Although it will certainly please fans of DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda and its upcoming sequel, this Art Of… suffers from over familiarity, even if the image choices are refreshingly from the genuine concept stages as opposed to final frame filler.

Insight’s latest Art Of book is an engrossing trawl through the developmental work created by director Gore Verbinski and ILM for their collaboration Rango, and a fine companion to that unique film.

Olive Oyl sexy? Bluto a better man than Popeye? This book dares to be contrary, but it doesn’t necessarily translate into a good read.

The design of the book is beautiful, but once you get past that the vault seems surprisingly empty.

Teddy Newton’s bedtime storybook based on his wonderful short naturally can’t quite come alive on the printed page in the way the film did, but the delightful drawings do a sweet job of transposing one medium to another.

Lavishly illustrated on quality paper, Jerry Beck’s new book unfortunately doesn’t bring an awfully lot new to the published Looney Tunes canon, though it is undeniably exceptional value for money.

This collection of prose writings from Charles Schulz provides the next-best thing to a true autobiography. It also finally made me understand why I love Peanuts so much.

Jeremie Noyer reviews Thomas S. Hischak and Mark A. Robinson compendium of the Disney song catalog.

Lots of great material exists in the first third of the book, after which the author loses his way, and the poor writing and lack of a proper editor make this a tough one to recommend.

Jeremie Noyer reviews The Art Of Up, which looks at the development of Pixar’s latest movie.

Amid Amidi writes a book that fills the gap in the “Art of” series of Pixar books. Aside from the pretty pictures, there is a pretty good overview of the studio’s history included.

Finally, there is an English language book about Osamu Tezuka! This one has a narrow focus, but it’s a nice start, particularly for those who are most interested in his most famous creation.

Jerry Beck brings animation fans another treat. The text in this one may not bring any revelations, but the book fulfills its intended purpose as a very cool scrapbook.

Walt Disney and Roald Dahl’s wartime collaboration never made it to celluloid, but this deluxe reprint is a great glimpse at what might have been…