Charles Solomon

Editor

Internationally known animation historian and critic, Charles Solomon has written over 15 books books including Enchanted Drawings: The History Of Animation, The Art of Disney’s Frozen, The Making of Peanuts Animation, and Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Disney Beauty and the Beast .

Articles By Charles Solomon

Anime

In the 12 years since the premiere of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006), his first personal feature, Mamoru Hosoda has built a reputation as one of the most interesting writer-directors working in animation–as this collection affirms. His films center on bright teen-agers who feel more interesting and complex than many of their American […]

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Anime

Macy’s has announced that Goku, the hero of the hugely popular anime saga Dragon Ball, will appear as a giant character balloon in the 92nd annual Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday, Nov. 22nd, 2018—a first for an anime figure. Goku will be depicted in his Super Saiyan Blue form, a staggeringly powerful avatar that he […]

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Anime

The dystopic science fiction tale Planetarian began as a kinetic or visual novel by “Key” in 2004. Twelve years later, it was adapted to five-part ONA (Original Net Animation). The story opens long after a biological/nuclear war devastated most of the Earth; the few surviving humans lead a hardscrabble existence, scavenging the ruined cities for […]

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Anime

Saiyuki is one of several anime series based loosely—very loosely in this case—on Wu Ch’êng-ên’s Ming Dynasty novel “The Journey to the West,” sometimes called “Monkey” in English. The book chronicles the misdeeds of the Monkey King, Son Goku. (Akira Toriyama’s hit series Dragon Ball is also derived from the novel.) Goku’s antics disturb even […]

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Reviews

Although he would be horrified to have his work linked to Sausage Party and The Emoji Movie, Winsor McCay deserves the title of father of animation. He didn’t make the first animated films, but he was the first to suggest the real potential of the medium. The art of character animation can be traced to […]

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ANIME REVIEW: “All Wishes Come True!”

Writer-director Mu Zhengyang’s All Wishes Come True! Is China’s #1 box hit of 2026, earning more than 1.5 billion yuan (US $222 million) at the mainland Chinese box office since opening on July 18. It opened in the US in August.