Messenger Elmer Fudd must deliver an important package to Taz, or he's going to lose his job. But Taz doesn't trust anyone knocking on his door, so this is going to be no easy task. And if Elmer is successful, will he still be in one piece?

With print publications on the way out and information going online, newspaper reporter Cluck Trent is out of a job. But at least he has his heroic identity of Stupor Duck to fall back on. Or does he? “Up there in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Uh…what is that? Who cares?”

It’s been a while since Granny, Sylvester, and Tweety took a trip, so now they’re off to visit Granny’s cousin, Gladys, in Albuquerque. But chaos ensues when Granny forgets to pack Sylvester’s food! Sylvester is famished, and Tweety looks like the perfect snack…

Some of the most beloved characters in film and television inhabit two-dimensional worlds that spring from the fertile imaginations of talented animators. The movements, characterizations, and settings in the best animated films are as vivid as any live action film, and sometimes seem more alive than life itself. In this case, Hollywood’s marketing slogans are fitting; animated stories are frequently magical, leaving memories of happy endings in young and old alike. However, the fantasy lands animators create bear little resemblance to the conditions under which these artists work. Anonymous animators routinely toiled in dark, cramped working environments for long hours and low pay, especially at the emergence of the art form early in the twentieth century. In Drawing the Line, veteran animator Tom Sito chronicles the efforts of generations of working men and women artists who have struggled to create a stable standard of living that is as secure as the worlds their characters inhabit. The former president of America’s largest animation union, Sito offers a unique insider’s account of animators’ struggles with legendary studio kingpins such as Jack Warner and Walt Disney, and their more recent battles with Michael Eisner and other Hollywood players. Based on numerous archival documents, personal interviews, and his own experiences, Sito’s history of animation unions is both carefully analytical and deeply personal. Drawing the Line stands as a vital corrective to this field of Hollywood history and is an important look at the animation industry’s past, present, and future. Like most elements of the modern commercial media system, animation is rapidly being changed by the forces of globalization and technological innovation. Yet even as pixels replace pencils and bytes replace paints, the working relationship between employer and employee essentially remains the same. In Drawing the Line, Sito challenges the next wave of animators to heed the lessons of their predecessors by organizing and acting collectively to fight against the enormous pressures of the marketplace for their class interests—and for the betterment of their art form.

The Illusion of Life II 2 continues and extends the pioneering work in the theory of animation begun in The Illusion of Life: Essays on Animation. It provides an abundance of understandings, approaches, correctives, and challenges to scholars not only in animation studies and film studies, but in disciplines across the spectrum. It proceeds on the assumption that animation, in increasingly taking center stage thanks to computer animation and anime, calls ever more insistently for focused, rigorous theoretical attention. The sixteen essays composing the collection engage with post-World War II film animation in Japan and the United States, as well as with the expanded field of animation, including: the relation of live action and animation; video and computer games, the electronic, digitally animated mediascape, the city, flight simulation, the military and war; and animation in the entertainment industry. In addition, it contains essays of a more general theoretical nature on animation, as well as a substantial introduction addressing developments in animation and its theorizing.

The Magic Behind the Voices is a fascinating package of biographies, anecdotes, credit listings, and photographs of the actors who have created the unmistakable voices for some of the most popular and enduring animated characters of all time. Drawn from dozens of personal interviews, the book features a unique look at thirty-nine of the hidden artists of show business. Often as amusing as the characters they portray, voice actors are charming, resilient people—many from humble beginnings—who have led colorful lives in pursuit of success. Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill's Mike Judge was an engineer for a weapons contractor turned self-taught animator and voice actor. Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson) was a small-town Ohio girl who became the star protégé of Daws Butler—most famous for Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and Quick Draw McGraw. Mickey Mouse (Wayne Allwine) and Minnie Mouse (Russi Taylor) were a real-life husband-and-wife team. Spanning many studios and production companies, this book captures the spirit of fun that bubbles from those who create the voices of favorite animated characters. In the earliest days of cartoons, voice actors were seldom credited for their work. A little more than a decade ago, even the Screen Actors Guild did not consider voice actors to be real actors, and the only voice actor known to the general public was Mel Blanc. Now, Oscar-winning celebrities clamor to guest star on animated television shows and features. Despite the crushing turnouts at signings for shows such as Animaniacs, The Simpsons, and SpongeBob Squarepants, most voice actors continue to work in relative anonymity. The Magic Behind the Voices features personal interviews and concise biographical details, parting the curtain to reveal creators of many of the most beloved cartoon voices.