Magic Realism and Animation
Erik Minkin
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Animation
at
Savannah College of Art and Design
© November 2013, Erik Lawrence Minkin
The author hereby grants SCAD permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper
And electronic thesis copies of document in whole or in any medium now known or hereafter
created.
Erik Minkin_____________________________________________________________
Author
Becky Wible Searles______________________________________________________
Committee chair
Tina O Hailey____________________________________________________________
Committee member
Gregg Azzopardi_________________________________________________________
Committee member
Magic Realism and Animation
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Animation Department
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Animation
at
Savannah College of Art and Design
By
Erik Lawrence Minkin
Atlanta, GA
November 2013
Table of Contents
Abstract
...
1
Introduction
.2
Characterization in Bone
.3
Magic Realism in Princess Mononoke
Influence of Animation in Brazil
...
7
...
11
Relevance to Personal Work and Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendix A: Filmography
15
..
19
20
1
Magic Realism and Animation
Erik Lawrence Minkin
November 2013
This thesis explores how magic realism can be achieved in animation. It investigates the
various narrative and visual techniques that make animation an excellent instrument for creating
the suspension of disbelief necessary for this type of storytelling. Although animation is the
primary focus, also discussed are the relevant qualities that comics and live action film share
with animation to create a balance of realism and fantasy. The use of magic realism in animation
creates a narrative and visual space where myth and reality can work together to create a new
perspective.
2
Introduction
Magic realism is a type of fiction that combines realism and fantasy so that the marvelous
seems to grow organically within the ordinary, blurring the distinction between them. 1 A deep
level of believability is needed in order for the reader to be continually guided down the path
between the real and the fantastic. The suspension of disbelief that is required for and promoted
by magic realism is the same dynamic at play in animation. In order to prove that there is a
meaningful connection between animation and magic realism I will discuss animated works and
other media related to animation that exemplify this connection. Magic realism is an appropriate
mode of expression for my film “Living Fossil”. One of my goals in creating the film was to
take the innate similarity between animation and magic realism and foster it, both through
choices in the subject matter and through techniques that are specific to animation. Since life is a
mixture of fact and what we merely perceive as fact, this type of storytelling can be more true to
the human experience than pure realism and more convincing than pure fantasy. The use of
magic realism in animation creates a narrative and visual space where myth and reality can work
together to create a new perspective.
In order to show the way animation and magic realism are linked it I will examine
specific animated works as well as works in other media that share qualities with animation.
Since magic realism is most commonly associated with books, analyzing a comic will be a good
place to start. The comic series Bone by Jeff Smith will provide a link between the techniques
1
Wendy B. Faris, Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystification of
Narrative (Nashville: Vanderbuilt University Press, 2004), 7.
3
used by the writer and those used by the visual artist. This will lead into an examination of
Princess Mononoke by Hayao Miyazaki, a film that contains magic realism both in visual style
and narrative. Finally, I will discuss the films of Terry Gilliam, explaining how animation
influenced his ability to bring magic realism to live action film. Gaining a better understanding
of how these artists achieved a balance between realism and fantasy has helped me both in the
writing process and in the animation of my thesis film.
Characterization in Bone
Bone is an American comic book series by Jeff Smith that ran throughout the 1990s. It is
about three cousins named Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone. Lost from home, they
come upon a medieval civilization in a forested valley. The Bones are bald cartoon caricatures
with bulbous noses, while the people and animals of the valley are drawn more naturalistically.
These differences in appearance are not usually talked about by anyone in the story, and when it
is referred to it is done so casually. Some animals in the valley talk while others behave like
ordinary animals. There are rat creatures running amuck but when Fone Bone tells the residents
of the valley that he saw a dragon, people think he is insane.
The Bone cousins are visually more alien than the rest of the characters in the story. Yet
as the narrative unfolds they seem more and more normal in comparison to the others because of
their cultural backgrounds. The people of Barrelhaven (the valley’s only town) have strange
customs and random superstitions. Some parts of their culture border on the mystical, while
others are just bizarre. Meanwhile, the Bones think and act more like people from modern
4
western civilizations. Fone Bone reads Moby Dick for example, while a local named Grandma
Rose beats up rat creatures and races cows for eggs (the currency in Barrelhaven).
