The Best Pixar Books

There's always a story behind the stories, and these Pixar books tell you a little about the years and years it took for this company to become an "overnight sensation."

Pixar has since become a business model for success-oriented people to emulate, be it artists, engineers or MBAs.

The biggest take away I've had from looking at and reading these Pixar books is the strive for excellence, never giving up, and doggedly following your dream. Entrepreneurs, computer scientists and cartoon artists have something in common in these true stories and it's amazing to watch it unfold over the years.

The various Pixar books I've looked at have all had stunning works of art, from bare conceptual line drawings to what looked like completed paintings you could hang on your wall. The process that the artists work through is an educational experience for young people who wish to pursue a career in animation.

The Pixar Touch

By David A. Price

What I like about this book is that isn't all glowing, focusing only on the positive. It's an honest look at the difficult decisions people had to make, the personality conflicts that arose and sometimes backstabbing from competitors.

The Pixar Touch starts at the very beginning, before it ever had it's distinctive name and charming lamp logo. This was in the mid-seventies, mind you. The "founding fathers," so to speak, were both computer scientists, who had a passion for animation and developing 3-D graphics.

Author David Price makes you quite aware of the fact that every program had to be developed from scratch. Each effect created bumped up the quality of the animation and was celebrated as a victory within the smallish computer graphics community.

The book then takes you through the time when John Lasseter was hired as a real animator, and his story of how he was introduced into the "braintrust," at what was then a group of graphic computer scientists working for Hollywood director George Lucas.

Price describes the highs and lows of business decisions involving the solvency of the company; how Steve Jobs come in and saved Pixar from disintegration , and the breakthrough that came when Toy Story was completed. It doesn't end there. It reads like a soap opera in some spots with feuds, drama and tense moments. Price doesn't leave anything out and it makes for some riveting reading!

The paperback edition pictured has an updated epilogue that includes information about WALL-E. There are also both black and white photos as shown in the second photo (John Lasseter working on Luxo Jr.) and glossy color photos from screenshots of the feature films in this Pixar book.

See my video review for more details:

I highly recommend you read The Pixar Touch because it's highly engaging and inspirational - a very good resource for school reports or for anyone with a vision of the future.

To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios

By Karen Paik, with forwards by: Ed Catmull, Steve Jobs & John Lasseter, collaborated by Leslie Iwerks

This is a gorgeous, big and colorful coffee-table book. To Infinity and Beyond was published in the fall of 2007, the year Ratatouille was released. It's also a history of Pixar Animation Studios, but with lots more lush, color pictures, not only of the feature films, but concept art, photos of Pixarians hard at work and the evolution of the studio from its humble beginnings to the COOL, fun studio it is now.

To Infinity and Beyond does have some drawbacks, however. For one, it's not as engaging a read as The Pixar Touch. Another reason is my attention is distracted on a big book with small type, especially if there are lots of pictures to lure my eyes away.

When I later read The Pixar Touch, I was surprised at what David Price had to say about To Infinity and Beyond. On page 260, Price describes how To Infinity and Beyond was released after Disney acquired Pixar and was written in-house, as a public relations version of Pixar's history. Price goes on to say that "major characters and events disappeared" and has more to say about Steve Jobs being misrepresented, and about former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg who later formed DreamWorks Animation.

So, is this a Pixar book worth buying? Yes, if you're a die-hard Pixar fan. It does have a lot of wonderful photos and behind the scenes pictures. But to read this enormous book? No. I'd read The Pixar Touch and have To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios next to you to look at additional photos from Pixar's past.

Pixarpedia

By DK Publishing, Forward by Andrew Stanton

This is another one of those hefty, colorful coffee-table Pixar books, and it's a delight for both adults and children. I'm a visually-inclined person and the big colorful pictures were simply wonderful to look at. One of the things you're really going to love about Pixarpedia is the superb layout and design.

Pixarpedia is over 300 pages and it starts out with a little bit of Pixar Animation Studios history and then some segments on how they create a CGI film.

