Anyone who loved Disney's great animated classic "The Jungle Book" will be in heaven with Pierre Lambert new gorgeous opus. Pierre Lambert is the author of the previous luxury books "Pinnochio", "Snow White", and "Mickey Mouse" all of them existing in english edition. This new one, published by french renown publisher Editions de la Martinière has its text in french only - that's why the title on the cover is "Le Livre de la Jungle".
Although Pierre Lambert's text is extremely interesting this only-french-version must not stop you to order the book as most of the 237 pages of the book are purely visuals. And what a great artwork! From Ken Anderson and Bill Peet first sketches to the stunning background by Albert Dempster, the book tells the full story of the creation of one of Walt Disney's most beloved classic. You'll find not less than 250 never seen before artwork coming from Walt Disney Animation Research Library and private collections: cellos, layouts, modelsheets, story-boards and preliminary studies, and many more. Let's have a look to some of them.
Here is a watercolour and china ink preliminary study from Ken Anderson showing Mowgli and Baloo...
...and a great cello upon background painting showing Mowgli walking in the Jungle (double-click on the image to see it in big).
You'll find also in the book rare story-board sketches like these below...
...or great colour sketches like this one for Baloo...
...or these colour sketch and modelsheet for King Louis...
...or Shere Kahn.
Of course, the book is full of great cellos like this one from the Bear Necessities sequence...
...or beautiful background paintings...
...or both of them together like these cellos on background painting of the King Louis temple scene (double-click on the image to see it in big).
And when i will tell you that the printing of this 13" x 13" book - which comes in a box - is absolutely stunning you'll understand that this Jungle Book luxury edition - definitely the best book ever published on the movie - would be a perfect Christmas gift to any super-fan of this animated classic. For now, the best price is 95 euros on Amazon ( $142 ) which, i agree, may look a bit expensive but believe me the book definitely worth each cent of the 142 dollars! Fantastic book, really!
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All pictures: copyright 2009 Disney
