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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An absoltuely superb introduction to Disney Animation, 2 Feb 2003
By A Customer
"Disney's Animation Magic" is supposed to be a step-by-step introduction to animated filmmaking from the producers of some of Disney's most beloved and celebrated animated features. Certainly you will learn about the differences between a layout artist, background artists, supervising animators, inbetweeners, cleanup artists and the others responsible for bringing such films to life. However, writer Don Hahn, producer of "The Lion King" and "Beauty and the Beast," does something much more interesting by actually working out some of the details of the "Disney formula." For example, Hahn details the different sorts of characters you have in such classic cartoons, not such Heroes like Simba in "The Lion King," Villains like Cruella De Vil in "101 Dalmatians," and Companions like Meeko and Flit in "Pocahontas," but also Fools like Turk in "Tarzan", Mentors like Phil in "Hercules," Parents, and Choruses. Even more interesting are the types of songs Hahn lays out, from Anthem's like "Colors of the Wind" and "When You Wish upon a Star" to Pure Entertainment songs like "Be Our Guest" and "Under the Sea." Throughout the book Hahn draws upon decades of Disney's classic animated films to give both a brief history of animation and to also explore the roles of the directors, story artists, songwriters, and animators who work together to create these animated films. The emphasis is less on golden oldies such as "Cinderella" and more on contemporary Disney efforts, both in tradition animated films like "Tarzan" and "Fantasia 200O" but also with computer animated films such as "Dinosaur" and Disney/Pixar's "Toy Story 2." The breath of this volume is most impressive and the only complaint can be that the depth is not as great. But, to be fair, it is not intended to be because this book is just intended to be an introduction. This is why it is under a 100 pages long (yet probably has close to 500 illustrations all told). This is just a wonderful book. Do not be surprised if your kids start planning their own animated films after devouring this volume.
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