Reviews for The Animated Film Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to American Shorts, Features & Sequences, 1900-1979

The average rating for The Animated Film Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to American Shorts, Features & Sequences, 1900-1979 based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-09-11 00:00:00 Jennifer Perry It's wonderful to see a film criticism book devoted to one of the greatest "masters of horror," John Carpenter. Although I just pigeonholed him into that specific genre, we must also thank him for numerous sci-fi (Escape From New York, Starman) and action/adventure (Assault on Precinct 13, They Live) works as well. John Muir passionately defends Carpenter's standing as an auteur, and ultimately finds some positive aspect in all of his films (including the duds). Two key things stand out in this work: 1. John Carpenter is a huge fan of Howard Hawks and the Western genre. Muir skillfully argues this by pointing out many examples of Carpenter's use of the standard Western conventions used in his movies - just within the horror/sci fi context. 2. Muir was one of the early adopters in recognizing the positives and strengths in underrated films like The Fog, Prince of Darkness, They Live, and even The Thing! Muir deserves some credit for thoroughly analyzing these works and bringing them the much deserved credit that they deserve!

Review # 2 was written on 2017-10-23 00:00:00 Fred Plaskin Took me a while to read through this, as it's both dated (originally published prior to GHOSTS OF MARS) and a fairly surface-level recounting of Carpenter's filmography. Here's what the films are, here's what critics thought of them at the time, here's what the author thinks, etc. And it's fine, it's exactly the kind of reference book I like to page through when I'm listening to music or something, but the definitive book on Carpenter has yet to be written.