Origins of animation -- Setting the scene for animation. Early innovations in simulating movement ; The printing press and comic strips ; The impact of photography on studies of locomotion ; The transition to animated cinema -- The magic of early cinema. Entrepreneurs of early cinema ; First approaches to animation ; Wonderful tricks: special effects in early film -- Foundations of the animation industry. The beginnings of drawn animation ; Bray, Barré, and the emergence of the animation studio system ; The development of the Hollywood studio system and the modern cinema experience ; Stop-motion developments of the 1910s -- The late silent era and the coming of sound. Iconic figures of the late silent era ; Distribution options ; The introduction of sound technology ; The consolidation of the American animation industry ; Stop-motion developments in the late silent era -- Early animation -- Animation as modern art. Modern movements in painting ; The development of modern art ; Lotte Reneger and the art and craft of silhouette animation ; Abstraction, transcendence, and visual music: theories of modernest animation ; The Russian film theory revolution ; Collaboration in unsettled times: modernist animation of the 1930s ; Support for modernist animation -- Disney's new aesthetic. Creating an identity ; The reorganization of the studio ; A new aesthetic for a new era ; The ideas behind "Disney style" movement ; Disney's first feature films -- Style and the Fleischer Studio. The development of style in the 1930s ; The Fleischer studio: style and structure ; Classifying content ; Censorship ; The New Deal and the rise of unions in the US animation industry -- Comedy and the dominance of American animation. Key elements of comedy ; Animation at Warner Bros. ; Animation at MGM -- Wartime and midcentury -- Animation in World War II. Animation and the war effort ; The events of World War II ; Identifying the enemy ; Animation with an agenda ; Wartime animation outside the United States -- International developments in postwar animation. Occupation and animation ; Postwar animation in communist countries ; Postwar animation in Great Britain and Canada -- Stop-motion approaches. Experiments in stop-motion ; Stop-motion in advertising ; Stop-motion in Eastern Europe ; Pioneering efforts in Japan and China ; Japanese theatrical traditions ; American stop-motion in the postwar period ; Stop-motion stars -- Midcentury shifts in American design. Finding the artist in animation: developments at the major studios ; United we stand: the influences of the UPA Studio ; The rise of animated advertising -- Early television animation. The beginnings of made-for-television animation in America ; The rise of children's animated television series ; Media regulation ; American animated television production in the 1980s ; International developments in made-for-television animation -- Experimental modes -- Postwar experimentation. Animation and the avant-garde ; Experiments with perception ; The beginnings of animated computer art -- New audiences for animated features. New voices in popular media ; Disney animation from the postwar era ; Creative work from Disney's rivals ; The rise of international projection ; Attracting the youth audience --

New contexts and voices -- The emergence of electronic games. The impact of technology on games ; Types of game ; The online came community ; Creating and modifying games ; Heroes and damsels in distress ; The future of animated games -- Voices from the Eastern Bloc. The introduction of a modern style in Soviet animation ; Animation after the fall of the Soviet Union ; Czechoslovakia's changing political identity ; Varied directions for Czech animation ; Animation from the Visegrad group -- Authorship in animated shorts. Support for short films ; Women and authorship ; Formal and technical experimentation ; Developing stop-motion worlds -- The Disney renaissance. Before the renaissance: challenges to Disney's reputation ; Key administrators at the new Disney ; Films of the Disney renaissance ; Disney theater ; After the renaissance -- Television as a creative space. Commercial broadcast animation ; Cable animation -- Computer-generated animation in features. Innovators in the effects world ; Creating an authentic reality ; John Lasseter and the rise of Pixar ; Digital advances at DreamWorks Animation ; The illusion of depth ; Disney building its digital empire ; Other players embrace CGI -- Animation worldwide -- The culture of Japanese animation. Manga and anime ; Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Studio Ghibli ; A survey of Japanese animation studios ; Innovative short film production ; Preserving a cultural legacy -- The panorama of world animation. A global challenge: creating a national style ; International feature films ; Distributing world animation: GKIDS -- Animation in the art world. Finding the art in animation ; Installations ; Projections and site-specific works ; Animation and performance ; The art of video games -- Glossary.