That's All Folks?: Ecocritical Readings of American Animated Features

Author/Contributor(s):	Murray, Robin L ; Heumann, Joseph K
Publisher:	University of Nebraska Press
Date:	12/01/2011
Binding:	Hardcover
Condition:	NEW

Although some credit the environmental movement of the 1970s, with its profound impact on children's television programs and movies, for paving the way for later eco-films, the history of environmental expression in animated film reaches much further back in American history, as That's All Folks? makes clear.
Countering the view that the contemporary environmental movement--and the cartoons it influenced--came to life in the 1960s, Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann reveal how environmentalism was already a growing concern in animated films of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. From Felix the Cat cartoons to Disney's beloved Bambi to Pixar's Wall-E and James Cameron's Avatar, this volume shows how animated features with environmental themes are moneymakers on multiple levels--particularly as broad-based family entertainment and conveyors of consumer products. Only Ralph Bakshi's X-rated Fritz the Cat and R-rated Heavy Traffic and Coonskin, with their violent, dystopic representation of urban environments, avoid this total immersion in an anti-environmental consumer market.
Showing us enviro-toons in their cultural and historical contexts, this book offers fresh insights into the changing perceptions of the relationship between humans and the environment and a new understanding of environmental and animated cinema.