That's All Folks?: Ecocritical Readings of American Animated Features - Hardcover

Although some credit the environmental movement of the 1970s, with its profound impact on children&;s television programs and movies, for paving the way for later eco-films, the history of environmental expression in animated film reaches much further back in American history, as That&;s All Folks? makes clear.

Countering the view that the contemporary environmental movement&;and the cartoons it influenced&;came to life in the 1960s, Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann reveal how environmentalism was already a growing concern in animated films of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. From Felix the Cat cartoons to Disney&;s beloved Bambi to Pixar&;s Wall-E and James Cameron&;s Avatar, this volume shows how animated features with environmental themes are moneymakers on multiple levels&;particularly as broad-based family entertainment and conveyors of consumer products. Only Ralph Bakshi&;s X-rated Fritz the Cat and R-rated Heavy Traffic and Coonskin, with their violent, dystopic representation of urban environments, avoid this total immersion in an anti-environmental consumer market.

Showing us enviro-toons in their cultural and historical contexts, this book offers fresh insights into the changing perceptions of the relationship between humans and the environment and a new understanding of environmental and animated cinema.