O nosso parceiro, o site Animation-Animagic, destacou essa semana a novidade que deve agradar aos grandes fãs de animação e dos clássicos Disney, que a anos aguardam o lançamento do livro “Tales As Old As Time” (The Art of Beauty and the Beast) do autor Charles Solomon (que atualmente escreve um livro sobre “Toy Story 3“), que finalmente chegará as lojas.Dos clássicos da década de 90, apenas o clássico “A Bela e a Fera” não ganhou um livro de arte dedicado ao processo de produção, sendo lançado apenas uma fração do livro “The Art of Disney Animation” (cuja reedição teve essa parte substituída pelo making of de “Hércules“).
O Animation-Animagic também destaca trecho da entrevista feita pelo historiador Didier Ghez, que entrevistou Charles Solomon sobre o novo livro. Na entrevista encontramos uma prévia do que será possível conferir no livro, como a versão mais séria e sombria que seria produzida em Londres por Richard Purdum.
“A Bela e a Fera” será relançada nos cinemas de todo o mundo no ano que vem, sendo que a grande novidade será a chance de conferir o animado usando a tecnologia Disney Digital 3D. O lançamento do único animado Disney a ser indicado ao Oscar de Melhor Filme na história acontecerá no dia 21 de Maio de 2010.
Abaixo segue o trecho da entrevista do Didier Ghez com o autor do livro, que chega as lojas norte-americanas no início de 2010.
DG: Why did you decide to work on that book? Can you run us through the genesis of that project?
CS: My initial reaction was that there have already been too many books that tell readers too little about how a film actually gets made: they present a rosy scenario in which everyone has only good ideas, the artists all get along, and the project sails through production. Don Hahn, who suggested doing the book, promised that would tell the real story of making Beauty and the Beast, which was an interesting challenge.
DG: What is the most exciting material you have unearthed for this new book?
CS: Hans Bacher had trove of his beautiful drawings which he made available to us, and Glen Keane allowed us to photograph pages from one of his sketchbooks. The ever-helpful staff of the Animation Research Library found storyboard drawings that show the evolution of various ideas: e.g. “Be Our Guest” was originally sung to Maurice, rather than Belle, and we’re able to juxtapose the boards from the two versions.
DG: To write this book did you conduct a whole new set of interviews with Disney artists?
CS: While I had extensive interviews with many of the artists from pieces I wrote when Beauty and the Beast was released, I talked to as many of the artists as time allowed. Everyone I contacted was extremely generous with their time, and it was interesting to hear how they looked back on their experiences. Nearly everyone said, “We were kids working on that film!” Even executives as busy as Dick Cook and Jeffrey Katzenberg made time to speak with me.
DG: What are the main chapters of the book?
CS: The 10 chapters trace development of the film from the origins of the story, through the Imax and 3D re-releases of the film.
DG: Any other details you can give us about it?
CS: One interesting thing I discovered is that Beauty and the Beast is one of the most widespread of all fairy tales or legends. Versions exist all over the world and can be traced back to The Golden Ass, the second century novel of Lucius Apuleius, and the story wasn’t new then. It had already been filmed at least 30 times before the Disney artists tackled it. The earliest known film is a French version by Pathé Fréres from 1899.
