Art & Culture: The Art of Toy Story 3 by Charles Solomon

With Andy safely bundled off to college, presumably, Toy Story 3 will be the final installment in what has been a phenomenally successful movie franchise. It’s difficult now to remember that the first movie, 1995’s Toy Story, revolutionized the way animation was both made and seen. But I remember that movie being huge and ground-breaking. The latest film seems to me to have broken less ground, but it endures at the box office, as recent opening weekend ticket sales will attest.

In The Art of Toy Story 3 (Chronicle Books) author and animation historian Charles Solomon takes us through all of the technical challenges, adventures and misadventures that the platoon of animators encountered on their way to making the third film in the series. One of the challenges for the team was using technology that had moved light years ahead in 15 years to create characters that would still be familiar to the moviegoers who had initially fallen in love with them.

The book includes a detailed look at how the new film was imagined and created as well as character studies and maquettes, concept art, an overview of all three Toy Story films and a great deal more. The Art of Toy Story 3 is an intimate look behind the scenes of one of the most beloved and enduring animated features made in the last half-century.