So we might be a little late to the game here, but there’s no time like the present to show off someone’s talents. Back in 2014, Josh Cooley’s name was all over the internet as fans shared the Pixar artist’s illustrations of iconic scenes from R-rated movies. They weren’t just any illustrations though. Cooley’s works took inspiration from Little Golden Books and were eventually published by Chronicle Books as Movies R Fun!: A Collection of Cinematic Classics for the Pre-(Film) School Cinephile (Lil’ Inappropriate Books)
A little over a year ago, Cooley was back in the spotlight when he held an Ask Me Anything (AMA) forum on Reddit. The following is a collection of his illustrations and quotes from his AMA session and an interview with Den of Geek. Cooley’s blog hasn’t been active since 2014, but you can still find him on twitter.
Josh Cooley’s Iconic Movie Illustrations
“When my daughter was first born, I had a sudden realization that I was going to be able to share all the films I love with her. It would be like watching them for the first time but through her eyes. I got really excited about that. Then it hit me that a lot of the films I love wouldn’t be appropriate to show her for 17 years!“
“I think one of the keys [to making an audience invest emotionally] is to tell stories about characters with issues we can relate to. Pixar is a director driven studio which means the director is creating a story that is personal to them. I think that’s a big part of it.”
“I started to do individual illustrations based on this concept back in 2008. I’d show them to friends and they would suggest other movies that would be funny in that format. I never thought of making it into a book until I had drawn almost 20 of them.”
“I started as an intern on ‘Cars’ in the Story department after graduating from art school. I originally was planning on being a 2D animator for Disney, but then took a story class and fell in love with storyboarding and coming up with ideas at the same time.”
“I enjoy the ‘Psycho’ image the most. It was a fun one to figure out how to draw since there is no image like that in the actual film.“
“Growing up I absolutely loved Shel Silverstein’s ABZ book. It made me laugh so hard even as a kid. It was a kid’s book (for adults) that had horrible suggestions in it for kids to do. “
“I love animated and live action films. For inspiration or if I just need to put on something awesome, ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ is my go to. Maybe followed by ‘The Big Lebowski.'”
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