|
I'm always a fan of the "Art of [Pixar movie]" books. The art and articles are such fun to browse through even if you're not interested in reading the interviews, etc. They are always packed full of wonderful goodness, and this one is no exception. It really shows how much goes into just the planning phases of Wall-E. Readers who are not familiar with the animation process will find it intriguing to see how the film's style progressed and developed over time. A complete hit as usual with these books.
Unfortunately I must confess this one went below my expectations. Yes, all the contents are really valuable, with beautiful artwork (several pencil sketches of WALL-E and the Pixar lamp, colour schemes and background settings were what I personally enjoyed best) and inspirational thoughts - being Bulgarian I must mention Antony Christov's comments which were very entertaining for many of my friends, and myself. Keeping in mind the inevitable positive remarks, this book contains less text than I hoped it would (I read ALL OF IT for somewhat 1-2 hours), less story/character/design development that I would have enjoyed, and less pages, too. (even though I DID see the parameters before purchasing)However, I would be getting back to the book over and over again but I would not recommend it unless you are either a fan of WALL-E, Disney/Pixar, and animation (as myself), or have some spare money to spend ;)
The artists said that there was never really any dispute about what Wall-E should look like. The artwork in here is gorgeous, and I definitely don't regret buying this book. I'm a computer animation student, and my teachers are always encouraging any "The Art of" book we can get our hands on. I'm really into character design, so I personally liked The Art of Ratatouille better, because it focused more on that. There are a lot of interesting drawings in the section of the book concerning prospective character designs of the people aboard the Axiom. The only letdown was that there were not very many concept sketches of Wall-E or Eve. Art of Wall-E has a lot of quick digital paintings that focused more on environments. It's great for visual development, because most of the art seemed to be focused on capturing the general mood and color palette of the environments.
Pixar makes amazing movies, and this book shows the average Joe why. Brimming with awe-inspiring pre-production artwork, you just have to love everything this studio does. A great book for the best movie of 2008.
Although most Pixar's "art of" series of books are very good to excellent, this one is just slightly over a fair rating. The book is full of artwork from several of Pixar's artists, a lot of very early works from pencil to digital (in this case, a lot more digital works than previous movies), and to my surprise extremely few watercolour.It lacks some of the other design and concept, and even evolution of works, from other excellent Pixar books such as The Art of Finding Nemo. There are fair description of character evolution, few construction, and a fair converage of the work from concept to final stages.The book is, however, a must for any Pixar enthusiast, and since the movie is one of the Pixar's best, this leverages the book to a fine piece of artwork.
|
