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Title: Saturday Morning Fever : Growing up with Cartoon Culture by Timothy Burke, Kevin Burke ISBN: 0-312-16996-5 Publisher: Griffin Trade Paperback Pub. Date: 15 December, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.44 (16 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Good for Fun, Bad for Facts
Comment: This book has many positive and negative points to it. Let's start off with what's good about it. The authors write with a clear understanding and love for animation. The book isn't a cold text book on Saturday Morning traditions or television shows. They commnet on obscure shows and remind the reader of the reasons why they watched some shows. In the book, there is a loose history of how cartoons migrated to Saturdays, with subtle mentions of struggles between advertisers, networks, and parental groups, also reflective looks on "Generation X" and their love of animation. They even post comments sent to them from internet newsgroups from people recalling their own love and rituals of Saturday mornings. Lots of inside information told in a real fun way.
Now on to the bad parts...First off, I will state there is a very clear bias in the writing. The authors make their opinions clear when they write about programs they didn't like. What's worse is that they don't give reasons for them. Their mentality sends the message: "you had to be there to know," which means there is a stark learning curve to this text. The only saving grace, is that the authors admit their bias on the first page. Right from the start you know its going to be an opinionated retrospective look back.
The lack of photos in the book is also annoying, especially considering their text on Sid and Marty Kroff's programs, describing the visuals as trippy. The medium of television is very visual, and not being able to make a cartoon character's face with its name, makes looking back 30 years a little tough. The book takes little time to break things into generas or eras. It covers the overall collective of Saturday morning and picks out the most memorible shows and comments on them.
This book is great for the casual reader, but serverly lacking for historic or animation enthusiasts. If you do pick it up, read it for fun, not for research.
Rating: 1
Summary: Just mostly pointless rambling with very few facts
Comment: When I ordered this book,I thought I was getting a history of Saturday Morning cartoons.But all that's in this book is just a bunch of pointless babbling by the authors.I had to wade through pages of meaningless chatter just to find the very few facts that are scattered helter-skelter around this book.Mostly,you'll see the same,redundant babble about how the authors did'nt like "Yogi's Gang".How they thought "Laff-a-Lympics"was terrible.How they did'nt like"Scooby and Scrappy-Doo."There were mentions of shows they liked such as "Animaniacs" and "The Tick".
Then there's more repititious babbling about how they did'nt like "Monchichi's","Laff-a-Lympics","Yogi's Gang",etc.Alongo with the mildly amusing sidebars,this book was just about what shows the authors hated.There's even an unfunny crack about "Inch High,Private Dick".Was this book written by teenagers?Guys-if you want to write books,at least stick with something you actaully KNOW about.These guys don't really know anythnig about cartoons;they just try to impress us with pretending to be Saturday morning cartoon experts.What this book boils down to is just a book of the author's opinions.That's all.I was so disappointed in the book that I'm going to return it to Amazon.com.
Rating: 4
Summary: The mouths move, the bodies and scenery don't!
Comment: This is an excellent critical analysis of one of the few common experiences for U.S. children born between 1960 and 1980. These cartoons weren't very good, but they were ours(...)!
Most of the target audience doesn't relate to the entire period examined in this book, so I find the development of Saturday morning fare useful. There are lots of insightful comments from some of the original producers, although the tone alternates from studious to wickedly sarcastic.
Recommended.
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Title: The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons by Jeff Lenburg, Jeff Leaburg, June Foray ISBN: 0816038325 Publisher: Checkmark Books Pub. Date: July, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: A Cast of Friends by William Hanna, Tom Ito, Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera ISBN: 0306809176 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: February, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin ISBN: 0452259932 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: May, 1990 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: Hanna Barbera Cartoons by Michael Mallory ISBN: 185227896X Publisher: Virgin Books Pub. Date: 19 November, 1999 |
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