The history of cinema is one of strict categories, e.g., a Western is a Western, and a comedy is a comedy. But increasingly, over the decades, more films (including many blockbusters) have defied categorization in order to achieve a kind of magic. One particular rich vein of this phenomenon involves the mixing of live-action (real actors captured in performance) with animation (drawn or rendered images). Hugely successful films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Enchanted were driven by this hybrid style; nowadays the approach can be an essential part of both a film's popularity and its merit.
Into this tumultuous artistic landscape comes a new book, The Live-Action Animated Film, authored by Kyle Meikle, associate professor of English and communication at The University of Baltimore and a noted scholar on media franchises and industries, literary adaptation, animation, genre films, and more. Dr. Meikle, who previously authored Adaptations in the Franchise Era: 2001-16, is intent on examining the long history of films that blend live action with animation, including 2D, stop‑motion, and 3D. Along the way, he finds that the effect of this blending has helped to blur boundaries in filmmaking, and that its role is as central to cinema history as the introduction of sound or color.
The Live-Action Animated Film, published by Rutgers University Press, is receiving high marks for its insights into the movie business, and what hybrid techniques can add to the standard palette.
"Moviegoers today don't bat an eye at actors sharing the screen with computer-generated dinosaurs or aliens, but for much of cinema's history films that mixed live action and animation were considered a curiosity," says Ian Olney, author of Zombie Cinema. "In this compact volume, Kyle Meikle shows us how 'animaction' took over Hollywood, tracing its evolution from Ko-Ko the Clown to Roger Rabbit and beyond. It's a delightful, incisive read."
David Sterritt, author of Rock 'n' Roll Movies, says "Spanning the moving-image world in its many shapes and forms, this book is as lively and engaging as its subject. It merits a warm welcome from cinema scholars and movie buffs alike."
Prof. Meikle, who serves as co-director of the University's Klein Family Center for Communications Design, teaches screenwriting, film genres, and storytelling. With more UBalt students investigating the film world as a place to root their creativity, Dr. Meikle says that understanding the ways that animation can find a home inside live-action movies could be useful.
"Animation is everywhere in real life today—on our phones, in our stadiums, at the doctor's office," Meikle says. "This book tells the story of how it got there."
A book talk, co-sponsored by UBalt's Bogomolny Library and the University's Klein Family Center of Communications Design, will take place on Thursday, Feb. 26 at 4 p.m. in Room 412 of the library, 1420 Maryland Ave.
Learn more about Prof. Meikle's new book, The Live-Action Animated Film.
Learn more about Prof. Kyle Meikle.