ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discovers how migration and loss of place affected the animation industry and how it pervaded its cinema, pointing repeatedly to absence rather than presence. It focuses on the journey of Betty Boop within a framework of national culture. The book discusses place and diaspora in relation to Lilo and Stitch and how the film becomes a fascinating contradiction of identity politics and addresses important issues of belonging in today's society. It explores Bugs' sense of self-awareness and his performativity, and how connection blurs the line between artifice and real. Animation directors and animators imbue their characters with life, and often with a surprisingly sophisticated level of self-awareness that leads to a questioning of self, otherness and place. The book defines Miyazaki's dreamscape worlds and the messages he imparted to his audience.
