The Art of WALL.E [Hardcover]

Tim Hauser (Author), Andrew Stanton (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2008

Pixar Animation Studios, the innovators behind Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Ratatouille, created its latest genre-defying film with an intriguing and unorthodox question in mind: What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn off the last robot? WALLE (Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth Class) is this last, soulful robot. When his lonely work is interrupted by the arrival of the sleek probe-droid EVE, a rollicking adventure across the galaxy ensues.

The Art of WALLE features the myriad pieces of concept art on which this fantastic, futuristic film was built, including storyboards, full-color pastels, digital and pencil sketches, character studies, color scripts, and more. Astute text-featuring quotes from the director, artists, animators, and production team-unearths the filmmakers' historical inspirations and recounts the creative process in intimate detail. This richly illustrated portal into the artistic spirit of Pixar reveals a studio confidently pushing the limits of animation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Tim Hauser's The Art of Wall-E (Chronicle) provides a mesmerizing behind-the-scenes look at the movie's origin and creation, lushly illustrated with reproductions of concept art (storyboards, character sketches, and full-color pastels, and more) accompanied by production crew quotes. The coherent text traces the importance of visual storytelling in the film, which has very little dialogue, touching on silent movie comedians, pantomime acting, and the creative freedom of animation. This handsome volume will appeal to teens interested in the history of cinema, movie production, and animation, and would make an intriguing addition to classroom studies in these areas. —School Library Journal

REBECCA MURRAY, ABOUT.COM
The perfect companion piece to PIXAR\\\'s animated science fiction tale, The Art of WALL-E is not just a pretty coffee table book. The Art of WALL-E is a fascinating look behind the scenes at the origin of WALL-E and the film\\\'s development.

About the Author

Tim Hauser has been a writer, creative executive, and producer in animation for over 20 years. He lives in Los Angeles.

Andrew Stanton is the director of WALL.E and Finding Nemo, and is the co-director of A Bug's Life.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (April 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811862356
• ISBN-13: 978-0811862356
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 11.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #392,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Missed opportunity, July 16, 2008

By 

F. Diella (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Art of WALL.E (Hardcover)

First of all let me say that my rating doesn't have anything to do with Wall-e which is a great movie or Pixar which I love.

Here I'm rating this book only. Regrettably, I must say that "The Art of Wall-e" is a missed opportunity. It could have featured many more drawings about wall-e (the actual character) and its genesis. Out of its 160 pages this book manages to devote to the design of this robot and to drawings showing how wall-e "works" a mere 4 pages (pages 48-49 and 52-53).

Also, at page 102 we are told that "there were nine revisions of Eve" and yet, we are only shown that robot more or less as it appears in the movie instead of as a work in progress which would have been much more interesting and stimulating by giving the reader insight into the artists' creative process.

Unlike the previous "Art of" books about Pixar movies, this one doesn't really delve into the evolution of art direction or characters in a major way (except for the humans in the movie) as if what we see in the movie weren't the result of several iterations (as it most definitely is).

In short, great art but much left to be desired.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pastel Drawings Were Missing, June 23, 2008

By 

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

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This review is from: The Art of WALL.E (Hardcover)

Length:: 0:29 Mins

This book carried a much darker tone due to the environment -- Earth with tons of trash. The colour palette from the movie was limited to very dark tones. This book isn't as colourful compared to other Pixar art books as a result. But that is not a bad thing.

There are a few pages right up front on visual storytelling. It provides a nice introduction into the conceptualizing of the movie, and into producing a movie where the main characters have with no dialogue.

In the first chapter "Cinematic Dictation", it talks about how storyboards helps make the movie. Included in this chapter are lots of storyboards in different styles by different artists.

"Trash Planet" is the name of the second chapter. It also happens to be the same name for the movie for more than ten years before it was changed to WALL-E. Here we have sketches, paintings and colorscripts for the trash filled environment WALL-E was set in. There are also character designs for WALL-E and EVE. It's amazing to look at these paintings and see how they have evolved into actual movie scenes.

The last chapter is called "The Axiom". It contains concept art for the spaceship, robots, interiors. There are also discarded ideas such as using alien blobs instead of humans.

Missing from this book are pastel drawings, the common ingredient found in Pixar art books. Ralph Eggleston, production designer for Finding Nemo, changed to a different style!

This is another marvelous art book for any Pixar fan.

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

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars See how Pixar works its magic, June 13, 2008

By 

Julie Neal (Sanibel Island, Fla.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Art of WALL.E (Hardcover)

What a beautiful book! Thumbing through it, I was struck by how many different types of art are represented: rough pencil sketches, full-bleed background images, pen and ink, pen and marker, digital imagery, even drawings made of "charcoal and hairspray" and "marker and correction fluid." I enthusiastically recommend The Art of WALL.E for aspiring artists, movie fans and anyone wanting to see behind the curtain at the Pixar wizard's inner workings.

My teenage daughter loves it.

In the foreword, WALL.E director and writer Andrew Stanton reveals the line that inspired the movie: "What if mankind were forced to evacuate Earth and someone forgot to turn the last robot off?" This book shows the journey from that initial sentence to the completed animated movie.

Spread throughout the pages are quotes from the movie's production team. "I wanted to do 'R2-D2: The Movie,'" says Stanton. Art director Anthony Christov notes that the movie's trash world was inspired by Chernobyl. "Everything is abandoned. Everything is leveled. Nobody can live there."

Under the dust jacket is a plain yellow cover, with a logo for BnL (Buy & Large, the film's super-corporation) embossed on the front and the title in white on the spine.

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