A Book Review by William Blick.
Despite its jargon-laden density, Sandra Annett offers some new insights and perspective into what is usually a misunderstood genre.”
In The Flesh of Animation: Bodily Sensations in Film and Digital Media (University of Minnesota Press, 2024), Sandra Annett argues that digital media and animation initiate a connection within the viewer that allows viewers to have sensory experiences of “embodiment” as a result of interaction with the medium. This runs contrary to some scholarly traditions in film theory in which animation has been marginalized and considered fantastical, escapist entertainment. Annett, through painstaking theoretical analysis, qualitative data, and case studies, focuses on the precision with which digital media and related forms can bridge the distance between the viewer and the various manifestations of images on a screen.
It goes without saying that animation and digital media are some of the most vital forms of filmmaking today. One need only look at the popularity of anime and the Disney to see the influence that this type of film has on the current film climate. Therefore, it is vital and necessary to discuss these films seriously, scholarly, and intellectually, rather than casually and as secondary sub-genres. Existential and thought-provoking, Annett does build a strong case for what may seem esoteric or niche to outsiders of academia. The Flesh of Animation is an academic work to the core, with strong comparative analysis and refreshing examples of its thesis. Admittedly, animation and digital media are not my main area of study, but Annett’s discussion is lively and engaging despite being too dense for a casual reading experience. As part of the academic curriculum, it may be more suitable for graduate or doctoral level discussions of animation and contemporary film.
Annett begins the analysis with mid-1990s to early 2000s animated and CGI generated films, but ultimately attempts to cover all forms of the genre harkening back to the 1980s with films like: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and other forms of hybrid live action and animation. The author defines the phenomenology of “embodiment” and “being” as it relates to theory of film and the transference of sensory experiences on the screen and onto the viewer, which is a bold attempt to articulate what is often nebulous or not-easily definable.
A treasure trove of in-depth research and exploration into the various forms of films that animation takes on.”
As Annett explains, “Animation does not only impact audiences when it most closely imitates the haptic dimensions of cinema. As its own medium, animation presents various kinetic possibilities for delving into illusions of cinematic depth or playing with the flat, stylized planes of layered images” (31). While theorizing like this, Annett keeps the discussions contemporary, timely, and relevant an then moves to more artistic-niche pieces such as “Electro Swing Music Videos,” a sub-genre I had very little knowledge of before I read this book. It’s a treasure trove of in-depth research and exploration into the various forms of films that animation takes on.
For Annett, images and figures on the screen serve as vicarious avatars with which the viewers experience tactile and other sensory invocations of the medium. This all sounds like a certain James Cameron franchise, but in actuality Annett ties the medium of animation and its connection to embodiment, quite well…for a little while. Unfortunately, the book is spread too thin across an enormous canvas and requires several reads to catch all the allusions. Annett incorporates several major schools of literary and cultural criticism and numerous philosophical argumentations of the moving image. However, the question in my mind is: how does this all tie together into a cohesive argument? McLuhan’s statement that the “medium is the message” seems convoluted and uneven. However, despite jargon-laden density, The Flesh of Animation: Bodily Sensations in Film and Digital Media offers some new insights and perspective into what is usually a misunderstood genre.
Top image: My Beautiful Girl Mari (South Korea, Lee Sung-gang, 2002).
William Blick is a film and literary/crime fiction critic; a librarian; and an academic scholar. His work has been featured in Senses of Cinema, Film Threat, Cineaction, and CinemaRetro, and he is a frequent contributor to Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of Noircon. His crime fiction has been featured in Close to the Bone, Pulp Metal Magazine, Out of the Gutter, and others. He is an Assistant Professor/Librarian for the City University of New York.