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Amid Amidi
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Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in 1950s Animation Hardcover – August 17, 2006

by Amid Amidi (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 75 ratings
Between the classic films of Walt Disney in the 1940s and the televised cartoon revolution of the 1960s was a critical period in the history of animation. Amid Amidi, of the influential Animation Blast magazine and CartoonBrew blog, charts the evolution of the modern style in animation, which largely discarded the "lifelike" aesthetic for a more graphic and often abstract approach. Abundantly found in commercials, industrial and educational films, fair and expo infotainment, and more, this quickly popular cartoon modernism shared much with the painting and graphic design movements of the era. Showcasing hundreds of rare and forgotten sketches, model boards, cels, and film stills, Cartoon Modern is a thoroughly researched, eye-popping, and delightful account of a vital decade of animation design.
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  1. Print length
    200 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Chronicle Books
  4. Publication date
    August 17, 2006
  5. Grade level
    8 and up
  6. Reading age
    13 years and up
  7. Dimensions
    8.75 x 0.88 x 11.38 inches
  8. ISBN-10
    0811847314
  9. ISBN-13
    978-0811847315
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The%20Amazon%20Book%20Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Amid Amidi is the publisher and editor of the magazine Animation Blast and cofounder of the popular animation blog CartoonBrew.com. In addition to writing, Amidi works in the animation industry. The author of The Art of Robots (0-8118-4549-4), he lives in Los Angeles.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chronicle Books
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 17, 2006
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ First Edition
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 200 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0811847314
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0811847315
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.85 pounds
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 years and up
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.75 x 0.88 x 11.38 inches
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 8 and up
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 75 ratings

About the author

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Amid Amidi

Amid Amidi

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Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Thank you to everyone for your interest and support of my previous book projects. I'm currently working on a full-length biography of Disney animation legend Ward Kimball that will be published in 2018 by ANTIBOOKCLUB.

To follow progress on the book, stay tuned to my Twitter @amid or the website cartoonbrew.com. And if for some crazy reason, you'd like to know more about me, visit AmidAmidi.com. Stay animated!

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
75 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers praise the book's distinct visual style and whimsical animation, with one noting its amazing backgrounds. Moreover, the book serves as a goldmine of information, with one customer highlighting its comprehensive history of the period. Additionally, the text quality receives positive feedback, with one review noting it strikes a smart balance between scholarly and entertaining content.

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18 customers mention "Visual content"18 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the visual content of the book, describing it as an incredible source of art with a distinct and whimsical animation style.

"...The pictures (and there are a ton of them) are pretty, and instantly evocative, and the text hits a smart median between scholarly and..." Read more

"...This one hits mid stride. It's divided by studios, and subdivided by animators or designers (once they were one and the same)...." Read more

"...to let the cartoon fans know that this book is packed with tons of color. I always want a read a review that lets me know there is color ,..." Read more

"...This highly anticipated book by Amid Amidi is a visual feast and an incredibly well-researched documentation of "cartoon modern" and comes with the..." Read more

13 customers mention "Information value"13 positive0 negative

Customers find the book to be a goldmine of information, with one customer highlighting its incredible research and another noting how it details the entire history of the period.

"...The pictures (and there are a ton of them) are pretty, and instantly evocative, and the text hits a smart median between scholarly and..." Read more

"...So these images have a fond connection to a developing mind at an age that soaks it all in, from English ONE to Gerald McBong Bong...." Read more

"...book by Amid Amidi is a visual feast and an incredibly well-researched documentation of "cartoon modern" and comes with the highest recommendation...." Read more

"...out wonderfully, designed for aesthetics but still providing deep historical significance on this whimsical animation style...." Read more

6 customers mention "Text quality"6 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the text quality of the book, with one customer noting that it strikes a smart balance between scholarly and entertaining.

"...pretty, and instantly evocative, and the text hits a smart median between scholarly and entertaining. Five stars...." Read more

"...The economy of line and noisy fills to convey characterization and backgrounds are amazing!..." Read more

"This book nails it. Great illustrations, beautifully printed, knowledgeable text with the just the info that you need and enough material that you..." Read more

"Absolutly wonderful visuals, with OK text...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Iconophoric
    5.0 out of 5 stars 'Thought I'd Died and Gone to Cartoon Heaven
    Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2006
    Verified Purchase
    Like many of my peers, as I grew up, my interest in animation gravitated toward the full animation of the Golden Age: Robert McKimson, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, et al, for a long while disdaining any form of animated minimalism, even the kind represented in this book. By the age of 7 or 8, we had come to associate Top Cat, Deputy Dawg, The Flintstones, The Jetsons and all the minimal animation that had once been among our favorites with shoddy cheapness. (Even as a small child, I remember several of us sitting around talking about cartoons, and laughing to scorn at the way the same background tree kept passing every couple of seconds in Hanna-Barbera chase scenes. We wondered, did they think we weren't catching that?!) 'Limited animation', those dread words, became poision for all us growing young animation fans.

