Disney’s Art of Coloring book series adds another volume with Beauty and the Beast, themed exclusively to the new live action adaptation. This new adult coloring book features “100 images to inspire creativity” and like the most recent releases (Moana, Rogue One, and Tsum Tsum), this one comes in a soft cover. I must say I prefer the soft cover versions because it’s easier to bend the pages to color close to the binding. These pages are also perforated in case you need to pull them out.
There are many beautiful scenes from the film represented in this book. I have a few Harry Potter adult coloring books, which can sometimes get a little uncanny with the translation from live action to line drawings, but these are all very well done. Every memorable character is depicted on these pages, from Belle and Beast and the core enchanted objects, to side characters like Madame Garderobe (as an object and a human). However, an odd omission is that there aren’t any images of Gaston or LeFou.
If you prefer to color patterns instead of characters, this book has something for you. Many of the pages feature intricate repeating patterns inspired by the film, mostly featuring books, roses, or character silhouettes. But my favorite pages in this category are the stained glass window art. The last 16-pages also combine to form lyrics and corresponding imagery from the song, “Beauty and the Beast.”
One regret that I have is I wish they had chosen to highlight both the live action and animate versions in the same book. I’m assuming several human characters were omitted because they would incur a royalty fee for the actor, but including animated images alongside these would have created a better product. Those looking for those images will find plenty of Belle pages in the Disney Princess volume, Gaston in the Disney Villains coloring book, and Beast in the Disney Animals collection.
Overall, I’m pretty pleased with this Art of Coloring: Beauty and the Beast collection of coloring pages. The images that are included are beautiful and with 100 to choose from, there’s no shortage of options. If this proves to be a top seller, I hope that Disney Editions will revisit this subject with a combo live-action/animation release.