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Too Funny for Words: Disney's Greatest Sight Gags
Looks at movie stills and drawings for a variety of Disney animated films and shows how sight gags, visual puns and jokes are developed
- GenresArt
223 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1990
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About the author
Frank Thomas
129 books29 followersFranklin M. "Frank" Thomas was an American animator.
Frank Thomas attended Stanford University, where he worked on the campus humor magazine The Stanford Chaparral with Ollie Johnston.
After graduating from Stanford, he attended Chouinard Art Institute.
Frank Thomas joined The Walt Disney Company on September 24, 1934 as employee number 224. There he animated dozens of feature films and shorts.
Along with Ollie Johnston from his college days, the two would eventually become known as members of Walt Disney's team of animators known as the Nine Old Men .
Frank Thomas attended Stanford University, where he worked on the campus humor magazine The Stanford Chaparral with Ollie Johnston.
After graduating from Stanford, he attended Chouinard Art Institute.
Frank Thomas joined The Walt Disney Company on September 24, 1934 as employee number 224. There he animated dozens of feature films and shorts.
Along with Ollie Johnston from his college days, the two would eventually become known as members of Walt Disney's team of animators known as the Nine Old Men .
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 10, 2019
A glossy coffee table number extolling the humor of Disney's animation department.
February 12, 2018
There aren’t many books on this topic. It’s hard to explain gags that are based on motion through words and still images.
The first half is probably the most helpful/informative. I enjoyed reading about their trial and error process with early cartoons and films. Setting the standard other studios would copy to this day. It’s easy to think they just knew what they were doing, but the book shows there was a lot of learning going on in the young studio. Seeing the creators of the cartoons evaluate their projects on what works and what doesn’t, is always interesting to me.
There is also a great storyboard series from “Song of the South”, by the great Bill Peet, with commentary from the author on types of gags being used. I wish more of the book was like this. The later half of the book is still frames from various examples of types of gags. Informative and beautiful to look at, but not as helpful as that “Song of the South” board.
An enjoyable read. This book doesn’t get as much love as “Illusion of Life” (Too Funny for Words is a “sequel”) but it is informative and, honestly, talks about a subject that I hear very little about in many writing and film making books. Not a must have, but I’d encourage you to seek it out if you love Classic Disney and the 9 Old Men.
The first half is probably the most helpful/informative. I enjoyed reading about their trial and error process with early cartoons and films. Setting the standard other studios would copy to this day. It’s easy to think they just knew what they were doing, but the book shows there was a lot of learning going on in the young studio. Seeing the creators of the cartoons evaluate their projects on what works and what doesn’t, is always interesting to me.
There is also a great storyboard series from “Song of the South”, by the great Bill Peet, with commentary from the author on types of gags being used. I wish more of the book was like this. The later half of the book is still frames from various examples of types of gags. Informative and beautiful to look at, but not as helpful as that “Song of the South” board.
An enjoyable read. This book doesn’t get as much love as “Illusion of Life” (Too Funny for Words is a “sequel”) but it is informative and, honestly, talks about a subject that I hear very little about in many writing and film making books. Not a must have, but I’d encourage you to seek it out if you love Classic Disney and the 9 Old Men.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews