joemcduck's review
4.0
An appreciation of the movie by way of a very comprehensive play-by-play of its development, production and release.
I think the way to get the most out of this book is to think of the finished movie as a museum exhibit, and this book as your docent. All the information is five-star, and it's presented in a very organized way. But if you're looking for "the story" of how the film came together then parts of the book will definitely be more interesting to you than others.
I feel that I would have benefitted from a better idea of the book's general outline before reading, so don't read on if you'd consider that to be a "spoiler."
The book begins with a look at the story's history before the Disney version, including earlier stage and movie adaptations, then proceeds with a straight-ahead telling of the movie's general development, which of course introduces the key people, developments, events and changes the story went through.
Then the book takes what to me seemed like a different tack: you're taken scene-by-scene from beginning to end through the finished version of the movie (including deleted scenes), with very comprehensive notes on each individual scene, and a complete history of all the story, design, animation and personnel changes it might have gone through, as well as artistic analysis of the finished animation. Due to the non-linear nature of planning movies ( in particular animation and in particular the experimental first large-scale animated feature), some topics are kind of picked up here from where they were previously discussed in the more general development overview, or linked to other scenes elsewhere in the film.
And then, in the final part of the book, we're given the story and details of its release and the cultural impact of its first run, as well as an overview of its re-releases and its characters' uses in other media.
All in all, even though in some places I found it disjointed, it's understandable considering how disjointed movie production chronology can seem, and the quality of the research and information makes up for it.
I think the way to get the most out of this book is to think of the finished movie as a museum exhibit, and this book as your docent. All the information is five-star, and it's presented in a very organized way. But if you're looking for "the story" of how the film came together then parts of the book will definitely be more interesting to you than others.
I feel that I would have benefitted from a better idea of the book's general outline before reading, so don't read on if you'd consider that to be a "spoiler."
The book begins with a look at the story's history before the Disney version, including earlier stage and movie adaptations, then proceeds with a straight-ahead telling of the movie's general development, which of course introduces the key people, developments, events and changes the story went through.
Then the book takes what to me seemed like a different tack: you're taken scene-by-scene from beginning to end through the finished version of the movie (including deleted scenes), with very comprehensive notes on each individual scene, and a complete history of all the story, design, animation and personnel changes it might have gone through, as well as artistic analysis of the finished animation. Due to the non-linear nature of planning movies ( in particular animation and in particular the experimental first large-scale animated feature), some topics are kind of picked up here from where they were previously discussed in the more general development overview, or linked to other scenes elsewhere in the film.
And then, in the final part of the book, we're given the story and details of its release and the cultural impact of its first run, as well as an overview of its re-releases and its characters' uses in other media.
All in all, even though in some places I found it disjointed, it's understandable considering how disjointed movie production chronology can seem, and the quality of the research and information makes up for it.
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