Books by Noel Brown
Until the 1990s, animation occupied a relatively marginal presence in Hollywood. Today, it is at ... more Until the 1990s, animation occupied a relatively marginal presence in Hollywood. Today, it is at the very heart of both the film industry and contemporary popular culture. Charting the major changes and continuities in Hollywood animation over the past thirty years, this groundbreaking book offers an authoritative history of Hollywood animation since the 1990s. Analysing dozens of key films, including The Lion King, Toy Story, Shrek, Despicable Me, Frozen and Moana, it examines the emergence of new genres and stylistic approaches, as well as the ongoing blurring of boundaries between animation and live-action. Identifying narrative and thematic patterns, and developments in industry and style, the book explores how animation in the United States both responds to and recapitulates the values, beliefs, hopes and fears of the nation.
A collection of original essays on Toy Story and its relation to contemporary animation and popul... more A collection of original essays on Toy Story and its relation to contemporary animation and popular culture, co-edited with Susan Smith and Sam Summers.
A generic overview of the children's film, exploring its recurrent themes and ideologies, and com... more A generic overview of the children's film, exploring its recurrent themes and ideologies, and common narrative and stylistic principles. It examines how children’s cinema has developed across its broad historical and geographic span, analysing changes and continuities in how it has been conceived. This book outlines the history of children’s cinema from the early days of commercial cinema to the present, explores the key critical issues, and provides case studies of major children’s films from countries such as the United States, Britain, France, Denmark, Russia, Japan, and India.
British children’s films have played a part in the collective childhoods of generations of young ... more British children’s films have played a part in the collective childhoods of generations of young people around the world for over a century. Until now, however, their cherished status has remained largely unexplored. In this book, Noel Brown relates the history of children's cinema in Britain from the early years of commercial cinema to the present day, to reveal the reasons behind its acclaim in international popular culture. Drawing on multiple sources, Brown provides in-depth analysis of a range of iconic films, including The Railway Children, The Thief of Bagdad, Bugsy Malone, the Harry Potter films, Mary Poppins, Nanny McPhee, Paddington, Oliver!, and Aardman's Wallace and Gromit series. Futhermore, he investigates industrial and commercial contexts, such as the role of the Children's Film Foundation; and includes revealing insights on changing social and cultural norms, such as the once-sacred tradition of Saturday morning cinema. Brown challenges common prejudices that children's films are inherently shallow or simplistic, revealing the often complex strategies that underpin their enduring appeal to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. In addition, he shows how the films allow a privileged access to historic cultures and the nation's political past. In doing so, Brown firmly establishes children's cinema as an important genre not only for students and scholars of film studies but also for those interested in socio-cultural history, the production and reception of popular entertainment and anyone looking for entertainment, escapism and nostalgia.
"Thanks to their huge market success, animations from The Disney Company and blockbuster franchis... more "Thanks to their huge market success, animations from The Disney Company and blockbuster franchises like Harry Potter have dominated 'family film' production. Yet there is a long, varied and largely untold history of films made for 'family' audiences of adults and children outside the United States, and of non-Disney family films in Hollywood.
Family Films in Global Cinema is the first serious examination of films for child and family audiences in a global context. Whereas most previous studies of children’s films and family films have concerned themselves solely with Disney, this book encompasses both live-action and animated films from the Hollywood, British, Australian, East German, Russian, Indian, Japanese and Brazilian cinemas. As well as examining international family films previously ignored by scholars, the collection also presents a fresh perspective on familiar movies such as The Railway Children, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Babe, and the Harry Potter series.
Coinciding with a surging critical interest in children’s culture, Family Films in Global Cinema brings together film and television critics and historians, children’s literature scholars and folklorists. Contributors interrogate the generic aspects of family films, analysing their key formal and thematic characteristics, revealing their commonalities and variations across social and cultural borders, questioning what makes them enduringly popular for adults as well as children, and underlining their enormous richness and diversity."
