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Animation Studies 2.0 is committed to promoting the work of animation scholars. In this section, you will find the upcoming calls for book reviews, as well as published book reviews.
We are currently seeking reviewers for:
- Politically Animated: Non-fiction Animation from the Hispanic World (2023) by Jennifer Nagtegaal
- Women and Film Animation A Feminist Corpus at the National Film Board of Canada 1939-1989 (2024) by Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre
- Surrealism and Animation: Transnational Connections, 1920-Present (2025), eds. Abigail Susik
- Drawn to Nature: American Animation in the Age of Science (2025) by Colin Williamson
- The Live-Action Animated Film (2025) by Kyle Meikle
We welcome suggestions for books to review. Please contact co-editors Carmen Hannibal and Anastasiia Gushchina via blog@animationstudies.org with any questions or book recommendations.
Published reviews:
- Review: Animated Film and Disability: Cripping Spectatorship (2022)
GREENBERG, SLAVA. Animated Film and Disability: Cripping Spectatorship. Indiana University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv3142v9x. Image description: The book cover is mostly white with a black, scribbled spiral dominating the center of the cover. A red-haired drawn figure, wearing brown slippers, a light-purple… - Review of Animated Encounters: Transnational Movements of Chinese Animation
Daisy Yan Du, Animated Encounters: Transnational Movements of Chinese Animation, 1940s-1970s. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2019: 276 pp.: ISBN 978 0 8248 7210 6, $90.00 (hbk); $30.00 (pbk). In Animated Encounters: Transnational Movements of Chinese Animation, 1940s-1970s, Daisy Yan… - Review of The Intersection of Animation, Video Games, and Music: Making Movement Sing
In The Intersection of Animation, Video Games, and Music: Making Movement Sing, editors Lisa Scoggin and Dana Plank gather fourteen chapters that examine how music operates across animated forms and interactive worlds. With a nod toward both classic and contemporary… - Review: Image Objects: An Archaeology of Computer Graphics (2021), by Jacob Gaboury
Figure 1. Render of Houdini scene featuring the Utah teapot which is available as an “off-the-shelf” object in most contemporary 3D software packages. 2024 Gina Moore. Found in various industries including film, advertising, games, and visualisation, computer graphics (CG) are… - Review of Animation (2019), edited by Scott Curtis
Animation, edited by Scott Curtis, is a remarkable addition to the Behind the Silver Screen series of film books. This series promises to provide a history of filmmaking rather than merely a history of films, and Animation fulfills this promise… - Review of ‘Anime’s Knowledge Cultures: Geek, Otaku, Zhai’
I suggest anyone who is interested in anime, is involved in the ‘Animation, Comics and Games’ subculture within the East Asian context (ACG), has friends who are anime geeks, or identifies as an ‘nijigen/erciyuan’ to have a look at Anime’s… - The Flesh of Animation
The Flesh of Animation: Bodily Sensations in Film and Digital Media by Sandra Annett is an insightful exploration of the intertwining of the physical body and the ‘flesh’ of animation. The author plays with the concepts of body and flesh… - Review: Pulses of Abstraction: Episodes from a History of Animation (2020), Andrew R. Johnston
In Pulses of Abstraction: Episodes from a History of Animation, Andrew R. Johnston contends that animation has been ‘pulsing in fits and starts with the creation, distribution and experimentation of new technologies’ (Johnston: 2024, p. 3). He sets out to… - Review: Figure and Force in Animation Aesthetics (2019), Ryan Pierson
Writing about the way elements move in animation proves to be a formidable challenge for any book on the medium, but Ryan Pierson’s Figure and Force in Animation Aesthetics (2019) manages to explore philosophical theories related to change while providing… - Review: French Animation History (2011), by Richard Neupert
French Animation History (2011) by Richard Neupert delivers an essential academic exploration of Francophone animated cinema, a topic of great interest according to Neupert, due to its artistic potential and worldwide influence since its origins. Across six chapters, the author… - Review: Coraline: A Closer Look at Studio LAIKA’s Stop-Motion Witchcraft (2021), ed. Mihaela Mihailova
In the introduction of the recently published anthology Coraline: A Closer Look at Studio LAIKA’s Stop-Motion Witchcraft, editor Mihaela Mihailova writes, “Like witchcraft, puppet craft remains poorly understood and frequently branded as a relic of a bygone era — and… - Anime’s Identity Crisis: Closed Borders, Global Networks, and the Neoliberal Self
Review of Stevie Suan. Anime’s Identity: Performativity and Form Beyond Japan. United States, University of Minnesota Press, 2021. Traditional scholarship on anime has left the identity of the media form as de facto Japanese, reducing a global industrial network into… - A Vibrant History, Bursting at the Seams
Review of Jez Stewart, The Story of British Animation, London: British Film Institute, Bloomsbury, 2021. Jez Stewart’s role as a curator at the BFI National Archive positions him well as author of this detailed history of British animation. The book… - The Truth about “Animating Truth”
Review of Nea Ehrlich, Animating Truth: Documentary and Visual Culture in the 21st Century, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021. For those of us who are interested in nonfictional animation, Nea Ehrlich’s new book is, to tell the truth, a proper… - Expanding into Unchartered Land: Arab Animation Production from the Thirties to Today
Review of Omar Sayfo, Arab Animation: Images of Identity, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021. Probably the first extensive dedication to the subject, Arab Animation: Images of Identity is a major contribution to the diverse world of Arab and international animation… - Animating Atrocities: Bearing Witness in War Animation Films
Review of Donna Kornhaber, Dream Sanctuary: War and the Animated Film. Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 2020. When one thinks about wartime animated films, propaganda film comes to most people’s mind. Indeed, since the 1990s, studies in animated propaganda developed… - Crafty Fingers and Imperfect Frames
Review of Caroline Ruddell and Paul Ward (eds.). The Crafty Animator: Handmade, Craft-Based Animation and Cultural Value. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. The Crafty Animator: Handmade, Craft-based Animation and Cultural Value is a coherent collection of essays centered around the production of… - Bursting the Bounds of Chinese Animation and Scholarship
Review of Daisy Yan Du. Animated Encounters: Transnational Movements of Chinese Animation 1940s-1970s. University of Hawai’i Press, 2019. Daisy Yan Du’s excellent Animated Encounters: Transnational Movements of Chinese Animation 1940s-1970s is essential reading for anyone interested in Chinese or Japanese… - Changing Perspective(s) on Japanese Animation
Review of Masao Yokota and Tze-yue G. Hu (eds.). Japanese Animation: East Asian Perspectives. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2013. This book was put together by a prominent clinical psychologist with a long experience in the psychological dimensions of animation… - Being Moved by Moving Images
Review of Meike Uhrig (ed.). Emotion in Animated Films. New York/London: Routledge, 2018. Emotion in Animated Films explores the rich territory of emotions and their representation within animated films, particularly with a view on emotions as represented within computer animation. Books…