After reading The Art of Tangled and Tale As Old As Time: The Art and Making of Beauty and the Beast, you may know that I am not adverse to reading some excellent concept art books on animation films. You may not know this but I count Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Anastasia, Cinderella and Tangled among my favourite movies in this category. I have watched Frozen when the DVD was released a few months back and love the story. It is therefore with great joy that I pick up The Art of Frozen as my next read.
Written by Charles Solomon who is the foremost expert in penning favourite Disney/Pixar film books such as Tale As Old As Time, there are a total of 168 pages detailing the behind-the-scene looks into making this unique, amazing and enjoyable animated feature. With a preface by John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer at Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studio, readers get a glimpse of how the idea of Frozen was born, who the main players were and an overview of creative process. Co-directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee provided the foreword by sharing their experiences and challenges working on the animation. From here on, the book is divided into six main chapters.
The introductory chapter presents the long history of bringing Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen to the silver screen. Previous animation based on Andersen's fairy tales like The Little Mermaid, The Steadfast Tin Soldier segment in Fantasia 2000 and The Little Match Girl short film led to a revival of producing the Danish author's longest tale. However the episodic adventure of Gerda rescuing her best friend Kai from the evil Snow Queen poses a challenge since it is protracted and rather miserable. In the end the filmmakers decided to do away with Gerda's journey and keep the distant queen instead. The suggestion of two sisters with a shared past but torn by a secret before finding each other again became the basis of this film.
The prologue explores the beginning of a sisterly bond between Elsa and Anna, two young princesses of Arendelle. Due to Elsa accidentally hurting her younger sister with her gift of creating ice and cold, their parents find it best to separate them to protect Anna. However Anna didn't understand why Elsa is kept away and so they grew up misunderstanding each other. Their relationship was further strained when both parents were lost on a sea voyage and presumed dead. The narrative weaves back to the decision to focus solely on the sibling bond instead of a classic Disney tale where princess falls in love and marry her prince. It was also explained that Elsa is not a villain but an antagonist who made a wrong choice and end up in a difficult position. In order to be authentic, the artists involved held a "Sister Summit" to share experiences of how it was like to grow up with sister(s). Throughout the chapter, there are some of the examples of sequences created by the story artists who pitched their ideas in weekly meetings.
The following four chapters follow the main plot of Frozen. From the coronation of Princess Elsa to the eventual return to Arendelle, each facets of bringing the animation to life is discussed in great detail. For instance, art director Michael Giaimo, his assistant art director Lisa Keene, production designer David Womersley and other artists went on a research trip to Norway and took lots of photographs which inspired the original look for Arendelle castle, surrounding villages and mountain top sceneries. Besides this one of the new things they learn is rosemaling, a Norwegian decorative pattern. Many of the rosemaling motifs can be seen in both costumes and sets from the outfits worn by Elsa, Anna and Kristoff to the wallpapers in the castle. Then a second trip to an ice hotel in Quebec City, Canada was undertaken to design the Snow Queen's ice palace. An important aspect is the creation of Elsa's snowflakes that is different from natural snowflakes. As quoted by John Lasseter, the ice castle is all based on the science of snowflakes.
The main characters of Anna, Elsa, Hans, the Duke of Weselton, Kristoff, Sven, Olaf, trolls and Elsa's transformation into the Snow Queen are thoroughly examined and accompanied by a generous selection of brilliant, stunning, amazing and original sketches, concept paintings, storyboards, backgrounds, maquettes, and digital art which is a point in its favour. Thus readers like me get an insight into the painstakingly difficult and complex process and gain a better understanding and deep appreciation for the artists' work when watching the finished product. I certainly took my time to read each and every point mentioned in the book and valued all the effort poured into making Frozen. If you haven't watch the film yet, what are you waiting for?
The Art of Frozen comes highly recommended for its wealth of information pertaining to the production of the movie and wrapped in a beautifully designed cover. It goes without saying that you have to read this book if you are a great fan of the animation movie. Aspiring artists may also like it just to study the abundance of artwork and hopefully become an animator in future.
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