Introduction: Children's Films and Family Films; Noel Brown and Bruce Babington
PART I: QUESTIONS OF IDENTITY
1. Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls: Babe and Babe: Pig in the City; Bruce Babington
2. 'A film specially suitable for children': The Marketing and Reception of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); Peter Krämer
3. 'Why Can't They Make Kids' Flicks Anymore?': Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and the Dual-Addressed Family Film; Adrian Schober
4. 'This is Halloween': The History, Significance, and Cultural Impact of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas; James M. Curtis
PART II: THE CHILD AND THE FAMILY
5. Sabu, the Elephant Boy; Jeffrey Richards
6. The Classical Hollywood Family on Screen: Living with Father and Remembering Mama; Bruce Babington
7. The Railway Children, and Other Stories: Lionel Jeffries and British Family Films in the 1970s; Noel Brown
8. 'Luke, I am your father': Toys, Play Space, and Detached Fathers in Post-1970s Hollywood Family Films; Holly Blackford
PART III: CINEMA AND STATE
9. 'Films to Give Kids Courage!': Children's Films in the German Democratic Republic; Benita Blessing
10. Post-Soviet Parody: Can Family Films about Russian Heroes be Funny?; Natalie Kononenko
11. A Brief History of Indian Children's Cinema; Noel Brown
PART IV: NATIONAL IDENTITIES
12. Brazilian Children's Cinema in the 1990s: Tensions Between the National-Popular and the International-Popular; Mirian Ou and Alessandro Constantino Gamo
13. Narrative, Time, and Memory in Studio Ghibli Films; Tom Ue
14. Dark Films for Dark Times: Spectacle, Reception, and the Textual Resonances of the Hollywood Fantasy Film; Fran Pheasant-Kelly"
From the blurb:
The Hollywood family film is one of the most popular, commercially-successful an... more From the blurb:
The Hollywood family film is one of the most popular, commercially-successful and culturally significant forms of mass entertainment. This book is the first in-depth history of the Hollywood family film, tracing its development from its beginnings in the 1930s to its global box-office dominance today. Noel Brown shows how, far from being an innocuous amusement for children, the family film has always been intended for audiences of all ages and backgrounds. He tells the story of how Hollywood's ongoing preoccupation with breaking down the barriers that divide audiences has resulted in some of the most successful and enduring films in the history of popular cinema. Drawing on multiple sources and with close analysis of a broad range of films, from such classics as "Little Women", "Meet me in St Louis", "King Kong" and "Mary Poppins" to such modern family blockbusters as "Star Wars", "Indiana Jones" and "Toy Story", this timely book underlines the immense cultural and commercial importance of this neglected genre.
Praise for the book:
'A convincing and precious book for scholars in film history, film economics, audience studies and text analysis. Hopefully, it could be the starting point for further research in this field' - Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
'Careful, scholarly, groundbreaking research... As the first full-length study of a major mode of production which now accounts for the lion's share of Hollywood's profits, Noel Brown's book fills an important gap in film history and scholarship' - Screening the Past
'Thorough, perceptive... [Written] with energy and skill' - Times Literary Supplement
‘A comprehensive overview of an important American cinematic subgenre… Written in an engaging and accessible style, with numerous illustrations, this book is an excellent one-stop history of Hollywood’s vision of the American family with all its hopes, fears, and desires. Summing Up: Highly recommended’ – Choice
PhD Dissertation by Noel Brown
"This thesis is the first in-depth, historical study of Hollywood’s relationship with the ‘family... more "This thesis is the first in-depth, historical study of Hollywood’s relationship with the ‘family audience’ and ‘family film’. Since the 1970s, Hollywood family films have been the most lucrative screen entertainments in the world, and despite their relativelyunexplored status in academic film criticism and history, I will argue that the format is centrally important in understanding mainstream Hollywood cinema.
How have ‘family films’ become so globally dominant? One answer is that Hollywood’s international power facilitates the global proliferation of its products, but this explanation, in isolation, is insufficient. I will argue that Hollywood family films are designed to transcend normative barriers of age, gender, race, culture and even taste; they target the widest possible audiences to maximise commercial returns, trying to please as many people, and offend as few, as possible. This they achieve through a combination of ideological populism, emotional stimulation, impressive spectacle, and the calculated minimisation of potentially objectionable elements, such as sex, violence, and excessive socio-cultural specificity.
Initially, the audience for family films was predominantly domestic, but with the increasing spending power of international audiences, family films are now formulated on the belief that no market is inaccessible. For this reason, they are inextricably linked with Hollywood – the only film industry in the world with the resources and distribution capacity to address a truly global mass audience. The ‘family film’ originated in early-1930s Hollywood as a mixture of propaganda and commercial idealism. Hollywood cinema was already an international cultural phenomenon, but was founded upon a claim to universality that was undermined by the predominance of adult-orientated films. The family film was the result both of external pressures to make films more morally-suitable for children, and the desire to engage a more middle-class mass audience.
