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The Art of Wall-E

Upon the release of every Pixar movie, I look forward to the subsequent Art of book. I am eagerly awaiting the release of Wall-E (robots!) and was equally excited for its own book of production art.

The Art of Wall-E seems, to me at least, a bit of a departure from previous Pixar Art of books. Those books were filled with all sorts of different character designs in wildly varying illustration styles. Perhaps I shouldn’t expect the same from a film that is centered around a lone robot inhabitant on a desolate planet, but apart from a few notes about how the character was inspired by R2-D2 and a pair of binoculars, the book features nearly zero preliminary character designs for the titular droid. It’s as if the character was invented fully formed.

The book still features plenty of storyboard sequences, lush concept paintings, and the colour studies you’ve come to expect from these books, but I could have used more robots! Robots!

For robot art, I’ll have to turn to the tie-in book, Lots of Bots. The always-stellar Grain Edit recently posted an interview with illustrator Ben Butcher, who shared some behind-the-scenes looks at his insane cut-n-paste working process:

Previously: The Art of Ratatouille

  • http://pumml.blogspot.com/ pumml

    I’m surprised there was no inspiration mention of “No. 5″ from the film Short Circuit. They’re very similar designs.

  • http://pumml.blogspot.com pumml

    I’m surprised there was no inspiration mention of “No. 5″ from the film Short Circuit. They’re very similar designs.

  • http://www.themousehunter.com/blog almilway

    I thought exactly the same about Short Circuit – to the point where I was under the impression it was clearly wearing its influences on its sleeve. I imagine many of the people working on it must have been the right age to love Short Circuit – almost 25 years old now, surely?

    Wall E does look beautiful though!

  • http://www.themousehunter.com/blog almilway

    I thought exactly the same about Short Circuit – to the point where I was under the impression it was clearly wearing its influences on its sleeve. I imagine many of the people working on it must have been the right age to love Short Circuit – almost 25 years old now, surely?

    Wall E does look beautiful though!

  • paig

    “It’s as if the character was invented fully formed.”

    yes, by the designers of no5!

    really excited about this though:)

  • paig

    “It’s as if the character was invented fully formed.”

    yes, by the designers of no5!

    really excited about this though:)

  • http://www.lunchboxunlimited.blogspot.com/ Lunchbox

    I love the PIXAR flicks and the “art of” books just as much. The Incredibles book is a personal fave.

    But this is not the first time PIXAR has lifted something from someone else. Look at the Incredibles. Can anyone say Fantastic Four? Sure, a few tweaks. Replace the look of the Thing with a Supermanish Dad and add the power of flight…
    Instead of “flame on” you have the Flash with the same personality of Johnny Storm. Sister gets Sue’s powers minus invisibility and Mom is stretchy. Oh, and then little Jack-Jack (*cough* Franklin) gets a load of powers including a touch of the Torch.
    Sorry, let me kick that soap box aside.
    I did love the Incredibles. In fact, I just watched it again the other day. And I do realize that it was a play on the superhero genre. But not to give any props at all to Marvel even in the art of book…
    weak.

    I can’t wait to get my hands on it…
    Oh and if you want a really sweet robot book, get Robots art of off ebay or amazon. It’s out of print, but worth EVERY penny.

  • http://www.lunchboxunlimited.blogspot.com Lunchbox

    I love the PIXAR flicks and the “art of” books just as much. The Incredibles book is a personal fave.

    But this is not the first time PIXAR has lifted something from someone else. Look at the Incredibles. Can anyone say Fantastic Four? Sure, a few tweaks. Replace the look of the Thing with a Supermanish Dad and add the power of flight…
    Instead of “flame on” you have the Flash with the same personality of Johnny Storm. Sister gets Sue’s powers minus invisibility and Mom is stretchy. Oh, and then little Jack-Jack (*cough* Franklin) gets a load of powers including a touch of the Torch.
    Sorry, let me kick that soap box aside.
    I did love the Incredibles. In fact, I just watched it again the other day. And I do realize that it was a play on the superhero genre. But not to give any props at all to Marvel even in the art of book…
    weak.

    I can’t wait to get my hands on it…
    Oh and if you want a really sweet robot book, get Robots art of off ebay or amazon. It’s out of print, but worth EVERY penny.

  • http://www.aestheticonion.com/ aestheticonion

    Have to say, I thought it was sad that it was not based on Short Circuit. It would have made a great summer blockbuster for all us late 20′s early 30 somethings who watched the movie when they were a kid.

  • http://www.aestheticonion.com aestheticonion

    Have to say, I thought it was sad that it was not based on Short Circuit. It would have made a great summer blockbuster for all us late 20′s early 30 somethings who watched the movie when they were a kid.