As much a testament to the art of the book as the art of animation, The Art and Making of Monster House is presented in lavish four-color throughout, with highlights of some of the film’s most astonishing features including 3-D art, gatefolds and die-cut overlays of the five stages of computer generated “motion capture” technology. It also includes envelopes, cards, and a movie poster. Monster House is the first film from director Gil Kenan, who is living every young director’s dream, hand-picked by the film’s executive producer, Steven Spielberg, to create this groundbreaking film. This latest release from Sony Pictures Imageworks and ImageMovers, features the innovative, cutting-edge technology of " performance capture” animation, first introduced in The Polar Express . Monster House tells the story of a trio of friends who discover the secret that a scary, creepy house in their neighborhood is actually a living, breathing monster and it’s up to the kids to stop the evil house before it’s too late. Standouts in the cast include animation veterans Steve Buscemi, Kathleen Turner, Catherine O’Hara and Jason Lee, as well as Fred Willard, Kevin James, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Jon Heder.
Author
J. W. Rinzler has authored over 20 books including two New York Times bestsellers and a #1 best-selling graphic novel. With more than 600,000 copies in print, his books have been translated into seven languages. J. W. Rinzler grew up in Manhattan, New York City, and then in Berkeley, California. He fell in love with old monster films, such as Dracula and Frankenstein, as well as Robin Hood and other adventure movies. He was an avid comic-book and novel reader, an intrepid moviegoer, and had his mind blown by The Beatles, Star Trek, Bruce Lee, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Frank Frazetta, Michelangelo, and Mad Magazine. Rinzler drew his own comic books (badly), then, in his 20s, moved onto figurative oil painting (okay-ly, but self-taught). He lived in France for almost 10 years, where he began writing. Back in the USA, he worked as executive editor at Lucasfilm for fifteen years, chronicling the work of George Lucas and his genial collaborators in a series of books about Star Wars and Indiana Jones. During this time, Rinzler also directed and wrote an animated short Riddle of the Black Cat, based on an Edgar Allan Poe story, which was accepted into several festivals, including the Montreal World Film Festival. His latest book is an epic historical fiction thriller called ALL UP, an epic about the first Space Age, published in July 2020. The sequel will be out in a year or two... Meanwhile his book on Howard Kazanjian, producer, is due in May 2021; and on Kubrick's The Shining in fall 2021. Rinzler is married and has two daughters and one grandson. He lives on the northern California coast.
