ANIMATED CARTOONS by E. G. Lutz
Published by Applewood Books, P.O. Box 365, Bedford, MA 01730
ISBN 1-55709-474-8

This is a reprint of the original edition of the book published in 1920. As the story goes, Walt Disney used this book as his guide when first putting together his "Alice" cartoons. It's a great piece of history and worth having just for the fun of seeing how cartoons were made during the 1920's. I especially enjoyed the illustration of the native African being chased around a straw hut by a lion on page 241 with the caption below, "A chase around some object is a never-failing laugh-provoking incident in an animated cartoon."

ANIMATION FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN by Shamus Culhane
Published by St. Martin's Press, New York, N.Y.
ISBN # 0-315-02162-3

336 pages, over 130 illustrations. This book is the textbook for all would-be Animators. It takes you through the entire process of animation from "script to screen" just as the title implies. Lots of very practical drawing exercises are given throughout. Some of the technical information is a little confusing and questionable, but otherwise a must have book.

THE ANIMATOR'S SURVIVAL KIT by Richard Williams
Published by Faber and Faber Limited, 3 Queen's Square, london, England WC1N 3AU
ISBN 0-571-20228-4

342 pages, filled to the brim with illustrations. What to say about this book... you certainly must have it if you're thinking about bcoming an animator. There's tons of useful information: 109 pages on walks and runs! This book is based on the widely distributed photocopied version of the Art Babbitt animation course that was run at Richard's animation studio in London back in July of 1973. I have two copies of these lectures, the first I'm not sure as to who wrote and illustrated (it's very hastily written with some pretty sloppy drawings). I'm sure this is the original version that has been photocopied ad nauseum and perhaps the reason for the drawings looking so bad is that I have a 20th generation copy. The second version is by a fellow animator named Tahsin. (I worked with Tahsin briefly in Toronto on Rock and Rule, he was an inbetweener then) His notes are copies of the first version rewritten and reillustrated by himself very nicely. He also added some missing information and elaborated on the information where it was sketchy. Looking through these notes, it's quite clear that this was the Genisis of Richard's book.

About 3/4 of the way through the original notes the topics seem to fly off into multiple tangents without rhyme or reason. Richard's book seems to do the same thing around page 212. Now I don't want to be overly critical here because it is a good book over all and you'll find it very helpful in your studies.

ART AND ANIMATION, THE STORY OF HALAS & BATCHELOR ANIMATION STUDIO 1940 / 1980
by Roger Manvell
Published by Clive Farrow Printers, Ltd., Keynsham
ISBN # 0-904208-88-6

A bunch of pages and a bunch of illustrations. This is a history book about, you guessed it , The Halas & Batchelor Studio from 1940 to 1980. An o.k. history book as far as history books go.

(DON BLUTH'S) THE ART OF ANIMATION DRAWING by Don Bluth
Published by DH Press (Dark Horse Comics, Inc.) 10956 S.E. Main St., Milwaukie, OR, 97222
ISBN 1-59582-007-6

(DON BLUTH'S) THE ART OF STORYBOARD by Don Bluth
Published by DH Press (Dark Horse Comics, Inc.) 10956 S.E. Main St., Milwaukie, OR, 97222
ISBN 1-59582-007-8

Both of these books are lavishly illustrated. The writing is o.k. but doesn't get into a lot of depth as far as technical techniques goes. Lots of anecdotal stories peppered throughout.

THE ART OF WALT DISNEY by Christopher Finch
Published by Abrams Publishers, New York, N.Y.
ISBN #0-8109-0122-6

351 color and 412 B & W illustrations, 458 pages. This book has been through several editions. It is packed with lots of nice illustrations up until Robin Hood, 1973. Later editions may go beyond this point.

THE ART OF WALT DISNEY by Christopher Finch
Published by Abrams Publishers, New York, N.Y.
ISBN # 0-8109-9007-5

160 pages. This is one of the smaller, concise versions of the original edition. This one has a few illustrations that the larger one doesn't, however, because of its size it is missing a lot of the illustrations.

THE ART OF...

There are so many of these books out now there's really no point in listing them all, suffice it to say that they're all pretty good. Most of them show the conceptual design stage of the production and tell a few anecdotal stories here and there, but overall there not much good as learning materials. Great for reference though.