In many stories these strange details in and of themselves would not be examples of
magic realism. Yet the world is so grounded in the commonplace and the fantasy is presented in
such a dry manner that the reader is pulled into the world of Bone in a way they would not accept
if the fantasy were overstated. Part of what helps Bone be more believable and mysterious at the
same time is the absence of textual narration. The narrator in magic realist novels creates
believability in the mysterious by describing everything in a vivid yet indifferent tone. In comics
(as in animation) this effect can be achieved by eliminating narration all together.
Without the external voice of the author, the reader is witnessing the story in a way that
mimics actual experience. This is an advantage visual storytelling has because the fantasy is
more believable if it feels like a first hand account. It is like the opposite of breaking the forth
wall—it is fortifying the wall so the magic does not spill out and break the illusion. The
characters within the story can take the place of a passive narrator. When characters regard myth
as ordinary they can influence the reader’s acceptance of myth. 2
The juxtaposition of different cultures brings out the extraordinary nature of people who
at first glance seem much more normal and “real” than the Bones. This is a device that is used
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez time and time again in his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. In
the town of Macando, flying carpets are introduced to the town by a traveling carnival but they
2
Faris, Ordinary Enchantments, 8.
5
are just in the background as a small detail. What the townsfolk really get excited about is a
single block of ice (something that doesn’t usually exist in the tropical climate of Macando). As
Erik Camayard-Freixas expresses it, magic realism contains the “coexistence of the natural and
the supernatural in a narrative that presents them in a non-disjunctive way, in which the natural
appears strange and the supernatural is pedestrian.”3
This concept is one of the main reasons my film, “Living Fossil”, could be considered
magic realism. The story is about a city full of people who are so entranced by the media
provided by their smart phones, computers, and televisions that they apparently do not notice that
a giant monster is attacking them. The monster soon becomes more relatable to the audience
than the people, and his presence becomes far less strange than the sea of random stimuli that is
the city. In using this magic realist technique it was my goal to highlight how the technology we
take for granted is affecting our lives in profound yet unrecognized ways.
Blurring the real and unreal is often the tool the writer/artist uses to challenge deep-seated
ideas that are traditionally conceptualized as dichotomous. Magic realism is similar to
postmodernism in that both relate to erasing boundaries.4 This refusal to see the world in black
and white is a large part of how Bone operates. A notable example of this is in the character
Phoney Bone.
3
Erik Camyard-Freixas, Realismo magico y primitivismo: Relecturas de Carpentier, Asturias,
Rulfo, y Garcia Marquez (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1998), 318.
4
Faris, Ordinary Enchantments, 171.
6
Phoney Bone is a rude, self-entitled sourpuss. He is lazy when it comes to an honest
day’s work but has boundless energy when it come to cooking up schemes and ripping off the
townsfolk. He has so many negative qualities that it is hard to understand how after a thousand
pages he still remains a kind of hero in the eyes of the reader, but he does. To understand how
this balance is achieved one must look to one of Smith’s biggest inspirations: Carl Barks, the
cartoonist behind the original Donald Duck comics and the creator of Scrooge McDuck.
Smith has stated in an interview that without Scrooge McDuck there would be no Phoney
Bone.5 This is evident when one compares the two—they are both ill tempered and ruthlessly
capitalistic. Yet both characters are redeemed in the eyes of the viewer because of a thoughtful
balance in storytelling.
“Bark’s universe shuns the absolutes and dualistic oppositions such as good versus evil
that are encoded into most comic book stories. Instead, his tales operate through a
balance of forces in which excess of any kind tends to bring about its opposite as a
natural consequence.”6
As one reads Bone one does not feel anger towards Phoney Bone for long before it turns
to pity. He pays for his sins in ways that range from comedic to tragic. Smith and Barks subtly
weave positive traits such as compassion and loyalty into the stubborn, calculating characters. In
similar fashion, magic realists breathe miracles into cold reality without taking away from its
5
Roger Ash, “Jeff Smith Interview,” Worlds of Westfield, June, 2000, accessed November 5,
2010, http://westfieldcomics.com/wow/low/low_int_040.html.
6
Thomas Andrae, Carl Barks and the Disney comic book: unmasking the myth of modernity,
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2006), 86.
7
particularity and authenticity. These types of antiheros were a source of inspiration when
creating the main character in my film, “Living Fossil”.
