©The Walt Disney Company

It is good to remember what limits there are on books published by Disney, about Disney, for the synchronistic purpose of cross-promoting Disney. Impossible as it is to outdo Schumacher’s disdain and ‘all knowing’ tone, ultimately so as Homer is to Gramps, Schumacher is one-upped by Michael Eisner’s comment:

Come again? How exactly did he form this vision, and when was he implementing it? How many other untalented fools are going to claim responsibility for this film? (If it doesn’t do some astounding box office I dare say this book will get recalled. Yeesh!) I think the “seven to ten years�? was based on how long Eisner expected to be in court with Jeffrey Katzenberg over his LION KIING earnings.

In spite of candy coating the penny dreadful antics of the suits and all but putting them up on a pedestal, the writer has managed to make sense of the central theme of transformation. He does a fine job showing all the fits and screams that come along the way, drawing analogies between the film’s heroes and the struggle that the directors and story team experienced at various times over the past six years. He eventually finds the strongest argument for his thesis when providing fascinating and fair accountings of such events as how the ill-fated character of Grizz, voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan, ultimately gave way to John Puglisi and Kevin Harkey’s insightful change that forced the aging grizzly to exit in favor of the cuddly cub, Koda; a move wisely championed by story head Steve Anderson, who just might be the real hero of this tale.

©The Walt Disney Company

Mr. Wakabayashi also spends some time talking about the visual language of the film, including the sophisticated decision to change the aspect ratio of the film once Kenai is transformed into a bear. This is nicely complimented by art director Robh Ruppel’s choice to keep the pre and post-transformation color palettes distinctly different. For folks looking to read more about the visual development of the film, this may not provide enough, but the narrow focus actually helps this book. The author/designer has supplemented the tale with a generous helping of mouth watering illustrations. I would liked to have seen a half-dozen more story boards to help illustrate the struggle of the story team, but even without them it is a fascinating read and fun to look at. Don’t let the plot spoilers deter you, as there’s a great deal to be said for hearing all the various treatments and incarnations of the central story beforehand. The film promises to deliver enough surprises, pathos, humor and spectacle to pull you in no matter how much you know in advance.

So, cheers to Wendy Lefkon and Jody Revenson as well as to H. Clark Wakabayashi for having delivered to readers something we’ve been missing for three years - hard cover “art of�? that is not only a good read with plenty of eye-candy, but affordably priced. Now that’s a transformation!

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