The one's that deal with Japanese films or shows or games are amazing but the images are way too small to do them any real justice. They simply become overwhelming.

THE BEST OF DISNEY by Neil Sinyard
Published by W. H. Smith Publishers, Canada.
Twin Books 15 Sherwood Place, Greenwhich, CT 06830, U.S.A.
ISBN # 0-88665-4661

217 color and 115 B & W illustrations, 192 pages. Covers both animation and live action films produced by the Disney Studios up to 1985.

BUGS BUNNY, FIFTY YEARS AND ONLY ONE GREY HARE by Joe Adamson
Published by Henry Holt and Company, New York, N.Y.
ISBN # 0-8050-1190-0

Over 400 illustrations. This beautiful book focuses specifically on Bugs Bunny and all the cartoons he appeared in. Excellent reference material.

CHUCK AMUCK by Chuck Jones
Published by Farrar Straus Giroux, New York, N.Y.
ISBN # 0-374-12348-9

305 pages, lots and lots of drawings. This is a biography of Chuck Jones by Chuck Jones. Lots of nice vintage Jones drawings with the odd weird recent sketches. More interesting stories of what it was like to work in the wackiest studio in the world.

DISNEY ANIMATION, THE ILLUSION OF LIFE by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston
Published by Abbeville Press, Publishers, New York, N.Y.
ISBN # 0-89659-233-3

575 pages, 489 color and thousands of B & W illustrations. This is the book that no Animation student or professional should be without. Lots of studio anecdotes by two of the studio's most prominent animators. This book is filled to the brim with the best reference material in print to date. If you can find this book, buy it at any price! (So long as it's not over $200.00.)

THE DISNEY STUDIO STORY by Richard Holliss & Brian Sibley
Published by Octopus Books Ltd., Michelin House, 81 Fulham Rd., London, England SW3 6RB
ISBN # 0-7064-3040-9

256 pages. A very in-depth historical book covering the early years through to 1987. It lists all the films produced at the Disney Studio with a brief synopsis of the story and lists the Directors and primary actors.

DONALD DUCK by Marcia Blitz
Published by Harmony Books, One Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016
ISBN # 0-517-52961-0

256 pages with over 500 color and B & W illustrations. The only complete, authorized biography of Donald Duck describing the complete filmography up to 1963.

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ANIMATED CARTOON SERIES by Jeff Lenburg
Published by Da Capo Press, Inc. A subsidiary of Plenum Publishing Corporation, 233 Spring Street, New York, N.Y. 10013
ISBN # 0-306-80191-4

190 pages, lots of photos and illustrations. This book lists all those long lost animated cartoon series, giving a very brief synopsis of the characters and a list of titles of all the cartoons they appeared in. Neat for looking up some of the more obscure characters, but not enough pictures. Makes a good checklist book.

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ANIMATED CARTOONS (Second Edition) by Jeff Lenburg
Published by Checkmark Books 11 Penn Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10001
ISBN # 0-8160-3832-5

576 pages in this updated version of the above mentioned book. This one takes us right up to 1999. I'm sure there's a third edition in the works.

THE FLEISHER STORY by Leslie Cabarga
Published by Nostalgia Press Inc., P.O. Box 293, Franklin Square, New York, N.Y. 11010
Library of Congress # 73-94123

184 pages, 300 illustrations. Lots of model sheets for good reference on the main Fleisher characters.

GOOFY THE GOOD SPORT
Published by H P BOOKS, INC. P.O. BOX 5367, Tucson, AZ 85703 Ph # (602) 888 - 2150
ISBN # 0-89586-414-2

Touted as the first official biography of Disney's character Goofy. Mostly historical in nature with some nice illustrations. Includes a couple of Model Sheets. Covers up to Mickey's Christmas Carol, 1983.

THE HAND BEHIND THE MOUSE by Leslie Iwerks and John D. Kenworthy
Published by Disney Editions, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y., 10011-5690
ISBN 0-7868-5320-4

264 pages (17 pages of photos.) A really nicely written book about Ub Iwerks.

HANDBOOK OF ANIMATION TECHNIQUES by Eli Levitan
Published by Van Nostrand Reinhold Company , Toronto
ISBN # 0-442-26115-2

318 pages, a bunch of poorly reproduced photos. This book is great if you're into heavy technical reading. I found it very ponderous.

