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The Art of The Incredibles Hardcover – September 23, 2004
| Mark Cotta Vaz (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
- Print length160 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherChronicle Books
- Publication dateSeptember 23, 2004
- Grade level8 and up
- Reading age13 years and up
- Dimensions9.3 x 0.9 x 11.5 inches
- ISBN-100811844331
- ISBN-13978-0811844338
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From Publishers Weekly
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Review
The Incredibles came to be in a three-dimensional idiom, not intending to simulate documentary reality but straddling a line between photorealism and cartoons. While you can sense from the film itself that these 3D figures are borne of cartoon archetypes, the actual evidence is here in the book: early drawings of Edna Mode, Bob Parr and Syndrome carry the textures and flourishes of the finished characters in the form of only of a few lines or snips of paper cut from magazines.
The book is dominated by collages from character designer Teddy Newton; gouache drawings by Lou Romano, production designer; and pencil and marker drawings by animation supervisor Tony Fucile. Highlights for fans will surely include a 1998 drawing by Lou Romano depicting the whole Parr family. What's amazing about this unique image, drawn two years before the film went into production, is that four of five family members look virtually the same here as they do in the final film. Six years and a million story changes and yet these character designs haven't budged. There is also a complete color script from the film in a giant double foldout at the center of the book.
With nearly all story references carefully eliminated, this becomes a picture book that, at least for those who haven't seen the film, can veer in many different directions. Sketches of abandoned characters and scenes share spreads with finely rendered cartoons that you might mistakenly think have been licensed back from the pages of The New Yorker. All told, in a season overflowing with movie tie-in literature, for any serious student of the art form, The Art of The Incredibles is a must-have. -Animation World Magazine
About the Author
Brad Bird is the writer and director of The Incredibles . He most recently directed and wrote the screen story for the acclaimed 1999 animated feature, The Iron Giant . He has served as executive consultant to the hit animated television series King of the Hill and The Simpsons .
John Lasseter is Pixar Animation Studios's executive vice-president of creative and the director of Toy Story , A Bug's Life , and Toy Story 2 . He most recently served as the executive producer of Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo , and is currently executive producer of The Incredibles .
Product details
- Publisher : Chronicle Books; 0 edition (September 23, 2004)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 160 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0811844331
- ISBN-13 : 978-0811844338
- Reading age : 13 years and up
- Grade level : 8 and up
- Item Weight : 2.67 pounds
- Dimensions : 9.3 x 0.9 x 11.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #654,441 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #127 in Animated Movies
- #299 in Animation Graphic Design (Books)
- #938 in Art of Film & Video
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Mark Cotta Vaz is the author of over twenty-one books, including four New York Times bestsellers. His recent works include Mythic Vision: The Making of Eragon, The Spirit: The Movie Visual Companion, and the biography Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong, which was a Los Angeles Times bestseller
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Top reviews from the United States
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The Supers get most of the character design pages, of course, with a couple sketches of extras like the kid who sees Mr. Incredible lift his car in his driveway. All of these are drawn nicely, but more or less seem to be the finished design for the characters. When you compare this to something like The Art of Monsters vs Aliens, where you got to see the evolution of the main characters, it makes you wonder if they just went with the first design that was drawn, or if they just plain didn't want to put them in here for whatever reason. I was really hoping for some good sketches of Elastigirl and Syndrome, and only got a handful of drawings resembling how they look in the movie, nothing else. There's also a small collection of maquettes of the main characters.
But the majority of this book is locations, ranging from small rooms to the vast jungle The Incredibles are taken to, and the city where the rest of the action takes place in. Nearly everything is presented in large squares, and the dimensions are listed below the drawings. While the locations look nice, and I appreciate the work that went into them (especially the more 'modern' ones that are essentially made up of shapes), I kept getting the feeling that everything here was final, and we could've really used some actual drawings without the final touches. For people interested in landscapes and drawing cities, you'll learn a thing or two from this section.
I'm more of a character design person, but like I said, I can appreciate the hard work that goes into designing a location. But would it have hurt to have even 10 more pages of character concept art? Some of the drawings like Gazerbeam's skeleton were just plain stunning, and more pieces like that would've bumped the score up a little for me. In the end, I guess The Art of The Incredibles tries to go along with the time period it styles itself after rather than going for a more standard art book presentation. And while that's pretty cool of them, it sucks that I have to resort to going online for the good stuff that didn't make the cut. Don't pay more than the original retail price for this one.
If you collect these art of books like me, I would recommend you get this one because there is good work here...but save it for last, the quality and design are just not up to par with the other pixar books. First I would recommend: The Art of Rataouille, The Art of Finding Nemo, The Art of Pixar Shorts, The art of Monsters Vs. Aliens and The Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs Art book...those are all beautiful top quality books!
The art is extremely stylised in a very sixties fashion, unfortunately a style I have always found ugly and unpleasant. The colours and shapes are extreme and haphazard. I can see how they apply to the finished film, but that aspect isn't really shown very well in the book.
There's too much missing from this book for me to really recommend it unless you're a completist or an Art major who likes that retro era style.
Top reviews from other countries
Non aspettavi immagini renderizzate in 3D dal lungometraggio ma tutto ciò che ha contribuito a crearle, nello stile retro-futurista che è un mix di anni 20 e 60, come la bellissima immagine di copertina.
Lo storyboard a colori delle 2 pagine pieghevoli a centro libro vale da solo il prezzo dello stesso (come da immagine da me pubblicata).
I testi non sono lunghissimi ma abbastanza da entrare nel processo creativo del film.
Acquisto consigliatissimo per chi ama i veri "art book"
Reviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on April 4, 2021
Non aspettavi immagini renderizzate in 3D dal lungometraggio ma tutto ciò che ha contribuito a crearle, nello stile retro-futurista che è un mix di anni 20 e 60, come la bellissima immagine di copertina.
Lo storyboard a colori delle 2 pagine pieghevoli a centro libro vale da solo il prezzo dello stesso (come da immagine da me pubblicata).
I testi non sono lunghissimi ma abbastanza da entrare nel processo creativo del film.
Acquisto consigliatissimo per chi ama i veri "art book"










