Bless my soul Herc was on a roll. Insight Editions is also on a roll with their recent publications of premium collectible Disney art books. Earlier this year Insight Editions released a deluxe book featuring the art of English cartoonist, Gerald Scarfe. Gerald was the production designer on one of my favorite Disney animated classics from the 90s, Hercules. Gerald’s responsibilities on the film included the Herculean task of creating the characters designs for the movie for which he produced over seven hundred sketches. Disney’s Hercules the Art of Gerald Scarfe book by Insight Editions is loaded with those wonderful sketches. Gerald also supervised the nine hundred animators who worked on Hercules to go the distance and adapt those character designs into the heroes and villains of the masterpiece film that we all enjoy.

The book starts off with a foreword by Thomas Schumacher. Thomas is the Chief Creative Officer of Disney Theatrical Group. Thomas oversaw the production of Hercules in his former role as the President of Walt Disney Feature Animation. In his current role, he was in charge of the development of the stage musical adaptation of Disney’s Hercules. In the foreword, Thomas talks about his love for Gerald’s art work from his images that hep to visualize Pink Floyd’s The Wall to his work on Disney’s Hercules. Gerald’s initial assignment on Hercules was to be an inspiration artist, but he was promoted to production designer from his amazing art work. Thomas tells a story about how it was hard to bring Gerald’s large portfolio back to the states on the plane. Luckily the pilot was a fan of Gerald Scarfe’s work on Pink Floyd’s The Wall, and that earned the portfolio its own seat on the plane.

Gerald discusses his introduction and admiration for Disney animation as well as the artist’s early inspirations in the first chapter of the book, “How It All Began”. There is an amazing Gerald sketch of Walt Disney dressed as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice among some of Walt’s biggest early years stars. We get a great story on how John Musker and Ron Clements came about to ask Gerald to work on their upcoming film, Hercules. Readers get treated to some of Gerald’s other non Disney early art sketches that would inspire his future work on Hercules. We get a real insight into Gerald’s work pre Hercules in this chapter leading up to his dream job of production designer on Hercules. This is an art book with gorgeous sketches of the characters that we know and love, but the text that describes how Gerald came up with the designs is equally fun and interesting. We really get taken on the journey of how each character came to life. Hades is one of my all time favorite Disney Villains, and it was amazing to see some of his early designs that were not used. It was also inter sting to see how the Disney animators took his initial concept designs and turned them into the characters that we love in the film. You could tell here there was mutual admiration between Gerald Scarfe and the Disney animators.

Gerald the opens the curtain on the real mythologies behind Hercules’ tragic upbringing and adulthood. There are definitely some deviations between that mythology and the film. This chapter definitely made me put the real Hercules mythology on my future read list.

Each chapter of Disney’s Hercules the Art of Gerald Scarfe is devoted to showing how each character was brought to life from original sketches to the finish product after collaborating with the Disney artists. Many of the characters in the film look extremely close to Gerald’s original visions. This part of the book is loaded with art sketches that I have never seen before. I own the original Art of Hercules: The Chaos of Creation book which is currently out of print. I believe the Disney’s Hercules the Art of Gerald Scarfe book is the definitive ultimate collection of art to comprehensively document the character creations of the 1997 Disney classic, Hercules. The art work that covers the 336 pages of this large collectible hard cover book belong in a museum. The art book should be an inspiration for all aspiring art students and art professionals, and the book is a necessity for fans of Disney’s Hercules.

Disney’s Hercules the Art of Gerald Scarfe is worthy of a place on a book shelf in Mount Olympus or in your living room. This art book definitely goes the distance. As Hades says in the movie, “two thumbs way, way up”.

A big thanks to Insight Editions for allowing me to check out this amazing art book with art that inspired the characters of the Walt Disney Company’s 35th animated feature film, Hercules.

Where to Buy?

Order: Disney’s Hercules the Art of Gerald Scarfe (Amazon)

*By purchasing from Amazon.com through this link above you are supporting DuckTalks at no additional cost to yourself!