The course focuses on the relationship between cinema and technology, exploring its theoretical implications and its impact on aesthetics, cinematic language, and directing styles.
teacher profile teaching materials
Between the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, animation has emerged as a central arena for the technological, aesthetic, and narrative challenges of audiovisual media. Thanks to digital technologies, it has moved beyond its ancillary role in relation to live action cinema establishing itself as a set of techniques capable of adapting to any genre and medium. The course examines some of the most emblematic cases of mainstream animation, focusing on the relationship between theory and practice, the interplay between innovation and tradition, and the encounter between different cultural paradigms, while also addressing experimental perspectives and key moments in the history of CGI. Particular attention will be devoted to Pixar’s Toy Story franchise, beginning with the 1995 film and extending the analysis to its sequels, spin-offs, and subsequent developments. This case study will make it possible to explore the aesthetic and industrial transformations of the phenomenon, as well as the dynamics of transmedia expansion across cinema, merchandising, videogames, and fandom, which have turned it into a cultural ecosystem with a strong impact on the collective imagination.
C. Uva, M. Vita, Toy Story, Carocci, Roma 2025.
Mutuazione: 20740107 CINEMA D'ANIMAZIONE in Cinema, televisione e produzione multimediale LM-65 R UVA CHRISTIAN
Programme
The New Forms of Contemporary Animation and the “Toy Story Case”Between the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, animation has emerged as a central arena for the technological, aesthetic, and narrative challenges of audiovisual media. Thanks to digital technologies, it has moved beyond its ancillary role in relation to live action cinema establishing itself as a set of techniques capable of adapting to any genre and medium. The course examines some of the most emblematic cases of mainstream animation, focusing on the relationship between theory and practice, the interplay between innovation and tradition, and the encounter between different cultural paradigms, while also addressing experimental perspectives and key moments in the history of CGI. Particular attention will be devoted to Pixar’s Toy Story franchise, beginning with the 1995 film and extending the analysis to its sequels, spin-offs, and subsequent developments. This case study will make it possible to explore the aesthetic and industrial transformations of the phenomenon, as well as the dynamics of transmedia expansion across cinema, merchandising, videogames, and fandom, which have turned it into a cultural ecosystem with a strong impact on the collective imagination.
Core Documentation
C. Uva (a cura di), Il cinema d'animazione. Gli scenari contemporanei dal cartoon al videogame, Carocci, Roma 2023.C. Uva, M. Vita, Toy Story, Carocci, Roma 2025.
Attendance
Not mandatory but strongly recommendedType of evaluation
Oral examination