Customer Reviews

The Animated Movie Guide

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Beware - Jerry Beck's guide to animated feature films is totally addictive! If you want to sleep at night, forget it!
Once you start reading this book, you're compelled to read on to the next film and find out who animated it, who was involved, little stories about the production, and if the film made money...I became totally obsessed!

Excellent book! I give it 4 stars because it's not an all-inclusive animated movie guide as it fails to mention the Dot character from the 80's, which was released in theatres, and there are few colored photographs.

I would save my money and instead check this book out from the library as I did because it's not worth paying as much as it sells for; unless, you want the whole animated movie guide to keep.

Bottom line: Great reference work, but I'd rather save my money and buy DVDs! :)

I was so excited about this "comprehensive" guide but it's not what I hoped for.
Too much space is spent on Beck's opinions of the films (most of which I don't agree with) instead of discussing the lesser known animated films. I bought it to help me remember the movies of my childhood but I've had better luck with blogs and youtube in finding The Point, Unico and others.

This book is both a tremendous resource for animation buffs and a casual introduction to the history of animation for general fans. It has a complete entry of every animated movie released in American theaters through 2004-ish. The films are sorted alphabetically, but there's a reference at the beginning which lists the films in chronological order.

The most useful and entertaining part of each entry is the review and rating. While I didn't agree with every single rating, the concise evaluation and analysis was always grounded in excellent knowledge of the film, its production, and its place in the grander scheme of the history of animation.

Jerry Beck is the key editor and most prominent writer, but other contributing writers chime in their thoughts. The writing is very solid, and I don't recall ever noticing moments of poor editing or sloppy writing as you often find in big, sprawling guides such as these

For the readers who know their animation history, every film also has a pretty extensive credit list including the obvious -- director, writer -- as well as a long list of contributing animators. Every film also includes a paragraph-or-two synopsis of the film and, often, a screenshot from the movie.

If I had a complaint, it would be that the layout is not particularly pretty or easy on the eyes. The screenshots are small and monochrome. The text is relatively small and almanac-like. But this isn't meant to be a big, illustrated compendium. It's more of a reference book, albeit a fun one.

There are a few "bonus features" along with the main section on the films -- bits about foreign animation and TV movies. These are interesting, though not as compelling or in-depth as the main section.

Also, the fact that it's now seven years old slightly hinders its utility. Animation has so radically transformed in the last ten years that I feel like some of the perspective on some films would have changed. It also would be nice to read these writers' takes on Wall-E, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and the like. (Jerry Beck's web-site has a constantly updated chronological list, but no updated entries on recent films.)

But this is really an essential for any fan of animation. It can be read cover-to-cover as a primer on animated film's history, flipped through to read analysis on recognizable films, or just left on a coffee table for idle moments. It really is that good, useful, and well-written.

Jerry Beck is one the best animation historians out there and his new book proves this once again."The Animated Movie Guide" has a treasure trove of information on numerous animated films, even the most obsecure films get a mention.Jerry Beck KNOWS what is hot and what is not in animated films, so I would definetly pick up the films that get a good review in this book. I'll guarantee you'll find a film or film fact you never heard before, so pick this one up.

My daughter is using this as a resource for Computer Animation classes at the Art Institute of Atlanta