Magic Realism in Princess Mononoke
One common characteristic of magic realism is the reader’s simultaneous adoption of a
literal and an allegorical perspective.7 There are elements of this in Bone. One could interpret
much of the story as political allegory, with Phoney Bone in the role of imperialist and the town
of Barrelhaven as a colony. This “clash of cultures” is quintessential magic realism, both in a
literary and historical sense. Magic realist literature originated in post-colonial countries in Latin
America. The alternative worlds in stories like One Hundred Years of Solitude work to counter
the viewpoints imposed upon the colonies by imperialists.8
Many western dichotomies were introduced to these societies, perhaps most notably the
idea that culture is separate from nature. This brings us to the work of Miyazaki. His animated
films often use magic realism storytelling to portray allegories about the relationship between
nature and culture. This, along with his visual representation of nature, has been a source of
inspiration in making of my thesis film.
7
8
Erik Camyard-Freixas, Realismo Magico y Primitivismo, 30.
Maria-Elena Angulo, Magic Realism: Social Context and Discourse (New York: Garland
Publishing, Inc., 1995), 34.
8
Princess Mononoke offers a vision of cultural dissonance, spiritual loss, and
environmental apocalypse in which humans and nature battle each other.9
Miyazaki is masterful at capturing reality (both on visual level and in the psychology of his
characters) and merging it with the fantastic to deliver his message. In the case of Princess
Mononoke, the “real” in the equation is feudal Japan and everything that goes with it. Objects
such as costumes, architecture, and weaponry help to ground the story historically. Even more
important is the consideration of the customs and power structures in society. These historical
details come together to give the film a sense of reality, so when the fantastic does occur we are
too engaged in the world to be taken out of it.
The message of the film is that human survival does not mean continuing to dominate
nature but instead finding a way to live in harmony with it. By believably intertwining the
physical and spiritual world, Miyazaki shows the paradoxical relationship we have with nature:
how we are at once a part of it and separate.10 The destructive power of the gods is balanced
with the notion of their vulnerability. They are, in fact, mortal beings that are more and more
threatened as technology moves forward and humans thrive. While these spirits are eerie, they
do not seem alien—they are as elemental as the forest they live in. This combination of spiritual
and physical is often brought to life through magic realism, and it is possible to convey it
visually through animation.
9
Susan J. Napier, “Confronting Master Narratives: History as Vision in Miyazaki Hayao’s
Cinema of De-assurance,” Positions 9 (2001): 467.
10
Napier, “Confronting Master Narratives: History as Vision in Miyazaki Hayao’s Cinema of
De-assurance,” 469.
9
Gerret Rowlan, in his article “Magical Realism and Film, Degrading the Image”, says of
magic realist literature: “The reader is a conspirator with the author in a way he is not in other
genres to give the world on the page an imaginative correlation.” He then goes on to say that,
while not completely denying the possibility of a magical realist film, “visual magic realism is
boxed magic, lacking in organic vitality, without the substratum that exists in the juncture
between the reader’s imagination and the writer’s: a bond that joins the quotidian and the
fantastic.”11
One could argue, however, that animated films have this “substratum” that he speaks of
in the form of caricature and abstraction, or to put it another way, cartoons. The language of
cartoons has the same ability words do to widen the thin line between the real and unreal. There
is no argument that words require more visualization on the part of the reader. However,
consideration of the audience’s “mind’s eye” is an important part of filmmaking. The animator
has ways to engage with the viewer’s imagination and avoid over-defining how imagery should
be interpreted. Cartoons can mix different levels of figurative and abstract imagery fluidly. Just
as the narrative can be open to interpretation, when there is visual ambiguity or abstraction there
can be any number of connotations and the audience is free to form their own interpretations.
Even in Miyazaki’s hyperrealist worlds the viewer’s mind is free to conceptualize based on what
the eyes see. Animation also has the same tools live action film has in the form of editing in
order to engage audience’s imagination, which we will explore later.
11
Garrett Rowlan, “Magical Realism and Film: Degrading the Image,” Margin, Exploring
Modern Magic Realism, June, 2009, accessed November 5, 2010,
http://www.angelfire.com/wa2/margin/Rowlan4.html
10
Miyazaki’s naturalistic, detailed style is used to align non-humans and nature with the
supernatural. The psychologist Sigmund Freud defined the uncanny as something that is both
unfamiliar yet eerily familiar.12 The mythological creatures in Princess Mononoke are often not
that different from their real life inspirational counterparts. These creatures are given abnormal
features that are subtly added to their bodies, with respect to naturalism and physicality. All the
materials, whether feather, bone, fur or cloth, are rendered naturalistically. The combinations of
these materials and the layering of details create a sense of the uncanny.
