The films of Tim Burton : animating live action in contemporary Hollywood /

Grounding this astute auteur study in the history of animation, McMahan (Vassar) connects the eccentric film artist to wildly incoherent animators like Emil Cohl, although she neglects the seemingly salient mechanistic marvels of animator Charles Bowers. The author categorizes Burton not according to the classic Hollywood narrative paradigm, but instead as a "pataphysical" stylist (pataphysics being "intricate and whimsical nonsense intended as a parody of science"). Though this notion does not quite work as a compelling construct, McMahan's verbal lucidity is as impressive as the visual designs of Burton's films, and much more accessible. From Burton's early campy stop-action tribute to Vincent Price (Vincent) through his blockbuster films like Batman, the author paints this director's oeuvre as an intertextual, idiosyncratic, and fascinating set of projects. However, what is unique about McMahan's approach is her larger cultural and contextual concerns with "animating live action in contemporary Hollywood," considerations that inform and direct her lively analysis. She is as interested in narrative, marketing, mythmaking, CGI and SFX, and the music of Danny Elfman as she is in the individual films. She closes with an invitation to consider other alternative postmodern directors such as Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black). ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All readers; all levels. T. Lindvall College of William and Mary