First of all, I’d like to start off by saying that The Art of Pixar Short Films by Cartoon Brew’s Amid Amidi is, in one word, beautiful!
You can’t expect anything less coming out of Chronicle Books/Pixar after all. From the glossy slipcover to the full color spreads, the quality is nothing less than premium. You’ll find over 250 sketches, pastels, storyboards and rendered frames which are masterfully placed throughout the abundant and informative text.
The book covers all of Pixar’s shorts from Luxo Jr. through Lifted (including Andre & Wally B.) and does not spare details. It is divided into the art of Early, Next Generation and Movie Based shorts; alongside an introduction to each vignette’s production. All of your favorite characters from the shorts are there, from Mr. B to Tippy!
"The Art of Pixar Short Films" will look great next to your other "Art of…" books, but on the inside it is more like "To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios" (also from Chronicle) although it focuses on the shorts in more detail than ever before! This correlation comes to mind mostly because there are more paragraphs than blurbs. The history does not detract from the actual artistic content which keeps going into the back pages without any interuptions. You’ll learn something new about each film with descriptive captions alongside an ongoing story. It’s got everything to do with Pixar shorts in glorious detail, from their early days all the way through each production.
With a foreword from John Lasseter as well as little Pixar related tidbits, every page has a new surprise. If you’ve ever wondered how these beloved shorts developed, this Amid Amidi book is definitely for you!
List of Pixar shorts covered (in order of appearance): The Adventures of Andre and 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 and Mater and the Ghostlight.
The coffee table book will be available February 25, 2009 and will retail for $40 USD. You can purchase it here.
Thanks goes out to the great people at Chronicle Books, Cartoon Brew’s amazing writer and co-founder, Amid Amidi and of course Pixar for making these labors of love.
There’s no doubt "The Art of Pixar Short Films" should be in every Pixar fan’s collection!
Last modified: February 9, 2009
Nice review, Martin! You lucky duck for getting it earlier than the rest of us. =)
It’s good to know that this book is very detailed. I’m looking forward to the production art work for all of the short films.