    I'm not sure when my respect and interest in minimal/modern animation returned in a changed form, but I think it had to be in the mid 80s, when the best of UPA appeared suddenly on a couple of VHS tapes: Gerald McBoing Boing, The Tell-Tale Heart, Unicorn in the Garden, Christopher Crumpet, The Rise of Duton Lange, Family Circus, etc. On the rebound, the '50s fine art/graphic design style of these cartoons knocked me out. After seeing these shorts, I started seeking out more examples of this style of animation in old TV commercial reels, and then started noticing the style spilling over into point of purchase, packaging design and magazine ads of the period. By this point, I was a fatally hooked "modern."

    This book will throughly scratch the itch of those baby boomers whose earliest TV memories may include those brief Tom Terrific segments from Captain Kangaroo, as well as the younger reader who will feel the irresistable draw of a very strong retro style. The pictures (and there are a ton of them) are pretty, and instantly evocative, and the text hits a smart median between scholarly and entertaining.

    Five stars. If you have anyone with any level of popular art/film/animation/graphic design interest on your Christmas list, I'd bear this book in mind.
    28 people found this helpful
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  • Gord Wilson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Coffee tables' most wanted
    Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2009
    Verified Purchase
    Ever since I saw this book on Amazon, I kept returning to the page, almost ordering it. Nothing told me what to expect: I thought it would be black and white and sparsely illustrated. Instead, it's an oversized, hardback, 200 page coffee table book drenched in color. Any coffee table would be glad to have this book on it, and no one visiting the home could resist picking it up. If, like me, you love 'fifties cartoons and animation...well, you see where this is going.

    Coffee table books are either all splashy pictorial or exhaustive in their entries. This one hits mid stride. It's divided by studios, and subdivided by animators or designers (once they were one and the same). Since most animation of this period is vastly underrated and mostly unknown, the first surprise is that there were so many studios. "When modern design met cartoons, the look of animation changed forever" reads the back cover blurb. Well, where can you see this animation?

    With the Disney Treasures series out now, viewers may be surprised to see the modern touch in some Disney cartoons (well documented here by Amidi). I have a poster on my wall that says "This Theater Regularly Shows Terrytoons Cartoons". Now I know who designed the smiling square Terrytoons logo on it (Gene Deitch), and why it looks so much like the design for Tom Teriffic, the wonderfully minimalist cartoon segment which ran on the Captain Kangaroo Show.

    Amidi also revives glimpses of the UPA shorts I saw in film class: Thurber's "The Unicorn in the Garden", Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart". the later Columbia Mr. Magoo shorts. Now that Gerald McBoing Boing is out on DVD, I wondered how there could ever have been a McBoing Boing Show on network TV, as I read there was, since there seem to be only a handful of Gerald cartoons. Amidi enlightened me with the amazing news that the McBoing Boing Show didn't just show Gerald shorts, but all sorts of experimental animation.

    All of the money for animation was in commercials, which, as the radio announcer gave way to the new visual medium, were mostly product endorsements by celebrities--visual radio. That changed in the '50s when designers brought modern style, snap and sparseness to their ads, many of which outdo most of the ads on TV now for creative styling.

    Making a TV cartoon, however, had its own hurdles, since one minute of advertising had the same budget as an entire half hour cartoon show. Enter Hanna-Barbera and the much maligned idea of "limited animation". In retrospect however, it appears as a brainstorm. For all the naysayers, Ed Benedict's designs for H-B characters--Yogi, Huck, the Flintstones, to name a few--are so endearing that we still watch them today. The '90s renaissance on Cartoon Network and Nick came from animators and designers who looked back in tribute to this era, and theirs are the cartoons which, besides these others, have endured. Amidi provides a lavish spread of Benedict's designs, and for me, he will always be one of the patron saints of cartoons.

    Are we done yet? We haven't begun. If you want facts and figures, they're also there, although most of these bits read like an encyclopedia. In the '50s there were often TV spots for something called "Religion in American Life", with the tagline, "Worship this week at your church or synagogue". Some of these spots were quite creative, and various denominations, in this era when everyone went to church, also did their bit to provide uplifting TV.