Films targeting the so-called ‘family audience’ were excellent propaganda for Hollywood, suggesting superior production, inoffensiveness and broad appeal. Although such movies have not always commanded the mass (‘family’) audiences for which they are intended, they have flourished in the domestic and international media marketplace since the 1970s, and their commercial and cultural dominance appears likely to extend further in the years to come. Whilst the idea of a universally-appealing film remains an impossible dream, mainstream Hollywood has pursued it relentlessly. It is the Holy Grail for mainstream producers, and has attained considerable importance in U.S. – and increasingly international – culture, as audiences flock to see films which appear to transcend run-of-the-mill screen entertainment by providing universally-intelligible aesthetic and/or emotional satisfaction. This thesis maps the history of the Hollywood family film, documenting the motivations and strategies involved in its emergence and development, analysing the form creatively and ideologically, evaluating its place within global mass entertainment, and underlining its considerable importance."
Articles and Book Chapters by Noel Brown
Kwartalnik Filmowy, 2023
This article examines The Beatles’ classic animated film, Yellow Submarine (dir. George Dunning, ... more This article examines The Beatles’ classic animated film, Yellow Submarine (dir. George Dunning, 1968) in terms of its appeal to multi-demographic audiences. While it has become de rigueur to argue in favour of Yellow Submarine as an artefact of the late-1960s counter-culture, its status as a children’s film has largely been overlooked. This article will argue that Yellow Submarine invites, and is able to sustain, a range of interpretations, particularly regarding its dual status as a quintessential film for children and family audiences, and as a much more adult-oriented production that captures the revolutionary spirit of the period. While Yellow Submarine embodies aspects of late-1960s British and North American culture, the author argues that the narrative transcends national cultural specificities and attempts to appeal to universal human desires and emotional states through its balancing of utopian consensus and cultural diversity, and through the galvanizing presence of The Beatles.
This article explores the role of film producer and special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen in th... more This article explores the role of film producer and special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen in the development of the so-called “kidult” film. It examines the origins and the significations of the word “kidult”, which was seen to refer both to a specific type of film and to the audiences it mobilises. It denoted appeal to child and adult audiences, while asserting a distinction, a breaking away from parallel conceptions of the “family film” and “family audiences”, which had held sway in Hollywood’s industry and promotional discourses since the early 1930s. Harryhausen claimed to have invented the word and his film 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) was explicitly promoted as a “kidult” film on initial release. Through close analysis of Harryhausen’s fantasy films, this article argues that these productions adopted many of the essential narrative and representational elements of the 1950s Hollywood teen film, while still recognisably residing within a broader definition of Hollywood family entertainment. It contends that Harryhausen’s films were precursors to the contemporary Hollywood fantasy blockbuster in their address to the conceptual “kidult” consumer, their fast-paced, action-adventure narratives, and their emphasis on spectacle.
Toy Story: How Pixar Reinvented the Animated Feature, 2018
The Child in the Films of Steven Spielberg
This article centers on a series of live-action Disney movies filmed and set in Britain, and rele... more This article centers on a series of live-action Disney movies filmed and set in Britain, and released between the early-1950s and late-1960s: The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), The Sword and the Rose (1953), Rob Roy, The Highland Rogue (1953), Kidnapped (1960), and The Fighting Prince of Donegal (1966). Through close analysis of this group of films, it examines the extent to which these Anglo-American productions successfully negotiate a mid-Atlantic path between British and North American customs and ideologies, arguing that, while derived from British historical, literary, and folktale narratives, ultimately they reflect and embody complex and characteristically American values of freedom and individualism.
Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 2015
“Feel-good film” has become one of the most widespread typologies in popular discourses on cinema... more “Feel-good film” has become one of the most widespread typologies in popular discourses on cinema in recent years, but academic film studies has shown very little interest in the format, whether as a mode of classification or arouser of powerful feelings of emotional uplift among mass audiences. This essay is an exploration of historical usage of the “feel-good film” classification. Its aim is not to provide a rigorous definition of the feel-good film, nor to relate a history of the format itself; it is an exploration of the processes of film labeling, with a broader agenda of showing that conventional genre labels – of the kind that have attained broad scholarly acceptance – have been superseded, in many cases, by labels used popularly, the prevalence of which have not yet been fully appreciated by scholars. Opening with a short section exploring some of the problems and inconsistencies of film genre theory, the essay moves on to an exploration of the socio-political origins of the “feel-good” label in North America during the 1970s. It then traces critical usage (in newspapers and magazines, trade papers and other sources) of the feel-good film label from the late-1970s to the present, before considering its usage in Hollywood promotional discourses (such as trailers and movie posters).
