Fantasy art book review: The art of Zootopia.
I am in love with the film Zootopia to a near psychotic degree, however this book… angrys up my blood.
The Review.
Now to be fair, this is actually a fairly good book, but I was hoping it would enhance my enjoyment of the film, (which is mankind’s greatest achievement since the beginning of time) unfortunately it did not. Now I am well aware that I am being monstrously unfair in my fantasy art book review, of the art of Zootopia , because honestly, no book could ever stand beside such a perfect film. How could you ever hope to recapture the same feeling of near euphoric elation, that comes from basking in the purple twinged light of pure liquid awesome, that shines from every nanosecond of a film such as this? You can’t, that’s how. Zootopia is a perfect film and admittedly, I may be ever so very slightly obsessed with it. In point of fact I often introduce myself to new people with the following statement.
“Hi my name is Michael, I like Zootopia, I like Zootopia more than I will ever, ever like you, if you don’t like Zootopia, at least as much as I do, we can’t be friends and if you like Zootopia more than I do, then we are gonna throw down.” Mostly that’s a lie, I have never used the term “throw down” in my entire life and I would never say that I simply “like” Zootopia, I would use the word Love, with a capital L and probably sprinkled in glitter… I can feel you judging me, stop it.
The Review… continued.
Anyway, on to the review. I love books with “the art of” in the title, I love seeing unused concepts, ideas and how a character or locale evolves from storyboard to finished frame. I think that was the issue here, the finished artwork in the film speaks to me so profoundly, that the early designs just seem so much less, in a way that other “art of the film” books, don’t. Hence the unfairness of this review, the sketches and concept art in this book annoy me more than they normally would because I love the finished film so much. This is unreasonable and unfair but it’s a feeling I just can’t shake… poor “the art of Zootopia,” I still love you… just nowhere near as much as the film… which is perfect. OK, I promise I will not mention the film again for the rest of the review, (that is almost certainly a lie.)
The book is broken up into sections, most books are, so I don’t know why I mentioned it… the sections are as follows.
A world designed by animals.
This section is fairly brief and has a small amount of architectural concept art of the disparate building types that exist in the various habitats, though much greater detail exists in later sections. There are also some very nice automotive designs, which I absolutely couldn’t care less about, didn’t buy the book for the cars and buildings people, bought it for the animals, which is the next section… Woot
The animals of Zootopia.
Now we’re talking. All the anthropomorphic furry Disney animal cuteness can be found in this section… except for the other sections which have significantly more animals in them. So SOME anthropomorphic furry Disney animal cuteness can be found in this section, actually only Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde. Oh Judy… for me this was the greatest disappointment in the entire book, her early designs are just not her… at all, we are right in the middle of why my blood is currently angry. Her early concept art and designs are friggen awful. I was really hoping to see some nice full page CG renders of the characters, but they are few and far between, especially Judy and Nick. Now in all honesty I don’t give a monkeys butt about Nick, I’m all about Judy, but both of the main characters have only ONE actual CG render in the entire book… 160 odd pages and that’s all I get… one? Blood… Angry. It’s not like the book ever pretended it had more than that, but still, bite me.
Zootopian habitats.
This section makes up most of the content and is broken into sub sections. The Bunny Burrow section, Judy’s hometown, has lots of very nice concept art as well as a great picture of Judy with a bunch of her family members. Incidentally that picture shows that Judy’s eyes are significantly larger than every one of her relatives, nearly twice as large, some kind of genetic mutation perhaps? This might explain some of her erratic behavior in the film, I kinda just thought she was on crack. Sorry mentioned the film again… it’s just sooooo good.
There are some interesting internals of the Hopps family home, which is huge, presumably to accommodate all the many, many family members. When I say huge, I mean palatial. the Hopps’s are farmers, where are they getting the coin for a house that big? possibly they are selling drugs on the side?… The evidence is stacking up for Judy being dosed off her nut on crack, I mean she literally had a mob kingpin threaten to murder a suspect to get information… that is not a normal thought process. Don’t get me wrong, I like my Disney characters to be bat crap crazy, so it works for me.
