Frankenweenie: An Electrifying Book for the iPad


We are all looking forward to the opening of Tim Burton's new movie, "Frankenweenie", so when I heard that Disney Publishing was releasing a free interactive Frankenweenie eBook, I downloaded it to see whether it was just an extended movie trailer or something that could legitimately be called an eBook.   After a not-so-quick read-through, I'm happy to say that it's definitely worth the download.   Frankenweenie: An Electrifying Book is like the eBook version of a beautifully illustrated coffee table book that gives readers a glimpse of how the movie was made.  It's filled with preliminary sketches, photos of character models, photos of sets, and more.  And since it's an eBook, you can watch video clips of Tim Burton talking about the history behind the film, listen to music from the movie, even purchase physical books and tickets to see the movie. Frankenweenie: An Electrifying Book is like a collection of special features on a DVD -- photo gallery, "The Making Of.." featurette, etc.. -- in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it did end up on disc 2 of the Frankenweenie DVD.

Below are a couple of photos from the book.  An entire chapter is devoted to showing how they recreated the scenes in the movie, like the pet graveyard, Victor's classroom, Victor's attic and Victor's kitchen.  Since the movie was filmed using stop-motion technique, they had to create actual physical sets.


Another chapter introduces the main characters in the movie: Sparky, Victor, his parents, their neighbors, his science teacher, his classmates, their pets.  The photo below shows how the camera captures the animated figures on the set.  I had just assumed that Frankenweenie was a computer-animated film, so I was amazed to see how much effort has to go into making a film via stop-motion animation!



About the book:
It’s alive!!...and on your iPad! In anticipation of the much-talked-about stop-motion animated film directed by Tim Burton, “Frankenweenie,” (in theaters October 5, 2012), Disney Publishing Worldwide is excited to release Frankenweenie: An Electrifying Book for the iPad. Available on the iBookstore, the fully interactive book integrates videos, vibrant music, and original sketches to offer readers a fully immersive behind-the-scenes look into the making of the movie. This is Disney Publishing’s first project created with Apple’s iBooks Author software.


“We’re thrilled to give fans a look at how Tim Burton and his creative team brought Victor Frankenstein and Sparky to life in the town of New Holland,” said Lyle Underkoffler, vice president, Digital Media, Disney Publishing Worldwide. “Using iBooks Author, Disney Publishing was able to include more digital content than ever before—including previews of animated storyboards documenting the transition from sketch to screen.”



Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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