The Illusion of Life: Essays on Animation was the world's first book of scholarly essays theorising animation. The Illusion of Life 2 continues and extends its pioneering work in the theory of animation. It provides an abundance of understandings, approaches, correctives and challenges to scholars in animation studies, film studies, and to disciplines across the spectrum. It proceeds on the assumption that animation, in increasingly taking 'centre stage' thanks to computer animation and anime, calls ever more insistently for focused, rigorous theoretical attention.