Customer Reviews

Tarzan Chronicles (Welcome Book)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a student of animation and have enjoyed the art form for a long time. This has led me to collect just about every "Art of" animation book ever published (much to my wife's dismay), but this one is clearly one of the best.

First of all, the visuals are fantastic (as they should be for this type of book). Glen Keane is a master, and any insight into his conceptual art and rough sketches are a real treat! However there is so much more than I have seen jammed into one of these books in quite some time. Sure, other books have storyboards, character development drawings, conceptual art, model sheets, backgrounds, production art, etc., but the quality and quantity of the art in this book is top-notch.

Second, Howard Green does a nice job with the textual additions too. The inclusion of diary / journal entries written during the film's production was also a masterful touch, and really added to the overall "behind the scenes" feeling of the book.

Finally, the production quality of the book itself is impressive. The organization is clean (considering the amount of content involved), the two-page spreads and fold-outs are very nice, and the little things (such as the paper choice for each section introduction) provide an added touch. A fine addition to anyone's library.

Certainly, if you like the movie (or any animated feature), you will cherish this book. I highly recommend it!

Rarely does an "Art of" book capture the true essence of every aspect of an animated film. In this case, Howard Green guides us through the very thought processes of the animators so that we can not only observe the progression of the animation drawings, but we can also feel the development of the characters themselves. What many people don't fully understand is how the animators truley capture the character of the voice talent into the animated drawings. It is Disney's ability to capture these characters that has set Disney animated films apart from the competition for decades and which has created so many timeless classics. The Tarzan Chronicles is one of the first books to ever truly capture this process. It is a joy to follow along. In addition to the value of the content, this is one of the most beautifully crafted animation books ever created. It is sure to entertain and educate anyone who picks it up.

I went completely ape over the "Tarzan Chronicals" by Howard Green. The text intermixed with the pictures extremely well. The book and the CD are a good substitute for the movie. In checking to see what else Green has written, I found he will have another book due in July. I can't give it 5 stars, but if you want to know how many stars I can give it, look up in the sky at night.

This was my first purchase from Amazon and I think it's a very good accompaniment to the movie. Alright, it still has tendencies like all the Disney Art books of reading like a big press release, which is kind of insulting to those of us who are serious animation connoisseurs. Even the 'diary extracts' of Keane, Lima and Collins seem kind of fake. Like others, I would have liked to have seen less talk about the music and more about the art. But the sheer abundance of production art and sketches are well worth getting it.

This is one of the very best books I have seen, and one of those that I am proud to own, a incredible reference, an indepth study of animation and concepts, taking you thru the complete pipeline of one of the best Disney animation movies. I really enjoy the way everything is done, the layout, the pictures, and the pre-production art, which is really inspiring. If you are an artist, this is a must buy.

The Tarzan Chronicles is a fantastic book. I'm over the moon on how the text melts with the pictures. I've been a Disney fan for a long time and waiting the video release of Tarzan is going to be painful, but the book and cd will keep me in the spirit of Tarzan.

Beautiful sketches and artwork. I love the imagery of animals in particular. I like this one just as much as Mulan, and again for the content.

I don't know if I'll ever get over this movie - especially if I keep running across books like this one. It is nicely designed, intelligently organized, and chock-full of pre-production art, journal entries, productions stills, photographs and stories of how the film came to be. If you think the movie is incredible, wait until you learn all the behind the scenes stuff. This book chronicles that odyssey in wonderful detail.

Did you know the Tarzan character was animated in Paris, while the rest of the film was being animated in Burbank, California? Supervising animator Glen Keane (arguably the top animator in the field) was living in Paris with his family when directors Kevin Lima and Chris Buck approached him with the offer to supervise the animation of the adult version of Tarzan. One of his stipulations for coming on board was that he be able to stay in Paris and work with the Disney Animation Studio there. Meanwhile, back in Burbank, an entirely different team of animators was working on the rest of the film. The two studios used a computer system called "Scene Machine" to correspond with each other and coordinate characters in the same scene over the 6,000-mile distance.

Keane's journal, sketches, thoughts, stories and photos offer amazing insight into his real-life adventure animating Tarzan. Here's just a taste, from one of his journal entries: "Worked on `Strangers Like Me' sequence. The process is never easy - particularly for this song - at first the route was to teach Tarzan to speak - but it has evolved into Tarzan's quest for knowledge. I went on my own quest - reading books on Einstein's Theory of Relativity - and books explaining physics and great scientific discoveries as in astronomy. I am in awe of the universe and God's perfect design clearly displayed in its breadth and beauty. Tarzan must be in awe and wonder. Joy of discovery. He must have an insatiable thirst to know. The audience should feel the same joy as Tarzan. They should enjoy watching him discover."

Here's another one that sends chills down my spine: "My mind was churning on the scenes I'd been seeing with the animators this morning - and it struck me how real Tarzan is to me. He is not a drawing or even an animated character. He is a living personality with character traits, personal habits and a body language all his own. I could almost see him before me. He is real yet invisible living in my imagination, which is a very real place to inhabit." Good stuff.

The book is probably one third text and two-thirds pictures. It's divided into seven sections, each named after a Phil Collins song from the movie, plus introduction and acknowledgements. Glen Keane's story is just one of many chronicled in the book. If you're a fan of the Tarzan stories, love Disney animation, or are interested in the art of animation in general, you've got to have this book.

Waitsel Smith

If you love great animation, and even if you don't, you will love this book. Leading through the entire movie, this will show ou how disney movies are conceptualized and rendered. Simply amazing.

It's an o.k. book, but I would have preferred to see more info. with the animators. A book like "Aladdin: The making of an animated film" has two to three times as much info. on the animators and their approach than this book has and this book is twice as long. To my knowledge, there wasn't even a mention that the character design of Jane was based on the "Gibson girl". This is just an example of the lack of exposure given to the actual artistic work done. This book mostly chronicles the tumultuous story process that it took to create this movie. It goes into far too much detail about this. Also spends too much time discussing Phil Collins, the voice actors, and the research in Africa. I wanted to hear a lot more from Glen Keane, Ken Duncan and the rest of the animators.