There are art books, and there are art books, and then there’s The Art of Tangled, which goes above and beyond expectations to not only deliver on an astounding amount of great art, but also a well written, in-depth look at the creative production of the film.
The book has a significant amount of written content, authored by Jeff Kurtii, whose warm conversational tone provides the reader with an engaging experience into the movie’s production. Interviews with the animators and production team, as well as insights from Art Director David Goetz, add to the lavishly detailed works throughout the book. The Art of Tangled also features a preface by John Lasseter, and a foreword by directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard. If you’ve ever wanted a comprehensive look at how a 3D film, and a 3D Disney film at that, is made, then this book will tell all.
The art though is what the book is really about, and believe me when I say that The Art of Tangled has it in spades. A 160 page hardcover volume, it features art by the legendary Glen Keane, his daughter Claire Keane, Andy Gaskill, Jin Kim and many other talented artists. At the start of the book you’re treated to a plethora of early exploratory artwork, and it’s interesting to see just how long the artwork for Tangled was in development. From paintings and early architectural studies, to blue sky drawings of what the characters might look like, and what they might wear, it’s just fascinating.
The book goes on to show detailed and descriptive artwork for just about every facet of the film. All the main characters have their own sections, and both Glen Keane’s and Jin Kim’s detailed drawings of the characters (complete with notes on how best to draw and represent them) will have you spell-bound, and definitely inspire you to want to draw! There are dedicated sections on the architecture, the foliage, and the overall design styling of the film – inspired by the past and present Disney – and each area of content is treated with the utmost attention to detail. What’s more, you also learn about the process of animating Rapunzel’s 70 feet of hair, and the technical challenges that thy were faced with in the production.
The printing quality of the book is phenomenal, with beautifully laid out pages, a great design, and full colour pages that are vivid and clear. The sheer amount of quality artwork alone, a balance between drawings, and digital and traditional paintings, makes this book worth getting. I would, without hesitation, recommend this book to anyone interested in the art of a Disney film (even f you haven’t seen Tangled), simply because it is genuinely one of the best “Art Of” books ever created.
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Have you got The Art of Tangled? What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments below!
Additional Links:
Tangled Official Website: Visit
Tangled at Disney Animation Studios: Visit
Tags: Art book, Book Review, disney, Disney's Tangled, Drawings, Glen keane, Paintings, Rapunzel, Sketches, tangled, The Art of Tangled by Jeff Kurtii
