The Persistence of Animation

Illustrated Songs and Song Car-Tunes: Cultural Practices and Sound Technology in Early Talkie Animated Films

Abstract: This paper examines early Fleischer animated sound cartoons in the context of relations between cinema and other cultural practices. These Song-Car-Tunes encouraged audience participation through singing along with “the bouncing ball” and drawing conventions of vaudeville and early cinema exhibition, particularly in their adaptation of the pre-cinematic “song slides” or “illustrated songs.” Although they predated cinema, “illustrated songs” were the primary sound-and-image experience of the nickelodeon era. With standardization of musical accompaniment for films by the early teens, “illustrated songs” became obsolete. This paper proposes that in order to reconcile new technology with traditional exhibition practices, the Fleischer Song Car-Tunes adapted these earlier models of exhibition and reception to the new sound processes, through strategies drawing both on ironic and nostalgic re-workings of past conventions.

Biographical Statement: Mark Langer teaches Film Studies at Carleton University. He is author of The Fleischer Project, forthcoming from University of California Press, and has curated numerous Fleischer programs at venues such as The Museum of Modern Art, Il Giornate del Cinema Muto, the Cinematheque Francaise and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. His essays have been published by Cinema Journal, Film History, Animation History, Screen and others.

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.