Harry Potter - The Creature Vault

The Creature Vault is yet another amazing addition to the Harry Potter movie library. It might actually be my favourite of all the books detailing this ten-year movie-making process, because it focuses solely on the creatures and beasts featured in all eight films. It includes many film stills, production art and images of maquettes, as well as pages of text explaining how the creatures were designed for the big screen. It's a fascinating read and one that I'll be going back to again and again.My personal favourite part of the Harry Potter movies has always been the array of fantastical creatures created by J.K. Rowling. In fact, the Creature Shop is the best part of the London Studio Tour, and I love looking around it every time I go - I not-so-secretly wish all these creatures were real! Obviously this insight into the creatures of the films has been touched on in other books, namely Harry Potter: Page to Screen, but so far there hasn't been anything as in-depth as this. The cover alone is worth a purchase; it's a lovely deep purple with devised creature silhouettes all around it, an intricate design that I'd only expect from a volume of this calibre.The book itself is split into mine sections such as Lake Dwellers, Shape-shifters, The Working World and Trespassers. These sections cover every Harry Potter beast and creature you can think of, including dragons, dementors, thestrals, owls, boggarts, gnomes and grindylows. Each section is full of images and artwork, so much in fact that several hours will easily pass before you've properly seen everything. Every image, whether it be a photo or a page of concept art, is presented in glorious high-resolution and doesn't lose a single pixel. It's also really easy to navigate, divided into sections and sub-sections that make this coffee table book very easy to dip in and out of.There are certain parts of The Creature Vault that I particularly enjoyed, especially the part about Dobby the House Elf. It's interesting to see how he came to look like the Dobby we all know and love, as facially he could have turned out very differently. The book says he went through many different designs before reaching the final version, and he was also the first fully computer-generated major character seen in the franchise. It's little facts like this that I love to read and keep in my head forever, and this book is full of them!I honestly don't think any written review will do this book justice; it needs to be seen to be believed, much like the creatures littered throughout its pages. To a Harry Potter fan it's a veritable treasure trove of information and visual delights, made even better by the behind the scenes insight that accompanies every image. For the casual film fan it's a journey through ten years of design and production on one of history's greatest cinema achievements, and is deserving of a place in any movie library. For me The Creature Vault is a great reminder of J.K. Rowling's unparalleled imagination, the excitement of watching eight incredible films and my annual visits to the Harry Potter Studio Tour. I think it's the best non-fiction title of 2014 and it is, without a doubt, the most perfect book for Harry Potter fans.

The media could not be loaded. As a Harry Potter fan, I have quite a few companion books. The largest in my collection is Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey. Right after I bought Page to Screen, I discovered there was a collector's edition that included several other books. I did not get the collector's edition since I already have the main book, but I've always longed to see those additional books.Harry Potter: The Creature Vault is actually the expanded version of the The Creature Shop Compendium book that is part of Harry Potter Page to Screen Collector's Edition.This new edition has a makeover and now sports a purple coloured embossed cover. The page count has increased to 208. It's a beautiful looking compendium.This book looks at all the creatures and magical plants that have appeared in the movie series. It's packed with creature designs, concept art, film stills and photos from behind the scenes which shows how the crew build the animatronics, maquettes, sculptures and life-size models such as the Basilisk or the dragons.Concept art for the creatures comes in the form of sketches, watercolours and digital paintings. Bulk of the book consists the artworks with accompanying text. A few pictures were reused from Page to Screen but not a big issue.Below's the list of chapters that group the creatures according to their type:1. Forest Dwellers - Centaur, Unicorn, Acromantula, Hippogriff, Thestral2. Lake Dwellers - Merperson, Grindylow3. Sky Dwellers - Dragon, Cornish Pixie4. Trespassers - Troll, Giant, Gnome5. Shape-Shifters - Animagus, Boggart, Werewolf6. The Working World - Post Owl, House-Elf, Goblin, Fluffy7. Dark Forces - Basilisk, Dementor, Inferius8. Companions - Hedwig, Errol, Pigwidgeon, Scabbers, Crookshanks, Mrs. Norris, Fang, Trevor, Arnold, Fawkes, Nagini9. The Greenhouse - Devil's Snare, Mandrake, Whomping Willow, Mimbulus Mimbletonia, Venomous Tentacula, Dirigible PlumThere's a huge bunch of creatures and plants featured. All are given ample coverage in terms of art and text. Author Jody Revenson has provided an insightful writeup that talks about their designs for the movies, the story component and interesting details such as the technical parts on how the creatures were created, be it in computer or real life. I believe it will be a satisfying read for any Harry Potter fan, especially those who craves for details.The book description mentioned there's an Eeylops Owl Emporium. That's actually a small 8-page booklet sticked to the main pages showing photos of several owls. The other extra goodie is an A3 size one page bestiary poster with 16 selected creatures.One last thing to note is there are two publishers for this book. It seems that publisher Harper Design is distributing for USA and Canada, and Titan Books are distributing for UK, Europe and other regions. So depending on where you are and from which publisher you buy from, the book's price might vary slightly. I find that Titan Books sell it cheaper, and for overseas buyers, it's more worth it to get the book from Book Depository.I really enjoyed going through all the information and looking at the beautiful concept art. This is yet another excellent companion to the movies.Highly recommended to all Harry Potter fans.(See more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)