Family Films in Global Cinema: The World Beyond Disney, Jan 31, 2015
Family Films in Global Cinema: The World Beyond Disney, Jan 31, 2015
Family Films in Global Cinema: The World Beyond Disney, Jan 31, 2015
Hitchcock's Children: The Child in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock, Dec 31, 2014
Brown’s chapter focuses on the absence of children in Hitchcock’s films, and explores the reasons... more Brown’s chapter focuses on the absence of children in Hitchcock’s films, and explores the reasons for this absence. He argues that Hitchcock’s treatment of children remained largely grounded, alternately, in a melodramatic conflation of pseudo-Freudian concepts, and Romantic notions of childhood innocence. Situating Hitchcock’s treatment of children within the broader cultural and cinematic contexts in which he operated, in an era where the movie screen was predominantly adult, Brown deconstructs received claims among critics that Hitchcock’s films were universal in their reach. He goes on to examine Hitchcock’s ongoing obsession with his generic identity, and his preoccupation with his standing among influential auteurist critics in his later career, arguing that collectively, these factors mandate against representations of childhood beyond the symbolic or totemic level.
Children's Film in the Digital Age: Essays on Audience, Adaptation and Consumer Culture, Dec 31, 2014
A prevailing critical tendency has been to interpret Hollywood’s dominance of the global film mar... more A prevailing critical tendency has been to interpret Hollywood’s dominance of the global film market as largely invasive and threatening to indigenous cinemas. Doubtless because they relate purportedly to the most vulnerable consumer section, children’s films have been a particular focus of attention in Western Europe, with a widely-expressed belief that they should remain wholesome, educative and – in contrast to imported Hollywood blockbuster fare – sympathetic to local cultural tradition. State financial support for such productions (especially in the Scandinavian countries) has both sustained and limited European children’s cinema, with meagre production budgets, ineffectual distribution strategies and a resolutely uncommercial narrative and stylistic approach. The one notable exception to this rule is the Asterix and Obelix (1999- ) film franchise, an extraordinarily popular series of live-action, French-language films adapted from the iconic French comic strips but made collaboratively by French, German and Italian production companies, with funding from Eurimages, a funding and distribution body formed in 1992 and intended to ‘promote the European film industry’.
This essay will focus largely on the first instalment of the series, Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (Claude Zidi, 1999), which constituted the most expensive French-language film ever produced (with a production budget of approximately US $45 million), and eventually recouped over $100 million at the global box office. With close analysis of the film, as well as examination of its highly successful marketing and distribution strategies, I will show how Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar was explicitly conceived of as a Hollywood-style ‘family’ blockbuster designed to appeal not only to children but to the broadest possible cross-section of mass audiences. Furthermore, I will argue that its success is largely attributable to its appropriation of traditionally Hollywood commercial strategies of audience address and exploitation, with an emphasis on spectacle and visual appeal, broad comedy, a simple and transparent (but emotionally fulfilling) narrative structure supported by an astute, costly and highly visible promotional campaign. The Asterix and Obelix film franchise is thus a rare example of effective local resistance to Hollywood’s near-hegemony of the children’s/family entertainment market.
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Books by Noel Brown
Family Films in Global Cinema is the first serious examination of films for child and family audiences in a global context. Whereas most previous studies of children’s films and family films have concerned themselves solely with Disney, this book encompasses both live-action and animated films from the Hollywood, British, Australian, East German, Russian, Indian, Japanese and Brazilian cinemas. As well as examining international family films previously ignored by scholars, the collection also presents a fresh perspective on familiar movies such as The Railway Children, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Babe, and the Harry Potter series.
Coinciding with a surging critical interest in children’s culture, Family Films in Global Cinema brings together film and television critics and historians, children’s literature scholars and folklorists. Contributors interrogate the generic aspects of family films, analysing their key formal and thematic characteristics, revealing their commonalities and variations across social and cultural borders, questioning what makes them enduringly popular for adults as well as children, and underlining their enormous richness and diversity."