The demons in Princess Mononoke are animal gods that are infected with a dark force.
When viewed from afar these demons look like amorphous, abstract blobs with multiple arms
and legs. Upon closer inspection we see that they are made up of thousands of squirming
leeches: actual recognizable organisms that are found in nature but when layered upon one
another create something more magical than the sum of their parts. Underneath the leaches there
is a giant boar. He is wrinkly and speckled with warts, with multiple strands of fur dangling
from his chin. Such a high level of detail is often used to create an uncanny effect.
Other characters are distinct for their simplicity. Take for instance the Kudama, which are
the little forest spirits in Princess Mononoke. They are minimal in design but they exist in the
same world with the realistically rendered beasts because they are drawn with the same attention
to detail. Each one of them are varied, their heads like life drawings of river rocks. Their
movements mimic nature as well—Kudama march in patterns that mimic ants and they mingle in
the treetops like birds.
12
Napier, “Confronting Master Narratives: History as Vision in Miyazaki Hayao’s Cinema of
De-assurance,” 469.
11
All of these magic realist visual choices support the overarching theme of modern
society’s detachment from nature. It is a theme that is also present in my film, “Living Fossil”.
This detachment is represented by the media obsessed populace of the city who is blind to the
physical destruction and decay that is taking place outside their virtual world. Midway through
the film this virtual world becomes too chaotic and falls apart, bringing down the rest of the city
with it. To depict this visually, the city is crushed under the weight of the multiplying screens
and signs. At first glance these are merely signs and screens, albeit an exaggerated number of
them. However, by animating the content on the screens interacting with each other and moving
slightly outside the frames that contain them, it is implied to the audience that these images are
not a part of the physical world around them.
Animation’s Influence in Brazil
There are many films that feature strong doses of magic realism. Pan’s Labyrinth uses
computer animation to introduce fantastical elements into a historical, reality based setting. Yet
it is the manner in which it is done that makes it magic realism. The director, Guillermo del
Toro, treats the two worlds of reality and fantasy as equally valid and there is an air of mystery
throughout. There is little to no exposition in order to explain the fantastical and there is a routine
acceptance of paranormal events by the main character. In Pan’s Labyrinth, realistic visual
effects help to unify the real and unreal in the same world. Yet advanced computer animation is
not a prerequisite for magic realist storytelling in live action film. By examining the work of
Terry Gilliam, one can see that animation does not need to be present in the film to create magic
12
realism. That being said, Gilliam’s work is evidence that an understanding of animation helps
when it comes to bringing magical realism to a purely live action film.
Animators have one foot in the world of graphics and one in the world of filmmaking.
This is the key difference between them and live action film directors (although that line itself is
blurring because of technology). In an interview with Salman Rushdie, (a magical realist author
himself), Terry Gilliam explained his approach to filmmaking:
“I never wanted to make naturalistic films. I’ve always like the idea that film is an
artifice, and that is admitted right from the start. We create a world that isn’t true to a
realistic naturalist world, but is truthful. That is the main thing. I think it comes from
being a cartoonist. I’ve always abstracted. Cartoons push toward the grotesque. You
twist, bend, and shape. Brazil is that way.”13
In order to find that balance between the real and unreal, the atmosphere of his films had
to be pushed towards the fantastic in order to counter the innate visual realism of the medium.
This is the opposite of animation: in order to portray magic realism the raw elements of design
must come together to represent the real world to some degree. Gilliam directs the actors in his
films as though they are cartoon characters and composes the frame like an animator. His
choices in editing, camera angles, lighting, and art direction all support this truthful yet visionary
aesthetic. By drawing upon his visual arts background and utilizing live action film techniques,
Gilliam creates a visual atmosphere and cinematic discourse where magic realism can flourish.
13
“Salman Rushdie Talks with Terry Gilliam,” The Believer, March, 2003.
