Book Review - WondLa: The Art & Making of the Limited Series
- The Artbook Collector
- Dec 10, 2025
- 5 min read
December 9th 2025
The animated show WondLa became a hit on Apple TV following its premier in 2024, successfully adapting the book series from author Tony DiTerlizzi into a 20-part series. Now going from book to show to book, Skydance Animation have partnered with publisher Titan Books to give fans a look at the art that helped create the show, guiding us through what it takes to bring an alien inhabited Earth to life.
WondLa: The Art & Making of the Limited Series was released on December 2nd 2025, perfectly timed for the end of Season 3 in November, allowing those not wanting to leave Eva 9 behind a chance to get more from the show. A copy was kindly sent to me by Titan Books, so I can jump in to what you will see is an impressive look at the show!
Build Quality
The book comes as a 28.5cm x 26cm hardcover with 176 pages, what you expect for an animation artbook. The paper is high quality and the binding is very good too, letting the pages open with ease and lay flat. It’s also a wonderful cover choice, the pink pops and makes it stand out, drawing the eye and highlighting the impressive visuals of the series. It’s everything you want from an artbook!
Content
Collectors of artbooks may know that titles with ‘Art and Making of’ can sometimes be light on the art side, however, that is far from an issue here. The book is packed with artwork and covers all 3 seasons of the show, alongside a lot of insights from the creative team too. Readers are treated to early sketches, full colour concepts, storyboards, and final renders. I always want to see the early and unused designs through to what made it to the screen, and the team delivered here.
The book starts a little more text heavy, speaking to the creation of the show and how DeTerlizzi (who was also a producer on the show), worked with Skydance to adapt the books. Throughout you get insights from many members of the team about adapting the book, changes made, challenges of scale and budget, influences, and more. There’s little wonder the show became a hit, members of the team have worked on some of the biggest movies inside and outside of animation. It’s a joy to read and fans will learn a lot in their time with the book.
Of course, all of this experience lend itself well to the artwork, which is superb. From the early designs of the characters, to the colourful locations of the places Eva 9 visits, the talent of the team behind WondLa is on full display on every page.
There is a lot more pages for the first season of the show, but that’s in part due to the introduction of the main characters, such as Eva 9, Muthr, Rovender Kitt, Otto, and villain of the first season Besteel. The early designs for the characters are interesting too, showing a nice range of designs as it’s made clear some changes would be made from the books and that offers flexibility. The character art throughout is excellent and captures the personalities and charm of the cast, even in the earliest ideas.
After this, the book follows the progression of the story, showing art for the locations and their characters, creatures, assets, vehicles, and more. Like the early character pages, there is a balanced mix of early ideas, developed designs, and final renders.
The interviews mentioned that there are a lot of locations in the series and that means this release also features an interesting collection of concepts as a result. This range includes Eva 9’s home of Sanctuary, the colourful plants of Orbona, the elegant city of Solas, and decaying remains of New York. I liked these pages a lot and seeing contrasting designs is always a highlight of any artbook. The individual elements of these places are also great, such as creatures like sandsnipers and air whales, characters, plants, buildings, alien species, and costume design. It paints a complete picture of the art teams work, as opposed to just the vistas and architecture of these locations.
Not to leave anything out, there are also pages on the soundtrack created by Joy Ngiaw, a storyboard breakdown of a scene, and a colour script of the first season. It’s a well thought out and balanced collection of artwork and insights, delivering a lot of details amongst the large volume of concepts and designs. When it comes to the content, WondLa: The Art & Making of the Limited Series delivers on all fronts!
Credits
The positives don’t stop at the art and insights, as the artists are credited on every page, so you can see who is responsible for each piece featured throughout. Animation artbooks are usually very good for this and Titan Books and Skydance made sure to keep that going with their own book.
Use of Space
As you can see in the previews, pages are filled with art, making the most of the space available. Text is placed in areas that still allows the art to breathe too, helping with the clear readability of everything presented inside. Layouts are not the same spread to spread to keep it feeling sterile and many of the concepts are without a border, so more can be placed on the page. The binding helps here too, as there is no image loss in the centre fold for the incredible looking larger pieces that do cross over it.
Value
The book has an RRP of $50/ £40, putting in the mix competitively with other animation artbooks. For a good quality hardcover like this, I think those that love the show and want more will be happy with what they receive.
Discounts are always good though and checking Amazon highlights that some are already available on books release week. Though deals change, in the US it is currently 12% off, with the UK giving a generous 23% reduction. With price drops available, it sets this up as a nice end of year treat or gift!
Verdict
WondLa: The Art & Making of the Limited Series is the perfect companion to the show, coming with the details and inspiration behind its development and visuals, backed up by hundreds of pieces of great art. It’s generous with its inclusion of unused designs and presented in a well-designed volume, making it easy to recommend to WondLa fans, artists, and collectors.
Titan Books and Skydance Animation have released a strong entry into the animation artbook space, putting it up there with some of the other popular series that collectors will be familiar with. Hopefully this won’t be their last collaboration, as more books like this would be most welcome in the collection here!
If you have space on your shelf and enjoyed the review, you can buy WondLa: The Art & Making of the Limited Series here;
