The Persistence of Animation

Punctured Performances

Abstract: In Hollywood theatrical cartoons of the “Punctured Performance” sub-genre, the comedy arises directly from the performance of a piece of music and the attempts to interrupt or co-opt it by a character not originally involved in the performance. The playing of music itself turns into a competition, a conflict both of styles of music and of classes of characters. This paper will employ a structural analysis modified from the work of Vladimir Propp, delineate this sub-genre’s iconography, examine its appeal both to the animators creating it and to its spectators, and discuss its similarities to/distinction from a related sub-genre.

Biographical Statement: Richard J. Leskosky is the Interim Director of the Unit for Cinema Studies of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a past president of the Society for Animation Studies. For about 15 years he has been researching and writing on various sub-genres and their structures in Hollywood theatrical cartoons, several of which he has discussed at previous SAS conferences.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 11:29 pm and is filed under American animation, Genre studies, Music and animation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.