John Lasseter mentions in the introduction his first job in college was pulling animation sequences from "the morgue" – Disney's archive of animation artworks. Well, this book is filled with those animation boards from "the morgue". Specifically, these are boards before the clean up process — before sketchy pencil lines are removed and colours, backgrounds added.

The second book in The Archive Series is still a huge thick hardcover with the boards printed gloriously big. Compared to the first volume, every artist is now properly credited to their work. There are a couple of fold-outs which I think are great because they allow more frames per page, and thus being able to appreciate the sequence in question easier, noticing the subtleties better without having to constantly flip pages back and forth.

This book is primarily on the character art and animation. 

For animation sequences the boards included are actually a mixture of in-sequence and standalone. You'll probably be able to recognise the many memorable scenes, like how Dumbo swings from her mother's trunk , when Pinnochio takes his first step or the spaghetti-eating-to-kissing scene in The Lady and the Tramp.

Plenty of legendary artists are included, like Ub Iwerks, Norm Ferguson, Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske, Dick Huemer, Grim Natwick, Art Babbitt, Fred Moore, Bill Tytla, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Milt Kahl, Marc Davis, John Lounsbery, Ward Kimball, Eric Larson, Les Clark, Wolfgang Reitherman, John Sibley, Bill Justice, Clyde Geronimi, Ted Berman, Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, Eric Goldberg, Mark Henn and Tony Bancroft.

What I think is a drawback in this book is that, even though the book is quite thick and has quite a lot of boards, there are some key scenes missing. The lack of art from Robin Hood (there's just none), The Little Mermaid (really small selection) or Milt Kahls' astounding Shere Kahn (which the book contains only one frame).

Overall this book is great! It is worth every penny. I would recommend it to animators or great lovers of this kind of art because this book contains the raw snapshots from this hugely talented people and not perfectly finished pictures of how you it appears in the movies.

Buzz Lightyear - Toy Story Collection

Today I'm going to talk about this amazing Buzz Lightyear. This is a true replica from the film.

Buzz comes alive with the original Buzz voice (Tim Allen) and has over 65 sayings. He is so clever that he knows when you’re talking to him. A really fun feature is that, if you scream or talk in a higher register, he will advise you to speak at a more civilized tone.
He has many points of articulation: his arms and legs swivel and rotate, his waist is on a ratchet and covered entirely in soft rubber (not hard plastic) which moves around, up, down and side to side.

You can pop-out his wings which have light-up wing tips and don't forget to test his level sensor which knows when Buzz is in a flying position or standing.

This toy is huge and heavy (product dimensions: 14.6 x 27.9 x 33 cm ; 3.5 kg) but is quite resistant and just so cool.

Another great detail is the box. He comes in the original spaceship box from the first Toy Story movie, when Andy receives him at his birthday. And the manufacturers didn't forget the cardboard wings!
Its worth mentioning that he has a couple of different modes: Space Ranger mode and Toy mode. You can activate them by using his blue and red chest buttons respectively (the green is for the interactive mic feature). His space ranger mode is like having him come alive and he'll even complain about his eyes being sucked out of their sockets if you open up his space helmet (which comes complete with wooshing sounds), his head is motorised so he'll look around and talk to you, about star command and even The Evil Emperor Zurg which occasionally prompts a laser blast. In his toy mode his head will remain static, his speaker will go quieter and tinny and he'll say a range of quotes you'd expect from a toy.

If you are a Toy Story Fan and a Buzz Lightyear lover, you have got to get this one! However, I would not recommend this particular toy to children who just want a Buzz to play with. As stated above, it is a big and heavy toy, so not so great do play around with. Also, this is a collectible item, kind of expensive and a total waste at the hands of small children who might break it or damage it without noticing.

To Infinity And Beyond!

Disney Sing It - Family Hits (Wii)

I recently bought this game because I love almost every Disney song, and I thought it would be pretty cool to be able to sing it either alone, with my family or with my friends. I truly believed that it would give me countless hours of fun and horror to my neighbours, since I'm not the best singer in the world.

I was quite excited to receive the game at home and, when it finally arrived, I went straight to my Wii to start exploring and playing.

I am quite happy with the interface. It is simple and clean, but also fun and Disney style. You can choose from different designs that you win while playing the game and achieving certain bonuses. 

One great feature is the vocal tips that you can get from Anika Noni Rose, who gave the voice to Princess Tiana. So, if you're feeling insecure about your vocal abilities, you can boost your confidence by learning a little bit from Tiana herself. How cool, right?
You can also sing solo, duet or encore. If you're having a party you and your friends can sing together and have a blast!
It is easy to follow the lyrics and I don't find the game that hard. There are three difficulty levels: easy, medium and hard. For the little ones the easy and medium modes are probably better, but if you're a young adult or above, you will find the easy mode too easy. I really can't sing, but I prefer to choose between the medium or hard modes, otherwise I have the feeling that the game is doing everything for me.
What left me truly disappointed was the song selection. I mean, you only get 20 songs, not such a wide selection, and some of them aren't just what you expected. Here is the complete list of the featured songs so that you can decide for yourself:

Film	Song
101 Dalmatians	Cruella De Ville
Aladdin	A Whole New World
Beauty and the Beast	Be Our Guest
Cars	Our Town
Cinderella	A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes
Cinderella	Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo
Cinderella	So This is Love
Jungle Book	The Bare Necessities
Jungle Book	I Wan'na Be Like You
Lady and The Tramp	He's A Tramp
Lion King	Can You Feel the Love Tonight
Lion King	Hakuna Matata
Lion King	I Just Can't Wait to be King
Monsters, Inc	If I Didn't Have You
Mary Poppins	Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Peter Pan	You Can Fly
Princess and The Frog	Almost There
Princess and The Frog	Dig a Little Deeper
Ratatouille	Le Festin
Toy Story	You've Got a Friend in Me

Overall I think the game is good and great fun. I expected more from the tracklist but I truly believe that more games will be released and they didn't want to "give away" all of the most beloved songs.
If you are a true disney fan, you will probably enjoy this game. If you want to keep your kids entertained, this will do it for sure! However, be aware that for young adults or above, after some time you may feel like you've been singing the same song forever.