ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents an analysis of a variety of different animated films to illustrate different ways that animation prompts empathetic and compassionate understanding. It also presents a comparison of emotion display in both popular movies and informative animated videos. The book discusses the animation-specific application of alteration and specification principles to story prototypes in animated art house cinema, using the example of the Chinese animated feature film The Butterfly Lovers. It addresses the emotional effect of the "extent to which animated documentaries foreground their constructedness" on the viewers, an aspect that, has been neglected in approaches to animated documentaries. The book also discusses aesthetic cinematic features, and focuses on material surface, (e)motion, and color. It considers the perception of animated film content, and examines its effects on specific target groups of animation, namely babies and children.