Tan-tastic Pixar posters this way…

Movie website Slash Film churns out so many posts that amongst all the half-stories, rumours and non-news, there’s inevitably some pretty cool stuff too. If you know me, you’ll know I love all things Disney so these concept posters for various Pixar fims, by artist Eric Tan, are totally up my street.

Once I was redirected to his blog, I realised I was familiar with Tan’s work already – the two posters above were designed for Disney’s beautiful coffee table book, The Art Of The Disney Princess, which features various artists’ re-imaginings of Disney princesses in all sorts of styles, although it lacks much description of the inspirations and processes behind the artwork (expect to see many more Pretty Things posts taken from this in the future!). These pieces instantly stood out as I love these strong stylised graphics with a hint of retro behind them – I particularly love the super-cute fairies on the Sleeping Beauty poster and how Aurora’s hair is turning into licks of flames.

Tan’s posters are all based on the retro posters for Disney rides found in all Disney theme parks. They generally have a 50s/60s travel poster vibe (even the newer posters are designed to ape the old style) and are bright, simple but striking and immensely charming. These probably deserve a post all of their own but for now, you can check some out here, here and here.

Don’t get me started on how wonderful, beautiful and lovely Up is (I now manage to start crying even before the title-card, just because I know what’s coming) and the film itself has a very colour-saturated, whimsical feel to its artwork, which is totally captured within Tan’s posters too. They look dated in the best way possible, like they’ve been much loved over the years and could have come straight out of Ellie’s Adventure book – Tan has cleverly even drawn in fold-marks too!

The Incredibles is right up there on my list of favourite films ever, never mind favourite Pixar films, and these posters fit in perfectly with the retro superhero aesthetic that those superb opening credits instantly encapsulated (I’m now humming that bombastic score in my head as we speak!). I really love the strong dynamic colour palette used in these posters – have Jack Jack and Edna (in the banner) ever looked cuter?!

Meanwhile, the posters for Wall-E are retro-futurism at its best and could be added to the posters for Tomorrowland errr… tomorrow and not feel out of place. M-O was a bit of a scene-stealer for me so I can’t help but raise a smile on seeing his poster… a few more character-led posters might have been nice but you can’t help but appreciate the nature of the artwork itself.

Finally, Tan’s posters for Ratatouille. These were based on the artwork of A. M Cassandre, an artist I wasn’t familiar with by name but whose style is instantly recognisable in these prints. These are more reminiscent of vintage adverts for French food and drink but again, fit perfectly with the design and concept of the film itself (alas, not one of my favourites so I have slightly less love for these posters than the rest, hence my not featuring all of them – sorry Remy fans!).

Completely charming, highly creative and utterly delightful. Let’s just hope Tan gets to work his magic on every Disney/Pixar film in the foreseeable future!

Read my article about the Pixar: 25 Years of Animation Exhibition here