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TAG FOR “Books”Cartoon Brew's home for up-to-the-minute, unedited announcements and press releases direct from industry sources.
November 13, 2008 3:56 am
Brad Bird writes to say, “Just thought you’d like your readers to know that the latest issue of Francis Coppola’s Zoetrope All-Story magazine was guest art edited by Marjane Satrapi, who also did drawings and paintings for the issue.” Satrapi is, of course, the creator and co-director of the Oscar-nominated and Cannes Jury Prize-winning feature Persepolis. If you can’t find the issue in bookstores, it’s also available for online purchase on the Zoetrope website. 1 Comment » posted in Books 
November 12, 2008 11:58 am
I received a complimentary copy of the The Art of Bolt in the mail recently. I’m going to ignore the fact that it wasn’t intended for me since there was a note inside of the book that was addressed to the editor of a certain other animation-related print magazine which shall remain unnamed. In terms of text, there’s little to discuss. The book, credited to Mark Cotta Vaz, is thin in the writing department, even relative to other ‘art of’ books in my collection. It makes me wonder why I invest so much effort when I’m hired to write similar ‘art of’ books. With the exception of a dozen or so pages of text, everything else is quotes, including deep bits of insights like the following from a couple of the animators: “Animating a dog is quite complicated. Instead of two legs you have four, and the overall motion is something the audience is very familiar with, so it has to look perfect for everyone to believe in it.” Then again, it’s called The ART of Bolt for a reason. We buy these books for the artwork and there’s plenty of that on every page. At times, the book almost feels like it should be titled “The Art of Paul Felix.” It’s dominated by the digital paintings of Felix, who was art director on the movie. I’m not complaining. Felix’s work is skillful and has a certain charm. There are also plenty of other digital paintings by artists including Greg Miller, Jim Finn, Ric Sluiter, Kevin Nelson, Sean Samuels, as well as some graphite drawings (how quaint!) by Bill Perkins. The buzzword for the art direction of this film is “painterly.” It’s repeated frequently in the book, and they cite a desire to recreate the “painterly” feel of Edward Hopper, George Bellows and the Ashcan School artists. It’ll be interesting to see how this painterly notion appears onscreen since the treatment of light and color has been a weak point in a lot of contemporary CGI (though it is improving). There are examples in the book of render tests, and what they illustrate is that in CGI, “painterly” translates to softer textures and a brushstroke feel, but at the end of the day, the backgrounds are still controlled by the perfect geometries of a computer-generated image. It is, at best, an approximation of a painter’s work. There is no abstraction of masses or compositional decisions that are based outside the realm of the digital model. That is not a fault of the artists so much as it is asking something of the technology that it is incapable of providing. But it’s also why I find it difficult to muster enthusiasm for page after page of Disney’s attempt to codify a “painterly” approach in their films (top image) without really ever approaching anything remotely as exciting as a true painter’s work (bottom image, by George Bellows).
One area in which CGI doesn’t have to play second-fiddle to the traditional arts is in the realm of characters, and there’s plenty of character design artwork in this book. The book offers solid and appealing designs by lead designer Joe Moshier, supported by work from Jin Kim and Chen-Yi Chang. Moshier comes from the Tom Oreb school of character design, and he does the super-graphic and elegant shapes and forms as well as anybody today. I think his designs excite me even more than Craig Kellman’s designs for Madagascar, which is another heavily Oreb-influenced production. My reservations are in the obviousness of the design choices. There’s never any real exploration of the graphic possibilities, such as what one saw in Teddy Newton’s inventive character exploration work on The Incredibles. Another thing that I don’t see in the character designs is a unified vision of the universe, especially not in the way that was evident in the work of Chris Sanders on American Dog, the earlier incarnation of Bolt. Not only is the work of Sanders absent in this book, but his name has also been entirely omitted from the production history. As a historian, this type of revisionism raises my ire, but I don’t know the behind-the-scenes story that necessitated his name being omitted from the book. In the book, Vaz writes that Paul Felix started figuring out the look of the film in 2005. Did Felix and Sanders never speak to one another during Sanders’ tenure as director? Obviously a lot of stuff was figured out when Sanders was still aboard. In a hint at why Sanders was let go, Lasseter writes in the foreword that in Bolt, “as innovative as the production