Reviews 2015
Children’s Film in the Digital Age: Essays on Audience, Adaptation and Consumer Culture
Children’s Film in the Digital Age: Essays on Audience, Adaptation and Consumer Culture. Eds. Karin Beeler and Stan Beeler. Jefferson: McFarland, 2015. 202 pages. $40.00 (paperback).
As publications on children’s films are not as abundant as it would be desirable, Children’s Film in the Digital Age: Essays on Audience, Adaptation and Consumer Culture is a most welcome contribution to the field all the more so that it also focuses on transmediality, an inherent element of children’s culture. The book is divided into three sections. The first one, "Childhood, Adults and Films for Dual Audiences," explores the concept of the dual audiences in children’s films. Julian Cornell deals with pedagogical issues in children’s films as texts created by adults. Following Jacqueline Rose, he uses the metaphor of coming back home to develop the idea that children’s products (literature or films) are subject to adult colonialism. Stan Beeler discusses the role of soundtracks in children’s films as a way to attract adult audiences to theatres. He concludes that selection of music appealing to different generations is the most productive strategy and guarantees a film’s success. Heather Rolufs discusses the ambivalent status of Tim Burton’s film Alice in Wonderland (2010) as a film for adults and children, whereas Noel Browns analyses the Asterix & Obelix saga (1999, 2002, 2008, 2012) as a European attempt to compete with Hollywood.
In section two, the authors deal with film adaptation and transmedia forms, which is the most original part of the collection. Naomi Hamer writes about the mixing of franchise texts and digital fan cultures related to The Chronicles of Narnia (2005, 2008, 2010). She also analyses the increasing production of fans of Narnia on the Internet, such as videos or tales based on Lewis’s books. Lincoln Geraghty discusses quests and the culture of challenge as a way to form the viewer’s character on the example of two Pokémon films. He also focuses on the importance of transmediality in this franchise. Karin Beeler explores the transmediality resulting from the transformation of Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2007) into a film. She also analyses the film’s making-of book. Dan North looks into Martin Scorsese’s relationship with childhood and cinephilia as reflected in his film Hugo, an adaptation of Brian Selznick’s novel/picture book The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007).
The last section, "Cultural and Consumer Contexts for Children," consists of five essays about the complex social contexts of films designated for children with the American and international framework. Michel Bouchard and Tatiana Podyakova present a historical study of nationalism in Russian animated films, emphasising the importance of animated films as vehicles of ideological messages. Stephanie Hemerlryck Donald questions the traditional conception of children as a passive audience in her analysis of children’s responses to migration, especially child migration, in some international films such as Le Havre (Kauriskami 2011), Welcome (Lioret 2009) or Rabbit Proof Fence (Noyce 2002). Swarnavel Eswaran Pillai writes about Dubashi (The translator, 1999), an Indian film about a family of translators that was screened in schools as a part of a didactic program. Pillai focuses on this film as an expression of the kaleidoscopic configuration of India through a threefold message: the vision of 21st century’s India, the history of Indian Cinema (including the importance of Indian mythology in its early years), and the figure of translators as multicultural characters. Lydia E. Ferguson provides an overview of the negative representations of race in Disney films for children from more ancient (and deplorable) films like Song of the South (1946) to the more contemporary The Princess and the Frog (2009). As Ferguson argues, Disney has not introduced significant changes in the way he depicts black people since the stereotypical image is still prominent. Finally, Debbie Olson analyses the African American depiction in TV series. In her opinion, these shows place African American children in a white media industry consumer position since they fully participate in this capitalist culture. Her case study is two well-known TV series: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids and The Proud Family.
As is typical in such collections, the final result is somehow uneven. Nevertheless the main goal—to provide a set of different insights into children’s films—has undeniably been achieved. The focus on transmediality is a wise choice although is not central in all the essays. The international section is another interesting contribution as it enables the reader to learn about most probably lesser known examples of children’s films. However, I find it surprising that most of the essays do not refer to children’s literature criticism as that could be very useful especially in relation to dual audiences. Zohar Shavit (Poetics of Children’s Literature, 1986), Barbara Walls (The Narrator’s Voice, 1991) or Hans Heino Ewers (Fundamental Concepts of Children’s Literature Research, 2009) would be a must. Also, when dealing with Rose’s constructed child, the authors should refer to Rudd’s (2005) and Bottigheimer’s (1998) works. Despite these deficiencies, this book is of substantial importance for researchers working on children’s films as it provides some very useful analytical tools enabling a multifaceted thematic and methodological analysis of children’s films.
Xavier Mínguez-López
University of València, Spain
Works Cited
Bottigheimer, Ruth B. "An Important System of Its Own: Defining Children's Literature." The Princeton University Library Chronicle 59 (1998): 190-210.
Ewers, Hans-Heino. Fundamental Concepts of Children’s Literature Research: Literary and Sociological Approaches. New York and London: Routledge, 2009.
Rudd, David. "How does children’s literature exist?" Understanding Children’s Literature. Ed. Peter Hunt. 2nd edition. New York and London: Routledge, 2005. 15-29.
Selznick, Brian. The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2007.
Shavit, Zohar. Poetics of Children’s Literature. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2009.
