Review: The Art of Wreck-It Ralph / Author: Maggie Malone and Jennifer Lee Monn / Publisher: Chronicle Books / Release Date: November 1st
You’d think that reviewing a coffee table book in the style “making of” or “the art of” would be quite difficult. That we wouldn’t have much to say than “Oh, what a pretty picture” or “That must have taken a while to build!” But with The Art of Wreck-It Ralph we had no such problems, as the book oozes that certain magic and wonder that Disney are all about.
The key to this art book’s success, to us, is the passion in which the subject matter is written about is evident from the very first page. Animation legend and all around creative genius, John Lasseter provides the forward and speaks of his excitement for the project and the scale of what was undertaken at Disney animation studios. And the introduction from Director, Rich Moore reinforces this.
We are provided with various concept images for the game’s characters and environments. And the amount of time spent creating these must have been staggering. This reviewer’s favourite aspect of the book is that we get to have a rare look at the storyboards for the movie; we can see how scenes will be shaped and sequenced ahead of time and it provides a great insight into Ralph’s digital world.
The book itself is a beautifully bound hardcover which features an embossed, 8-bit portrait of the story’s hero, Wreck-It Ralph. The passages are somewhat short and are broken down into easy to manage paragraphs and are backed up by some of the most beautiful development art we have seen in a long time. Wreck-It Ralph is yet to be released in cinemas, so all views on the film have had to be previously drawn from the trailer footage, which admittedly looked superb. But seeing how the animators and creatives over at Disney have arrived at their final product via The Art of Wreck-It Ralph is an interesting and enjoyable experience. It’s cliché to say that we couldn’t put this book down, but we genuinely couldn’t! The sheer scale of an animated project like this is astounding and we were enthralled by the dedication and love of the project from its creators.
