September theme: Animation and Seriality

NEW Deadline: September 8th, 2017

 

Animation maintains a close, multifaceted and long-lasting relationship with the notion of seriality. Indeed, there is a long history of using serial formats to develop animated works. Yet, in the last years we have also witnessed a growing tendency to serialize the narrative of a successful animated feature by creating sequels, prequels and midquels of it. Cars 3 (2017, by Brian Fee), Despicable Me 3 (2017, by Pierre Coffin) and The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (2017, by Callan Brunker) are only the most recent examples of this trend of building on existing animated franchises in a similar manner to what has long been occurring in the live-action realm. For the month of September, we thus invite posts addressing this phenomenon form any angle as well as, more generally, posts exploring the relationship between animation and seriality from a critical, theoretical or historical perspective.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

– The serialization of animated features: prequels, midquels and/or sequels;
– The animated televisual series;
– The animated web series;
– Animation, seriality and the big screen;
– Non-fiction animation and seriality;
– Seriality and animated aesthetics;
– Representational issues in animated serializations (e.g. the aging of
  characters, the development of their personality, etc.);
– Temporality and the animated series;
– Seriality, animation and narrative structures;
– Producing serialized animations: advantages and issues;
– Historical perspectives on seriality and animation;
– Seriality, animation and reception studies.

Posts of between 600 and 800 words, which discuss any aspect of the above topic are welcome. Contributors are encouraged to include clips and at least one image to support their posts. Please also include a short bio to accompany the post and 3 keywords. All permissions are the responsibility of the contributor. Please contact the editors Nichola Dobson (nichola_dobson@yahoo.co.uk), Cristina Formenti (cristina.formenti@unimi.it) and blog@animationstudies.org with submissions or questions.