The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons Paperback – July 1, 1999

this book lives up to it's title. it doesn't discriminate between new cartoons and the good ones from the past. it's very detailed (some words are missing in two or three show synopsis reports, the writer was probably reading in his mind what he was wanting to write and he got ahead of himself and left out a word or two he thought he wrote...it happens to me all the time). well, this book tells brief histories of cartoons and the voices behind them. it's a nice companion book to The Encyclopedia of Game Shows. it was published in 1999 and so at the time "The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show" was still on the air but that program was pulled off ABC in 2000 because they said that 60% of the parents today feel that children don't need cartoons in their lives. NBC had already yanked animated shows off the air and ABC soon followed by pulling off nearly all of it's animated line-up. currently, Saturday mornings have very few "real" cartoons, it's now nothing but claymation, Japanese stuff, or shows aimed at very little children. i can remember being 10 or 11 (1986 and 1987) and STILL getting up early on Saturday mornings to watch "Popeye", "Wacky Races", "Scooby-Doo", "Bugs Bunny", "Clue Club", "Jabber Jaw", "Super-Friends", and the list goes on. even when i was 16 i watched USA Network's "Cartoon Express" until they started replacing the good cartoons with the newer stuff. i was raised on cartoons made in the 1930's through the 1980's but being 9 and 10 years old in the mid '80s i never knew about such things as an old cartoon and new one. to me "Yogi Bear" and "Bugs Bunny" were as contemporary as the "Smurfs" and "He-Man". i still watch the classic Warner Brothers cartoons late at night on weekends on Cartoon Network. i also love the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons and the ones they did in the 1980s (revivals of their older shows with children casts, "Flintstone Kids", "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo", plus "Tom and Jerry Kids", in the early '90s). this book is a must for animation fans; artists; fans of Daws Butler, Don Messick, and Mel Blanc like i am; plus it's broken down into different themes such as theatrical feature length cartoons, made for TV cartoons, award winning cartoons, etc. it's a great book.

The highest tribute that I can give to this book is that I could not find a single animated cartoon from my experience that it did not cover. I felt sure that I knew of a few obscure ones that would not be in here- and I was wrong. Moreover, I found much here that I wasn't familiar with. That absolutely amazed me.This true encyclopedia is organised into five major sections 1) silent cartoon series, 2)theatrical sound cartoon series, 3)full-length animated features, 4) animated television specials, and 5) television cartoon series. There are numerous black and white illustrations of various characters included with the text, as well as color plates in the middle of the book. I suppose considering the scope of this reference it would have been difficult to illustrate everything. Still, it would have been fantastic to have model sheets for every single entry...I have found myself getting this book down and browsing through it more times than I want to admit- while cursing the children's television "activists" that have robbed generations of the joy of experiencing many of these classics and near classics (and some of the classically bad.)

This is THE best cartoon encyclopedia I have ever stumbled upon. It lists nearly every cartoon ever made (by nearly, I mean some programs that weren't shown in America aren't in this book). The book is split up into five different sections:1. Silent cartoons from the 1910's to the 1920's2. Theatrical "sound" cartoons (i.e. Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, etc.)3. Cartoon movies4. Cartoon television specials5. Cartoon television seriesEverything is listed alphebetically, so it's not too hard to find your favorite cartoon. Although there are some errors in the book, such as slight mistakes in voice credits. But other than that, it's a great book. Specials and series that you never thought anybody remembered are listed in this book.

It was as I expected and not. I recognized many of the characters it talked about and some of their histories ( which I didn't know) but stopped short at a period that I had hoped be covered, most of theses were from Japan (the later cartoons). I would like to see a updated version starting from 1980 to present day by this person.

Chronicles cartoons making research very enjoyable. Love this book. Have wanted it for years. So grateful to find it in such great condition and at a great price!!!