The Art and Making of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs [Hardcover]

Tracey Miller-Zarneke (Author), Judi Barrett (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 18, 2009

Sony Pictures’ eye-popping animated version of Judi and Ron Barrett’s beloved children’s book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs recasts the classic story with a contemporary look and plot. This book describes, through revealing behind-the-scenes discussions and amazing developmental art, how this visual feast came to be. Presented in a bold, die-cut slipcase that could have been designed by Flint Lockwood himself, this lavishly illustrated account is a delight for fans of the book and animation buffs alike.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tracey Miller-Zarneke has long been fascinated with the world of animation, way beyond her credited roles on the feature films Meet the Robinsons, Chicken Little, and The Emperor's New Groove. Tracey is also the celebrated author of two books on animated features: The Art of Meet the Robinsons and The Art of Kung Fu Panda.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 156 pages
• Publisher: Insight Editions (August 18, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193378489X
• ISBN-13: 978-1933784892
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 11.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #655,362 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!, August 13, 2009

By 

Pedro Garre "animation books" (Madrid, Espagne) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art and Making of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Hardcover)

Length:: 1:48 Mins

Awesome!! Hundreds of sketch, storyboard, visual characters development, backgrounds,... In the tradition of wonderful art books edited by Insight Editions. One of the best, if no the best, art animation book ever published.
This edition includes slipcase

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book smells of strawberries, August 16, 2009

By 

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

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Art and Making of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Hardcover)

Length:: 0:23 Mins

I really enjoy the animation art books published by Insight Editions. The Art and Making of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is another wonderful art book authored by Tracey Miller-Zarneke, who's also wrote the sold-out The Art of Kung Fu Panda.

This is a hardcover edition that comes with a sturdy cardboard slipcase. There are over 180 pages of art instead of the 156 listed erroneously on Amazon.

Inside the book is filled with concept art on the characters, the town and buildings, the props, storyboards, beatboards and colour studies. What I really like about the book is the art is created with a wide variety of medium. We have pens, pencils, markers, watercolour as well as digital drawings. The artistic style is incredibly varied and really colourful. There are even photos from the studio's in-house "Most Creative Breadboat" competition.

The book also comes with a lot of removable goodies. When you pull out the book from the slipcase, you'll be greeted by the smell of strawberries. That comes from the sticker book of food art. Additionally, there are removable sketches of top secret inventions, a huge map of the town, a multi-fold of the school's ridiculously long chalkboard and a few mini-booklets containing more art. This makes the book really fun to read.

All the major characters in the animation has writeup on them. Many of the art work are accompanied by captions from the production team. There are many interesting stories on production, such as figuring out how to make burgers bounce, break apart, and still look appealing. And how much food was ate while the artists were drawing delicious food.

This is definitely one of the art books to get for this year.

Most highly recommended.

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

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE Best "Art of" Book Yet!, October 18, 2009

By 

Edward Nygma (Orchard Park, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art and Making of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Hardcover)

I am totally in agreement with these other reviews, all I can say is that if you are an animator, graphic designer, concept artist or an animation lover...YOU NEED THIS BOOK! I have tons of "Art of" movie books and this one is just the best in my collection. Amazing work by all the talented artist, Chris Reccardi (his work includes Samurai Jack, Ren & Stimpy...and so on) being one of my favorites. The book comes with Scratch and sniff stickers, a CD, cards that pull out from little folders, mini books and HUGE Full page paintings and character designs, explainations of the story elements and characters....it is just really well done. It comes in a super nice hardcover slipcase too!

When it comes to this book you may pay a little more than the Pixar "Art of" books but you get so much more! (Don't get me wrong I am an insane Pixar Fan!) At this price, I recommend getting this book before it goes out of print and you have to pay a fortune for it...like the art of Kung-Fu Panda.