ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the main approaches to visualize infections and their carriers in Western and Eastern European animated films. We devote special attention to the role of two U.S. films, The Fly Pest and Jinks, recommended by the Red Cross for screening in Eastern Europe. These films introduced two extremes in the use of cartoons in health propaganda, the first suggesting horror and the latter parodying germs as infantile people. The wide range of animated films produced in Eastern Europe, as well as the attempts to produce such films, are explored from two viewpoints: First, as reflecting the dynamic and controversial narratives about the visualization of carriers of disease, and second, as adaptations of generic and esthetic novelties of animation introduced by Western artists.
