In this beautifully written and posthumously published Ph.D. thesis, Frank applies a unique methodology – a frame by frame look at the laborious process behind pre-digital cartoon-making in the Golden Age of animation (1920–1960). Demonstrating how central photography was to “an art formed on the assembly line”, the book reveals moments of unexpected beauty and hidden history within the animated image. It’s often said that every fictional film is a documentary of its own making; Frank argues that the same goes for animation.
“This is an exceptional book: original, poignant, hugely significant and full of verve, with writing that is wry, neat and seductive. Hannah Frank’s obsessive focus on the single cell in animation calls on us to change our way of perceiving culture. Her intellectual range is astonishing: Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, André Bazin, Walter Benjamin, Sergei Eisenstein – all are invoked to get us to think about what animation is, and to forcibly remind us of the invisible factory labour that manufactured the polished, animated commodity. Hannah Frank has given us a perfectly crystalised intellectual project.” – Dr Andrew Moor, Judge, Moving Image Book Award