The elementary school also makes an appearance in this section and we see some of the cubs which are so adorable that your nose may very well begin to bleed from all the cuteness. Also some crap about Gideon Grey or whatever… screw that guy.
Other habitats include the following.
Downtown Zootopia:
Mostly dull.
Savannah central station:
Some cool animal designs but not many.
Gazelle:
Not exactly sure why she is in the “habitats” section… seems kind of derogatory to me.
ZPD:
Mostly dull. Includes character spotlights on Bogo, (love you Idris) and Clawhauser. I want his donuts so badly, I’m dieting and watching him eat those friggen donuts is torturous.
City hall:
Mayor Lionheart and Bellwether made a brief appearance here, nobody cared.
Jumbeaux’s cafe:
Mostly dull, there’s one of the elephants and some nice designs for Finnick, nothing that’s blowing the wind up my skirt though.
Little Rodentia:
This section includes buildings, rodents, Michael not caring.
The Dmv:
Uggh.
Natural history museum:
Mostly dull, 2 pages long, it’s at this point I regret going into details about each habitat.
Sahara Square:
Quite nice background designs here, no animal cuteness though… I’m docking points for every page that does not have animal cuteness.
Palm Hotel and Casino:
Was originally going to be in the film for more than just a flyover, but was cut, nobody cares about you Palm Hotel and Casino, just leave.
Mystic springs Oasis:
This is the place that had all of the animals in the nicky nar. NOTE: Nicky nar is slang for nude… yes it is. SECONDARY NOTE: There are no nude animals in this section.
Tundra Town:
A couple of pages of buildings and whatever, my eyes glazed over and I moved on.
Mr. Big and Fru Fru:
One page each, one page more than they deserved frankly.
Koslov’s place:
Did not appear in the movie, did not appear in the list of stuff Michael cared about either.
Koslov and Morris:
Super did not appear in the movie, though they are polar bears with medium to high levels of cuteness, so I did not vomit blood at this section as much as I did with some of the others.
Rain forest district:
Nice environmental concepts… I guess.
Manchas:
Two pages, both unnecessary. Not getting any closer to being at peace with my choice to go into detail on each habitat. Stupid brain.
Meadowlands:
Two images, neither was of anything even remotely meadow-like. they lied to me.
Cliffside Asylum:
Mostly dull.
The Lab and Wooly:
Quite liked the sketches of Wooly here, though not enough to ever look at this section again.
Cloven Hoof Bar:
Again didn’t appear in the film, shouldn’t have appeared in the book. I honestly didn’t realize how much this book annoys me, until I started doing this review.
Wild Times:
Eight pages of crap that didn’t appear in the film.
Honey Badger:
Apparently she was going to be a friend for Nick but she was cut from the film, poor honey Badger, I feel badly for her. Upon closer examination, turns out I don’t care about her at all.
Animalia:
Evidently the stadium from the end credits, has a few nice CG images of some of the cast… though not Judy or Nick. a lot of that was a bit painful to be honest, tried to keep it brief so that you could maintain your sanity.
The last section is called Filming Zootopia. I am not going into it, it’s boring and I am annoyed, sad and pouting now.
Final thoughts.
I wanted to love this book so much, but there was too much that I just didn’t care about, in any way, and not enough of the stuff I was hoping to get… ONE FRIGGEN CG IMAGE OF JUDY?… SERIOUSLY? As I have previously stated, I feel my review was largely unfair given my obvious and unapologetic love of the film, still if this book fails to enthuse a Zootopia fan that is as insanely passionate as I am, what’s it going to do for normal people? Would I purchase this book again? No, no I would not. Should you purchase this book? do what you like, no skin off my nose either way. Should you purchase the film? how dare you not already own this film? Buy the film.
Score out of ten.
If you like concept art books or Disney or anthropomorphic animals then I would give it a six out of ten, maybe… if I was feeling obscenely generous. If you are somebody like me, then that score gets lowered somewhat, to perhaps, negative 8763628426 out of ten. Was not a fan of the book… at all. Was a fan of the film… a lot.
Did you like this book? did you hate this book? Do you have a recipe for sugar free snacks that don’t taste like a sheet of cardboard that a cat has befouled? Leave a comment down below. Also check out my books here… hooray.