Review
of Serious Business: The Art and Commerce of Animation
in America
Review
by Shannon Muir
Book:
Serious Business: The Art and Commerce of Animation in America
Author: Stefan Kanfer
Year: 1997
Foreword: Chuck Jones
dFX Review Rating: 8.5 out of 10
More
Info from Amazon.com
Chapters:
1. It's All in Dreamland, You Know
2. What We Call 'Personality
3. Fighting The Mouse
4. The Wilder Shores of Comedy
5. More Hells then Swedenborg
6. Laughing at the Enemy
7. Who's Directing This Picture?
8. We Could Get Away With Less
9. Akin to Statutory Rape
10. The Animated Mirror
To understand
where we are headed in the animation industry, it seems best to
know where we've been. Stefan Kanfer offers a wonderful, engaging
primer in the pages of Serious
Business, a book that covers the evolution of animation
from it's early vaudevillian stage influences to an industry that
covers the planet. At only 235 pages (not counting the index),
SERIOUS BUSINESS can't begin to cover it all, but for anyone unfamiliar
with the history of animation it's a place to build a good foundation,
or remind you about some of the major points of history you may
have forgotten.
In the book's
foreword by the late Chuck Jones, he praises Kanfer as he "clearly
establishes the obscure and often neglected truth that no facet
of human failure or human accomplishment can exist in a vacuum."
Chuck Jones details one of his own early meetings with Stefan
Kanfer and the strong impression he made on the famed director.
What he mainly praises, and I agree the book does well at, is
capturing the culture and history around animation and how it
influenced it, for good or ill.
Stefan Kanfer's
known for his writing career that spans over many years. Twenty
of those years he spent writing and editing for Time magazine,
and Stefan Kanfer's had articles and reviews in many major magazines.
Six books previously were to his credit before the publication
of Serious Business in 1997, and his critical and historical view
is well respected, as evidenced by Chuck Jones' praise.
Progression
of the book is completely chronological, skipping around from
studio or creator based on their place in history. The first chapter,
"It's All In Dreamland, You Know," covers from early
Roman attempts of photos in motion (such as on urns) through the
emergence of Winsor McKay and creations like Little Nemo. "What
We Call Personality," the next chapter, focuses on those
individuals first inspired by McKay such as Otto Messmer, to the
Fleischers, to Walter Lantz, to early Walt Disney. Next, in "Fighting
the Mouse," follow how Felix the Cat and Car-Tunes are on
top as Walt Disney moves from Oswald the Rabbit to creating Mickey
Mouse; the advent of sound dethrones Felix and brings Mickey notice,
and contributes to the evolution of Betty Boop. "The Wilder
Shores of Comedy" talks about Walt Disney's distributor doctoring
the books, then later luring away Ub Iwerks and Carl Stalling
to set up a new studio after the success of early Silly Symphonies,
as well as an overview of other Silly Symphonies and how they
led to Snow White; also, how Lantz carries on Oswald, how Bosko
the Talk-Ink Kid shaped the future of what's still known today
as Looney Tunes, and the Fleischers work on Popeye. Follow the
making of Snow White (with smaller glimpses at Pinocchio and Fantasia)
while the Fleischers work on adapting Gulliver's Travels, and
Lantz's failed attempt at a film leads to Woody Woodpecker's creation
in "More Hells than Swedenborg."
The history of animation changed with the strike of Disney workers
in 1940 (which affected the production of Dumbo), but what would
really affect the industry was World War II; read how cartoons
kept us "Laughing at the Enemy," and what went on behind
the scenes. Find out how Red Hot gave way to Droopy, the Fleischer
studio began a downturn, the rise of Chuck Jones at Warner Bros.
and more in the next chapter, "Who's Directing this Picture?"
Chapter Eight, "We Could Get Away With Less," tells
why MGM Animation closed, the struggles of UPA, how Walt Disney's
eroding critical acclaim led to branching into live-action, and
the emergence of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Next, animation enters
its 'Great Depression' after Walt Disney's death, though it's
also the same year all networks had Saturday-morning cartoons;
the rise of Action for Childrens Television, cartoon spinoffs
of popular live-action franchises and toys, limited animation
movies of the 1970s, and the appearance of Ralph Bakshi's Fritz
the Cat are part of in Chapter Nine, "Akin to Statutory Rape."
The last chapter, "The Animated Mirror," looks at the
1980s and 1990s and the revitalization brought through animation
through the success of Disney's animated film resurgence and the
dawn of 3-D animated film popularity with Pixar's Toy Story.
Black-and-white
animation stills and photographs are placed throughout the book,
with a few color inserts in the center. The ones I found most
informative were those on Gertie, Felix the Cat, photos of the
Disney riots -- basically those images that are not as readily
seen. Most of these pictures though, are of characters or shorts
that are often-seen images, even on a historical level. If you're
relatively knew to the genre, they're definitely needed but nothing
much new for the average reader, I think.
Personally,
I didn't know a lot of the early history of animation before I
sat down and read this book (the first time was several years
prior to writing this review, I've revisited it several times
since). I felt that I walked away with knowledge to appreciate
animation in a way I never had before. Now I love watching older
Disney cartoons, Tom & Jerry, and even some of the older obscure
shorts as aired on Cartoon Network-packaged programs such as Acme
Hour and Toon Heads. Understanding the cultural and historical
context of many of those cartoons deepened my appreciation immensely
and whetted my appetite for more.
Pros
- Content-rich, covering major points in animation history.
- Black-and-white animation stills and photographs, helpful
aids for those unfamiliar with these historic characters.
- Good overview of the history of animation.
Cons
- photographs and stills aren't shown off at the best size
for detail.
- many of the pictures are of well known characters and/or
shows.
- some areas could be far more in depth, such as more background
on individual cartoons.
Ultimately,
Kanfer's book serves as picking up an adequate quick-glance road
map to the industry's historical highway. While it doesn't go
through everything in great detail (the history of MGM and Hanna-Barbera
seem to be sketchier in relation to Disney, Warner Bros, and the
early studios, for example), it will get you to speed to appreciate
the best that animation offers -- past, present, and future.

You can order
Serious Business: The Art and Commerce of Animation by clicking
here.
Shannon
Muir is known in the animation industry for her work as a production
coordinator for Nickelodeon's Invader Zim. She also served as
a Production Coordinator for Extreme Ghostbusters and a Production
Assistant for Jumanji: The Animated Series. Muir is an accomplished
writer and often participates on panels or as a guest speaker
at conventions like Comic Con International.
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