This article explores the work of violence in animated films. The economic and social contexts of animated film production (of the USA and the USSR) are connected to the construction and dynamics of characters’ bodies. By analysing animated chase series, the author suggests that violence that results in the fluidity and changeability of animated bodies can be regarded as a manifestation of an intrinsic feature of animated film, similar in function to what Sergei Eisenstein called ‘plasmaticness’. This feature disappears from animated films when animated characters become humanized.
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