HOLLYWOOD CARTOONS - America In It's Golden Age by Michael Barrier
Published by Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Ave, New York, N.Y. 10016
ISBN 0-19-503759-6

648 pages, sparce on the illustrations and photos (three really nice flip books in the corner illustrating the different types of animation). An extremely well written book on the history of the American cartoon studios from 1930 - 1960 (the "Golden Age").

HOW TO DRAW ANIMATION by Christopher Hart
Published by Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, N.Y.
ISBN # 0-8230-2365-6

144 pages. Despite the banner on the back cover that proclaims "The ultimate animation book!", this is not a book about animation but rather a book about drawing characters for animation. There were only 14 pages of "animation movement principles" with absolutely nothing about timing or timing charts, 1 page showing an exposure sheet, 3 pages on storyboards, 7 on layout (with 6 sample layouts) and 4 pages on Background painting. The rest of the book is all about character design.

HOW TO DRAW CARTOON ANIMALS by Christopher Hart
Published by Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, N.Y.
ISBN # 0-8230-2360-5

144 pages. All about how to design Cartoon animals.

"I TAWT I TAW A PUDDY TAT" by Jerry Beck
Published by Henry Holt and Company, 115 West 18th St., New York, N.Y. 10011
ISBN # 0-8050-1644-9

155 pages, over 300 illustrations. Similar to the Bugs Bunny, 50 Years And Only One Grey Hare book. This one focuses on Sylvester and Tweety Bird. Good reference material.

OF MICE AND MAGIC A HISTORY OF AMERICAN ANIMATED CARTOONS by Leonard Maltin
Published by McGraw Hill Book Company
ISBN # 0-07-039835-6

470 pages, mostly photos. A well written history book of American cartoons up until 1977.

TEX AVERY by Patrick Brion
ISBN # 2851083716

175 pages, loaded with excellent illustrations and some not so good frame blow-ups. This book was produced in France and is in French, the illustrations however make this book well worth buying even if you can't speak French (which I can't). The reproductions are so good, you'll swear they're the original drawings. I was afraid of smudging them after I had opened the book.

TEX AVERY LES DESSINS by Patrick Brion
Published by Nathan Image, Paris, France.
ISBN # 2.09.240008-8

106 pages, entirely illustrations except for the introduction. This is the companion book to Tex Avery by Patrick Brion. The production quality isn't as high as the first book but is still very good. It is a collection of drawings by Tex Avery, character designs, animation and mostly layouts. Nice reference but not the best stuff, that's all in the first book.

TEX AVERY: THE KING OF CARTOONS by Joe Adamson
The Big Apple Film Series, Popular Library, New York, N.Y. 1975. Edited by Leonard Maltin.
No ISBN #

233 pages. An excellent book about Tex Avery, who actually is "The King of Cartoons."

THAT'S ALL FOLKS! THE ART OF WARNER BROS. ANIMATION by Steve Schneider
Published by Henry Holt and Company, New York, N.Y.
ISBN # 0-8050-0889-6

252 pages, tons of illustrations. Chocked full of excellent reference art. This is a highly recommended book with lots of studio stories.

THAT'S NOT ALL FOLKS! by Mel Blanc and Philip Bashe
Published by Warner Books, Inc., 666 Fifth avenue, New York, N.Y. 10103
ISBN # 0-446-51244-3

275 pages, mostly photos. This book is filled with lots of funny anecdotes by the man behind all the voices in the Warner Bros. cartoons. A delightful book that makes you wish you were alive during the 30's and able to work in a really fun studio.

TOO FUNNY FOR WORDS by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston
Published by Abbeville Press Publishers New York, N.Y.
ISBN # 0-89659-747-4

Tons of color and B & W illustrations, 223 pages. Production drawings showing the many stages involved in the production of animated cartoons at the Disney Studio. An excellent reference book. No illustrations of productions after The Rescuers, 1977.

TREASURES OF DISNEY ANIMATION ART Introduction by John Canemaker
Published by Abbeville Press, Publishers, New York, N.Y.
ISBN # 0-89659-581-1

319 pages, over 500 illustrations. This book delivers exactly what it's title says. Beautiful production sketches and final artwork from the Disney shorts and features. This book is a must in it's full size format of 15" x 11 1/2 ", don't settle for the smaller pocket book version.

