Book Review: The Art of Minnie Mouse Offers Unique Look at Animated Icon

The upcoming book, The Art of Minnie Mouse releases on September 27th, 2016. I received a copy to review. For those who might think this is similar to other books that begin with “The Art of” – it isn’t. This is a very different type of book than the movie books (which contain concept art). The Art of Minnie Mouse is a very stylized book for fans of Minnie Mouse.

The beautifully designed book is laid out in three different sections that include “Her Animated Filmography”, “Her Milestones” and “Her Gallery”. The last one makes up the bulk of the book.

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“Her Animated Filmography” is a few pages that catalog most or all of the appearances of Minnie Mouse in animation. It starts with Steamboat Willie and ends with Get a Horse.

“Her Milestones” is a longer section, sharing “Memorable moments and key turning points in the life and times of Minnie Mouse”. This begins with Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks creating her, mentioning how Walt provided the vocals for Minnie early on. This chapter shows Minnie in Plane Crazy, Steamboat Willie, on the cover of Mickey Mouse Magazine and more. There is talk of the Mickey Mouse Club, Disney Dollars, and even Minnie Moo (remember her?), who began at the Magic Kingdom and eventually ended up at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground until she passed in 2001. It’s a little history of Minnie Mouse through the years, in many of her different incarnations.

The last section covers most of the book, and that is “Her Gallery”. This is “Interpretations of Minnie Mouse from artists of Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media”. Those who follow Disney artists will recognize names like David Pacheco and Eric Tan. The Minnie Mouse artwork here includes digital, mixed media, water color and much more. Minnie is imagined in many ways, from more traditional to Minnie as a set of villains (including Ursula, Maleficent, Cruella and Lady Tremaine), to a glamorous icon in a variety of artwork pieces. She is even imagined as a pair of nesting dolls and a mermaid hugging a shark. That is just the tip of the iceberg, there are probably 100 pages of art with a handful of pages that include quotes from an odd mix of celebrities (as well as artists and designers). Even Imagineer John Hench is quoted.

For a Minnie Mouse fan, this should be a nice addition to a medium size coffee table. The title The Art of Minnie Mouse explains the book perfectly, it is mostly a stylish art book with some information about Minnie in the first two shorter chapters.

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