Customer Reviews

Walt Disney Animation Studios The Archive Series: Story (Walt Disney Animation Archives)

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Length:: 0:17 Mins

The Archive Series: Story is a huge and thick hardcover book. Although the title has the word "story" in it, readers looking for the Disney storytelling process will be sorely disappointed. John Lasseter's foreword is pretty much all the text in the book.

This book is about storyboards.

Over hundreds of storyboard panels are included in the book, for movies and shorter episodes. Some of the titles include The Three Little Pigs, Snow White (1937), Dumbo (1941), Alice in Wonderland (1951), The Jungle Book (1967), Beauty and the Beast(1991) and a whole lot more, including lesser known ones. The latest one is the 2002 Lilo & Stitch. This book is an archive of storyboards created for traditional animation.

There are about 1 to 6 storyboards on each page. There are no captions although a few of them have scene descriptions and scribbles. This archive picks random storyboard sequences from each animation. Unfortunately, most of the storyboard sequences are not complete. Many times I have followed through interesting sequences only to be cut off with a new title on the next page. It's really a minor quibble given the hundreds of thousands of storyboards to choose for the book.

This whole book is an example of masterful application of storyboard techniques, like cutting scenes, composing, moving the (camera) view and stuff like that. But you must already know some basics to see them -- this is not an instructional book. There are also plenty of styles of art to look at. It's valuable resource for anyone into storyboards.

This is a highly quality book that's pretty much worth the money, but a more appropriate title would be "The Archive Series: Storyboards".

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

Great high quality book with large pages that allow the reader to experience the level of detail and care that the artists took with these story boards. Could have used a little extra text in the book in order to describe who drew the particular boards and some back story. Will be purchasing further books in the series.

As others have said, this book focuses on storyboards rather than the actual story of Disney's animated features, but that shouldn't throw anyone off or disappoint them, considering how gorgeous everything in this book is. I had Story on my wish list for a few months, but the second I heard it was out of print, I rushed and got it before Animation, which was going to be my original first purchase in this series. I'm glad I did, as Story has genuine treasures, and every single page here is a masterpiece. Story is also a true art book, as the only real text in the book (aside from labels on the artwork) is an introduction by John Lasseter, and then the final pages and index listing what's on what page and artist credits. There are no pages talking about the storyboard process, how hard something was to explain with storyboards or to put in animated form, nothing of that sort. What you get are huge pictures of the storyboards with their respective notes, if any, and you can take in the artwork in all its glory.

I hate to sound like a Disney fanboy here, but this book really is gorgeous to look at. It single-handedly got me back into drawing, and I enjoyed being taken back in time and seeing bits from some features I hadn't seen in ages. Even the we'll-probably-never-see-it-on-dvd Song of the South is featured in here! So many Disney films and shorts are shown here that it serves as a time capsule of sorts, starting out with Steamboat Willie and ending with Lilo & Stitch. I can't even talk about what my favorite pieces were in here because honestly, that'd be about 90% of the book. Storyboards for the bear fight from The Fox and the Hound, Ferdinand the Bull sitting in the arena with his flower, Pluto on trial in Pluto's Judgment Day...there's so much here! And you gotta love how there are a lot of foldout pages to give more pictures of a given storyboard. Though as pointed out by others, this book doesn't include complete storyboards for scenes- it cuts off and goes on to the next title pretty quickly. But I can't complain, though it would be nice if somehow they managed to get complete storyboards for every Disney film and put out books of those...

If you still haven't picked up Story, you should before prices go through the roof. My only real complaint is that the books in this series are oversized and hang off my book shelf a couple of inches. It doesn't affect the score by any means, and it's not even really a complaint I guess, but I do like having my books be around the same size. Still, Disney fans or animation students NEED to get this. It's a true treasure.

This is the first book in the Disney Archive Series and is hardback with no dust cover and 272 pages. The book is focused on story through storyboards.

There is no table of contents, and the book really gained steam for me on page 72 when they introduced the storyboards for Snow White until the end of the book. Much of the artwork you'll see will be for the first time.

This series is going to be a keeper for sure.

Highly recommended.

This book is an absolute delight. Stunning artwork, high quality presentation and design, great production values. If you like Disney animation you'll love it. What a great beginning to what I think it will be a great line of books, this Disney Archives series. Count me on for future volumes for sure.

I asked for The Archive Series: Story for Christmas, and to my delight it appeared under the tree. As an aspiring animator, I am fascinated by the storytelling processes of the professionals, and the material featured in the book was inspiring (especially the Glen Keane gems).

The book includes a board for one scene per hand-drawn Disney classic, all the way up to Lilo & Stitch (2002). In many cases, different many artists were responsible for certain panels of a scene, as the boards are compiled from multiple stages of production to generally parallel the final film version. The artists are accredited in an alphabetical film index at the end of the book.

Even without sophisticated animation knowledge or artistic sensibility, The Archive Series: Story is more than just a glorified picture book. Anyone can enjoy perusing the panels that follow a scrubbing Cinderella and holding the book next to the film to pick out the similarities. Pure character overflows out of the original drawings; their personality is so rich, they will challenge the classic "I can't even draw a stick man" mentality. The artist within is anxious to be unlocked by the key that is The Archive Series: Story.

Having studied animation, drawing since childhood, and one who is always endlessly grappling and growing with visually storytelling, I must contest the reviewers in saying that you can learn from this book. However, this is not a how-to book by any means, matter of fact if you are to learn from this book then it's a bit more akin to the real way the artist in these Archive series have learned their trade by way of observing the talents that preceeded them. Beyond that, there is no book out there that can supplement learning to draw and much more how to teach one to tell better stories without their own time and patience in practice. And I would implore any artist purchasing this book to not do so if your intent is to learn by a book method, it simply won't work and the end result is far less rewarding than the misguided journey. Beyond that, this book is a gem, and if you're familiar with the process, then the work will speak for iteself. And there are captions in the back indexing page numbers and/or sequence titles, so no one is left in the dark with that information. The 2 page sequence with boards by Joe Ranft from "The Little Mermaid" is worth the price tag alone in my opinion.

This is one of those books you 'show off' to friends, then actually use when you get down to work. I love this book - it's a new 'family heirloom'.

With the all digital whiz-bang flooding into movie theaters people can be excused for forgetting - or maybe never knowing - about the role that plain old fashioned drawing has played in the history of animation. It's a point of fact that it is virtually impossible to create as spontaneous and genuine a line with a computer as a talented artist can draw with a pencil. "Story" from the Walt Disney Animation Studios Archive series is a chronological sampling of storyboard frames from the earliest days of Hyperion Studios to the present. The producers of the book have done a great service to anyone interested in cartoon drawing, storyboarding, or story telling by faithfully capturing the subtleties, nuances and freshness of the animator's original drawings. While not specifically meant as a "teaching" book, "Story" is as good a guide to successful cartoon drawing as any "how to" book currently on the market.

I have got interest in Walt Disney production collecting the Italian magazine Topolino (edited in Italy from 1949). For those who love animation and want to appreciate the work of many talented animators, this book is a real gift because it gives the possibility to see and touch (and sniff, for those who like books even for the smell) many of these otherwise unreachable drawings.
Thanks to Walt Disney Animation Studios for this book.