Star Wars: A Scanimation Book
Star Wars: A Scanimation Book ($11) brings to life some of the most memorable scenes from the epic movies: Obi-Wan battling Darth Maul, The Millennium Falcon zooming away from an exploding Death Star, Luke riding a galloping Tauntaun, Yoda twirling his green lightsaber. And of course red and blue lightsabers flashing as Luke and Darth Vader fight the ultimate battle between good and evil. Scanimation is a state-of-the-art, six-phase animation process that combines the “persistence of vision” principle with a striped acetate overlay to give the illusion of movement. Reminiscent of the kinetoscope, Scanimation books are astonishing, like watching a video without a screen. It’s an homage from an artist obsessed with the earliest forms of capturing visual motion to an artist obsessed with the most advanced. But that’s not what your kids will care about—all they will see is pure movie magic in the palms of their hands, to replay again and again.
