Between Books - Marvel's Thor: The Dark World - The Art of the Movie

I like Thor: The Dark World more than you!

I’ve never met anyone who legitimately seemed to enjoy it, to the level I did. So a few years ago I bought a copy of Marvel's Thor: The Dark World - The Art of the Movie because for that devotion and being a collector I had to catch them all after reading a few others. Then it sat on the Between Shelves, and I saw the prices of the rest and there was no completionist urgency in the world to get me to finish the whole set. And so that pages figuratively rotted on the vine till now.

Marvel's Thor: The Dark World - The Art of the Movie by Marie Javins and Stuart Moore takes readers through the journey to construct the movie of the same name. The book discusses general story settings of the journey such as looking at Asgard and Svartalfheim. A big emphasis is really on the scenery and the breakdown of scenes, where character development explanations are generally smaller portions of the book. The text is filled with a lot of concept art and storyboards.

I have read a few Art movie books. And this was generally not a favorite for me. As I mentioned, this book is a lot about the scenery and I feel like a lot of Art books give us greater detail on how the plot is developed. This book goes deep into how the worlds were physically and virtually built and not the story. The characters are also not fully discussed in their evolutions either. For example, the book discusses the replacement of metal with rope and fabric in Thor and Odin costumes but I don’t believe it really explained how the characters softened internally. And while one of my favorite model breakdowns was creating the dark elves, the evolving models did not really build characters but really attempted to show a visual representation of stock not-nice elves.

And while the art is beautiful and grand in scope, especially when showing backgrounds and scenery. But I also think there are too many black-and-white storyboards in this volume which cover numerous pages of the book. They are to me not as visually interesting as the giant splash images. And while I can see how concepts moved from page to screen, they did not differ to me enough to show me an evolving thought process which is often the most interesting thing in these books.

As someone who collects, completing a full set of Marvel Cinematic Universe art books seemed impossible to me. The secondary sales of some of these volumes were well beyond any price I might consider. I think this is why this volume sat unmoving on my shelve…why read it when I can’t catch them all. But hope has returned as Marvel has announced a new printing of 24 volumes of MCU “Art Of” books. Though I think I may have lost the desire to fill out the full set. 

I’m a weirdo. I may have liked Thor: The Dark World more than Marvel's Thor: The Dark World - The Art of the Movie. It is a fine volume. It does what it is asked to do by giving a visual description of how some concepts went from page to screen. But it lacked the discoveries that I really enjoy in this book genre.

 

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Between Books - The Art of Pixar Short Films

The Art of Pixar Short Films by Amid Amidi outlines the history of Pixar's shorts up until 2009, providing both history and concept art and stills.  The "Introduction" provides a brief history of each short's development with few images.  This is followed by over 100 pages of art without much narration.  The images include sculptures, concept art, storyboards and stills.  The following shorts are all covered by the book:

• The Adventures of Andre & Wally B.
• Luxo Jr.
• Red's Dream
• Tin Toy
• Knick Knack
• Geri's Game
• For the Birds
• Boundin'
• One Man Band
• Lifted
• Mike's New Car
• Jack-Jack Attack
• Mater and the Ghostlight.      

The Art of Pixar Short Films is well researched and really provides a short history of Pixar.  Amidi shows how the shorts were a platform to build both the technology and artistic skills needed to elevate Pixar to feature films.  Then with entry into full length movies, Pixar continued to see shorts as both a training ground for future big screen artists and a bonus for film audiences, a bonus that had historic precedents in the history of cinema.  It cannot be a called a complete history of Pixar however, with ownership changes for example not being mentioned.  But Amidi does provide a nice history of the shorts that he actually discusses.  There are a number of facts that I found enjoyable including that Ed Catmull was recruited by Disney at one point to design Space Mountain.  The featured art is fun, informative and displays the skill of Pixar's artists.

I am just now getting into the Art of books, so I am a novice in this genre still.  I did find the format different than volumes I have read in the past.  But the large blocks of narration helped keep a cohesive history.  Overall for me the history of The Art of Pixar Short Films is what has led me to consider this a necessary volume for those interested in Pixar history.

Between Books - The Art of Meet the Robinsons

I thought I had the perfect plan.

I had never read or reviewed an “Art of” book.  And I love Meet the Robinsons.  So I thought the fairest way for me to a review an “Art of” book was to review The Art of Meet the Robinsons by Tracey Miller-Zarneke.  The book had to be a instant delight for me, it could not fail.  Instead I discovered I may not know what to think of “Art of” books. 

The Art of Meet the Robinsons is a short book that highlights concept art from the movie.  This art ranges from story sketches, color studies, concept art, and full paintings.  There is smattering of commentary explaining artistic choices and intent in character and setting design. 

The good of the book is the art.  It is the intended highlight of the book, and it is more impressive than the text.  Honestly I would have enjoyed more art mostly due to my love of the movie.  But I really loved some of the details you do not get a good glimpse of in the movie like the Robinson Industries posters.  There are also some interesting facts that I did not know including the fact that director Steve Anderson was an orphan like Lewis and that Lewis originally was to see a monorail when Wilbur gave him a tour of Future City, Walt Disney would have been proud.  But again,  I am the guy who could have used more.

“More” may be how I would summarize how I felt in general.  I wanted more art and I definitely wanted more background.  And I wanted more pages, there are only around 60.  I wanted to spend more time in the book, but with it being so short it was a quick dive into the world of Lewis and Wilbur.  I wanted the book to appear more like an adult book.  I easily could put this volume on my shelf next to children’s storybooks and it would look like it was at home!  I wanted more discussion on the design of Todayland, actually I wanted some since there was none other than art.  Though this book is no longer in print I would really felt disappointed if I paid the original suggested retail price of $17.99 for this volume because I wanted so much more.

I feel like either I do not understand “Art of” books and their nature yet, and if this is a representative sample I am going to struggle through these.  Or maybe this book demonstrates a problem that I have felt with Disney when it comes to Meet the Robinsons, a feeling that this film has been treated as second class.  I was introduced to Lewis, Wilbur and the Man with Bowler Hat at a meet and great at Disney-MGM Studios, yeah it has been that long ago!  I had no idea what their names were!  And I had to be dragged to the movie, which I knew nothing about and was sure would be horrible.  I just do not believe Disney in the midst of a transition after purchasing Pixar put a lot of effort into promoting the movie with its original release.  I wonder if the company in transition limited the resources available to author Tracey Miller-Zarneke, limiting what The Art of Meet the Robinsons could have been.  Sure the volume has samples of great artwork, but I just wanted more.