Customer Reviews

The Art of Kung Fu Panda

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Length:: 0:41 Mins

This book shot darts of awesome-ness into my eyes! (Man, that was cheesy.)

It also screamed "character design" after you flip through the pages. Nicolas Marlet designed all these beautiful characters in the world of Kung Fu Panda. Pages after pages were devoted to character design.

Each major character had their own chapters and comes with an interesting background story, explaining how the characters came from research, went into concept, and then designed.

Every prop and design had a purpose and meant something relating to Chinese history. The artists understand body language very well, and they show it by posing the characters to reflect that knowledge.

Large frames were printed throughout the pages, depicting movie scenes. The level of detail was very high if you look at the drawings done on the set. Even the title typography of the book was designed to mimic Chinese words.

This book is worth getting even if you haven't watched Kung Fu Panda. It's inspiring for anyone who loves art, or work with art.

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

(I must admit, I cannot possibly imagine reviewing this book based on the peripheral merchandise it may or may not come with. An "Art Of" book should be for showcasing the art, and nothing more- however it goes about doing that, if it is successful, is trivial.)

Regardless of the final product that is the movie of "Kung Fu Panda", it cannot be denied that the concept and production art leading up to its inception is breathtakingly beautiful. Nicolas Marlet's hand is strongly felt throughout its pages, but rightfully so- his ability to distill an animal and character into so few fluid shapes and lines is rarely equalled in today's animation industry. Pages are filled with his seemingly effortless character and pose studies, all of which are, somewhat inevitably, stronger even than the final product we see on screen... But so it is with polished animation.

The environmental work and colour keys are, of course, equally strong- the book ranged from great to greater, and there is hardly a dull page within its covers... Definitely worth the price of purchase. Though I am hearing more and more good things about Kung Fu Panda as the days pass, it is the Art Of book, not the trailers or billboards or hype, which has convinced me to go see this film in theatres opening night, without a doubt.

-C

This is an amazing look at the development behind the film. I bought this book based on just some small screen captures and havent even seen the feature film. But you can tell that it has had so much put into the development by the many many pages of hand drawn and painted character designs, environments and colour scripts. These images have also been used to not only guide the final CGI animation, but the wonderful traditional animation at the start and end of the film...its wonderful to see this development in a Dreamworks film, compared to the not so great Shrek development. This is a must for anyone who loves art of animation books or just want to see what SHOULD be done for the development of any animation project.

This is one of my very favorite Art of books. It's up there with Monsters Inc., but for different reasons. I really enjoy all of the renderings in Monsters, but The Art of KF Panda does not disappoint with the sheer wealth of character sketches and backgrounds. It's one of the thicker and taller Art of titles also. The spot varnish printing on the dust jacket is a very nice touch. This also happens to be one of my favorite Dreamworks animations, and I feel they did an awesome job with continuing the excellence of the Art of titles. Highly recommended and highly encouraged to get before it's ridiculously expensive.

This book was definitely worth the price of purchase, no question. Everything, from the cover to page after page of Nicolas Marlet's character design work, is absolutely gorgeous. The transition between 2D and 3D characters is the closest to seamless I've seen yet, and some of the digital paintings just blow me away.

I am an animation student and this book continues to be inspiring each time I go through it. Hats off to the folks at Dreamworks for their great work and to the author for showcasing it in such a great book.

WOW! this is by far the most gorgeous and beautiful artbook i have seen yet and believe me i have a lot of art books.
full of origional artwork paintings and storyboards.
having been to china this book really captures the enviroments and the character design is fantastic! the art directors also worked on projects like hero and crouching tiger hidden dragon so this really inspired the artwork.

From the moment I held this book I knew I was in for the best artistic motivation I've ever had. I recently saw the movie and was highly entertained. Story, production and quality are the items that come to mind about the movie and "especially this book."
Kung Fu Panda is truly the best combination of 2d and 3d animation.
I will look through this book until the ink fades! Then I'll purchase another copy and continue to study the wonderfully illustrations!
Looking forward to the sequel! Cheers.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's chock full of beautiful illustrations and designs that any aspiring animator or animation aficionado should have on their bookshelf. Perhaps some of the most interesting work in the book are of characters that never made it into the movie. The book's author does a very nice job of compiling the concept work in a cohesive and streamlined manner presenting the artwork in it's best light. It's definitely worth the money.

Fellow readers, go with all the above 5 star comments of PRAISE! This "Art of" book has met and exceeded all my requirements to be a fantastic and worthy book. Art! Color! Foldouts! Character design and story development galore. I have to go back and watch the film now when it comes out on DVD. I never spotted that the markings on the character "Viper" were Chinese poetry!! ! Kudos to Dreamworks for this film AND this absolutely wonderful book. It will hold an honored place on my shelf along with my other "Art Of" film books. *unlike the shameful and empty *Art of Madagascar 2" which was the first book I ever returned to Amazon. :(*

BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT!

First of all, a confenssion - Kung Fu Panda is probably my favorite movie of 2008. I ordered this book on a whim, thinking it would be a nice little book to look over and remember the movie. Boy was I wrong! This book is stuffed to the gills with the history of each and every character in the movie, as well as those that didn't make the final cut. It's awesome to read the different directions the characters took before they settled on what would appear in the movie. It's also cool to read some of the background of the characters that I didn't know, like Oogway being from the Galapagoes and traveling the world before settling in China. It only adds to the depth and richness of a great story of a great movie. And the art is beautiful to look at - I've taken hours just staring at the detail of all the pictures. To quote Master Oogway, "Yesterday's history, tomorrow's a mystery. Today's a gift - that's why they call it the present." Do yourself a favor and give yourself the present of this book - Today!!!