Customer Reviews

The Art of WALL.E

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.)

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.

Headed to the movie? Here's Amazon's page for showtimes.

Unfortunately I must confess this one went below my expectations.
Yes, all the contents are really valuable, with beautiful artwork (several pencil sketches of WALL-E and the Pixar lamp, colour schemes and background settings were what I personally enjoyed best) and inspirational thoughts - being Bulgarian I must mention Antony Christov's comments which were very entertaining for many of my friends, and myself.

Keeping in mind the inevitable positive remarks, this book contains less text than I hoped it would (I read ALL OF IT for somewhat 1-2 hours), less story/character/design development that I would have enjoyed, and less pages, too! (even though I DID see the parameters before purchasing)

However, I would be getting back to the book over and over again but I would not recommend it unless you are either a fan of WALL-E, Disney/Pixar, and animation (as myself), or have some spare money to spend ;)

Mix feelings about this one.
The info its great like always and its nice to read. But the pictures, although many and beatiful, they are not so stricking as other publications such as the art of the incredibles, the art of ratatouille, ect.
Nice to own though.

I pre-ordered this book as soon as it became available, a few months before I even saw "WALL·E"...as the film got closer I started having second doubts "what if I HATE it?" and "it can't POSSIBLY live up to the expectations I have"...do I really want to own a book all about artwork for a movie I didn't like? But I did like it (LOVED it, in fact), and it did live up to my expectations. It lived up to everything I was hoping for (and more) and I am SO happy that I own this book...aside from the two collectors "toys" I have (of WALL·E and EVE) sitting on my computer desk, this is something I am really happy to own from what has been my favorite film of 2008 thus far. Now I know, when it comes to Pixar, I really shouldn't be concerned about them coming through and delivering quality product like I'd expected when I first pre-ordered this...next step, WALL·E BluRay!

P.S. I got this book for the awesome Amazon sale price of $25 or so bucks...it's worth the whole damn $40 that coverprice lists!

Once I got the book, I couldn't put it down. As a person trying to break into the industry with a traditional animation background, it's good to know that Pixar still pushes "Old skool" style. The backgrounds are amazing, the artwork is spectacular, and their mission to let the animators "animate"? I LOVE PIXAR! I think this book is for the animator in all of us dying to get out and put their skills to the test. It explains obstacles you have to overcome when something is taken away. Storytelling through expression and art is somewhat of a lost art. Pixar has that magic touch to bring it back to the animation field and Im all for it! Chuck Jones once said about the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies that you can turn off the volume to the t.v. and still understand what is going on. If anyone can do that I believe Pixar's the one.

I didn't enjoy the digital drawings in The Art of Up nearly as much as I did in this particular title. And while the pastel sketches that we are all so fond of in the other Art of titles are lacking, the digital drawings are beautiful. Maybe it's because I enjoy the content so much that I overlook some of it's minuses as others have mentioned, but you'll want to pick this up if you are a collector of the Art of titles.

I'm always a fan of the "Art of [Pixar movie]" books. They are always packed full of wonderful goodness, and this one is no exception. It really shows how much goes into just the planning phases of Wall-E. The art and articles are such fun to browse through even if you're not interested in reading the interviews, etc. Readers who are not familiar with the animation process will find it intriguing to see how the film's style progressed and developed over time. A complete hit as usual with these books.

I'm a computer animation student, and my teachers are always encouraging any "The Art of" book we can get our hands on. The artwork in here is gorgeous, and I definitely don't regret buying this book. There are a lot of interesting drawings in the section of the book concerning prospective character designs of the people aboard the Axiom. The only letdown was that there were not very many concept sketches of Wall-E or Eve. The artists said that there was never really any dispute about what Wall-E should look like. I'm really into character design, so I personally liked The Art of Ratatouille better, because it focused more on that. Art of Wall-E has a lot of quick digital paintings that focused more on environments. It's great for visual development, because most of the art seemed to be focused on capturing the general mood and color palette of the environments.