The Art of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa [Hardcover]

Jerry Beck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2008

Would you trust a squad of trash-talking Penguins to fly a plane? Probably not, but for Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, and Melman the giraffe there isn't much choice if they ever hope to see the Central Park Zoo again. Join your favorite Manhattan menagerie in The Art of Madagascar for a look into their wild ride from their first trip to the island paradise to their venture into the African savannah in the upcoming sequel Madagascar: the Crate Escape.

The Art of Madagascar explores how the zoo comes to life featuring an untamed look into the visual effects and development from the Dreamworks team that brought you Shrek and Shark Tale. Discover how animators incorporated animal idiosyncrasies into each character, how digital avatars were tailored to voice actors, and the inside scoop on those darn penguins. The abundance of behind the scenes visuals, information, and special features in the The Art of Madagascar is sure to drive kids and anyone's creative curiosity wild.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jerry Beck is the author of eleven books on animation and cinema, including Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guide, The 50 Greatest Cartoons, and the acclaimed Hanna-Barbera Treasury. He is a frequent contributor to Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, as well as such popular magazines as Variety and Hollywood Reporter, and co-writes the popular animation blog Cartoon Brew. He lives in Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Insight Editions (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933784709
• ISBN-13: 978-1933784700
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 11.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #978,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jerry Beck is an animation historian and cartoon producer. His over fifteen books on the subject include The Animated Movie Guide, Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guide and The 50 Greatest Cartoons. He is also co-founder/co-writer of the popular animation blog, Cartoon Brew.

Beck is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney, and is currently a consulting producer to Warner Bros., Universal and Disney for their classic animation dvd compilations. Beck has programmed retrospectives for the Annecy and Ottawa Animation Festivals, The Museum of Modern Art and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He has taught animation history at NYU, SVA, the AFI and UCLA. He is the host/producer of the annual "Worst Cartoons Ever" screening at the Comic-Con International: San Diego.

Beck started his career in film distribution, working at MGM/UA, Orion Classics, Cannon Films and Expanded Entertainment (Tournee of Animation), before starting his own company, Streamline Pictures in 1989, the first U.S. distributor to import anime features such as Otomo's Akira and Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle In The Sky. Beck was instrumental in launching Animation Magazine, and has written for The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. Beck was also the West Coast Bureau Chief for Kidscreen magazine in 2000. He has also created, written and produced animated films for various clients. His latest animation project, Hornswiggle, recently aired on the Nicktoons Network.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some paintings deserve to be printed bigger, November 21, 2008

By 

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

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Art of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (Hardcover)

Length:: 0:30 Mins

This art book follows a style very similar to The Art of Kung Fu Panda. Character art is presented before background location art.

There are lots of character designs, background paintings and even discarded storyboards and art. In-depth descriptions are included before each character or location. These stories contain stuff like character motivations, challenges to creating Africa the continent and production strategies to make characters more prominent in New York City and other stuff.

All these make for very interesting read on the production and creative process.

However, the book is strange at some parts. There are some incredibly detailed paintings which were printed at only 4 inches wide. Lots of details can't be seen. While some of the full page rendition of the main characters are great, some really don't deserve to be blown up that big because of -- again -- the lack of detail. I really don't think broad pencil sketches for Marty the zebra should command a single page, as do the 3D render of Gloria the hippo.

Some of the beautiful scene paintings really deserve a bigger canvas.

Once the section for background location art starts, the book becomes considerably much better. Now, most of the digital paintings are displayed big for all the glory.

On the last few pages includes the discarded characters and storyboard. There's also a page on 4 stages of production and another page on props. There are not many movie stills, which is great.

Unfortunately, I cannot comment on whether the book contains art from both the movie because I've yet to watch them.

Overall, this is still a pretty fun art book to get.

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

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, June 29, 2009

By 

Gabriel S. Fazzioni - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Art of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (Hardcover)

This book is much more than I Expected. There is a lot of sketches and rendered drawings inside, greater than great ! Totally recomended !

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of fun stuff, October 30, 2008

By 

Love and peace "xox" (San Francisco, Ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (Hardcover)

Lots of fun stuff and images from Madagascar 1 and 2.
Dreamworks makes more realistic movies. Madagascar is one of fun and cartoon style. I love the characters on this movies and this books show how they changed from the original drawing to the show. Tons of Development stuffs. Although the style is very simple, shows lots of details. my only complain is that the color seems bit dull compared with other Art of books that I have. Printed not on glossy papers, that is why...?