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shaunamovo's review
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.5
I always love these kinds of books. See all the concepts and planning that goes into an animated film is so inspiring!
I do think that the information is a little light in this one.
I do think that the information is a little light in this one.
pewterwolf's review
5.0
Review Originally Found at The Pewter Wolf
The Art of Frozen does exactly what it does on the tin. With a preface from John Lasseter, the creative head of Disney's Animation Studios, and foreward from Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, the directors of the movie, this book shows the art of how the movie was made. We had scenes from the storyboard stages, pencil drawings, digital designs, photography among others which showed how Frozen was created.
I love these types of books. I love staring at the pictures and going "Oh, that's cool!" or "I see why this had to be done, because of that!" There are a few scenes I saw in art form where I went "I didn't realise that was the original trail of thought for this movie but am glad they didn't continue with that!"
But I loved reading this and staring at the pretty pictures. Yes, this isn't much of a review, I know that, but I loved reading this and I shall be plotting to watch the movie again soon.
The Art of Frozen does exactly what it does on the tin. With a preface from John Lasseter, the creative head of Disney's Animation Studios, and foreward from Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, the directors of the movie, this book shows the art of how the movie was made. We had scenes from the storyboard stages, pencil drawings, digital designs, photography among others which showed how Frozen was created.
I love these types of books. I love staring at the pictures and going "Oh, that's cool!" or "I see why this had to be done, because of that!" There are a few scenes I saw in art form where I went "I didn't realise that was the original trail of thought for this movie but am glad they didn't continue with that!"
But I loved reading this and staring at the pretty pictures. Yes, this isn't much of a review, I know that, but I loved reading this and I shall be plotting to watch the movie again soon.
nssutton's review
3.0
Loved reading this one with the girls. They're still too young to understand that someone makes their favorite movies but we were able to talk about the differences in character sketches. Learned what rosemailing is -- we originally wanted to include aspects of that in their new bedroom but went with something simpler instead.
afaithu's review
3.0
It's difficult to review an art book when compared to stories and novels. On the one hand the drawings in this book were beautiful and inspirational, but on the other hand the writing was basic and not extremely educational. But then no one reads these kinds of books for the writing do they? I suppose all of that to say this is a beautiful collection of concept art showing the process of Frozen's creation. Great for artists and lovers of Disney.
panda_incognito's review
5.0
A friend of mine gave me this book for Christmas, and it was such a wonderful surprise. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the entire book, because even though most artwork-focused books are primarily visual displays to flip through, this book includes quotes from various members of the production team and detailed information about how the story developed. I learned a lot about how the artists, animators, and storytellers developed their work, and was intrigued to learn the reasons behind different aspects of the visual designs, character development processes, and story devices.
I appreciated this from the triple perspective of being a writer, and artist, and a fan. Because I'm used to the many permutations that my own stories go through as I develop and improve them, I am always fascinated to learn about the histories of novels and films that I enjoy. People usually approach art with the assumption that whoever created it knew what they were doing and built it from the ground up in a way that perfectly fits, but creation requires many rounds of trial and error, and I'm always interested to learn about the winding paths that other creators have taken to get to their final product.
As a painter, I loved the many references to how complicated snow is to portray visually, and about how white is never really white, but always picks up the colors and shades around it. My art teacher always emphasized this aspect of color theory, and I'm interested to re-watch the movie with an eye to details like this. I am always so caught up in the story that I don't pay much attention to the finer visual details of the animation, but now that I know more about the design process, I want to look for visual subtleties that I haven't noticed before.
However, even though I read this book with an interest in the art and writing, it was also an emotional experience for me because of the impact that Frozen has had on my life. When I first went to see the movie in the theater, I knew enough about the story that I expected it to change my life, and it did. So many aspects of Elsa's life paralleled with mine that it was surreal, and for the first time ever, I had a character other than Gollum to identify with in the midst of my mental health dysfunction. After a life of rolling my eyes at "What Disney Princess Are You?" quizzes, I identified with Elsa and used that connection to heal from years of traumatic experiences.
