MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Children’s animation serves an important function in developing cultural awareness for children. In effect, animation may serve as translation of cultural knowledge. Evidence of these translations can readily be seen in graphic novels that distill canonical works for young readers and sometimes stand in for the original. Animated film is another popular medium that readily translates stories of “high” culture for young viewers. Some adaptations create another version of a known story and offer the reader/viewer something new, but other adaptations do something more, they in effect become a bridge between the child’s world and his larger cultural world. For example the story of Swan Lake has been translated from the score and ballet into several popular animated films. One highly regarded anime version, World Masterpiece Fairytale Swan Lake (1981) followed the score and story of the original fairly closely and was first released in Japan in 1981 but then dubbed into English and released in the U.S. first on the American Movie Classics channel (1991) and then the Disney channel (1994). The title says it all; the film is a “World Masterpiece” worthy of animation and worthy of learning. Translations and language are subjective, however, and certainly subsequent versions of Swan Lake may add their own twists. Richard Rich’s The Swan Princess (1994) also follows the Swan Lake narrative but includes an empowering message for girls. Most recently, in 2010 the highly commercialized Barbie® has appeared in her version of Swan Lake and so functions as a perfect example of the intermingling of popular and high culture. This presentation interrogates how animation serves as translation by introducing children (and their adults) to works that rank as “high” culture cleverly disguised as entertainment and why this bridge between popular and high culture is necessary in promoting cultural literacy.