Adventures in Animation – Book Review
Any animation student taking their education seriously covets their copy of “The Animators Survival Kit”, a valued resource of all things animated full of frame by frame shortcuts for lazy, copycats on a deadline and soul food for those needing inspiration to understand the psychological mechanics needed to master the art form.
Penned by animation legend Richard Williams, the book is not just a tome designed for students, but a guiding hand produced for professionals and amateurs alike. Whilst A.I makes the doubtable promise of “democratising” whatever craft it subjects itself to Williams was democratising animation in the pen and paper age and the book stands to this day, cutting through the glib promises that art requires no dedication, leaving pixelated Picassos in the dust.
Though the guidebook has plenty of images that are the instant go-to for most folks, it becomes clear when reading the words in The Animators Survival Kit that the knowledge shared comes from a passionate and experienced place. Both the book and the career and films of Williams have cemented his legend and made him a figure of much debate and study. When Williams passed away in 2019 he left behind a half finished follow up to The Animators Survival Kit – Adventures in Animation, now completed using his notes by his wife, producer and collaborator Imogen Sutton.
Whilst his 2016 film Prologue seemed like something of a last hurrah from the seasoned animator decades past retirement and still going, Adventures in Animation treats extends Williams opus beyond his significant lifespan proving he had too much talent for a single mortal existence.
Billed as more of an autobiography than a guidebook for animators, the book is crammed full of wisdom. Establishing itself as more of a life story in a traditional way, explaining the family tree, the story soon begins to focus not on Williams himself, but on the influences that shaped his life, his mother, grandfather, etc. through to his teachers and the legends of animation that he invited to his studio.
Those expecting a traditional biography featuring a blow by blow soap opera of kids, marriages, divorces and drama will be left disappointed. This isn’t that book. Though his early years give ample detail of life at college, details of growing up and fantastic stories of hitch-hiking and close calls with bears in the wilderness as well as more difficult to tell stories of abuse, the book soon uses animated work as the milestones which the author explains his way through in wonderful detail.
As Williams continues through his career he begins to make the book less about himself and more about the people around him and what he learnt from them. You’d be forgiven for thinking you were reading the biography of Milt Kahl, Emery Hawkins, Art Babbit or Grim Natwick at times, but these mini biographies paint an intimate and personal portrait of the working lives of these legends and give the reader the opportunity to see them as human.
There comes a point in the book where fate forced Williams to lay down his pen and where Sutton takes over, turning the remaining pages into a collaboration and shifting perspectives with Sutton telling the remainder of the story. This comes at a point in the writing where their lives took a fabled turn and The Thief and the Cobbler was seized from them. The book does not suffer for this dynamic shift, if anything Sutton steers the story back towards the life story and away from the biography of other people that Williams rather got caught up in.
Co-authors Imogen Sutton and Richard Williams
Packed full of artwork from Thief and other productions this book allows you to take a guided tour through the life of Richard Williams as he walks you through his work and introduces you to those nearest and dearest to his professional career. The book closes with imparted wisdom from his own twitter account, proving that the author of The Animators Survival Kit, was throwing out survival skills until his last days.
The book is a magnificent thing to hold in your hands, lavishly designed with plenty of photos and artefacts from the director’s long career. and sits beautifully next to your copy of The Animators Survival Kit. The welcoming, accessible writing and characterful tone of Williams and Sutton should make this book a quick read for anyone. Like it’s companion piece, you will want to revisit this book over and over again.
Adventures in Animation: How I Learned Who I Learned From and What I Did with It is out now, and available from Amazon here.
Co-author Imogen Sutton is speaking at Manchester Animation Festival 2024 (10-14 November) and will be signing copies of the book as well as introducing a rare screening of The Thief and the Cobbler, A Moment in Time.