[ART BOOK REVIEW] The Art of Sanjay’s Super Team

An art book for an animated short? Yep, that’s what this is. If you went to see Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur in theaters last November, you’ll probably remember Sanjay’s Super Team, the short film that played in front of it. The short stood out for its amazing visuals and unique look, and this book takes you behind the scenes to see how that came about.

The Art of Sanjay’s Super Team is not just an art book, but rather a making of book. The book is written by the short’s director, Sanjay Patel, which results in a very complete behind the scenes look at the making of the short. The book takes you through the art of the different scenes in the short and also spends a lot of time on Sanjay’s personal connection to the short and how it came to be.

The book starts out with an introduction. This part of the book features a lot of information about the personal story behind Sanjay’s Super Team and the early days of production on the short. It also features a ton of sketches and drawings from that period in the short’s production. This part also shows a ton of information on the story development, including a lot of storyboards from the final and earlier versions of the story. Because the book is written by the short’s director, these kind of chapters go much further into the little details that otherwise never get published, which definitely is a big plus about this book.

The part after these introduction pages basically take you through the short chronologically. All the different scenes and locations get some pages dedicated to them and feature a ton of beautiful art. Most of it is finalized designs, but there’s definitely also many of the early sketches, animation thumbnails, and even some studies which were great to see. The amount of art that was showcased was fantastic, and a lot of the artists that worked on it got to talk about it in the book which I really appreciated.

The Art of Sanjay’s Super Team is everything I want an art book to be. The book is full of a diverse range of art; we don’t just get to see the finalized art but also exploratory work that didn’t make it into the short. A great part of the book is also that it’s filled with information and interviews with the crew, which Pixar lately has stopped doing. It works very well, and I was very intrigued throughout to read about the production of the short and everything that went into it. This book is in my opinion the perfect art book, and it’s definitely one you shouldn’t miss in your collection.

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Purchase: The Art of Sanjay’s Super Team

Amazon: US | UK
Book Depository: US / UK

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A special thanks to Chronicle Books, who provided review copies of the book.

Edited by: Kelly Conley