My then-undiagnosed OCD was so severe that I lived in a constant state of explosion. I managed to hold myself together in public, but I could not sustain that kind of white-knuckled effort at home and had to deal with years of blame and misunderstanding. No one understood what was wrong; nothing fixed it; I couldn't change, no matter how hard I tried; I couldn't behave or get along with my siblings; I created endless distress for everyone. By the time that I saw Frozen, my life was vastly improved because of discovering food intolerance issues and fixing other things that affected my health, but I was still struggling and was so traumatized by earlier experiences that I couldn't bear to think about them.
Even though there are many different reasons why I can now talk and write about these painful parts of my past, Frozen was the catalyst for my healing. I cannot be grateful enough for the role that this movie played in my life, and it was a very emotional experience for me to read the parts of this book that deal with Elsa and how her story changed over time. As I already knew from general movie trivia and from the outtake songs on the soundtrack, the original plan was for Elsa to be the story's villain, and it was fascinating to see the early concept art for a creepy, evil-looking Elsa and to wonder how different my life would be if these creators hadn't unlocked the idea of two innocent sisters trapped in misunderstanding.
The creators discovered their story and its emotional core just a year before the movie was slated to release, and I am so grateful that they did and that they still got the movie out on time. I needed to start working through my Elsa-paralleled issues exactly when I did. 2013-2016 were some of the most tightly-plotted, interdependent years of my life, and I couldn't have gotten to the point of healing and freedom that I did in 2016 without all the cumulative influences of the past few years. This movie was one of the biggest catalysts for everything that followed, and I wouldn't be the same person that I am now without it.
Back then, I found it deeply cathartic to connect with Elsa. When I was angriest, most anxious, and most out-of-control, I sometimes imagined myself shooting fire out of my hands as some way to release the tension, and even though I knew that this was deranged and would never have mentioned it to anyone, here was Elsa, whose affliction manifested itself in exploding ice everywhere! This was me. I saw my unidentified anxiety disorder and my worst pain in her, and if the biggest corporation on the planet could create a character like this and portray her so sensitively, then maybe it wasn't as impossible as I thought for people to understand me.
However, I didn't just see myself in Elsa. I also saw a path forward, because after her terrifying exposure and alienation, she was able to reach a new understanding with the people she loved and return to her community. I started to believe that this wasn't just a fairy-tale ending, and that it could actually work for me, too. I waited another two years before I told my best friend about the mental health issues that I had carefully, meticulously hid from her, but even before then, Elsa and Anna's dynamic helped me understand dynamics in our relationship and become more patient with myself and with her.
I went into the theater knowing that Elsa's story was going to change my life, but I could never have imagined how many doors it would open to healing, community, love, and hope. Even though I was desperately excited to see experiences like mine in a movie, I had no idea how high the stakes really were for me, or how different I would be at the end of the decade because of it. If the Disney creators had made different choices about how to tell this story, where would I be? How else could my healing have unfolded? I believe that it would have eventually happened, but it wouldn't have come as soon, been as powerful, or led into the same experiences. Reading this art development book in the last days of 2019 was incredibly special to me, because even though Frozen is just a nostalgic movie or a cultural phenomenon to other people, it was a force of healing for me. This movie shaped the second half of my decade, and I cannot imagine my recent past or future without it.
I appreciated this from the triple perspective of being a writer, and artist, and a fan. Because I'm used to the many permutations that my own stories go through as I develop and improve them, I am always fascinated to learn about the histories of novels and films that I enjoy. People usually approach art with the assumption that whoever created it knew what they were doing and built it from the ground up in a way that perfectly fits, but creation requires many rounds of trial and error, and I'm always interested to learn about the winding paths that other creators have taken to get to their final product.
As a painter, I loved the many references to how complicated snow is to portray visually, and about how white is never really white, but always picks up the colors and shades around it. My art teacher always emphasized this aspect of color theory, and I'm interested to re-watch the movie with an eye to details like this. I am always so caught up in the story that I don't pay much attention to the finer visual details of the animation, but now that I know more about the design process, I want to look for visual subtleties that I haven't noticed before.