    The best known, of course, is Davey and Goliath, the clay animation series by Gumby creator Art Clokey, and sponsored by the Lutheran Church. Unfortunately, this series is today mocked by "adult" cartoons like Moral Orel, made by those who apparently don't realize that Davey and Goliath is already camp. Yet, those with open minds may be amazed to find how modern was the design in a Baptist Church sponsored uplift spot called "Jot". I can remember a few well-animated station breaks by the Methodist Church, alas lost to history. Until now. Amidi devotes two pages to ten color stills from a super-modern Methodist short from 1959 called "Stop Driving Us Crazy". This "offbeat marriage of gospel, design, and jazz", as Amidi calls it, now tops my must-see list.

    Are there omissions? Yes, because the period was so prodigious that 200 pages cannot do it justice. In the Warner Bros. section, I'm glad to see Maurice Noble finally getting credit for his dazzling backgrounds in "What's Opera, Doc" and "Hareway to the Stars". The 22 page Disney spread rightly touches on "101 Dalmations" and "Mars and Beyond", but as Amidi knows, this is the tip of an iceberg. Soundac Studios is briefly mentioned in passing, but doesn't get it's own section. Yet they are known for two modern art high points: Colonel Bleep, the ultra-modern cartoon martian, and numerous stylized weather spots that local stations could run depending on climate conditions.

    Anyone interested in this era may find more in the magazine Amidi edits, Animation Blast, or at the site he co-runs with animator and historian Jerry Beck, Cartoon Brew. Those with only a passing interest in the era or cartoons who crack the cover may yet find themselves drawn in by the inviting pictures, anyone of which is worth a thousand words.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • artist- Joe Monroe
    5.0 out of 5 stars Cartoon Modern(style and design in the fifties animation
    Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2007
    Verified Purchase
    Cartoon Modern by Amid Amidi is a book who's time has come. As an artist
    and a baby boomer, this book brings back warm memories of my youth sitting
    in front of the T.V.(back then Cartoons only happened on Saturday.)
    So these images have a fond connection to a developing mind at an age
    that soaks it all in, from English ONE to Gerald McBong Bong. Just a note,
    I do have 3 of the original Gerald McBong Bong and find genius in the
    illustrations, so timely, to have all these illustrations and works of art
    is like having bell bottoms popular again! I have been trying to find
    other Gerald McBong Bong tapes at flea markets, yard sales, etc. So how curious
    to see Gerald McBong Bong in the stores again. I bought two different D.V.D.s
    my fingers and opened it up and all the wonderful illustrations were turned
    into a over intense experience of the story, packed with friends and parents, noises,more friends,all packed
    into a 1/2hour show. This tells me two things, our children need more attention
    grabbing, multi-tasking everything, which means when we were children , T.V.
    had been out for just a few years and there were no computers, hi-def,
    cell phones, I Pods, e mail, in fact I don't think the first computer game "Ping
    ,pong was , but years away. This book is wonderful in it's simple ,
    but great art and illustration, when life was not so erratic. I also want
    to let the cartoon fans know that this book is packed with tons of color. I always want a read a review that lets me know there is color ,
    I am a colorist, in my art, and I do think we may see some of these cartoon
    images in bits and pieces in our art today. It's a good thing.
    3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Client d'Amazon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Indispendable et en quantité limité!
    Reviewed in France on August 24, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Un régal pour les amateurs d'animation, et indispensable pour les les pratiquants. Ce livre raconte non seulement l'histoire de l'animation pendant les années 50s-60s de manière intéressante, c'est véritablement un livre d'art avec des images sublimes. A ce prix, sautez dessus! Cartoon Modern va bientôt arrêter sa publication. C'est le moment ou jamais !
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  • James
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great for Inspiration
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 7, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    I got this book after reading about it on the Author's website Cartoon Brew. It's filled with great pictures, great artwork and lots of interesting information about the animation companies from the 50s. It's a great source of inspiration for me, as an aspiring animator.

    Now I keep it next to me when I'm working so that if I ever feel a lack of creativity coming on, I just flick through the awesome pages of this book and I'm ready to go.
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in India on July 19, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    very helpful info on the '50s animation industry
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  • Christian
    5.0 out of 5 stars Una piacevole sorpresa
    Reviewed in Italy on February 15, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Questo libro mi ha fatto innamorare si questo genere di animazione, un libro che va sfogliato guardato riguardato per prendere spunti per poi ricominciare da capo e trovare nuovi spunti.
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  • eula_d
    5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully Illustrated
    Reviewed in Germany on September 5, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    A must have for illistrators and animators alike
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