Include: Animation and media studies and defining animation and live-action on a continuum. Influences on the development of animation: optical toys and screen practice; print comics; the relationship of animation to live-action film. Foundations of contemporary animation practices. Flat and dimensional animation: the American film industry to 1915; innovations in animation techniques; assembly-line mass-production and creative control; marketing through differentiation and innovation. Alternatives in animation production . Modes of production and flat animation as an extension of other arts: drawing and painting; camera-less animation; cut-outs; sand; stratacut and wax forms; pinboards. General concepts in animation aesthetics. Animation design; structure; images; colour and line; movement and kinetics; voice and sound.

The classical-era Disney Studio. Historical overview; joining the competition; innovation and marketing; balancing fine art and popular culture; Snow White; movement and personality; storytelling and ideology; shifts in the studio structure. Full and limited cel animation. Aesthetic issues; United productions of America; made-for-television animation. Other chapters include: Dimensional Animation; Animation and New Technologies; Finding 'Meaning' in Abstract Animation; Oskar Fischinger and the Animation Process; Animation and Its Audiences; Race, Ethnicity and Stereotypes in Animation; Women's Voices in Animation; Postmodern Style; 'The Simpsons' and Beyond; Issues of Adaptation: Alice.