Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #480205 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 200 pages

Synopsis
A collection of animation art from Disney's new film adaptation of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" reproduces conceptual material, sketches, layout drawings, and storyboards.

Customer Reviews

Nice companion with lots of historic background
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is inspired by Victor Hugo's literary masterpiece Notre-Dame de Paris. This art book is very heavy into character development and the historic influences. The first chapter is on Victor Hugo and his story of Notre Dame, including a short biography. There's much of how the characters are created and influenced by Victor Hugo's life, and the little changes Disney made to adapt it as a movie.

Throughout the book, there are sections introduced writing about the cultural settings. E.g. About Notre Dame, Gypsies, how people hold feasts, etc.

Character writeup are for Esmeralda, Quasimodo, Frollo (the villain) and other miscellaneous characters. There are plenty of accompanying character sketches and film stills. Characteristics for main characters are laid out, and the role they play in the film explained in detail.

There's a chapter on the architecture and the drawings are exquisite, as expected from Paris. The text explains how the buildings are designed to convey the mood suitable for the movie.

Finally, there's the talk on the overall theme of the movie, the light vs the dark. They are placed in the movie as different metaphors, like light and shadow, good vs evil. Every character in the film is an outcast in his/her circumstance.

The book's focus is on the characters and storytelling.

A great book for animation fans and art lovers
The focus of this book was certainly ART, as it provides stunning pictures of Mideval Paris from historical archive that Disney artists meticulously researched before finalizing the background scenery. We also get a glimpse of the profiling of the psychology of each character, and their interaction that drives the story. However, at this price, I wish that they had CD-ROM version that catered to the sophisticated fans of animation art who are very interested in all of the gory technical details.

A must for Disney worshippers
Like Rebello's previous "Art of" books (Lion King and Pocahontas), this one is a joy to look at, but it's missing one thing. I wish it had more about the characters' voices. Often the actor or actress who voices a character influences the visual development of that character. The animator may model the character after the actor, or he or she may take one particular gesture from the actor and incorporate it into the character (like Belle - she kept brushing that lock of hair away from her face because her voice, Paige O'Hara, did the same thing). So including some information about the voices behind the characters would provide even more insight for those of us clamoring to know about how an animated film is made. But even with this one flaw, the book is gorgeous, especially the production stills of the interior of Notre Dame. And the concept art is great - sometimes it's wildly different from what actually shows up on screen, so you get a look at the evolution process. Oh - don't skip the index. The illustrations of how animators let off steam are hysterical! My favorite - "Quasi and Harriet". So, if you're a fan of Disney animation, get this!