Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In Hollywood Cartoons, Michael Barrier takes us on a glorious guided tour of American animation in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, to meet the legendary artists and entrepreneurs who created Bugs Bunny, Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, Wile E. Coyote, Donald Duck, Tom and Jerry, and many other cartoon favorites.
Beginning with black-and-white silent cartoons, Barrier offers an insightful account, taking us inside early New York studios and such Hollywood giants as Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM. Barrier excels at illuminating the creative side of animation--revealing how stories are put together, how animators develop a character, how technical innovations enhance the "realism" of cartoons. Here too are colorful portraits of the giants of the field, from Walt and Roy Disney and their animators, to Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.
Based on hundreds of interviews with veteran animators, Hollywood Cartoons gives us the definitive inside look at this colorful era and at the creative process behind these marvelous cartoons.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. ix)
• Acknowledgments (p. xv)
• About the "Flip Books," (p. xix)
• Introduction (p. 3)
• Part I Cartoon Acting (p. 7)
• 1 Beginnings, 1911-1930 (p. 9)
• "Flip Book": Rubber-hose Animation (p. 61)
• 2 Disney, 1930-1933 (p. 63)
• 3 Disney, 1933-1936 (p. 109)
• 4 Disney's Rivals, 1928-1937 (p. 153)
• 5 Disney, 1936-1938 (p. 193)
• 6 Disney, 1938-1941 (p. 235)
• "Flip Book": Stretch and Squash (p. 257)
• 7 Declines and Falls, 1937-1942 (p. 287)
• Part II Cartoon Reality (p. 321)
• 8 Warner Bros., 1933-1940 (p. 323)
• 9 The Disney Diaspora, 1942-1950 (p. 367)
• 10. MGM, 1939-1952 (p. 403)
• 11 Warner Bros., 1941-1945 (p. 433)
• "Flip Book": Smear Animation (p. 437)
• 12 Warner Bros., 1945-1953 (p. 467)
• 13 UPA, 1944-1952 (p. 501)
• 14 The Iris Closes, 1952-1966 (p. 533)
• Afterword (p. 569)
• Notes (p. 575)
• Index (p. 627)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Based on archival research and hundreds of interviews, this volume provides a comprehensive survey of American animation up to the late 1960s. An authority on film cartoons, Barrier traces the development of such studios as Disney, Warner Brothers, and MGM. His cast of characters includes animators like Max Fleischer, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. By extension, it includes Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Porky Pig, Gerald McBoing Boing, and a host of other wondrous creations. Barriers account reveals the interplay between studio politics, technical innovation, and the business side of Hollywood. The highly readable result is neither weighted down with scholarly discourse nor demeaned by trivial anecdotes. In much the same way that David A. Cooks A History of Narrative Film (Norton, 1996) covers cinema as a whole, Hollywood Cartoons might well become the standard survey in its area. All libraries should consider for purchase.Neal Baker, Earlham Coll., Richmond, IN (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

The fruit of exhaustive research, from interviews with more than 200 cartoon creators to the unearthing of piles of personal papers, dusty artwork and even hectographed memos from the 1930s, this long-awaited survey of American animation has taken Barrier (during the 1960s, the editor and publisher of Funnyworld, a periodical devoted to animation) more than 25 years to write. Barrier has screened thousands of films, including hundreds of silent pictures and "almost all the short sound cartoons produced for theatrical release by the Disney, Harmon-Ising, Schlesinger, Warner Bros., MGM, UPA, and Iwerks studios," and his command of the material is astounding. He covers everything from creative character development to artistic influences, budget limitations, box office returns and technological advances such as the introduction of Xerox copiers to transfer pencil drawings directly as black lines, eliminating the inking stage. In addition to profiles of major talents, Barrier presents glimpses of Disney's earliest sketches, the insights of film critics, studio accountants and even psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, as well as countless anecdotes, such as one artist's memory of Disney's new 1939 air-conditioned Burbank studio, where "any animator could pick up his phone and call the coffee shop and have a soda delivered, or hot coffee, hot chocolate, ice creamÄanything. And a waiter would come running down the hall, with service right to your room." This cartoon cornucopia is both a delightful entertainment and a serious study, easily ranking as the definitive overview of the animation industry's accomplishments. In addition to the archival art and rare photos is a nice bonus of several flip-book sequences written into the page corners. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

As animation scholar Barrier notes, the pleasures found in the best Hollywood cartoons appeal more to adults than to children. With great expertise and insight, he identifies and explains those pleasures in an informative chronicle of the cartoon industry: its early black-and-white and silent days in New York, its move to Hollywood and sound, the pioneering feature films of Disney, and its decline in the face of changing studio economics and the rise of television. He is especially insightful about the cartoons of the 1940s, the genre's golden age, when its creators perfected the amalgam of story, character, and technique in landmark films. The fact that Barrier draws on nearly three decades' worth of interviews (200) with directors, animators, and other industry figures attests to the collaborative nature of cartoon filmmaking. Considering the colorful anecdotes he elicits from his subjects, Barrier's prose is often surprisingly prosaic. And scholarly tome or not, more illustrations would have been welcome. Even so, and although Leonard Maltin's Of Mice and Magic (1980) covers much the same ground in breezier fashion, libraries desiring more thorough and authoritative coverage should find Barrier's effort the definitive history of the field. --Gordon Flagg

Kirkus Book Review

A very detailed account of animated cartoons, strongly emphasizing the influence and personality of Walt Disney. This genre's history is still undercovered, so cartoon expert Barrier's book should come as a welcome addition to researchers and fans. The former editor of Funnyworld magazine opens his text with an assessment of pioneers Bray, BarrÇ, and McCay, focusing on the businesses and systems (as opposed to the artistry) that went into their cinematic experiments. Barrier situates the cartooning pioneers in their office environs, detailing the management and scut work necessary for the films-- production. Moving on quickly to the meat of his book, the Walt Disney studios, the author takes an interesting tack in contrasting Disney's self-image (garnered from letters to his wife) with the views of his associates and underlings. While fellow animators considered him something of a bully and philistine, Walt saw himself more as a driven businessman. Barrier extensively covers cartooning's business transactions, noting specific dollar amounts paid to animators, studios, and distributors and exploring the deal-making that brought cartoons from the East to the West Coast. Nor does he neglect the art's mechanics, providing reasonably in-depth analysis of its growth from simple series of drawings to multilayered cel animations. The book also covers the later years of cartooning, up through the mid-1960s, with a brief appendix on the longer animations of the '70s and '80s. While Warner Bros. and MGM each get chapters, the narrative continually returns to Disney's output; some may question whether this is the definitive text on cartooning's history, or merely a Disney-centric take on it. The book's strongest point is also its weakest: Barrier's in-depth coverage of every squabble, transaction, and mode of cartooning. This makes it appealing to the historian and cartoon geek, but a bit dull for the average reader. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.