New Releases by Rufus Butler Seder

We're off to see the wizard! The magic of Scanimation meets the wonderful Wizard of Oz, bringing to life 10 memorable scenes from the movie that's enchanted generations of viewers.  It's the gift book of the fall, and includes:

• Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, and Toto dancing down the Yellow Brick Road
• Dorothy's farmhouse flying upward in a twister
• Miss Gulch, on her bicycle in the tornado, transforming into a witch on a broomstick
• The Lollipop Kids strutting from side to side
• The Scarecrow doing a wacky dance
• The Tin Man swaying from side to side; Dorothy and the Scarecrow flanking him as if to catch him
• The Wicked Witch of the West waving on a sky full of flying monkeys
• The Wicked Witch of the West melting
• The Great and Powerful Oz―and the man behind the curtain frantically pulling levers
• A close-up of Dorothy clicking her ruby slippers

Like Star Wars before it, The Wizard of Oz is a marriage of phenomenal Scanimation and one of the most beloved movies of all time.  It also continues to be a vital icon: Warner's 2009 release of the 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition won DVD critics' and numerous other awards; Warner Brothers Kids just launched wizardofozkids.com; and in 2011, Andrew Lloyd Webber is staging The Wizard of Oz on Broadway.  Now it's found yet new life through Rufus Butler Seder With equal parts love and skill, he's created 10 compelling Scanimations, taking us over the rainbow.

A glittering, ruby-red cover is the final, delectable touch.

Published last fall, Gallop! introduced the amazing technology called Scanimation and took the children's book world by storm. It became an instant bestseller—#1 on The New York Times children's list.

Now Swing! does for kids what Gallop! does for animals—a boy rides a bike, a girl kicks her soccer ball, a swimmer cuts through the water, and a skater pirouettes on ice. The effect is joyous, magical, mesmerizing, and taps into the the endless fascination that children find in watching other children. The second book created by Rufus Butler Seder, the inventor, artist, and filmmaker who developed Scanimation out of his obsession with antique optical toys and other pre-motion-picture illusions, Swing! uses "persistence of vision" and a patented state-of-the-art multiphase animation process to create astonishment. There is nothing else like this unique, patented technology that literally inspires wonder.

The images burst with activity, and adding greatly is a happy, rhyming text that captures in words the pure energy of the figures in motion. You can't put it down.

There's never before been a book like Gallop! Employing a patented new technology called Scanimation, each page is a marvel that brings animals, along with one shining star, to life with art that literally moves. It's impossible not to flip the page, and flip it again, and again, and again.

A first book of motion for kids, it shows a horse in full gallop and a turtle swimming up the page. A dog runs, a cat springs, an eagle soars, and a butterfly flutters. Created by Rufus Butler Seder, an inventor, artist, and filmmaker fascinated by antique optical toys, 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. It harkens back to the old magical days of the kinetoscope, and the effect is astonishing, like a Muybridge photo series springing into action—or, in terms kids can relate to, like a video without a screen. Complementing the art is a delightful rhyming text full of simple questions and fun, nonsense replies: Can you gallop like a horse? giddyup-a-loo! Can you strut like a rooster? cock-a-doodle-doo!

Every child who opens the book will be amazed—and so will every parent.

Imagine: the first Star Wars book that actually moves, bringing to life the most memorable scenes from the epic: Obi-Wan battles Darth Maul The Millennium Falcon zooms away from an exploding Death Star Luke rides a galloping Tauntaun, Yoda twirls his green lightsaber, Boba Fett blasts up, up and away! And of course the most memorable scene of all―red and blue lightsabers flashing, Luke and Darth Vader fight the ultimate battle between good and evil.

It's a marriage made in a galaxy far, far away: phenomenal Scanimation meets Star Wars, the enduring epic that's sold $42 billion in ticket sales and earned the title #1 Boys Action Toy License of all time. Created by Rufus Butler Seder, Star Wars: A Scanimation Book presents 12 of the most memorable scenes, in a landscape, i.e., movie format. 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 young fans will care about―this is having pure movie magic in the palm of your hand, to replay again and again.