Customer Reviews

Too Funny for Words: Disney's Greatest Sight Gags

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Though not as 'deep' as The Illusion of Life, the book Too Funny for Words is a must-have for all animators and story people who want to peek into the serious world of creating movie magic... It is THE book on the subject of 'sight-gags'. (Remember to also get Frank&Ollie's Greatest Disney Villains and The Making of Bambi books! - You already have The Illusion of Life, of course!)

I love this title. It does an awesome job of illustrating cartoon humor. The book contains many illustrations and is divided into two parts with the second part containing invaluable information:
1. The Spot Gag
2. The Running Gag
3. The Gag That Builds
4. The Action Gag
5. The Tableau Gag
6. The Inanimate Character Gag
7. The Funny Drawing
8. Specialized Gags

If you are an animator, Disney-phile, or enthusiast you should consider picking this title up.

A huge hardcover book, filled with full page representations form the animators drawing board, showing you the process of creating visual sight gags in animation. Disney animators Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston created the animators bible with their first book, "The Illusion of Life". It was to be their best of several books, and Sight Gags is next in line. Frank & Ollie were heroes of the the golden age of animation, and the part they played as part of the team of Walt's top animators, "the Nine Old Men" as they were known.
Also be sure to see the documentary video, "Frank & Ollie", to see for yourself what wonderful guys these two gents really were. That documentary is on VHS and DVD.

Too Funny For Words is best seen as a companion book to Frank and Ollie's other acclaimed animation book "The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation". The book covers classic gag formulas and structure used in countless old cartoons, with the authors citing many Classic Disney shorts to demonstrate them.

I think this is a great book for animators overall, especially beginners who need to learn the basics of cartoon comedy. Having lots of pencil drawings and screenshots to study from also helps.

Bottom line: Great book. Check it out.