Young (and Talented) on Animation

Andrzej Pitrus

Abstract

The author presents a review of the collective work Obsession, Perversion, Rebellion: Twisted Dreams of Central European Animation edited by Olga Bobrowska and Michał Bobrowski (2016). This English-language publication consists of - as Pitrus notes - texts with academic ambitions, which in fact are sometimes closer to a critique with elements of popular science, rather than hard science. The subject was narrowed down to the animated cinema of Central Europe but additionally supplemented with Italian themes. As illustrated by the editors of the volume, animated cinema of Italy (especially northern Italy) remains in a close relation with the productions of the countries of the Visegrad Group. Here, however, Poland and the Czech Republic have a privileged position, because it is in these two countries that original, independent animation fares, or at least fared, the best. The first part of the anthology deals with the contexts of animated cinema, while the second part presents four case studies. In the reviewer’s opinion, this book, due to the language of publication, can be the perfect showcase of animated cinema in this part of Europe.