I have just received a review copy of the upcoming book Walt Disney Animation Studios The Archive Series: Layout & Background. Like the 3 previous volumes in the series it is a beautiful book filled with fascinating artwork. Like the 3 previous volumes it is a must-have.
But like the 3 previous volumes the book is also slightly frustrating. The fact that close to 50% of the artwork comes from post-1984 movies is to be expected but is nonetheless a bit of an issue for Disney history enthusiasts. The main issue however is the fact that an extremely large amount of the art is not credited to anyone. When we are talking about the early shorts I can understand this to some extent, but when it comes to some of the clearly recognizable layouts and backgrounds from The Aristocats, Jungle Book, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, or even Alice in Wonderland, one wonders how the names of Ken Anderson, Walt Peregoy and Claude Coats are not mentioned. Annoying and slightly shocking.
This being said, should you buy the book? My answer is an unqualified "yes". But this does not erase the frustration.
5 comments:
Wow I'd love to see that! Hope my library gets this one!
Hell, they could have asked me. I was around Disney Publishing when they were doing the book.
I made name corrections in the other books as well. Always helps to have an old guy around, eh?
Being an ex-layout guy myself, it would be nice for the artists to be recognized in some way as the animators do in books.
"when it comes to some of the clearly recognizable layouts and backgrounds from The Aristocats, Jungle Book, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, or even Alice in Wonderland, one wonders how the names of Ken Anderson, Walt Peregoy and Claude Coats are not mentioned."
Disgraceful and inexcusable for a publication that is aimed at the serious collector/fan as a high-end "Archive" series of books. The same problem occurs in the Animation book of the Archive series where people are not credited for their drawings (for example: a top Key Assistant Animator like Dale Oliver whose drawings are credited to Frank Thomas.) But none of those people are obscure to anyone who has a cursory knowledge of animation history . That information can be found on the Scene Drafts or the Scene Folders in the morgue. It just takes a little thing called research.
I have the other books in the series as well, and I agree with you. It's disappointing that the original artists aren't given the proper credit. It also takes away from the favorite game I played with the other editions, not reading the name and trying to guess the artist just by examining the artwork.
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