SCRIPTWRITING FOR ANIMATION by Stan Hayward
Published by Focal Press, London & New York.
ISBN # 0-240-50967-6

160 pages, a bunch of drawings. A good manual for thinking about what you have to do to write a script for cartoons.

SKETCHBOOKS
The same goes for these as the ART OF... books. Pretty much anybody who can put one together has these out there and I think it's great! Pick the artist and style that you like and use it for reference in your own drawing.

STORMING THE MAGIC KINGDOM WALL STREET, THE RAIDERS AND THE BATTLE FOR DISNEY by John Taylor
Published by Ballantine Books, New York, N.Y.
ISBN # 0-345-35407-9

262 pages. Just a few photos of a bunch of corporate heads. No illustrations. This isn't a reference book for artists, it's about the big corporate takeover bid of Walt Disney Company in 1984. In case you didn't know, it didn't work. This book is made up of minutes from board meetings, personal diaries, etc. etc. Interesting if you want to learn more of the political, inside workings of the studio.

WALT DISNEY AND ASSORTED OTHER CHARACTERS by Jack Kinney
Published by Harmony Books, New York, N.Y.
ISBN # 0-517-57057-2

207 pages, all illustrations are in studio gag cartoons by the author. A book by a Disney Animator probably mad about the fact that Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas made some money writing books about their fun times at Disney Studio and decided to write his own book of anecdotes. None the less a very interesting book from a different perspective.

WALT DISNEY'S BAMBI, THE STORY AND THE FILM by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas
Published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, New York, N.Y.
ISBN # 1-55670-160-8

208 pages, hundreds of beautiful illustrations. This booklet comes with a smaller flip book with some very nice animation in it, very good reference material in both books.

WALT DISNEY'S FANTASIA by John Culhane
Published by Abrams Inc., New York, N.Y.
ISBN # 0-8109-0822-0

222 pages with 130 color and 150 B & W illustrations. A very thorough book on the production of the feature film with beautiful illustrations and behind the scenes stories.

WALT DISNEY MAGIC MOMENTS by Ercole Arseni, Leone Bosi and Massimo Marconi.
Published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editions, Milan.
No ISBN number

191 pages. Some interesting illustrations from early works by Disney. Made up primarily of pictures from several Disney shorts including, Plane Crazy, The Gallopin' Gaucho, Flowers and Trees, Orphans' Benefit, Pluto's Judgement Day, Mickey's Rival, Don Donald, Donald's Nephews, Brave Little Taylor , and Ferdinand the Bull, all presented in Storyboard format.

ANIMATION # 26 by Preston Blair
Published by Walter Foster Art Books, 430 West Sixth St., Tustin, California, 92680

40 pages, filled with drawings. This book is an absolute must, I don't know of an animator that doesn't have this book and it's companion, "How To Animater Film Cartoons." These books cover all the basics of animation. One cautionary note, the walk cycles are not 100% accurate, they are merely to be used as reference material. Too many times I've sat in on student screenings for their assessments and seen these exact same walk cycles copied and passed off as original work. These books have been around in one version or another for a long time and we as instructors all have them and can recognize the animation from these books. You have been warned.

HOW TO ANIMATE FILM CARTOONS # 190 by Preston Blair
Published by Walter Foster Art Books, 430 West Sixth St., Tustin, California, 92680

37 pages, filled with drawings. This companion book has a few more advanced animation techniques in it as well as some key drawings from some Disney animation. This book has the same flawed walk cycles in it as the last book. (You'd think someone would have corrected that by now.) It also contains some nice animal structure reference. Again another must have book.

ANIMALS ARE FOR FUN # 34 by Ed Nofziger
Published by Walter Foster Art Books, 430 West Sixth St., Tustin, California, 92680

33 pages, filled with drawings. This book is on how to draw cartoon animals. A very nice book with lots of great reference. A really neat cartoon style as well.

ANIMATED CARTOONS FOR THE BEGINNER # 25 (nobody wanted to take the blame for this one.)
Published by Walter Foster Art Books

33 pages, lots of really bad drawings. This book is filled with poorly constructed and badly balanced drawings. Don't waste your money on this book.

These books aren't specifically about animation but could be applied to the overall process.

