Conclusion: Sport and Animation — A Good Match? Redux

Abstract

Though as yet uncited, one of the most influential texts upon this discussion is one of the most celebrated of all sports books. Trinidadian historian and Marxist political activist C.L.R. James’ Beyond a Boundary (1963) is ostensibly a detailed study of colonial era West Indian cricket, but in a challenging echo of the line ‘And what should they know of England who only England know?’ from Rudyard Kipling’s poem, ‘The English Flag’ (1891), James poses the question ‘What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?’ (James 1994:Preface). His answer enables him to discuss the sport in the wider context of pre-independence West Indies, as an autobiographical memoir, and as part of a critical reflection on related topics, most notably literature and art. At the time of writing, animation is enjoying proper recognition, consolidating itself as an academic discipline in Animation Studies and Production, as a multiplatform cross-disciplinary application, and as an popular arts and entertainment form. As a consequence of the digital shift, it is also becoming much more significant within Film and Media Studies, but as I hope my discussion has evidenced, it is therefore just as important to think about the question ‘what do they know of animation who only animation know?’. As a consequence, I hope that the analysis has moved beyond the insularity of merely thinking about ‘animation’, or indeed ‘sport’, in and of itself. Further, I hope that sport has been revealed afresh through animation and animation revealed through sport, and this has been achieved by looking at the cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary interfaces of theories and practices in both areas.