Book Review: Disney Maps – A Magical Atlas of the Movies We Know and Love

Disney Maps – A Magical Atlas of the Movies We Know and Love features maps of twenty four Disney & Pixar Animated Films spanning from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) through Coco (2017).   Each movie is represented with a two page map showing the locations visited in the film.  Then two additional pages of information.  On the first additional page there is a couple paragraph description of the film, four “Moments to Remember” and a list of some other information from the film.  A second page showcases the key characters with an image of each and their name.   The foreword is written by Pete Doctor who talks a little about locations in the film and uses two of his films, Up and Inside Out as examples.

This book is intended for ages 5-8 (grades K-3).   So the images and text are geared at this demographic as well as the movie choices.  There are eleven Pixar films out of the two dozen chosen, also noteworthy are eleven films from 2003 to 2017.    The films included are:

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
• Pinocchio (1940)
• Dumbo (1941)
• Alice in Wonderland (1951)
• Peter Pan (1953)
• One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
• The Jungle Book (1967)
• The Little Mermaid (1989)
• Beauty and the Beast (1991)
• Aladdin (1992)
• The Lion King (1994)
• Toy Story (1995)
• A Bug’s Life (1998)
• Finding Nemo (2003)
• The Incredibles (2003)
• Cars (2006)
• Ratatouille (2007)
• Up (2009)
• Brave (2012)
• Monsters University (2013)
• Frozen (2013)
• Inside Out (2015)
• Moana (2016)
• Coco (2017)

I thought the artwork throughout this book was great to see.  The maps have some fun details in them and as you study them you are taken back to your favorite films and locations.   The character pages are fun to see to, but I am not quite sure how a visual character guide fits into a map book I would have liked to have seen more detail on a location or two maybe to fit with the theme of the book.     The description of each film seems age appropriate and combine that with the moments to remember and you have a good plot summary and some interesting nuggets about each film (note if somehow you have not seen one of the films and you are trying to avoid spoilers you may not want to read the moments to remember).  The second list of additional information for each film varies from film to film and can include key facts, lists of locations during a sequence in the film such as Following the Leader Finds from Peter Pan or the path of the twilight bark from 101 Dalmatians.

If you or your child are looking for another way to spend some time in some of your favorite animated films Disney Maps – A Magical Atlas of the Movies We Know and Love may fit the bill and transport you there with the great artwork and details.