The Art of The Incredibles [Hardcover]

Mark Cotta Vaz (Author), Brad Bird (Author), John Lasseter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2004

From Pixar Animation Studios, the Academy Awardwinning studio that brought us such blockbusters as Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo, comes The Incredibles, a hilarious, action-packed story of a family of superheroes living an underground suburban existence. The sleekly designed settings and characters were conceptualized and developed by writer/director Brad Bird and Pixar's creative team of artists, illustrators, and designers, resulting in a celluloid sensation rich with detail. The Art of The Incredibles celebrates their talent, featuring concept and character sketches, storyboards, and lighting studies, and invites readers into the elaborate creative process of animation through interviews with all the key players at Pixar. With an 8-page gatefold and fabulous color art, this stunning bookthe only movie tie-in book for adultswill delight film-goers, artists, and animation fans alike.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After almost 20 years in the vanguard of computer animation, Pixar Animation Studios (home of Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and Finding Nemo, among others) is releasing another technological wonder, The Incredibles. Brad Bird, who made The Iron Giant and is described by Pixar executive producer John Lasseter as "the ultimate geeky animation fan," dreamed up the story of the Parrs, a family of superheroes who have been forced by law to stop using their powers and live normally, sort of, until a vengeful supervillain emerges and kidnaps the father. The book describes the long process that went into making Bird’s ideas a reality, with accompanying art showing the project’s design at all its stages. Short interviews with Bird and his animation crew reveal the collaborative work and innovation necessary to produce a computer-generated feature focusing on humans, which are much harder to depict realistically than, say, angelfish. As the supervising technical director says, "the level of effort it takes to have the Parr family sit down to dinner is comparable to having Bob pick up a bus and throw it through a wall." It’s fascinating to see the various images created in advance of the computer illustrations; on any given page, one can find the initial collages, sketches and, in some cases, digital effects that hint at how the movie comes to life. If Pixar’s track record holds, The Incredibles will be a major hit, but even if it isn’t, graphic arts fans and those interested in finding out how such impressive productions are realized will enjoy this inside glimpse at the movie’s making.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

This Christmas, what promises to be the latest in Pixar's unbroken string of smash-hit digital animation features will be released--The Incredibles. The movie depicts a family of superheroes--paunchy, middle-aged dad; domesticated mom; and three kids--forced to go underground when the government outlaws them. Director Brad Bird envisioned the film as a tribute to the comic books and TV shows of his 1960s youth. As this handsome book shows, he has given The Incredibles a look that celebrates mid-twentieth-century American design, including the era's conception of how the future--our present--would appear. Bird, whose background is in hand-drawn animation--he directed the undersung The Iron Giant--has, with the help of Pixar veterans, made a smooth transition to the computerized medium. This attractively designed book features hundreds of conceptual drawings, character designs, storyboards, and other illustrations, plus enlightening, behind-the-scenes commentary from the movie's creators. Libraries wherever tie-in books to such Pixar blockbusters as Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc. have proved popular should prepare for similar demand for this latest volume. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (September 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811844331
• ISBN-13: 978-0811844338
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 11.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #262,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Cotta Vaz is the author of over twenty-one books, including four New York Times bestsellers. His recent works include Mythic Vision: The Making of Eragon, The Spirit: The Movie Visual Companion, and the biography Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong, which was a Los Angeles Times bestseller

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Feast of colour and style !!!, October 14, 2004

By 

Antonios Glikos "mad hatter" (ATHENS Greece) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art of The Incredibles (Hardcover)

I just recieved my copy of this 3rd Pixar-Art-Book in the series (The Art of Monsters Inc and the Art of Finding Nemo were also designed to the same style and dimentions) and Im more than happy!!!

Again there are tons of conceptual drawings, collages and pencil-sketches. Litterally an explosion of colours and talent! The text takes only a small part of the book which is great cause all of us want to see the conceptual artwork (we can always learn tons of info and trivia when the Special DVD set will be out).

Looking at the countless colour studies, again it is Mary Blair that sparkles behind them. It is so touching to see that this new generation of artists, that work with the latest digital technology have so much education and have studied the work of Mary Blair in such a depth that that to anyone who loves her work it almost feels like a Tribute to her amazing sense of colour and design (just check the drawing of the island and you'll see how similar is to the Neverland island of Peter Pan).

Personally I feel that this book is a necesary companion to the movie! All these treasures of the early conceptual drawings reveal another angle of Pixar, a more delicate and sofisticate side, that with the final digital artwork it can't be visible...

Congratulations to this fantastic team of artists and to their boss who give them the Freedom and the time to create all this awesome inspirational artwork!!!
I never saw something similar since Walt Disney left this planet.

The bookbinding is perfect (the Incredibles Logo is embosed to the front cover under the dust-jacket) and the printing is bright and great! A real 5-star artbook!!!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Different Style, August 11, 2008

By 

Parka (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Art of The Incredibles (Hardcover)

Length:: 0:46 Mins

There's a lot of different artistic style in the book. When Brad Bird came to Pixar, he brought with him his team of artists, those that had worked with him on The Iron Giant.

Each artist produced concept art using different materials and style. There are collage, gouache, digital, marker, acrylic and pastel. Each drawing generates ideas and inspiration. You'll have no idea the movie was created for art so varied. There are no rendered stills from the movie.

The book touches mainly on character design and artistic direction of the movie.

If you want the process of creating The Incredibles, you'll want to grab the DVD instead. There are pretty comprehensive behind the scenes included in the DVD.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, March 3, 2008

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Art of The Incredibles (Hardcover)

I'm 13 and I want to make a story with a retro/modern theme. I closely watched the Incredibles and saw that was the theme! So I bought the book, very excited. It arrived. It was used, so it had a few tears and some markings, but thats ok. I read the book rather quickly, which I was upset about because I wish it was longer. It was good, but I felt I was expecting more. More pictures. I noticed there was a lot on Edna's house. I wish there were more pictures on the characters like Mirage, and there was text about creating the characters. Nevertheless, it was a great book and if you want a nice book of retro themed artwork, go ahead and buy this. I'm thinking of buying the postcards and framing them, or putting them in an album.