Introduction: Children's Films and Family Films; Noel Brown and Bruce Babington
PART I: QUESTIONS OF IDENTITY
1. Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls: Babe and Babe: Pig in the City; Bruce Babington
2. 'A film specially suitable for children': The Marketing and Reception of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); Peter Krämer
3. 'Why Can't They Make Kids' Flicks Anymore?': Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and the Dual-Addressed Family Film; Adrian Schober
4. 'This is Halloween': The History, Significance, and Cultural Impact of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas; James M. Curtis
PART II: THE CHILD AND THE FAMILY
5. Sabu, the Elephant Boy; Jeffrey Richards
6. The Classical Hollywood Family on Screen: Living with Father and Remembering Mama; Bruce Babington
7. The Railway Children, and Other Stories: Lionel Jeffries and British Family Films in the 1970s; Noel Brown
8. 'Luke, I am your father': Toys, Play Space, and Detached Fathers in Post-1970s Hollywood Family Films; Holly Blackford
PART III: CINEMA AND STATE
9. 'Films to Give Kids Courage!': Children's Films in the German Democratic Republic; Benita Blessing
10. Post-Soviet Parody: Can Family Films about Russian Heroes be Funny?; Natalie Kononenko
11. A Brief History of Indian Children's Cinema; Noel Brown
PART IV: NATIONAL IDENTITIES
12. Brazilian Children's Cinema in the 1990s: Tensions Between the National-Popular and the International-Popular; Mirian Ou and Alessandro Constantino Gamo
13. Narrative, Time, and Memory in Studio Ghibli Films; Tom Ue
14. Dark Films for Dark Times: Spectacle, Reception, and the Textual Resonances of the Hollywood Fantasy Film; Fran Pheasant-Kelly"
The Hollywood family film is one of the most popular, commercially-successful and culturally significant forms of mass entertainment. This book is the first in-depth history of the Hollywood family film, tracing its development from its beginnings in the 1930s to its global box-office dominance today. Noel Brown shows how, far from being an innocuous amusement for children, the family film has always been intended for audiences of all ages and backgrounds. He tells the story of how Hollywood's ongoing preoccupation with breaking down the barriers that divide audiences has resulted in some of the most successful and enduring films in the history of popular cinema. Drawing on multiple sources and with close analysis of a broad range of films, from such classics as "Little Women", "Meet me in St Louis", "King Kong" and "Mary Poppins" to such modern family blockbusters as "Star Wars", "Indiana Jones" and "Toy Story", this timely book underlines the immense cultural and commercial importance of this neglected genre.
Praise for the book:
'A convincing and precious book for scholars in film history, film economics, audience studies and text analysis. Hopefully, it could be the starting point for further research in this field' - Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
'Careful, scholarly, groundbreaking research... As the first full-length study of a major mode of production which now accounts for the lion's share of Hollywood's profits, Noel Brown's book fills an important gap in film history and scholarship' - Screening the Past
'Thorough, perceptive... [Written] with energy and skill' - Times Literary Supplement
‘A comprehensive overview of an important American cinematic subgenre… Written in an engaging and accessible style, with numerous illustrations, this book is an excellent one-stop history of Hollywood’s vision of the American family with all its hopes, fears, and desires. Summing Up: Highly recommended’ – Choice
PhD Dissertation by Noel Brown
How have ‘family films’ become so globally dominant? One answer is that Hollywood’s international power facilitates the global proliferation of its products, but this explanation, in isolation, is insufficient. I will argue that Hollywood family films are designed to transcend normative barriers of age, gender, race, culture and even taste; they target the widest possible audiences to maximise commercial returns, trying to please as many people, and offend as few, as possible. This they achieve through a combination of ideological populism, emotional stimulation, impressive spectacle, and the calculated minimisation of potentially objectionable elements, such as sex, violence, and excessive socio-cultural specificity.
Initially, the audience for family films was predominantly domestic, but with the increasing spending power of international audiences, family films are now formulated on the belief that no market is inaccessible. For this reason, they are inextricably linked with Hollywood – the only film industry in the world with the resources and distribution capacity to address a truly global mass audience. The ‘family film’ originated in early-1930s Hollywood as a mixture of propaganda and commercial idealism. Hollywood cinema was already an international cultural phenomenon, but was founded upon a claim to universality that was undermined by the predominance of adult-orientated films. The family film was the result both of external pressures to make films more morally-suitable for children, and the desire to engage a more middle-class mass audience.