However, even though I read this book with an interest in the art and writing, it was also an emotional experience for me because of the impact that Frozen has had on my life. When I first went to see the movie in the theater, I knew enough about the story that I expected it to change my life, and it did. So many aspects of Elsa's life paralleled with mine that it was surreal, and for the first time ever, I had a character other than Gollum to identify with in the midst of my mental health dysfunction. After a life of rolling my eyes at "What Disney Princess Are You?" quizzes, I identified with Elsa and used that connection to heal from years of traumatic experiences.
My then-undiagnosed OCD was so severe that I lived in a constant state of explosion. I managed to hold myself together in public, but I could not sustain that kind of white-knuckled effort at home and had to deal with years of blame and misunderstanding. No one understood what was wrong; nothing fixed it; I couldn't change, no matter how hard I tried; I couldn't behave or get along with my siblings; I created endless distress for everyone. By the time that I saw Frozen, my life was vastly improved because of discovering food intolerance issues and fixing other things that affected my health, but I was still struggling and was so traumatized by earlier experiences that I couldn't bear to think about them.
Even though there are many different reasons why I can now talk and write about these painful parts of my past, Frozen was the catalyst for my healing. I cannot be grateful enough for the role that this movie played in my life, and it was a very emotional experience for me to read the parts of this book that deal with Elsa and how her story changed over time. As I already knew from general movie trivia and from the outtake songs on the soundtrack, the original plan was for Elsa to be the story's villain, and it was fascinating to see the early concept art for a creepy, evil-looking Elsa and to wonder how different my life would be if these creators hadn't unlocked the idea of two innocent sisters trapped in misunderstanding.
The creators discovered their story and its emotional core just a year before the movie was slated to release, and I am so grateful that they did and that they still got the movie out on time. I needed to start working through my Elsa-paralleled issues exactly when I did. 2013-2016 were some of the most tightly-plotted, interdependent years of my life, and I couldn't have gotten to the point of healing and freedom that I did in 2016 without all the cumulative influences of the past few years. This movie was one of the biggest catalysts for everything that followed, and I wouldn't be the same person that I am now without it.
Back then, I found it deeply cathartic to connect with Elsa. When I was angriest, most anxious, and most out-of-control, I sometimes imagined myself shooting fire out of my hands as some way to release the tension, and even though I knew that this was deranged and would never have mentioned it to anyone, here was Elsa, whose affliction manifested itself in exploding ice everywhere! This was me. I saw my unidentified anxiety disorder and my worst pain in her, and if the biggest corporation on the planet could create a character like this and portray her so sensitively, then maybe it wasn't as impossible as I thought for people to understand me.
However, I didn't just see myself in Elsa. I also saw a path forward, because after her terrifying exposure and alienation, she was able to reach a new understanding with the people she loved and return to her community. I started to believe that this wasn't just a fairy-tale ending, and that it could actually work for me, too. I waited another two years before I told my best friend about the mental health issues that I had carefully, meticulously hid from her, but even before then, Elsa and Anna's dynamic helped me understand dynamics in our relationship and become more patient with myself and with her.
I went into the theater knowing that Elsa's story was going to change my life, but I could never have imagined how many doors it would open to healing, community, love, and hope. Even though I was desperately excited to see experiences like mine in a movie, I had no idea how high the stakes really were for me, or how different I would be at the end of the decade because of it. If the Disney creators had made different choices about how to tell this story, where would I be? How else could my healing have unfolded? I believe that it would have eventually happened, but it wouldn't have come as soon, been as powerful, or led into the same experiences. Reading this art development book in the last days of 2019 was incredibly special to me, because even though Frozen is just a nostalgic movie or a cultural phenomenon to other people, it was a force of healing for me. This movie shaped the second half of my decade, and I cannot imagine my recent past or future without it.
goodyreads's review
4.0
A great gift for anyone who is a fan of the franchise, gives great images of the evolution of the characters and settings with all the attention to detail and research that went into designing the finished animation film!