Advice on 'The Disney Villain' Book.

[Enchantress]

Hey, me again . I've been looking at this book for a while on Ebay, and I was thinking of getting it, but before I do, I thought I'd ask your advice.

I hear that 'The Illusion of Life' is THE book to go for, but I am a big fan of the villains and so this book stood out to me.

The question is, is the book as good as I expect it to be, or should I just leave it well alone?

Thanks in advance

Rach

[Disney Duster]

Finally a chance for me to really help someone! Or, at least, I can help to some extent. I haven't seen or read "The Illusion of Life", but if you are a Disney animation fan, this is a SUPERB book! And if you are a villains fan, well holy toledo get it!

My library actually has "The Disney Villain" in it's over-sized books section. It has pictures on every page (or almost every page). And they are absolutely fantastic images, too! It has a wonderful introduction with a large image of Ursula scaring Ariel at the cauldron, a huge, I think two-page image of Judge Doom(from Roger Rabbit) that's downright scary with his eyes, and a really creepy image of Snow White's peddler woman holding the apple! It has lots of info and trivia, like an octopus that was named after Ursula later was renamed Ursa when it was found out to be a boy. It talks of the chilling emotional power brought into the animation, all through pencils.

It's just one amazing must-have book. If you want, I could go to the library tomarrow and have another look to refresh my memory and give you more insight! I might even do it no matter how you answer, just because I wouldn't mind refreshing my memories of such a good book!

Ask me specific questions, if you want!

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Buy it, by all means - even though it's pretty lightweight compared to "The Illusion of Life"...

[Enchantress]

Finally a chance for me to really help someone! Or, at least, I can help to some extent. I haven't seen or read "The Illusion of Life", but if you are a Disney animation fan, this is a SUPERB book! And if you are a villains fan, well holy toledo get it!

My library actually has "The Disney Villain" in it's over-sized books section. It has pictures on every page (or almost every page). And they are absolutely fantastic images, too! It has a wonderful introduction with a large image of Ursula scaring Ariel at the cauldron, a huge, I think two-page image of Judge Doom(from Roger Rabbit) that's downright scary with his eyes, and a really creepy image of Snow White's peddler woman holding the apple! It has lots of info and trivia, like an octopus that was named after Ursula later was renamed Ursa when it was found out to be a boy. It talks of the chilling emotional power brought into the animation, all through pencils.

It's just one amazing must-have book. If you want, I could go to the library tomarrow and have another look to refresh my memory and give you more insight! I might even do it no matter how you answer, just because I wouldn't mind refreshing my memories of such a good book!

Ask me specific questions, if you want!

Wow thanks , I think I'll buy it just because of your enthusiasm! It sounds like an ace book, and I think it'll be just my 'cup of tea'. Thanks for the detailed response, you've made my decision

[JamesDFarrow]

There are 2 Disney Villians books.

Disney Villians: The Essential Guide (DK Essentials Guides) by DK Publishing

Disney Villians: The Top Secret Files (Disney Villians) by Jeff Kurtti

Which one are you referring to?

James

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Since "The Illusion of Life" was mentioned in the same question I suppose it's the book by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas.

[Enchantress]

Yeah, this is the one I meant. I'm sorry, I didn't realise there were so many books under the same title.

[JamesDFarrow]

Thanks!

James

[Unregistered]

Thanks for the review. I feel horrible about not having heard of The Illusion of Life before, being new to this and all. I do think you gave a really positive impression on The Disney Villain! Sounds like a book to my liking, especially with the insider scoops and so

[Enchantress]

I think I'll ask for 'The Illusion of Life' for Christmas, either that or I'll treat myself with some of the overtime I'm doing at work.

[lord-of-sith]

The Disney Villain is a wonderful book! Villains are always my favorite charatcers, and this book features them wonderfully. My only microscopic gripe is that it ends with Jafar, and doesn't go on to Scar or Frollo (but the time period the book was written I beleive is an excuse).

One of my favorite things about it is that Frank and Ollie wrote it, and they obviously know more about a majority of these characters than anyone.

There are magnificent pictures on every page. I believe the first pic is of the Snow Witch holding the apple and is the supposed icon of the book. Within the front cover is a foldout that features Maleficent on the front, and Jafar on the inside.

There is also tons of info and fun facts, as well as heaps of concept art. I highly recommend this book.

[lledra]

The Illusion of Life is a GREAT book. My brother owns it, and I remember flipping though the pages for hours. Reading everything, looking at everything. I absolutely loved it.

It's just filled to the brim with knowledge and interesting facts. He also has the Villian book your talking about, and I loved that one too. But I'm more of a technical person, so I really enjoy seeing the breakdown of things. So for me personally The Illusion of Life is amazing and can't be beaten.

The Disney Villain is also very cool. It really does show the villians and all the pictures are note worthy. A very good book for information on your favourite villian!

[Lars Vermundsberget]

To avoid sounding negative, I'll put it this way: The other three Disney animation books by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas are even more recommendable than "The Disney Villain", IMO, although it might not be quite fair to compare all of them.

[Enchantress]

To avoid sounding negative, I'll put it this way: The other three Disney animation books by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas are even more recommendable than "The Disney Villain", IMO, although it might not be quite fair to compare all of them.

Which are the other two books they did? I only know of 'The Disney Villain' and 'The Illusion of life'

[Lars Vermundsberget]

"Illusion" was their first, "Villain" their last. Between those two titles they published:

Thomas, Frank and Ollie Johnston. Too Funny for Words. New York: Abbeville, 1987.

Thomas, Frank and Ollie Johnston. Walt Disney’s Bambi. New York: Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 1990.

A lot of great artwrk in these, particularly "Too Funny for Words", that can be considered a "companion volume" to "Illusion" - basically including a lot of artwork that could not be included in the first book. TFfW is light on text, though.

[Enchantress]

Cool thanks Lars . I never knew about the other two!

[Enchantress]

Just an update! I received this book a bit ago, I just forgot to mention it . I really love this book, and seeing as some of my favourite characters are the villain, I really see it as a worthwhile purchase .

Excluding P+P, this book cost me £4! yes, you heard right! How can you grumble at that?!

I'd recommend this book to anyone who is slightly intrigued by it, I wish I could post some scans but my scanner doesn't work (Dad), but I could try and take some photos, they'd probably be low quality though, it was only a cheap camera.

Thanks again for all those who gave information!

[FantasiaMan]

I like the back, where they list all the villains by movie & by animator. It's very informative, especially for an animation buff like myself.

[Disney Lover]

Where did you end up buying the book from? I may end up getting it myself. We will see. I'll check it out on Amazon.com.

[Enchantress]

Where did you end up buying the book from? I may end up getting it myself. We will see. I'll check it out on Amazon.com.

I actually got it from Ebay.co.uk. It was a buy it now for $8'ish, the only real cost was the postage because it was from America. It only came to around £15, in pristine condition, which still worked out cheaper than Amazon market place was selling it for, without postage!