A major icon of cinema and pop-culture more widely, Pixar Animation Studios has played a vital part in reminding audiences of animation’s capacity as a major artform. Hugely popular, and recognised as a real force in the imaginative lives of its audience, Pixar’s movies have attained critical mass.

The Films of Pixar Animation Studio offers the reader and animation enthusiast a one-stop handbook to the studio’s work, discussing each film in great detail. Each Pixar feature film is explored in terms of creative choices made by the films’ producers, writers, directors and animators from the first bright idea through to final realisation. The book also makes connections between the studio’s aesthetic and the wider realm of animation history, the blockbuster movie and the enduring examples of folk tales.

James Clarke is the author of Movie Movements: Films That Changed The World of Cinema and a number of other film books. He has contributed to Empire, Imagine, Resurgence and Classic FM and has lectured on the subject of film at the University of Gloucestershire and the University of Sussex. As a scriptwriter, James has recently written and produced a number of short films for the British Council. He also wrote the screenstory for the British short film Chasing Cotards, which has played at a number of North American film festivals. James has had several stageplays for young people commissioned and toured regionally. James has given lectures at the British Council and the British Library. You can follow him on twitter: @jasclarkewriter