In Which the Bookshelf Tour Continues!

More books!  Here comes shelf #2:



That's All Folks: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation, Steve Schneider - Once upon a time, there was a Warner Bros. Studio Store in my local mall, right across from the Disney Store.  And it was actually far more awesome than the Disney Store, because it sold original animation art.  It also sold this very nice art book, which can be found for dirt cheap now and is a must-have.

Disney's Art of Animation: From Mickey Mouse, To Beauty and the Beast, Bob Thomas - I got this beautiful book at the Animation Gallery, the proverbial gift shop you'd exit through after experiencing the original Magic of Disney Animation at Disney MGM Studios (curiously, the gift shop is still there in essentially it's original form).  Note that there are two editions; this is the older and far better edition which chronicles the making of "Beauty and the Beast".  That section of the book alone is worth hunting it down; getting a nice concise history of the Disney studio with it is icing on the cake.

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cartoon Animals and The Encyclopedia of Monsters, by Jeff Rovin - I got these two at good old Buck-A-Book and, as with the aforementioned Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals, I'll be keeping them until newer and more accurate options ever appear.  These two books are crazy extensive, and I've never quite found anything like them.

The Encyclopedia of Cartoon Superstars, John Cawley and Jim Korkis - Similar, though smaller in scope, to the above Jeff Rovin encyclopedia.   These were among the first books to try and catalog every animated character, so I can cut them some slack.  There's a nice selection of art and information about failed projects involving the characters, but it'd be very nice to have an updated book.  This one only goes as recent as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and it's a little jarring not seeing "The Simpsons" or "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". The complete text is online at Cawley's personal site.

Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia and Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia, Carol Rose - Never realized how many Encyclopedias of Weird Stuff I had.  These two are very good and I highly recommend them.

The Last Dinosaur Book: The Life and Times of a Cultural Icon, W. J. T. Mitchell - A very, very unusual book I (luckily, it turns out, since this is very hard to find) picked up at an antique store just based off that intriguing title.  It's an analysis of dinosaurs in human culture and I might have to re-read it and give it a full review someday.

Traditional Tales From Long, Long Ago Hardcover, Philip Wilson - Very nice collection of Celtic folktales with charming illustrations.  Plus my copy came with that radical bookmark.

Our first run of picture books!  We've got some Chris Van Allsburg, Janell Cannon, and a stray Berke Breathed.  More on the latter in a bit.

Fairy Art: Artists & Inspirations, Iain Zaczek - Another art book I've yet to read, but this is a very nice collection of classic fantasy art.

Voyage of the Basset, James C. Christensen and Alan Dean Foster - The illustrations in this book are outstanding, almost on the same level as Dinotopia.  The story... ehhh...

The Katurran Odyssey and Animals Real and Imagined, Terryl Whitlatch - I love Terryl's creature designs like crazy and I dearly wish she had a proper omnibus of art.  These are pretty good and we'll see The Wildlife of Star Wars later on.

Dinotopia, James Gurney - The complete collection.  Need more be said?  These are essential.







The Complete Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson, The Complete Far Side by Gary Larson, and The Bloom County Library by Berke Breathed, and others - My three all-time favorite newspaper comics.  The omnibuses are essential if you are a fellow fan.  You'll notice I also have Breathed's picture books and the three Outland collections, Larson's There's a Hair in my Dirt! (on it's side), as well as the Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book and (on it's side) the Prehistory of the Far Side.  Both are easy to find and essential companions to the complete collections.

Next week:  We take a break for Kill, Refurb Marry.  Then, NEXT next week, more books!  Nonfiction books for the Nonfiction God!  Reference books for the Reference Throne!

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Sketch of the Day!

"Skies of Arcadia" reminds me of "Treasure Planet" except weirder.

Unusual or Largely Forgotten Christmas Specials

Before I get to topic advertised in the title, I just realized that I can no longer let Xuxa Pets (or whatever they're called) pass without comment. Here's the commercial, which I initially thought was an elaborate satire:

(Love how the actual honest-to-goodness tagline is basically, "It's just like a real hamster, but it doesn't crap everywhere!")

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"Rudolph", "Charlie Brown", "Grinch". We all know the Big Three Christmas Specials. But there are lots and lots of lesser-known specials that are still very good. Some of them are still well-loved but are simply not shown on TV anymore. Here are just a few of my favorites. Titles will link to their IMDB page:

"A Wish For Wings That Work" - Informally known as "The Bloom County Christmas Special" (even though it was made during the "Outland" era, but let's not get into the sticky issue of Breathed-verse continuity). This Youtube clip isn't the best quality, but trust me the animation is superb. Sadly, it's Opus' only animated outing. There is some concept art on Michel Gange's website that suggests a sequel was in the works, but it never came to be. It saddens me that we never got an Opus series (a la "Garfield and Friends") in this style:


"Twelve Tiny Christmas Tales" - I probably only have to say the following words here: Bill Plympton Christmas Special. It does retain his twisted humor and low-tech style, but it's also really sweet. It's available on Plympton's "Dog Days" DVD collection.


"Olive, The Other Reindeer" - It saddens me that this little slice of happy has faded into obscurity. It was produced by the "Futurama" team at the top of their game, and features big name voices that actually fit their characters. Best of all, J. Otto Seibold's artwork is perfectly replicated. As you can see, that was quite the animation challenge:


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As a bonus, here's the unedited cut of "A Muppet Family Christmas", the best Muppet holiday special of all for my money (and it has some tough competition). Tough Pigs called this Jim Henson's victory lap and when you see how many characters he created, it's easy to see why:

(I officially deem it totally cool to go "awww" during the special's very last scene in the kitchen.)