Imagination and Natural Movement: The Bray Studios and the “Invention” of Animated Film

This article examines how animated film’s identity was formulated and negotiated during a key period in its consolidation from 1914 to 1920. Focusing on the Bray Studios, it traces different ways that J. R. Bray envisioned the form of animation and how related ideas of animation were used within animated series produced at his studio, particularly the Bobby Bumps series. Examining prominent discursive and aesthetic formations of animated film’s place within the contexts of other media, its relation to industry and art, and its aesthetics of motion, the article explores how animated film was configured as a new medium.