Films targeting the so-called ‘family audience’ were excellent propaganda for Hollywood, suggesting superior production, inoffensiveness and broad appeal. Although such movies have not always commanded the mass (‘family’) audiences for which they are intended, they have flourished in the domestic and international media marketplace since the 1970s, and their commercial and cultural dominance appears likely to extend further in the years to come. Whilst the idea of a universally-appealing film remains an impossible dream, mainstream Hollywood has pursued it relentlessly. It is the Holy Grail for mainstream producers, and has attained considerable importance in U.S. – and increasingly international – culture, as audiences flock to see films which appear to transcend run-of-the-mill screen entertainment by providing universally-intelligible aesthetic and/or emotional satisfaction. This thesis maps the history of the Hollywood family film, documenting the motivations and strategies involved in its emergence and development, analysing the form creatively and ideologically, evaluating its place within global mass entertainment, and underlining its considerable importance."
Articles and Book Chapters by Noel Brown
This essay will focus largely on the first instalment of the series, Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (Claude Zidi, 1999), which constituted the most expensive French-language film ever produced (with a production budget of approximately US $45 million), and eventually recouped over $100 million at the global box office. With close analysis of the film, as well as examination of its highly successful marketing and distribution strategies, I will show how Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar was explicitly conceived of as a Hollywood-style ‘family’ blockbuster designed to appeal not only to children but to the broadest possible cross-section of mass audiences. Furthermore, I will argue that its success is largely attributable to its appropriation of traditionally Hollywood commercial strategies of audience address and exploitation, with an emphasis on spectacle and visual appeal, broad comedy, a simple and transparent (but emotionally fulfilling) narrative structure supported by an astute, costly and highly visible promotional campaign. The Asterix and Obelix film franchise is thus a rare example of effective local resistance to Hollywood’s near-hegemony of the children’s/family entertainment market.
Family Films in Global Cinema is the first serious examination of films for child and family audiences in a global context. Whereas most previous studies of children’s films and family films have concerned themselves solely with Disney, this book encompasses both live-action and animated films from the Hollywood, British, Australian, East German, Russian, Indian, Japanese and Brazilian cinemas. As well as examining international family films previously ignored by scholars, the collection also presents a fresh perspective on familiar movies such as The Railway Children, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Babe, and the Harry Potter series.
Coinciding with a surging critical interest in children’s culture, Family Films in Global Cinema brings together film and television critics and historians, children’s literature scholars and folklorists. Contributors interrogate the generic aspects of family films, analysing their key formal and thematic characteristics, revealing their commonalities and variations across social and cultural borders, questioning what makes them enduringly popular for adults as well as children, and underlining their enormous richness and diversity."
Introduction: Children's Films and Family Films; Noel Brown and Bruce Babington
PART I: QUESTIONS OF IDENTITY
1. Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls: Babe and Babe: Pig in the City; Bruce Babington
2. 'A film specially suitable for children': The Marketing and Reception of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); Peter Krämer
3. 'Why Can't They Make Kids' Flicks Anymore?': Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and the Dual-Addressed Family Film; Adrian Schober
4. 'This is Halloween': The History, Significance, and Cultural Impact of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas; James M. Curtis
PART II: THE CHILD AND THE FAMILY
5. Sabu, the Elephant Boy; Jeffrey Richards
6. The Classical Hollywood Family on Screen: Living with Father and Remembering Mama; Bruce Babington
7. The Railway Children, and Other Stories: Lionel Jeffries and British Family Films in the 1970s; Noel Brown
8. 'Luke, I am your father': Toys, Play Space, and Detached Fathers in Post-1970s Hollywood Family Films; Holly Blackford
PART III: CINEMA AND STATE
9. 'Films to Give Kids Courage!': Children's Films in the German Democratic Republic; Benita Blessing
10. Post-Soviet Parody: Can Family Films about Russian Heroes be Funny?; Natalie Kononenko
11. A Brief History of Indian Children's Cinema; Noel Brown
PART IV: NATIONAL IDENTITIES
12. Brazilian Children's Cinema in the 1990s: Tensions Between the National-Popular and the International-Popular; Mirian Ou and Alessandro Constantino Gamo
13. Narrative, Time, and Memory in Studio Ghibli Films; Tom Ue
14. Dark Films for Dark Times: Spectacle, Reception, and the Textual Resonances of the Hollywood Fantasy Film; Fran Pheasant-Kelly"
The Hollywood family film is one of the most popular, commercially-successful and culturally significant forms of mass entertainment. This book is the first in-depth history of the Hollywood family film, tracing its development from its beginnings in the 1930s to its global box-office dominance today. Noel Brown shows how, far from being an innocuous amusement for children, the family film has always been intended for audiences of all ages and backgrounds. He tells the story of how Hollywood's ongoing preoccupation with breaking down the barriers that divide audiences has resulted in some of the most successful and enduring films in the history of popular cinema. Drawing on multiple sources and with close analysis of a broad range of films, from such classics as "Little Women", "Meet me in St Louis", "King Kong" and "Mary Poppins" to such modern family blockbusters as "Star Wars", "Indiana Jones" and "Toy Story", this timely book underlines the immense cultural and commercial importance of this neglected genre.
