Books by Paul Wells

Evaluates the depiction of animals in cartoons and animation. This title argues that artists use animals to engage with issues that would be more difficult to address directly because of political, religious, or social taboos.

Written for the modern reader, this work looks at atonement, which is at the heart of the Christian faith. It covers the subject in short chapters.

Animation: Genre and Authorship is an overview of the distinctive language of animation, its production processes, and the particular questions about who makes it, under what conditions and with what purpose. Arguably, animation provides the greatest opportunity for distinctive models of "auteurism" and revises generic categories. This is the first study to look specifically at these issues, and to challenge the prominence of live action movie-making as the first form of contemporary cinema and visual culture. Including extensive analysis of individual animators and their operation within studios such as Disney and Dreamworks, the book investigates the use of animation in genres from horror and science fiction to documentary and propaganda.

Paul Wells looks at animation in the United States afresh, discussing the distinctiveness of the cartoon form, and the myriad others types of animation production, insisting upon the 'modernity' of the form, and its crucial importance as a barometer of the social conditions in which it was made, and which it reflects.