Wall, Barbara. The Narrator's Voice: The Dilemma of Children’s Fiction. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1991.
Technology and Identity in Young Adult Fiction: The Posthuman Subject by Victoria Flanagan. Review by Noga Applebaum.
Henry James’s Enigmas: Turning the Screw of Eternity? by Jean Perrot. Review by Beata Williamson.
Pričanja o djetinjstvu. Život priča u svakodnevnoj komunikaciji [Narratives of childhood. Life of stories in everyday communication] by Jelena Marković. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Fairy Tale and Film: Old Tales with a New Spin by Sue Short. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Children’s Film in the Digital Age: Essays on Audience, Adaptation and Consumer Culture edited by Karin Beeler and Stan Beeler. Review by Xavier Mínguez-López.
The Middle Ages in Children's Literature by Clare Bradford. Review by Sara Van den Bossche.
Ad usum Delphini. O szkolnej edukacji literackiej – dawniej i dziś [Ad usum Delphini: On literary education in schools then and now] by Dorota Michułka. Review by Krystyna Zabawa.
Educational Institutions in Horror Film: A History of Mad Professors, Student Bodies, and Final Exams by Andrew L. Grunzke. Review by Anna Arnman.
Pixar’s Boy Stories: Masculinity in a Postmodern Age by Shannon R. Wooden and Ken Gillam. Review by Mateusz Świetlicki.
U carstvu životinja. Animalističko čitanje hrvatskih dječjih časopisa [In the animal kingdom: An animalistic reading of Croatian childrenʼs magazines] by Ana Batinić. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Libri per diventare italiani. L’editoria per la scuola a Milano nel secondo Ottocento [Books that Made the Italians: Educational Publishers in Milan in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century] by Elisa Marazzi. Review by Katarzyna Biernacka-Licznar.
The Gothic Fairy Tale in Young Adult Literature: Essays on Stories from Grimm to Gaiman edited by Joseph Abbruscato and Tanya Jones. Review by Terri Doughty.
Marvelous Transformations: An Anthology of Fairy Tales and Contemporary Critical Perspectives edited by Christine A. Jones and Jennifer Schacker. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Disability, Deformity, and Disease in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales by Ann Schmiesing. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
British Children’s Poetry in the Romantic Era: Verse, Riddle, and Rhyme by Donelle Ruwe. Review by Morag Styles.
Colonial Girlhood in Literature, Culture and History, 1840-1950 edited by Kristine Moruzi and Michelle J. Smith. Review by Blanka Grzegorczyk.
Children’s Games in the New Media Age: Childlore, Media and the Playground edited by Andrew Burn and Chris Richards. Review by Richard Shakeshaft.
Gospođi Alisinoj desnoj nozi. [Alice’s right foot] by Ljiljana Pešikan Ljuštanović. Review by Ivana Mijić Nemet.
The Middle Ages in Children’s Literature by Clare Bradford. Review by Ashley N. Reese.
Prstenovi koji se šire: junačka potraga u djelima J. R. R. Tolkiena [Widening rings: heroic quest in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien] by Petra Mrduljaš Doležal. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Child Saviours in English Fantasy Fiction for Children and Young Adults by Anne Klaus. Review by Catherine Posey.
Channeling Wonder: Fairy Tales on Television edited by Pauline Greenhill and Jill Terry Rudy. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Literary Conceptualizations of Growth: Metaphors and Cognition in Adolescent Literature by Roberta Seelinger Trites. Review by Marek Oziewicz.
Representing Children in Chinese and U.S. Children’s Literature edited by Claudia Nelson and Rebecca Morris. Review by Susan Tan.
American Environmental Fiction, 1782-1847 by Matthew Wynn Sivils. Review by Lydia Kokkola.
Fantasy and the Real World in British Children’s Literature: The Power of Story by Caroline Webb. Review by Karyn Huenemann.
Modern Children’s Literature: An Introduction edited by Catherine Butler and Kimberley Reynolds. Review by Valerie Coghlan.
Discourses of Postcolonialism in Contemporary British Children’s Literature by Blanka Grzegorczyk. Review by Yasmine Motawy.
Virginity in Young Adult Literature After Twilight by Christine Seifert. Review by Lydia Kokkola.
Ethics and Children’s Literature edited by Claudia Mills. Review by Anna Bugajska.
Researching Literacy Lives: Building Communities between Home and School by Teresa Cremin, Marilyn Mottram, Fiona M. Collins, Sacha Powell, and Rose Drury. Review by Sara K. Sterner.
Potjehovi hologrami. Studije, eseji i kritike iz književnosti za djecu i mladež. [Holograms of Quest: articles, essays and reviews of children’s and young adult literature] by Diana Zalar. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Picturebooks: Representation and Narration edited by Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer. Review by Betsie van der Westhuizen.
Audacious Kids: The Classic American Children’s Story by Jerry Griswold. Review by Taraneh Matloob.
Fictions of Adolescent Carnality: Sexy Sinners and Devious Delinquents by Lydia Kokkola. Review by Victoria Flanagan.
Children’s Literature and Learner Empowerment: Children and Teenagers in English Language Education by Janice Bland. Review by Victoria de Rijke.
