ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates animation technologies that unsettle our understanding of the limits of the human body in animation by stirring effects in the muscular domain. It examines the special case of female martial arts characters and their demonstrations of womenpower. The chapter explores the ethics of muscular augmentations in The Triplets of Belleville and the consequences of superhumanity in Black Jack: The Movie. It also examines the specific case of animated movements that underscore the gap between dull everyday gestures and unsettling irregular movements. The slowed-down movements of the gravity-defying bodies cause unexpected muscular resonances throughout the spectator’s body. Camera movements and subjective perspectives can prompt a range of muscular experiences of space. Muscular mimicry with the film’s body and embodied simulations can occur in any film or animation that involves camera movements, objects moving within the frame, or muscular efforts.
