the earliest pre-1900 animation; the Golden Age period of Walt Disney and Warner Bros.; experimental techniques and stop-motion puppetry; animation produced by other national cinemas; and, finally, contemporary special effects and the computer-animated film.

Each week will help build your critical vocabulary for discussing the visual language of animated cinema, with lectures and special screenings integrated with lively discussion seminars in which you'll debate, tackle and reflect upon significant questions relating to your own experiences of animation's diverse screen worlds.Meanwhile, studying animated cinema in the heart of London allows rare access to a range of resources, including the chance to visit key institutions around the capital and hear guest speakers from the industry offering valuable behind-the-scenes insights into the craft and creation of an animated film from storyboard to screen.The first week of the course deals with definitions of animation, its cultural significance, and introduces you to the earliest forms of animated film-making (and its pioneers).

The week culminates with the Golden Age of U.S. animation during the 1940s up to the 1960s, and issues arising from the conflict between Walt Disney and Warner Brothers. Screenings include feature-length Disney animation and Looney Tunes cartoons. Week two is intended to diversify animation by splitting it into its other forms and genres, including stop-motion, puppetry, claymation (Wallace and Gromit) and Japanese anime.

By introducing you to animation that lies 'beyond Disney,' you will be encouraged to debate the different animated worlds produced in cel-animation and styles of puppetry. The main focus of week three lies in animation's digital turn, and you are encouraged to engage with the contemporary computer-animated film as the dominant form of mainstream, commercial animation. Throughout these final sessions, you will bring together the multiple critical approaches to animated film honed over the preceding weeks, and discuss the network of associations which join contemporary animation with its earlier forms.

Period
01-07-2013 - 19-07-2013 (3 weeks)

Target group
Students with a burgeoning interest in animated form and those who wish to learn more about a continually developing, and progressively more attractive, area of Film Studies would find this course of interest. Students with a background in the arts and the humanities, or indeed students who may even already be animated practitioners/artists themselves would also find this course of benefit. The wide cultural reach of animation will, it is hoped, already have provided students with a degree of familiarity with some of the popular animated texts from which this course draws. It is the intention of the course to provide a space in which students have the opportunity to re-think even the most mainstream animation that they are familiar with.

Course aim
This course offers an introduction to the exciting histories, traditions and styles of the animated film. It provides a space in which you can develop a critical vocabulary and learn the appropriate terminology for discussing the visual language of animated cinema. You are encouraged to debate, tackle and reflect upon significant questions relating to your experiences of animations diverse screen worlds.



The course regularly makes use of a selection of critical readings to interrogate a variety of issues relating to animated contexts, representation and visual style.It is intended that the course will visit three external sites of interest. The first is the British Broadcasting Corporation based at White City, which will take you to one of the UKs most established media institutions. A visit to the West End production of The Lion King (specifically its costume department and puppet/mask division). It is hopeful that you will be able to gain an insight into the orchestration of puppets as a particularly expressive form of contemporary animation.

The nearby production of War Horse at the New London Theatre in Covent Garden (with a run extended to October 2013) also involves the orchestration and manipulation of puppets, and may provide a more practical alternative in relation to week two of the course which deals with stop-motion and puppet forms of animation. A final intended visit to Potion Pictures, an animation studio based in Deptford, London, which deals with a range of animation from 3D animation, building projection, television logos and idents, music videos and apps. This visit will enable you to gain a knowledge of industry practice, as well as provide insights into the expansion and popularity of animated products within diverse cultural fields.

The screenings of animated features in the cinema can also be incorporated into the course structure, with a particular emphasis on screenings at the British Film Institute (BFI) Southbank. This is an institution which will further familiarise you with the film culture of London, as it includes a film library, archive, and exhibitions. The BFI is an important part of the capitals filmscape.

Credits
7.5 ECTS credits

Many of our students get credit for the summer courses taken at Kings. You should approach your home university before applying to find out whether they accept our courses for credit. We would recommend a three-week course to be equivalent 4 US credits or 7.5 ECTS, for instance.

Course fee
GBP 1350: tuition fee only

Course leader
Christopher Holliday was awarded his BA and MA in Film with Television Studies at the University of Warwick, and is currently completing his PhD at Kings College London within the Film Studies department, specialising in the computer-animated feature-fil

King's College London
Address: Strand, London
Postal code: WC2R 2LS
City: London
Country: United Kingdom
Website: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/summerschool
E-mail: summerschool@kcl.ac.uk
Phone: +44 20 7848 1533