Customer Reviews

Walt Disney Animation Studios The Archive Series: Design

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Length:: 1:24 Mins

Of the three books from The Archive Series, this is my favourite. It covers design or the concept art for animated films.

This 256-page hardcover is filled with beautiful character designs, background paintings and storyboards. There are Mary Blair's paintings, wonderful layouts from Hans Bacher, the Lilo and Stitch drawings from Chris Sanders, pastel colour scripts from Bolt animated films and more. The art here is way more colourful than the previous two volumes on Story and Animation.

There is work dating back to the 1920s up to the latest animated films like The Princess and the Frog, and even Tangled. You will be able to see how the art has evolved with time, and the various Disney artists that have worked there and some are still working there now. There are so many styles to look at, from pencil animated characters to watercolour scenes to oil paintings.

If you have other Disney art books, some pieces of work are actually repeated, but about one fifth of the them are published here for the first time. Even so, this is a wonderful collection to get. And if you have to get only one volume out of The Archive Series, I'll recommend this volume.

This is a beautiful and inspiring collection.

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

The Walt Disney Archive Series has already set the bar quite high with the first two entries in this series - Story and Animation. However, the release of Design sets new levels when it comes to quality, content and presentation. This book is packed with beautiful preproduction and design art that includes watercolors, drawings, sketches, color studies, and digital paintings. Some of Eyvind Earle's paintings for Sleeping Beauty are included as well as Chris Sander's storybook inspirational art for Lilo and Stitch. There are character design sketches for the Beast and Gaston by Glen Keane and Andreas Deja. There's several pages covering the Black Cauldron which features two inspirational paintings by James Coleman as well as character sketches by Tim Burton, and there's much, much more. Though I've collected most of the "art of" books from Disney, I haven't seen many of the works displayed in this book.

While the first two books were amazing, what's great about Design is that in most of the artwork, all of the elements of character, color, design and background are coming together. It's almost like flipping through a lavishly illustrated children's book of many different styles and viewpoints. One could frame much of the work shown in this book and be quite pleased with them hanging on your wall. It really is a terrific book.

I love this book, everything about it is wonderful it is a must have but don't buy it from amazon.com. Mine arrived in an oversized box with no internal packaging and so was wonderfully damaged. If this was a one off event or if it were an accident I could forgive them but this is just laziness and it is most definitely NOT the first time they have pulled a stunt like this. Buy this book and love every page but order it from your local book store so you can pick it up and have an undamaged one.

This book has absolutely wonderful content, but the interior seems of inferior printing craftsmanship than the previous two editions. I realize some people think that's just a subjective impression, but I think anyone who buys, collects, handles, or prints books knows the difference. I wouldn't let that stop me from purchasing this book, however, because the cover is just as nice, and the content, as I already mentioned, is wonderful.
Part of what makes this series great is the attempt at minimizing overlapping material from other books. Yes, about half of the material can be had in other books, but those are usually pieces that are so associated with certain films that a book would almost seem incomplete with out them. But just being able to view the "new" material would be worth the price of the book. There are Snow White concept images that I've never ever seen before, as well as other surprises that will delight the Disney art fan.

Beautiful book....it is a gift for my daughter who already has the first two of the series....but it's condition upon arrival is disappointing...no invoice, the bubble wrap was ripped, and the book has creases and fingerprints in the margins. Others have complained of similar fates.....just to be aware.

This is the most gorgeous collection of Disney art that I have seen. Just gorgeous. My only complaint (a minor one) is the paper seems a little thin... but that may be because of the size of the pages - and the book is already quite thick. This is just gorgeous! Probably my most cherished Disney book, and I have A LOT!

This title is the longest of the three at 288 pages, and all the other aspects are the same: no table of contents, short introduction, and many many large format pictures beautifully reproduced.

This is a particularly nice title as it contains more color than the other two, Story and Animation. It was a real treat to see some of Mary Blair's work in addition to many other phenomenal artists. This title contained a lot more landscape work in addition to character.

This is the latest title in the Archive series and I highly recommend buying all three. I'm looking forward to the 4th title to be released, Layout and Background. I'm not sure how many will be released for the series, but these are keepers to be treasured for a lifetime.

Walt Disney Animation Studios: The Archive Series: Design provides a fine survey of the creative process of Disney artists as they sketch and produce works from computers, watercolors, and drawings. This book on design is the third in Disney's Archive Series and showcases the works of these artists in an oversized presentation packed with color and works of art. Many have never seen print before, and offer keys to the foundation ideas for many of Disney's most famous animated films. Any library strong in animation history must have this!

Not very many years ago, a slew of well produced, high quality, large format books appeared to laud and illustrate the Disney animated features appearing at that time. Titles included, "The Art of the Lion King", "The Art of Mulan" and "The Art of The Hunchback of Notre Dame". These books were indeed 'coffee table' in format and were all the better for it. The information and art work fully utilised the large format and in so doing paid due tribute to the artistry of all involved in the making of those movies. In more recent years the production values have noticeable dropped and more recent animated features, among them such excellent examples as Bolt and Tangled, have been accorded a much reduced "Art of" format for the authors and illustrators to work within. In addition to the reduced size of the book, the weight of the paper and the quality of the printing has never quite seemed as good as it used to be. With this Archive Series however, the publishers have obviously recognised that aficionados of 'the art of the art' will expect higher production values and, even though the size of the books is still smaller than the illustrations deserve, the other values seem to have been observed, at last. I look forward to seeing further titles in this excellent series.

These are the most beautiful books. I Purchased all three in this Archive Series For my son who is a Stop motion Animation Student soon to graduate and he absolutely loves them so do I...they are very large table top books, and are so totally worth the price. The Magic of Disney...is in the pages of these books full of dreams and wonderment...Who ever purchases these books...will not be disappointed.