Overview

The 1950s and 1960s at the Walt Disney Studios marked unprecedented stylistic directions brought on by the midcentury modern and graphic sensibilities of a new wave of artists. This volume explores the contributions of these heroes with special emphasis on the art of Lee Blair, Mary Blair, Tom Oreb, John Dunn, and Walt Peregoy. It includes never-before-seen images from Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Sleeping Beauty, and discusses Disney's first forays into television, commercials, and space and science projects. Drawing on interviews and revealing hundreds of rediscovered images that inspired Disney's films during one of its most prolific eras, this volume captures the rich stories of the artists who brought these characters to life and helped shape the future of animation.

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9781452163857

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Reviews

The art and the men (and one woman) spotlighted here are fascinating. Many will be drawn to the story of Mary Blair, a female artist who exceeded in a male-dominated field, as she was one of the favorites of Disney himself. It's not hard to see why; her designs for 'Alice in Wonderland' are armed with color that seems as if it came directly from your dreams. One piece - which graces the book's cover - features Alice sitting before a seemingly never-ending ocean blue table, complete with all manner of multicolored teapots, cups and chairs, with a dark background featuring little beyond a couple bare trees, invoking a sense of mystery and dread behind the bright colors in the foreground. In other words, it perfectly captures the wonder and hints of dread that would come in the film. -The Auburn Citizen The Hidden Art of Disney's Mid-Century Era: The 1950s took my breath away...Ghez features a wealth of work that was too weird, too ambitious, too esoteric to make it into a Disney production -- it's a tour of a parallel universe in which Disney was the world's best-funded avant garde salon, where incredibly talented, fiercely driven painters and illustrators produced challenging work of enormous wit, drive, and ambition. -Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing

... these books are a treasure trove of art that the samples included here only touch on. If anything, they are more a demonstration of these artists skills than their work for Disney. There is also a lot to contemplate and ensure these artists are not forgotten. -- SFcrowsnest

Author Information

Didier Ghez has conducted Disney research since he was a teenager in the mid '80s. His articles about the parks, animation, and vintage international Disneyana, as well as his many interviews with Disney artists, have appeared in such magazines as Disney twenty-three, Persistence of Vision, Tomart's Disneyana Update, Animation Journal, Animation Magazine, StoryboarD, and Fantasyline. He is the author and editor of numerous books about the Disney Studio and its artists, including the Walt's People book series and the They Drew as They Pleased book series. He also runs The Disney History blog (disneybooks.blogspot.com) and The Disney Books Network website (www.didierghez.com). Eric Goldberg is best known for his work with Walt Disney Animation Studios on Aladdin, Pocahontas, Hercules, and Moana. In February 2011, Eric was awarded the prestigious Winsor McCay award from ASIFA-Hollywood for lifetime achievement in animation. Susan McKinsey Goldberg directed two sequences on Fantasia/2000, creating a unique look that garnered her the animation industry's highest honor, the Annie Award, for Production Design.

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