design is, the artists made sure the style was always serving the story.” My only wish is that the style they ended up using wasn’t so safe and generic. The Disney studio has built a reliable animation brand that hews to the “Illusion of Life” philosophy, but I don’t believe for one second that to achieve that, they need to dumb down their design sensibilities and regress to blandness. As is evident in films like Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians and Lilo and Stitch, the Illusion of Life is not tied to any set Disney style. It’s a flexible idea that can accommodate more creativity and experimentation than the artwork that’s shown in this book. This ‘art of’ book may not have the most interesting or inspiring art, but let’s hope at the end of the day, at least it serves the story, as Lasseter believes it does. Click here to buy the book on Amazon. 30 Comments » posted in Books, Disney
November 6, 2008 9:59 am
The winners of today’s little contest will receive a set of three Hanna-Barbera Mini-Books just published by Insight Editions. The first three people to post correct answers in the comments below will win today: Question: Scooby Doo made his television debut on September 13th 1969. What network did SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU premiere on? The contest is now CLOSED! We have our winners. Check the COMMENTS below. 16 Comments » posted in Books
November 4, 2008 10:00 am
Yep, those are sketches of Baby Melman, designed by Craig Kellman, and featured in my brand new book, The Art of Madagascar, Back 2 Africa (on sale NOW!). In today’s contest, the first two people to post the correct answer in our comments section below will win a copy of this magnificent volume. Question: The Madagascar Penguins are being spun off into a series for Nickelodeon. Who is the voice of the lead penguin, Skipper? (Hint: he’s the co-director of the Madagascar films) Contest Closed! Winners announced in the comments section below. 120 Comments » posted in Books
October 31, 2008 9:48 am
The first volume in the Disney Archive Series is coming out in a few weeks. I saw the galleys for this a while back and it’s a real treat if you’re looking for a collection of beautiful story artwork. It’s available for pre-order on Amazon for $31.50. Here is the book description:
3 Comments » posted in Books, Disney
October 20, 2008 12:01 am
Take your pick: yours truly, Jerry Beck, will appear on stage, on screen and in print tomorrow, Tuesday October 21st. In Print: Tuesday is the official publication date for my latest book – a tie-in to Dreamworks latest box office blockbuster, The Art of MADAGASCAR: Back 2 Africa. As usual with these books, the behind the scenes art – pre-viz material in pencil, ink, and conceptual paintings – is incredibly gorgeous. Craig Kellman was the chief character designer and the book is loaded with his sketches and paintings. Whatever your opinion of the Madagascar films, this art is worthy of collecting and keeping in book form – and I’m proud to have been a part of it.
On Screen: I appear both on screen and in voice-over on the indispensable Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 6. Over 60 restored, digitally remastered Warner Bros. cartoons from the golden age of animation. A Mel Blanc documentary, Christmas Party blooper reels, and uncut World War Two era cartoons including Russian Rhapsody, The Ducktators and Herr Meets Mare. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, The Three Bears, The Goofy Gophers, Tweety, Sylvester, The Road Runner and Coyote. Here are 28 reasons to buy it today!
On Stage: Live and in person Tuesday night at 8pm I’ll be screening a selection of strange and creepy Halloween related animated cartoons at the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax Avenue in Hollywood. The vintage prints will be in 16mm and 35mm and special guest animators will show their films and discuss their ghastly influences. To buy tickets for this Animated Spook-tacular – click here. 5 Comments » posted in Books, DVD, Events
October 17, 2008 4:45 pm
Harry Lee Green posts a lot of cool stuff on his Hairy Green Eyeball blog. Today he delights us with a complete reprint of the 1953 “Tell-A-Tale Book” Beany and His Magic Set – “story and illustrations” by Bob Clampett, adapted (in other words “really illustrated by”) by Samuel Armstrong and Harvey Eisenberg. 3 Comments » posted in Books
October 2, 2008 4:00 am
Animator Mark Christiansen has a serious thing for vintage Hanna Barbera. I found a copy of his self-published children’s book, Sid Sirloin and his Friends, at House of Secrets this afternoon. It isn’t just a loving homage to early 60s HB, it’s so perfectly realized its practically from an alternate Saturday morning universe. The 32 page full color soft cover book was “printed in the U.S.A. at the Warner Bros. Copy Center” (so it says in the small print in the front of the book). I found it highly enjoyable. I’d love to tell you where you can buy it (other than at House of Secrets) or send you to Mark’s website — |
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