THE CAREER CARTOONIST A STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO PRESENTING AN SELLING YOUR ARTWORK by Dick Gautier
Published by The Putnam Publishing Group, 200 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016
ISBN # 0-399-51732-4

127 pages, over 150 illustrations. Geared towards the freelance artist, this book has some very good tips on how to present and sell your artwork to a broad range of markets. Lots of good business sense stuff.

COMICS & SEQUENTIAL ART by Will Eisner
Published by Poorhouse Press, 8333 W. Mc Nab Rd., Tamarac, Florida 33321
Library of Congress # 85-61669

154 pages, lots of illustrations. This book is by the master of comic book art and is basically a thesis on how to approach the creation of a comic book. Also good for the theory of storyboarding for animation.

HOW TO DRAW CARTOONS by Jack Hamm
Published by Coles Publishing Company Ltd., Toronto
ISBN # (no number) This book has been reprinted from an earlier print run in 1967.

120 pages, too many illustrations to count. This book is amazing from a style point of view. It also has an amazing Alphabetized Catalog of Emotions and Expressions (with cross references). Simply amazing. If this guy did all these drawings, my hat goes off to him.

HOW TO DRAW ANIMALS By Jack Hamm
Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, N.Y. 1980
No ISBN #

Another of Jack Hamm's books. I personally have’nt seen a copy of this book but have been told it's just as good as the one listed above.

CARTOONING THE HEAD AND FIGURE By Jack Hamm
Grosser & Dunlap, New York, N.Y. 1980

Same as above.

HOW TO DRAW CARTOONS FOR COMIC STRIPS by Christopher Hart
Published by Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, N.Y.
ISBN # 0-8230-2353-2

144 pages, bunch of illustrations. A very basic step by step how to book, more for kids than the professional Animation Artist. This book is interesting from a style point of view.

AN ACTOR PREPARES by Constantin Stanislavski
Published by Theatre Art Books, 153 Waverly Place, New York, N.Y., 10014
ISBN # 0-87830-001-5

295 pages, no illustrations. The first book in Stanislavski's series on "The System" of how to act. Very interesting and informative.

BUILDING A CHARACTER by Constantin Stanislavsky
Published by Methuen Theatre Arts Books, 29 West 35th Street, New York, N.Y., 10001
ISBN # 0-87830-012-0

292 pages, no illustrations. The second book in Stanislavski's series.

CREATING A ROLE by Constantin Stanislavski
Unfortunately I lent this book out to someone and to the date of this writing haven't received it back or replaced it myself.

STANISLAVSKI AN INTRODUCTION by Jean Benedetti
Published by Methuen London Ltd., 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
ISBN # 0-413-50030-6

79 pages, no illustrations. This companion book helps to explain the chronology and theory in the above mentioned books.

The following books are on the subject of Perspective.

ANATOMY PERSPECTIVE AND COMPOSITION FOR THE ARTIST by Stan Smith
Published by Watson - Guptill Publications, 1515 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10036
ISBN # 0-8230-0219-5

224 pages, lots of illustrations. This is one of the better books on perspective that I've come across. It also has the bonus of having sections on Composition and Anatomy. A good recommendation.

BASIC PERSPECTIVE DRAWING, A VISUAL APPROACH by John Montague
Published by Van Nostrand Reinhold, 115 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10003
ISBN # 0-442-01263-2

200 pages, lots of drawings. Another good book that deals with all the basics of perspective in a very simple way.

CREATIVE PERSPECTIVE FOR ARTISTS AND ILLUSTRATORS by Ernest W. Watson
Published by General Publishing Company, Ltd., 30 Lesmill Rd., Don Mills, Toronto, Ont.
ISBN # 0-486-27337-7

160 pages. Lots of words, not enough pictures.

DRAWING AND PERCEIVING by Douglas Cooper
Published by Van Nostrand Reinhold, 115 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y., 10003
ISBN # 0-442-00994-1

217 pages, some drawings. This is a very deep book. Has lots of practical exercises and really reads more like a work book.

PERSPECTIVE by William F. Powell
Published by Walter Foster Publishing, 430 West Sixth Street, Tusti, CA, 92680
ISBN # 0-929261-13-5

64 pages, a few pictures. A very basic book aimed more at the younger, beginning artist.