The magical worlds of Disney and Pixar animated films come to life in a whole new way on August 11th with the release of Disney Maps: A Magical Atlas of the Movies We Knew and Love. Suitable for all ages, this book connects the scenes from some of the most beloved animated films onto a single map for twenty-four memorable stories. It offers a fun, quick way to revisit some of your favorite Disney memories with the turn of each page.
The twenty-four films chosen for the book are presented chronologically: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Jungle Book, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, Up, Brave, Monsters University, Frozen, Inside Out, Moana, and Coco.
No two maps are created equal, with some feeling less like a map and more like a wide poster with events from the films. Snow White, for example, makes it look like The Queen’s Castle is just a hop, skip, and a jump from The Prince’s Castle with Snow White taking a long journey southeast to get to the dwarves cottage, who then go northeast to their mine which is also shockingly close to The Prince’s Castle. Maps like this one do a better job of bringing out vignettes from the film than they do of making you believe this is a real, lived-in world that you could travel through, which sort of defeats the point.
Some maps, however, do present a layout that makes sense and feels well thought out. A few of them almost feel plucked directly from the film, such as Peter Pan where the map of Neverland looks like the first view the Darling children see from the clouds when they arrive. Another example is Dumbo, which takes place in Florida, and looks like the moment when the Stork flies down to deliver Jumbo Jr. The map for Toy Story is another highlight, a well thought out sprawl of the neighborhood surrounding Andy’s house, which also features moments from Toy Story 2 without branding it as such.
Each map is accompanied by a fact sheet with a description of the land, a list of moments from the film to remember, and then a bonus section that changes. Sometimes it’s a list, such as all of the items in Ariel’s Grotto, sometimes it’s info about the land’s inhabitants or even government style, and other times it’s just fun facts about the film.
The book probably reads best for kids, but it’s clear that Disney Press was equally aiming at the adult Disney fan. They’ve gone out of their way to recreate or use the original film logos for each film, as displayed in the opening credits or on the marketing materials. There are just two exceptions, the first being One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which spelled out the full title in the film and original marketing. The logo used for that film was introduced to promote the 1969 re-release. And another inconsistency is The Little Mermaid, which features two logos: the 1997 re-release with a seashell and an elongated “M” on the map, but the original 1989 logo that’s in the film on the fact page.
The book includes a forward by Pete Doctor, Chief Creative Officer at Pixar Animation Studios and director of Monsters, Inc., Up, and Inside Out. He puts into context that the worlds for each animated film really aren’t finalized until the film is, which makes some of the inconsistencies with the maps a little more excusable for an adult fan. His forward brought to mind using the map of Middle Earth to help visualize the journey while reading The Lord of the Rings. The same can be true of these worlds for Disney fans and you can unlock all of them with Disney Maps: A Magical Atlas of the Movies We Knew and Love.