Narrative Imagery

There is so much that can be done with Animation. Stories are not limited to what a camera can record, but rather to what a person can imagine. The author talks briefly about the use of metamorphosis in animation; I immediately think of Fantasia (Disney, 1940). My favorite scene was the one with the walking brooms. The meaning portrayed in that scene is unmistakable; and impossible in real life. The best aspect of metamorphosis is the ability of the creator to derive non-verbal meaning from an unreal occurrence. Personification is my favorite means to create non-verbal meaning. After all, inanimate objects take up most of the world we live in.
The author also touches on how transitions and time lapse differ from any other medium. The creator can visually take the consumer into any time frame they see fit; they can pass time in seamless manners. The authors key examples center around disappearing/reappearing characters as well as a story in which time passes by giant leaps (in which you can see everything changing). However, going back to old cartoons, I enjoyed his simple example of a page being turned by an imaginary (or cartoon) hand. I can remember this from my early days of cartoons, and most particularly on Fractured Fairy Tales, a segment of the Bullwinkle Show (1961-1964). Since the stories were old folk tales, altered slightly, they would pass the time in the story by having the "narrator" turn a page.
The author also talks about how metaphores play a powerful role in animated imagery. While this is true, it is hard for any artist to portray exactly what he or she want the viewer to gather. Only with careful planning can will an audience truly understand the aims of the creator. This is because everybody interprets things differently; some may see the comic as a satire on government intervention while others see it as a commentary on social stratification. Messages are very hard to portray in any medium, even in an art as free as animation.