Giannalberto Bendazzi, L’uomo che anticipò Disney, Tunuè, 2007
In 1917, Argentinean Quirino Cristiani directed in Buenos Aires the first animated feature film ever: El Apóstol (The Apostle). In 1931, the same man directed Peludópolis (The City of El Peludo), the first animated sound feature film ever. His life and work are deeply covered in this monograph. IN ITALIAN.
Giannalberto Bendazzi, “The Italians Who Invented the Drawn on Film Technique,” Animation Journal, 1996
The birth of the technique of painting on film (which was used by such masters as Len Lye, Norman McLaren, Roberto Miller, and Bärbel Neubauer) lied for decades in the clouds of “somebody someday said that”. In this essay, Giannalberto Bendazzi demonstrates that the glory goes to two Italian brothers: Arnaldo and Bruno Ginanni-Corradini, and that the time was 1911. IN ENGLISH.
Michael Barrier, Hollywood Cartoons – American Animation in its Golden Age, Oxford University Press, 1999
The best book on the subject, due to two decades work, intelligent, opinionated, and totally trustworthy. IN ENGLISH
Leonard Maltin, Of Mice and Magic, New American Library, first edition 1980, revised edition 1987
The first book on the subject, well researched and well written, where Leonard Maltin discusses the different production companies and their output. Especially praiseworthy is the chapter on UPA. IN ENGLISH.
Robert Benayoun, Le dessin animé après Disney, Jean-Jacques Pauvert, 1961
Robert Benayoun, a French film critic and writer, was a Surrealist, and looked for Surrealism everywhere. Of course, on this ground, he hated Walt Disney and adored Tex Avery. His starting viewpoint is questionable, but the book is consistent with it, and was published just in the middle of the years of “auteur”, “individual” “anti-Disney” cultural Movement. IN FRENCH.
Brigitta Iványi-Bitter, Kovásznai – A Cold War Artist, Research Center Foundation, 2016
Ostracized by the Communist regime, Hungarian György Kovásznai (1934-1983) is probably the least known genius of the whole history of animation. This excellent, exhaustive monograph fills eventually the gap.
Henry T. Sampson, That’s Enough, Folks, The Scarecrow Press, 1998
Doctor Sampson is an African-American scientist who got a PhD in nuclear engineering and who, at the time he wrote this book, was Senior Project Engineer at the Aerospace corp. Predictably, the book exudes intelligence and open-mindedness, and discusses brilliantly the innumerable problems of ethnic comedy, which in the Golden Age of Hollywood Animation was commonplace – but racist.
Denys Chevalier, J’aime le dessin animé, Denoël, 1962.
Denys Chevalier was a visual art critic, enamored of Picasso. Of course, on this ground, he hated Walt Disney and adored UPA. His starting viewpoint is questionable, but the book is consistent with it, and was published just in the middle of the years of “auteur”, “individual” “anti-Disney” cultural Movement.
Paul Wells, Animation – Genre and Authorship, Wallflower, 2002
About animation, common people and specialists alike had (and still have) many ideas, but all remarkably confused. Animation – Genre and Authorship swept a lot of rubbish away – although never enough. The author, Paul Wells, is a British professor, author of many excellent books. In this case, he goes back to the mode of production and to the secrets of the craft, in the end challenging live-action movies as primary and pristine form of visual culture.
This three-volume book is the largest, deepest, most comprehensive text of its kind, based on the idea that animation is an art form that deserves its own place in scholarship. It offers readers glimpses into the animation of Russia, Africa, Latin America, and other often-neglected areas, and introduces over fifty previously undiscovered artists. Full of first-hand, never before investigated, and elsewhere unavailable information, Animation: A World History encompasses the history of animation production on every continent over the span of three centuries. IN ENGLISH.