Ron Clements Looks Back on 45 Years of Disney Animation in Making Disney Magic

The director behind The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, and Moana has put his whole career on the page. Making Disney Magic, Ron Clements' 496-page memoir and art book from Disney Editions, packs more than 1,000 pieces of archival artwork, behind-the-scenes stories from eleven films, and flip-book corners that animate Disney characters from the 1970s through the 2010s.

If your favorite Disney Princess is Moana or Ariel, if your favorite Disney magic comes from Aladdin's Genie or Mama Odie, if your favorite baddie is Hades or Professor Ratigan, one filmmaker connects them all. Making Disney Magic is Ron Clements' account of 45 years at Walt Disney Animation Studios, a memoir crossed with a museum-quality art book that runs nearly 500 full-color pages and more than 1,000 pieces of archival artwork and photos.

The filmmaker behind the renaissance

Clements, working alongside longtime co-writer and co-director John Musker, is responsible for some of the most beloved animated Disney movies ever made. The Little Mermaid effectively launched the Disney Renaissance in 1989, Aladdin defined it, and the pair kept going through Hercules, Treasure Planet, The Princess and the Frog, and Moana. The book's framing joke writes itself: say "thank you" to Ron Clements, and he says "you're welcome."

Eleven films, inside and out

The memoir covers Clements' work across five decades, including the early films where he cut his teeth as an animator:

• Moana (2016)
• The Princess and the Frog (2009)
• Treasure Planet (2002)
• Hercules (1997)
• Aladdin (1992)
• The Little Mermaid (1989)
• The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
• The Fox and the Hound (1981)
• Pete's Dragon (1977)
• The Rescuers (1977)
• Pinocchio (1940), the film that shaped him

What's actually inside

Disney Editions positions the book as an armchair-worthy read rather than a coffee-table object you only flip through, and the promised material backs that up. Clements shares Easter eggs, behind-the-scenes stories, and details covering the people who worked on and influenced each film, the research trips and the selection of artists, voice casts, and songwriters, the screenwriting and world-building process, and the pipeline from storyboards, technical innovations, and voice recording through to final frames. He also revisits early screenings and the changes that followed rough feedback, plus press tours, premieres, and awards seasons.

The physical design has one flourish fans will love: the corners of the smaller-than-typical coffee table book double as a flip-book, animating Disney characters from the 1970s through the 2010s as you thumb the pages.

Why fans will want this one

Plenty of Disney art books cover a single film; a first-person account spanning the whole run from The Rescuers to Moana is far rarer, and Clements was in the room for the studio's lowest lows and biggest rebound. At 496 pages and over 1,000 archival images, it is the kind of volume that rewards fans of animation history specifically, the aimed-at-adults readership Disney Editions serves best. Making Disney Magic is available now wherever Disney Books are sold.