Customer Reviews

To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
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You can sense the quality of this massive book before you even open it. The Buzz Lightyear image is a cutout piece of glossy paper, which is set into bright green fabric. The title appears on a translucent paper banner. The back of the book matches the front, except the cutout is of the back side of Buzz. Inside, a black satin ribbon is attached to use as a bookmark.

Fancy treatment indeed, but the text and images live up to it.

The text is thorough and well written, and sprinkled with dozens of interviews with key Pixar people, including Ed Catmull, Steve Jobs and John Lasseter. It's accompanied by hundreds of examples of concept art, photographs, storyboards and fully rendered film images. Everything Pixar is covered, starting with the ten formative years before "Toy Story" (including Lasseter's firing by the Disney Company), through Pixar's acquisition by Disney in 2006.

I especially liked the photographs of voice talent (Ellen DeGeneres, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen) taken during recording sessions, and the many behind-the-scenes stories about making the movies. In one, John Lasseter describes how funny Tom Hanks was recording the "Toy Story" scene in which Woody tries to use Buzz's arm as a stand-in for the depressed Space Ranger: " I was laughing so hard, I almost ruined the take," Lasseter remembered. "I had to leave the room and go into the recording booth with the sound engineer."

Here's the chapter list:

CHAPTER 1: Ed
CHAPTER 2: John
CHAPTER 3: Steve
CHAPTER 4: Pixar's Early Days
Spotlight: Sound
Spotlight: The Early Short Films
CHAPTER 5: Toy Story
Spotlight: Music
CHAPTER 6: Building a Studio
CHAPTER 7: A Bug's Life
Spotlight: "Geri's Game"
CHAPTER 8: Toy Story 2
Spotlight: Pixar University
CHAPTER 9: Pixar at Home
Spotlight: Voices
CHAPTER 10: Monsters, Inc.
Spotlight: "For the Birds"
CHAPTER 11: Finding Nemo
Spotlight: RenderMan
CHAPTER 12: The Incredibles
Spotlight: "Boundin"
CHAPTER 13: Cars
Spotlight: "One Man Band"
CHAPTER 14: Pixar Joins with Disney

Length:: 0:51 Mins

This book is stunning. Simply stunning.

This is the latest collection to my Pixar artbook. Almost immediately, I wrapped the book up to protect the cover from the elements. The bright green cover is made of cloth-like fabric and attracts dust easily. After picking it from my desk from photographing it, some parts of the cover had already became dirty!

Old school photos, high resolution renders, great writing filled the pages made of high quality paper stock.

It tells the history of Pixar animation studios before there was Pixar animation studios, all the way up to the Disney bought-over. It stops just right before Ratatouille or there would probably be more written on Brad Bird. You'll find the true meaning of passion, determination and the love for their art.

If you've owned other Pixar artbooks, you'll be pleased to note that there are quite a lot of new, never-been-printed photos in the book. You're going to see tons of new images.

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

Dear animation lover. This book will restore your faith in the power of passion. With a never failing belief in the craftmanship of delivering a great story Pixar showed the possibilities of a good marriage between art and technique. Off course, some luck of being in the right place at the right time counts as well.

The book starts with the original background of the pixar machine as a calculating machine to the point where Disney takes over.

I also have almost every Pixar art-of book there is, but the movies described in the book (including all the shorts) are mostly viewed from a Pixar company point of view. This way you get a great overall view.

As it is my dream to come close to the Pixar company, this is probably the closest you can get the heart of Pixar when you are living far away...

Fantastic Book about the greatest animation studio of our day. Pixar continues to distance itself from other mediocre studios such as dreamworks, by continuing to show us something new and different. Beautiful book showcasing the artwork of the most talented group of artisans since the original disney studios. Cannot recommend this book highly enough, beautiful book and a fascinating read.

This Book is for a person who really likes coffee table books. Its quite big and heavy and is beautify designed with a green fabric cover, a translucent mini sleeve and a bookmark ribbon. Its printed on heavy stock paper that really lets the photos pop. The book is a well written and complete in detail history of Pixar. It profiles the key people and movies involved; full of anecdotes, behind the scene and quotes. It's fully illustrated with photos and full page pictures. Its exciting, fun and quite fascinating with some great artwork.

To Infinity and Beyond is the companion book to the 2007 documentary The Pixar Story, but has tons more information than is presented in the film. The book is an in-depth look at the founding of Pixar, from biographies of the great minds who began Pixar to the films (short and feature-length) and the expansion of the studio. You really get to know Pixar inside and out, and how it fosters such great creative collaboration. I wish I could work at Pixar, because my job really sucks!

When I first saw this book, I had already started to read my new book "The Illusion of Life" . A comprehensive, highly detailed, very well structured book about the history of Disney Animation Studios. I was shocked as a computer animation artist cause I had always wanted to learn the secret of the traditional animation and its history. But I had to take a step further. I knew what I needed to have. It was the name of the second revalution of the whole animation history on the planet; P'XAR.

First of all, I have to tell you that reading this book is much easear than the Illusion of life. As a person who can speak and read english very well, I do not mean that the level of the English in the book is simple, but It is much more understandable. Cause the way that author used to tell the story of the pixar is well planned, I guess.

The story begins with a simple intoduction about the book itself. Then, you start to read the detailed biographies of three guys that are the milestone in the Pixar Animation Studio and its succes: Ed Catmull, John Lesseter and Steve Jobs. Ed Catmull as a scientest who wants to be an artist an animator rather than a mathematic person; John Lesseter as an animator who can die for creating art on computer screens , and lastly a succesfull entrepreneur Steve Jobs who sees a bright future in front of this new technology.

You read their both profesionals and social experiences while trying to run a company. After finishing these parts, the real subject of the book start to appear on the pages. Detailed and well pictured sections of company's early TV commercials,short movies and amazing feature animations. You will find too many things about computer science, production management, animation and the art of telling a good story which is the most valuable key element of all kinds of art according to John Lesseter.

If you are a being living on this planet, you should have this book on your shelf. If you are an artist or a scientist, you have to have it as well. But, If you are an animator or an animation fan, please do not die unless you read, see , touch and smell this book. I could not find a better way to express How amazing this product is. Do not pay too much attention to the price of the book. Remember; you are not buying a book, you are just buying an unbelievable and spectecular history. It should not be that cheap!

This is a great book with a wonderfully written history of Pixar!

The photos are also great quality. Great for any Pixar fan!

If you're at all a Pixar fan, or even an animation fan, this book deserves a place on your shelf!

very insightful look at the fascinating studio that pioneered the animation industry into the 21st century.