Dinosaur : The Evolution of an Animated Feature

Rating:
Summary: Good info, so-so writing and stills
Review: I buy Disney "Art of" books for three reasons: background information on the film and its production, good collections of pre-production artwork, nice stills from the finished film, and interesting interviews with the crew. On some levels, it succeeds: there are extensive character sketches, storyboards, and color keys; the interviews with the animators and other crewmembers are more comprehensive than usual, and it covers the entire history of the production. However, Kurtti's writing is sometimes needlessly cloying ("Isn't that special... effects!"), and many of the production stills look washed out in comparison to the film. I was also disappointed that they did not release this book in hardcover. All in all, it's a good book, but not as comprehensive as some of the early Disney art books.

Rating:
Summary: A Perfect Art Book!
Review: The Dinosaur film was by me rated as the perfect special effects movie in the year 2000. So was this book,but instead the perfect art book. Well,I was actually hoping for an "Art of" book with this film like the ones with Tarzan and Mulan. This is more "Making of" but it is pretty good too. I actually bought this book before I saw the film and it was incredible. When I saw it in my local bookstore,I immidiatley laid my hands on it and bought it although the high price. It was definitly worth it! I own some good making of and behind the scenes books for films like Star Wars and Alien,but none of them challenges this in beauty or inspiration. The first section is a perfect introduction to the film. The following,which is my favourite,is filled with concept art and amazingly detailed visual production paintings. Many of the habitats in those are actually much more interesting than the desert landscapes of the movie. The images of the carnotaurs quickly made it to my favourite dinosaurian monster in any film - it makes JP`s T-rex look like an innoncent domestic cat while the carnotaur has the look of a reptile pitbull terrier!The iguanodon drawings are also of high quality to not mention the ankylosaur - it looks exactly like a real Talarurus. Well,now you will know the rest when buying it. This book is classified as "Movie Book"but I think it can be used as a paleontology book too. Although it is about a film,the dinosaurs look so real that it is probably an amount of art work for the dinosaur illustrator as well. I find many paintings I get inspired by when looking at this book. It is a must-have for anyone seriously interested in CG features and dinosaur artwork. Buy it!

Rating:
Summary: A Perfect Art Book!
Review: The Dinosaur film was by me rated as the perfect special effects movie in the year 2000. So was this book,but instead the perfect art book. Well,I was actually hoping for an "Art of" book with this film like the ones with Tarzan and Mulan. This is more "Making of" but it is pretty good too. I actually bought this book before I saw the film and it was incredible. When I saw it in my local bookstore,I immidiatley laid my hands on it and bought it although the high price. It was definitly worth it! I own some good making of and behind the scenes books for films like Star Wars and Alien,but none of them challenges this in beauty or inspiration. The first section is a perfect introduction to the film. The following,which is my favourite,is filled with concept art and amazingly detailed visual production paintings. Many of the habitats in those are actually much more interesting than the desert landscapes of the movie. The images of the carnotaurs quickly made it to my favourite dinosaurian monster in any film - it makes JP`s T-rex look like an innoncent domestic cat while the carnotaur has the look of a reptile pitbull terrier!The iguanodon drawings are also of high quality to not mention the ankylosaur - it looks exactly like a real Talarurus. Well,now you will know the rest when buying it. This book is classified as "Movie Book"but I think it can be used as a paleontology book too. Although it is about a film,the dinosaurs look so real that it is probably an amount of art work for the dinosaur illustrator as well. I find many paintings I get inspired by when looking at this book. It is a must-have for anyone seriously interested in CG features and dinosaur artwork. Buy it!