Customer Reviews

Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Beauty and the Beast

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What's all this talk about flimsy photocopy printing? Are we all holding the same book? My copy is beautifully printed and the stock of paper is a fine quality. Someone seems to have an axe to grind if they're complaining about the paper quality. It's nonsense.

It's a great book with lots of storyboard art as well as Cleaned-up animation prior to color and yes it does have several production stills from the finished film. I think it's nice to see the progression from storyboard to finished product. If your a fan of this movie or collect Disney's "Making of" books then this will fit along nicely with any others you may have. That being said, I found Disney's Art of Animation by Bob Thomas much more informative and included more of the Behind the scenes photos and Glen Keane sketches.

As for the complaint about the pages covering the stage production... Look at the "sneak peek" preview that Amazon gives where you can randomly see pages from the book. There's a Table of Contents and Chapter IX clearly says, "Beauty & the Beast comes to the stage." It's clear so why complain?

So... I got it. Am I sorry I got it? Nope. I'll treasure it like I do all my other Disney books. Hope this review helps anyone with doubts about the paper quality issue. There's NO issue.

Length:: 0:59 Mins

This book reminded me of the oversized art books Disney used to published for Mulan, Pocahontas, Hercules, etc (see links below). Although not as large as those predecessors, the feeling of familiarity really comes from the content. This is a Disney book after all.

There are plenty of beautiful art to be seen. The pages are filled with sketches, storyboards, animation drawings, production drawings, background art, photos of Disney artists at work. The print quality is nice.

A lot of names are mentioned and there's no doubt Disney has some of the most talented artists around. Story artist Brenda Chapman is amazing at capturing the nuances, expressions and feelings of the characters with her storyboards. There are also production paintings from Hans Bacher that set the visual style for the film. The animation line drawings from the animators are wonderful as well. Glen Keane designed the Beast, inspired by a buffalo head he bought from a taxidermist shop.

The commentary follows the production of the film, from the history to the reception after it was screened. It even covers the updated edition for IMAX and the additional footage added. The stories and interviews are interesting and as with every movie, you'll be able to read all about the challenges of making an animated film. There's also a chapter on the Broadway adaption.

This is a great book that I can easily recommend to animation art lovers.

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- The Art of Hercules: The Chaos of Creation

- The Art of The Hunchback of Notre Dame

- The Art of The Lion King

- The Art of Pocahontas (ISBN:0786861584)

- The Art of Mulan

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(There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

Finally, a "making of" book for "Beauty and the Beast." Somewhat interesting back story that became a much better film once moved in house at the Disney studios. The production designs by Brian McEntee are outstanding--lots of beautifully reproduced paintings by him. Lots of animation drawings by James Baxter, Glen Keane, Mark Henne, Will Finn, and David Pruixsma--the top animators at Disney. And a sad farewell to the lyricist of the show, Howard Ashman.

Nicely produced book--and long overdue.

This book is a major disappointment. I've been waiting on this for some time as i wanted to see how Glenn Keane and company went about designing the 'Beast', hoping to see preliminary sketches and discarded ideas. Instead there's one page dedicated to early 'Beast' designs... Seriously...for such brilliantly conceived character design, the powers at be decided to devote 2 images to the conceptual art!

Whats worse is that there is an entire section devoted to the stage play adaptation. Meaning no disrespect, but i really don't care for costume design, or the effects of make-up.

There's also an underwhelming amount of concept art in general, and an over-abundance of animation stills from the film, which, when you already own the film, are kind of redundant.

Admittedly, being an artist myself, my needs from an art book are slightly biased towards 'unseen' and 'preliminary' designs.

This book is simply lacking, both in terms of quantity of art and also quality of print. The paper is pretty light-weight and the colour reproduction is flat and low grade.

I've got many 'art of' books, Including all the books from the always impressive 'insight Editions' and 'Chronicle' publishers. This sadly, is one of the poorest.

I sat and read it straight through-- not something I normally [ever] do with an art book. The text tells an honest account of the trials and tribulations of creating a huge animated feature. I found it engrossing. The quality of the book is what I would expect, no complaints there.

The only negative I found was that the relationship between the text and images isn't as thoughtful as it could be. Sometimes the two don't match up at all and it gives the impression of reading two different stories at the same time. But this was a minor annoyance at best.

I'm quite in love with this book. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

This book is an absolute must for any Disney fan and certainly about Beauty and the beast. With the upcoming re release of the blu ray of this film, this book gives an extra dimension about what has been created by these Disney artists. It's beautifully written and has great photos. The book gives you more insight in the story of Beauty and the Beast in general. It gave me tears to read the story about (the late) Howard Ashman. What an absolute genius he was! The world (and certainly Disney) lost a great artist with him! The book has a wonderful cover and I can't just put the book in a bookshelf. It sits beautifully on display at home and everybody coming in takes the book to have a look in it. Reactions speak for themselves... A must own book and highly recommended! I'm a big fan and it's an essential work of a masterpiece and a tribute to the artists!

I haven't read through this yet, but the content seems rather nice. That said...

I've never written a review before, but I had to warn others, because the print quality of this book is the worst I've ever seen in an "Art of..." book. For anyone who has ever seen or held a print-on-demand book which are printed on copy machines instead of created via a four-color print process, that cheap copy-machine feel is how this book feels. Cheap paper and lousy printing. I can't prove it, but I'd almost swear this thing was printed on a copy-machine. It's that bad.

However, if you are only interested in the content, then this book will satisfy. I would still buy this book for the art, even though I think there's nothing like a well-crafted book. And "Tale As Old As Time" is nothing like a well-crafted book. If you do decide to buy it, just throw some mylar around the book-jacket and at least the cover will feel nice.

As someone who has been waiting decades for a "Beauty and The Beast" art book, "Tale as Old As Time" was a serious letdown. Hyperion has published some glorious "making of" books for Disney features (especially the lovely "Lilo & Stitch: Collected Stories from the Film's Creators"), but this falls far short of expectation. While what was going on at the Disney studios throughout the eighties may interest some, "Tale As Old As Time" misses the mark as an art book. It contains many images of near-to-life-size animation cleanup drawings, but there are very few storyboards and rough drawings, and little in the way of pre-production art -- always the most fascinating aspect! For those interested in the art and making of the film, rather than the studio politics and staff changes, Bob Thomas's 1991 book "Disney's Art of Animation: From Mickey Mouse to Beauty and the Beast" is a far richer resource. Thomas packs more into his 85-page section on Beauty and The Beast than "Tale as Old As Time" manages at nearly twice the length. "Tale as Old As Time" is still a nice book, but it isn't what this reviewer was hoping for.

This is another great Art of title for the library. It has a nice spot varnish on the dustcover and I am a fan of these particular book dimensions as it makes it easier to read in a variety of contexts. There is a nice balance of image and text, and not many images from the film are reproduced so that the concept art really stands out. Great text that really gives you an idea of what it took to make this beloved Disney classic.

TALE AS OLD AS TIME: THE ART AND MAKING OF THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is a 'must' for any animation or film book library. Packed with color photos in an oversized presentation, it tells of the re-creation of the 1980s Beauty and the Beast legend, offering behind-the-scenes insights into its many changes, ups and downs, 1991 acclaim, and more. Interviews with artists, producers, voice actors and more accompany sketches, caricatures, and animation drawings make this oversized presentation a top recommendation.