Noel Brown

Ben Bowlin

Matt Frederick

Stuff They Don't Want You to Know

Chris Pallant

Susan Smith

Sam Summers

A collection of original essays on Toy Story, exploring its themes, techniques, and cultural significance.

How Pixar Reinvented the Animated Feature

Toy Story

Bruce Babington

With the huge global success of Hollywood 'family film' franchises, such as Harry Potter, it is unsurprising that there have been many attempts to emulate this success. In recent years, there has been an explosion in international production of films for both adults and children - resulting in an erosion of the dominance of The Disney Company and the other major Hollywood Studios in family film production. Family Films in Global Cinema is the first serious examination of films for child and family audiences in a global context. Whereas most previous studies of children's films and family films have concerned themselves with Disney, this book encompasses both live-action and animated films from the Hollywood, British, Australian, East German, Russian, Indian, Japanese and Brazilian cinemas. As well as examining international family films previously ignored by scholars, the collection also presents a fresh perspective on familiar movies such as The Railway Children, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Babe, and the Harry Potter series. --Provided by publisher.

The World Beyond Disney

Family Films in Global Cinema

The Oxford Handbook of Children's Film offers a uniquely comprehensive study of children's cinema from an interdisciplinary, nuanced, global perspective.

The Oxford Handbook of Children's Film

Films for children and young people are a constant in the history of cinema, from its beginnings to the present day. This book serves as a comprehensive introduction to the children's film, examining its recurrent themes and ideologies, and common narrative and stylistic principles. Opening with a thorough consideration of how the genre may be defined, this volume goes on to explore how children's cinema has developed across its broad historical and geographic span, with particular reference to films from the United States, Britain, France, Denmark, Russia, India, and China. Analyzing changes and continuities in how children's film has been conceived, it argues for a fundamental distinction between commercial productions intended primarily to entertain, and non-commercial films made under pedagogical principles, and produced for purposes of moral and behavioral instruction. In elaborating these different forms, this book outlines a history of children's cinema from the early days of commercial cinema to the present, explores key critical issues, and provides case studies of major children's films from around the world.

Genre, Nation, and Narrative

The Children's Film

Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995), Pixar's first feature-length production and Hollywood's first completely computer-generated animated film, is an international cultural phenomenon. This collection brings together a diverse range of scholars and practitioners who together explore the themes, compositional techniques, cultural significance and industry legacy of this landmark in contemporary cinema. Topics range from industrial concerns, such as the film's groundbreaking use of computer generated imagery and the establishment of Pixar as a major player in the animation world, to examinations of its music, aesthetics, and the role of toys in both the film and its fandom. The Toy Story franchise as a whole is also considered, with chapters looking at its cross-generational appeal and the experience of growing up alongside the series. As the first substantial work on this landmark film, this book will serve as an authoritative introduction for scholars, students and fans alike.

Noel Brown

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