13
Gilliam has said that his film Brazil is about America, and that he couldn’t have made it
without leaving America because to look at it objectively he need to be an outside observer.14
This “outside looking in” discourse is a way to achieve the detached presentation in magic realist
stories. Gilliam made Brazil as an ex-patriot looking at America from a new perspective. This
suggests that the bewildering mix of cultures in the American metropolis was inspiration for the
visuals in Brazil. Gilliam’s worlds epitomize what Alerjo Carpentier describes as “the Marvelous
Real” in his essay “The Baroque and the Marvelous Real.”15
The technological dystopia of Brazil is a place where components of the cluttered
landscape are recognizable and mundane. Nevertheless, when stitched together they become new
technologies that are more strange and magical than the sum of their parts. Real inventions are
used to make believable yet unfamiliar inventions. This is not unlike how Miyazaki uses actual
organisms for reference to create a vision of the supernatural. While Miyazaki uses these
techniques to accentuate the beauty and awe of nature, Gilliam often uses them to reveal the
banality and absurdity of the modern world. In both cases imagination is anchored in reality to
create a magical realist vision. Arthur C. Clark once said, “Any sufficiently advanced
technology is indistinguishable from magic.” The world of Brazil is a manifestation of this
outlook.
In my film, “Living Fossil”, I wish to blur the line between technology and what is
commonly perceived as magic. One of the inspirations for the story was the drastically changing
role that technology has had in our lives over the course of the last decade or so. The Internet
14
“Salman Rushdie Talks with Terry Gilliam,” The Believer, March, 2003.
15
Maria-Elena Angulo, Magic Realism: Social Context and Discourse, 11.
14
and all the technology that brings it to the forefront of our attention is the main inspiration for the
design of the city. By exaggerating the presence of the Internet in the physical environment I
wish to expose the intangible affect it has on our collective consciousness. Towards the end of
the film this magic spell is broken after the technology is destroyed. The people are then able to
see the monster, but their detachment from him is replaced by fear and hostility. This shift is
meant to show that we use media and technology to mentally escape from the harsh realities of
life and death.
Sam, the protagonist of Brazil, has vivid, beautiful dreams he escapes to that contrast
with the soft nightmare that is his day-to-day life. As the story progresses, his waking life begins
to bleed into the dreams and vice versa. This concept itself is not magic realist necessarily:
many films have plots that are similar to this, for instance Inception. However, in most films
there is much more explicit, scientific explanations of such events. In magic realist fashion,
Gilliam leaves much unexplained in order to retain a sense of mystery without completely
veering into the unintelligible. Strange events will occur and the uncanny is weaved into the
world, but the story proceeds with "logical precision" as if nothing extraordinary took place.16
This pulls us in deeper so we are between the dream and the real right there alongside the hero.
In Brazil there are several instances where there will be a smash cut from reality to the
dreamscape and the audience must fill in blanks with their own imagination. As stated before,
the reader’s visualization is an important aspect of magic realist literature. In film, the camera
does not necessarily kill this dynamic as long as the filmmaker uses techniques that encourage
16
Beatrice Amaryll Chanady, Magical Realism and the Fantastic: Resolved versus Unresolved
Antinomy (New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1985,) 30
15
the viewer to imagine along with them. In one scene, Sam recites a series of numbers and a
mechanic begins to convulse. The viewer’s interpretation of this is completely subjective
because, although it would appear that the mechanic is some sort of robot, there was no prior
exposition about the existence of robots in the world of the story.
There are examples of this sort of device in many scenes in “Living Fossil”. In one part
of the film the monster destroys a building, looks away for a moment, and a when he looks again
it is already close to being reconstructed. The way this scene is edited makes it so the audience
experiences the sequence of events just the monster experiences them. No explanation is given
as to how the structure was rebuilt so quickly. This sort of gag is so common in animation that
one takes it for granted, just as one takes for granted when animals walk and talk like humans in
cartoons. Cartoons casually make impossibilities commonplace, just as magic realism does.
Relevance to Personal Work and Conclusion
One common trait magic realist stories have is the attempt to represent entire
communities and societies. In One hundred Years of Solitude, Mocando often acts as not just a
representation of Latin America but also as a microcosm of the whole world. The events that
take place there are poetic interpretations of history. There is an even level of respect for the
realistic, fantastic, and all that lies between in order to reveal truths that lie beyond the reader’s
usual mode of perception. For Jeff Smith, Hayao Miyazaki, and Terry Gilliam it was their
understanding of cartoons that allowed them to create the visual limbo between the ordinary and
extraordinary. These works share the many of the same themes that are found in magic realism
16
literature, such as the desire to reconnect with nature and sociopolitical allegory. They are
concepts that I considered as I developed my film, therefore it was natural that I incorporate
magic realism to my animation.
