Author: Ramin Zahed
Hardcover: 158 pages
Publisher: Insight Editions
Release Date: October 22, 2012
Our Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
If you are aware of “The Guardians of Childhood” series, which “Rise of the Guardians” is based off of, then you will appreciate the artwork from the series. The world that was created for this movie are provided in very high-detail through this book. The children’s series is written by William Joyce, who’s also the film’s executive producer and gives a very nice foreword on the book.
“The Art of Rise of the Guardians” includes wonderful concept art for the DreamWorks animated film. The basis of the book is focused on the six main characters: North, Bunny, Tooth, Sandy, Jack Frost and Pitch. There is character profiles, as well as 3D and classic animation for each. Like I mentioned about the detail, besides just the character profiles, there is landscapes and sketches of the environments that were developed. In the book, you get to see the work of all these fantastic artists and craftspeople who have collaborated in order to create DreamWorks Animation’s most ambitious films to date.
In the film “Rise of the Guardians”, North (Alec Baldwin), Bunnymund (Hugh Jackman), Tooth (Isla Fisher), and Sandman try to recruit the mysterious Jack Frost (Chris Pine) to help them stop Pitch (Jude Law) from putting an end to childhood belief and sending the world into eternal darkness.
Ramin Zahed is the editor in chief of Animation Magazine. The man knows animation and gives this film art book the right treatment. Alec Baldwin who voices North, gives a wonderful foreword. The book itself has this very simplistic feeling. Some of the pages are very simple, while some are jam-packed and extremely colorful. I feel that it is really a wonderful balance of the two. The pastel of colors used in the book and throughout the film really pop-out here in the art-of book. I am looking forward to this film very much and now more so since reading this book.
