ABSTRACT
Pondering the reasons for his infatuation with Disney animation, Sergei Eisenstein singled out the capacity of animated form to exceed, or metamorphose, itself. He termed the phenomenon “plasmaticness” and described its effects as “a sensing and experiencing of the primal ‘omnipotence’ – the element of ‘coming into being’ – the ‘plasmaticness’ of existence, from which everything can arise”. This “plasmaticness”, or “formal ecstasy”, of animation, Eisenstein argues, “presents rejection of once-and-forever allotted form, freedom from ossification, the ability to dynamically assume any form” (Eisenstein 1986: 46). According to Eisenstein, this protean capacity is vigorously operative in the symbolic representation of “being” in Disney as a contour-like character, which, while possessing a definite form and appearance, nevertheless “behaves like the primal protoplasm, not yet possessing a ‘stable’ form, but capable of assuming any form and which, skipping along the rungs of the evolutionary ladder, attaches itself to any and all forms of animal existence” (Eisenstein 1986: 21).