Salman Rushdie has said, “Realism can no longer express or account for the absurd
reality of the world we live in, a world which has the capability of destroying itself at any
moment.” The modern world, with all its simulations and information overload, makes the
people of “Living Fossil” unaware of the threats they face. However, something deeper is the
true problem. Just as the people were blind to the monster, the monster was blind to the people
as anything but a means of making himself feel powerful.
The differing realities of the monster and the people brought to life by magic realism
represent this lack of empathy that is at the core of the conflict in the film. Though it may seem
so at first, the message in my film is not that modern technology will be the ruin the world. At
the end of the film when all the technology is gone, a violent war breaks out between the people
and the monster. Without the magical technology their fear of the monster is laid bare and the
conflict escalates to the brink of mutual annihilation.
When the people see the monster much of the magic realism effect is taken away because
they see him for the otherworldly creature that he is. In order to balance the monster’s new
fantastical identity out I have added more grittiness to the scenes that follow and I’ve taken away
a lot of the visually fantastical elements that were present in the first part of the film. The elderly
version of the monster intentionally has more detail in his design than his former self, grounding
17
him in reality. To further support this, his movement is less bouncy and stylistic than his
younger self and more naturalistic.
In One Hundred Years of Solitude, tiny yellow butterflies inexplicably begin to follow
one of the characters wherever she goes. This lasts for days until the character’s mother kills
them. The butterflies seemed magical, but the fact that they die from an insect bomb subjects
them to the rules of the physical universe, so we are puzzled by their status.17 The monster’s
metamorphosis from an invincible, spirit-like entity to a weak and worn creature will bring him
closer to the line separating the physical and unworldly. The contrast of this is the Mothrainspired monster, whose metamorphosis is one of growth. She is the catalyst for change in the
story, bringing the monster and the people together in harmony.
For most of human history, the gods and monsters of mythology were how we
understood our place in the universe. Technology has reached the point where it is now
competing with our myths regarding which will have the most power over our consciousness and
ultimately our reality. The magic realist writer is able to have a simultaneous distance from and
acceptance of pre-scientific worldviews.18 This negotiation is in the work of Smith, Miyazaki,
and Gilliam. While each takes their own unique approach, they all bring magic realism to their
respective media in order to tap into the power of myth and communicate it effectively to the
viewer. The goal in my film was to find a similar balance, combining the poetry found in reality
and the truth that is found in magic, demonstrating that the use of magic realism in animation
17
18
Faris, Ordinary Enchantments, 15.
Faris, Ordinary Enchantments, 20.
18
creates a narrative and visual space where myth and reality can work together to create a new
perspective.
19
Bibliography
Andrae, Thomas. Carl Barks and the Disney comic book: unmasking the myth of modernity.
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2006.
Angulo, Maria-Elena. Magic Realism: Social Context and Discourse. New York:
Garland Publishing, Inc., 1995.
Ash, Roger. “Jeff Smith Interview.” Worlds of Westfield, June 2000. Accessed November 5,
2010.
Camyard-Freixas, Erik. Realismo magico y primitivismo: Relecturas de Carpentier, Asturias,
Rulfo, y Garcia Marquez. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1998.
Chanady, Beatrice Amaryll. Magical Realism and the Fantastic: Resolved versus Unresolved
Antinomy. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1985.
Faris, Wendy B. Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystification of
Narrative. Nashville: Vanderbuilt University Press, 2004.
Garcí
a Má
rquez, Gabriel. 1978. One hundred years of solitude. London: Pan Books.
Napier, Susan J. “Confronting Master Narratives: History as Vision in Miyazaki Hayao’s
Cinema of De-assurance.” Positions 9. 2001.
Rowlan, Garrett. “Magical Realism and Film: Degrading the Image.” Margin, Exploring
Modern Magic Realism, June, 2009. Accessed November 5, 2010,
http://www.angelfire.com/wa2/margin/Rowlan4.html.
Rushdie, Salman. “Interview with Terry Gilliam.” The Believer, March, 2003.
Smith, Jeff. Bone. Columbus: Cartoon Books, 1991.
20
Filmography
del Toro, Guillermo. Pan’s Labyrinth. Los Angeles: Warner Bro. Pictures, 2006.
Gilliam, Terry. Brazil. Los Angeles: 20th Century Fox, 1985.
Honda, Ishiro. Mothra. Tokyo: Toho Co., 1961
Miyazaki, Hayao. Princess Mononoke. Tokyo: Toho Co., 1997.
Nolan, Christopher. Inception. Los Angeles: Warner Bros. Pictures. 2010.