Almost forty years after the spectacle-driven dance concert debuted in London, and almost six weeks after this blog post was written, the film adaptation CATS (2019, dir. Tom Hooper) will be released in theaters. The tagline “You Will Believe” would…
Tag Archive for paratextuality
The Narrative of the “Making-of”: Self-reflexive Narratives in Stop-motion Film Productions
by Vincenzo Maselli • June 26, 2018 • 2 Comments
In this post I examine the increasing trend of creating stop-motion films that metaphorically reveal the artificiality of the medium by exposing and dismantling the filmmaking process within the narrative. These are films that stage elements akin to a “making-of”,…
Animated Opening Titles and Intertitles in German Newsreels of the 1950s and 1960s (West and East)
by Sigrun Lehnert • June 11, 2018 • 2 Comments
Starting in the first years of the 20th century with short documentary films, newsreels have had a long tradition of being glued together as a program. Newsreels were produced by different film production companies. After 1930, the films were accompanied…
Music’s Role in the Opening Titles and End Credits of Animated Films
by Perrine Dumont • June 4, 2018 • 0 Comments
Both the opening titles and the end credits play a significant role in a movie. While the former allow the viewer to enter the film, the latter extend the viewer’s filmic experience. This is true for animated films as well.…
The Pixar Theory and Paratextuality
by Lisa Hill • May 28, 2018 • 0 Comments
In 2013 blogger Jon Negroni put forward ‘The Pixar Theory’: the concept that all Pixar movies exist in the same universe and can be organised into a single, cohesive timeline (see figure 1). The initial blog incorporates the 14 Pixar…
Frozen (2013), Paratexts, and Female Solidarity in Disney’s Princess Films
by Catherine Lester • May 21, 2018 • 1 Comment
It would not be controversial to say that Disney’s historical record of representing women is complicated at best. It becomes even more complicated when we consider the Disney Princess franchise, a plethora of paratexts that arguably undermine any progressive readings…
Parrs and Paratexts: The ‘Themed’ Promotion of Incredibles 2 (2018)
by Christopher Holliday • May 14, 2018 • 2 Comments
Soon after the release of the 53-second teaser trailer for Pixar Animation Studios’ forthcoming Incredibles 2 (Brad Bird, 2018) – that premiered on November 18, 2017 and attracted 113 million views in its first 24 hours (becoming the most viewed…
Penguins of Madagascar (2014) and Its Mockumentary-Style Promos
by Cristina Formenti • February 5, 2018 • 1 Comment
In the last decade or so it has become not so unusual for mockumentary-style paratexts to be created for non-mockumentary animated features. For instance, to promote the home media release of Wreck-It Ralph (2012, by Rich Moore), the Walt Disney…
‘Shrek Is Love, Shrek Is Life’: The Complex Nostalgia of DreamWorks Memes
by Sam Summers • January 15, 2018 • 5 Comments
Last month, I wrapped up a PhD thesis looking at DreamWorks’ influence on the prevailing aesthetic trends in the American computer-animated features of the 21st century. I have spent many words examining how, with films like Antz (1998), Shrek (2001),…
Snow White and the Disney Style Guides
by Kodi Maier • December 19, 2017 • 0 Comments
In 1932 Walt Disney tapped Herman “Kay” Kamen to be his first licensing representative in the character division of Walt Disney Productions. In Kamen’s days – and for a few decades after – Disney did not market their products specifically…