Les Grands Classiques Disney by Hachette

25/6/2016

Summary
Current Price: £9.87
Number of Pages: 128
Size: 30 x 21cm
Paper colour: White
Paper surface: Smooth
Paper thickness: Very Good
Linework: Fine
Perforated: No
One sided: No
Binding: Glue
Drawings go into the spine: No
Waterbased pen bleed: None

If you're a fan of Disney I've no doubt this book will have been on your radar- or your shelf- for a while now. I've coveted it since seeing some beautifully bold pages on the colouring groups and finally have a copy in my possession to review!

Les Grands Classiques is a colour-by-numbers book which was released by French publisher Hachette last October. It features 100 stills and character portraits from Disney films including classics like The Lion King and Pocahontas as well as more modern movies like Bolt and Toy Story. Each page is sectioned in mosaic style, the pieces numbered and lettered according to a colour key at the bottom of each page, very similar to Colour Quest. Here's an example:

At the back of the book, each picture is displayed thumbnail-style in full colour alongside the page number it can be found and the title of the film it belongs to (in French). Here are a few of the pictures you'll find inside:

I enjoy doing colour by numbers but I must admit the boundaries in certain sections of these images can be difficult to work out, especially if it is a particularly 'busy' image with lots of overlapping tiles. I had to redo a bit of my Genie's eyes, cap and teeth (below) because I coloured in places I shouldn't have (even in plain white areas there are still swirly lines), but it's not too much of a big deal.

The paper is really good quality and doesn't allow bleed-through from water-based pens, which is good as this book is one sided. I would have LOVED for it to be single-sided so I could use alcohol markers, as I don't like the streaky effect my Tombows create when colouring larger areas. One tip I have is start with the lightest colours and work your way to dark last, or you'll be picking up black when trying to get your yellow into the small crevices and the end result will look dirty (I learned this the hard way).

I was pleasantly surprised at the sheer number of pages you get in this book and paired with the intricate puzzle-like designs means you're investing in hundreds of colouring hours for under £10. I don't think anyone, especially Disney devotees, would be disappointed with this book. Here are my finished pages so far.