Praise for the book:
'A convincing and precious book for scholars in film history, film economics, audience studies and text analysis. Hopefully, it could be the starting point for further research in this field' - Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
'Careful, scholarly, groundbreaking research... As the first full-length study of a major mode of production which now accounts for the lion's share of Hollywood's profits, Noel Brown's book fills an important gap in film history and scholarship' - Screening the Past
'Thorough, perceptive... [Written] with energy and skill' - Times Literary Supplement
‘A comprehensive overview of an important American cinematic subgenre… Written in an engaging and accessible style, with numerous illustrations, this book is an excellent one-stop history of Hollywood’s vision of the American family with all its hopes, fears, and desires. Summing Up: Highly recommended’ – Choice
How have ‘family films’ become so globally dominant? One answer is that Hollywood’s international power facilitates the global proliferation of its products, but this explanation, in isolation, is insufficient. I will argue that Hollywood family films are designed to transcend normative barriers of age, gender, race, culture and even taste; they target the widest possible audiences to maximise commercial returns, trying to please as many people, and offend as few, as possible. This they achieve through a combination of ideological populism, emotional stimulation, impressive spectacle, and the calculated minimisation of potentially objectionable elements, such as sex, violence, and excessive socio-cultural specificity.
Initially, the audience for family films was predominantly domestic, but with the increasing spending power of international audiences, family films are now formulated on the belief that no market is inaccessible. For this reason, they are inextricably linked with Hollywood – the only film industry in the world with the resources and distribution capacity to address a truly global mass audience. The ‘family film’ originated in early-1930s Hollywood as a mixture of propaganda and commercial idealism. Hollywood cinema was already an international cultural phenomenon, but was founded upon a claim to universality that was undermined by the predominance of adult-orientated films. The family film was the result both of external pressures to make films more morally-suitable for children, and the desire to engage a more middle-class mass audience.
Films targeting the so-called ‘family audience’ were excellent propaganda for Hollywood, suggesting superior production, inoffensiveness and broad appeal. Although such movies have not always commanded the mass (‘family’) audiences for which they are intended, they have flourished in the domestic and international media marketplace since the 1970s, and their commercial and cultural dominance appears likely to extend further in the years to come. Whilst the idea of a universally-appealing film remains an impossible dream, mainstream Hollywood has pursued it relentlessly. It is the Holy Grail for mainstream producers, and has attained considerable importance in U.S. – and increasingly international – culture, as audiences flock to see films which appear to transcend run-of-the-mill screen entertainment by providing universally-intelligible aesthetic and/or emotional satisfaction. This thesis maps the history of the Hollywood family film, documenting the motivations and strategies involved in its emergence and development, analysing the form creatively and ideologically, evaluating its place within global mass entertainment, and underlining its considerable importance."
This essay will focus largely on the first instalment of the series, Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (Claude Zidi, 1999), which constituted the most expensive French-language film ever produced (with a production budget of approximately US $45 million), and eventually recouped over $100 million at the global box office. With close analysis of the film, as well as examination of its highly successful marketing and distribution strategies, I will show how Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar was explicitly conceived of as a Hollywood-style ‘family’ blockbuster designed to appeal not only to children but to the broadest possible cross-section of mass audiences. Furthermore, I will argue that its success is largely attributable to its appropriation of traditionally Hollywood commercial strategies of audience address and exploitation, with an emphasis on spectacle and visual appeal, broad comedy, a simple and transparent (but emotionally fulfilling) narrative structure supported by an astute, costly and highly visible promotional campaign. The Asterix and Obelix film franchise is thus a rare example of effective local resistance to Hollywood’s near-hegemony of the children’s/family entertainment market.