Taschen Is Creating The Ultimate Classic Disney Animation Art Book (Pre-Order)

Start saving up money: Disney’s classic animated films are getting the Taschen book treatment this fall when the German publisher releases The Walt Disney Film Archives: The Animated Movies 1921-1968.

The cover of the Taschen book suggests that it’ll use the format of the publisher’s other film-related archive books, such as those dedicated to Pedro Almodóvar, Stanley Kubrick, Ingmar Bergman, Charlie Chaplin, and James Bond films. It’s listed at 624 pages, and will cost $200 when released on November 15. Amazon has it available for pre-order at $190.

Reportedly, if the book sells well (and it obviously will), Taschen will release future volumes about Walt Disney’s involvement in television, live-action films, and theme parks.

Taschen, which describes the book as the “most comprehensive illustrated Disney publication to date,” hasn’t released any interior pages from the book yet, but offers the following description of its contents:

With unlimited access to the Disney archives and extensive research, the book’s authors have gathered some 1,500 images, including concept art, story sketches, backgrounds, and animation drawings as well as many behind-the-scenes photos to trace the origins and evolution of such favorites as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, 101 Dalmatians, and The Jungle Book. Transcripts from Walt’s story development meetings, published here for the first time, reveal his imaginative genius in action and immerse the reader at the very heart of Disney’s remarkable creative hub.

This fascinating archival material covers not only the early Disney classics, but also the experimental short films of the Silly Symphonies and the lesser-known war and propaganda films of the 1940s. Widely neglected musical features such as Make Mine Music and Melody Time are also given extensive coverage. Along the way, we encounter the work of all major Disney illustrators and stylists of the era, including such greats as Ub Iwerks, Albert Hurter, Ferdinand Horvath, Gustaf Tenggren, Kay Nielsen, Carl Barks, Mary Blair, Sylvia Holland, Bianca Marjorie, Tyrus Wong, Ken Anderson, Eyvind Earle, and Walt Peregoy. Special archival finds also bear witness to Disney’s collaboration with leading visual artists of the age, Salvador Dalí and Thomas Hart Benton.