Then there's a section for each of the Pixar movies, including Pixar shorts. Each section has a short plot or a general theme, and then the characters. My favorite Pixarpedia feature is the extensive drilldown of all the characters in each film. Even the characters with a one or two second shot in the film is listed and described in this book. It's so much fun!

The last section in Pixarpedia are themes such as the 10 worst villains or who's romantically involved with one another. The remaining section is Behind the Scenes information about each feature film. This is a really fun and interesting section with Fascinating Facts and A Closer Look. Each feature film in Behind the Scenes includes a short interview about a Pixar employee: what their job is, how they got started, their favorite part of their job, fave character and best Pixar moment. It's great for young people to get inspiration and interesting reading for the rest of us.

After seeing that video, wouldn't you agree that getting Pixarpedia is a MUST?

Innovate the Pixar Way

By Bill Capodagli & Lynn Jackson

This Pixar book is how to bring success to your own business or corporate culture using the secrets Pixar has in its culture. I've personally not yet read this Pixar book, but it looks quite interesting.

I worked in an environment similar to what Bill Capodagli describes in the late 90s during the dot-com boom, in a playful, swank office building. It WAS fun working there and there was a "coolness" factor being employed there. So I get it, I understand that the author is aiming for those in the higher-ups in corporate roles to change the culture of their companies.

If business strategy is more your thing, then this might be the book you're looking for. There's a great book review on the author's blog and on the Amazon page, there's a four-minute video promo with Capodagli you should find interesting.

Pixar Books for Kids, Too!

Reading stories to your children creates closeness and warm fuzzy feelings. It also is an important element in developing literacy. Even if your child already knows how to read, parents still need to read to them.

Make story time especially fun by getting into character and acting out Woody or Dory - your child will absolutely love it! Here are some Pixar books for the kids and what's really wonderful about these books is they're very inexpensive, so you can buy more than one. That's especially nice if your child loves both Finding Nemo AND Cars! Aidan loves all the Pixar movies (really!) so he's an easy kid to please.

I got Aidan the Toy Story book and he loves curling up next to me and shouting out what happens next in the plot. The book is just like the movie and it's great fun to read, although we have to break it up into sections since it's a bit long.

You will see more fun and wholesome Pixar books for kids in the right column a little farther up. From a children's encyclopedia, to activity books as well as tales from all the feature and short films, there's something to please everybody.

Day & Night

By Teddy Newton

Author Teddy Newton is the Pixar animator who helped create Day & Night, the fabulous Pixar short film that showed before Toy Story 3. He decided to make a beautifully illustrated picture book based on the short film.

The book explores the way these two characters, Day and Night, explore their differences and eventually realize how much they like and enjoy each other. Kids will benefit from the messages of being unique and complementary with the different personalities of their peers. If you got to see this short film, you'll love reliving the scenes again and again in this colorful and vibrant Pixar book.

Take a look at the video preview of Night & Day with Teddy Newton.

Don't the pictures in this video make you want to see more? The book looks so colorful and brilliant. I'd love to get a copy of Day & Night both for myself and for my son and add it to my Pixar books collection.

The Art of.... books

The Art of Cars 2 Now Available!

These Art of... Pixar books are the perfect gift for that someone especially crazy for a particular Pixar film because each book takes you through the animation process in detail. From the process used in brainstorming artistic concepts and storyboarding to learning which ideas were ditched, the reader is taken through an amazing evolution of a Pixar feature film, from concept to final production.

Here's some exciting news: the latest "Art of" book is available right now - The Art of Cars 2!

Unlike The Art of Toy Story 3, there are NO SPOILERS in this book. The content mostly displays all the new exciting characters and settings throughout the movie. It is a fascinating study to see how all the famous landmarks have been redesigned to accommodate a world where there are cars instead of people populate the world.

The Art of Toy Story 3	The Art of Pixar: 25th Anniversary: Select Art & Scripts	The Art of UP
The Art of Cars	The Art of Finding Nemo	The Art of The Incredibles
The Art of Pixar Short Animated Films	The Art of Ratatouille	Toy Story the Art and Making of the Animated Film
A Bug's Life: The Art and Making of an Epic of Miniature Proportions	The Art of WALL-E	The Art of Monsters Inc