Golden books
Posted by Peter Bangs on Monday, January 10, 2011
I've heard about Golden Books for more years than I care to count, mostly in connection with Disney films as they come out. The've almost been a compulsory piece of merchandising. You couldn't make a film without releasing a book. I'd never seen one or had an oppotunity to buy one however until yesterday. I walked into a charity shop to look through the kids book section and found three, Bolt, Ratatouille and Wall-e.
The one that first caught my eye was Bolt. The film was, I believe, Disney's full CGI follow up to Chicken Little (Which I loved) but if the reviews are anything to go by, it tanked. I had the chance to see it the week before Christmas and it wasn't as bad as reviewers made out. Don't get me wrong it was no Pixar production but it was an okay movie. The book is far superior. Joe Moshier, the artist, is incredible. He was responsible for the style of the characters in The Emperor's New Groove, Home on the Range, Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons. When he did this he was a visual designer at Disney and is now at Dreamworks. His artwork has a classic 50's look to it, it bears no resemblance to the movie at all, and makes it more than okay that the story is a precis of the film in a children's book style. The book is well written but there's real effort made to infuse the book with it's own personality and the text, comic book style, emphasises certain words by use of different fonts, bolding or size.
It's not a one off either. Both the other books I bought, Ratatouille and Wall-e, are of the same extrememly high standard. The only difference is that Bolt captures the flavour of what the film could have been and the two Pixar books capture the flavour of the films. They all make excellent keepsakes of the movies and have already been enjoyed by my 9 year old daughter and 2 year old son.
Now I'm off to Ebay to look for more.
The one that first caught my eye was Bolt. The film was, I believe, Disney's full CGI follow up to Chicken Little (Which I loved) but if the reviews are anything to go by, it tanked. I had the chance to see it the week before Christmas and it wasn't as bad as reviewers made out. Don't get me wrong it was no Pixar production but it was an okay movie. The book is far superior. Joe Moshier, the artist, is incredible. He was responsible for the style of the characters in The Emperor's New Groove, Home on the Range, Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons. When he did this he was a visual designer at Disney and is now at Dreamworks. His artwork has a classic 50's look to it, it bears no resemblance to the movie at all, and makes it more than okay that the story is a precis of the film in a children's book style. The book is well written but there's real effort made to infuse the book with it's own personality and the text, comic book style, emphasises certain words by use of different fonts, bolding or size.
It's not a one off either. Both the other books I bought, Ratatouille and Wall-e, are of the same extrememly high standard. The only difference is that Bolt captures the flavour of what the film could have been and the two Pixar books capture the flavour of the films. They all make excellent keepsakes of the movies and have already been enjoyed by my 9 year old daughter and 2 year old son.
Now I'm off to Ebay to look for more.