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Title: Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination
ISBN: 067943822X
Author:
Neal Gabler
Publicate Date: 2006-10-31
Publish: 2006-10-31
List Price: $40.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $17.49
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $5.83
Amazon Merchant Price: $26.40
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1: A Great Biography
As a kid growing up in Southern California in the 1950's and 1960's, I was absolutely obsessed with Disneyland and the Mickey Mouse Club. The ultimate experience for me was spending a day at Disneyland with my sister and cousins.
When I saw Neal Gabler's interview on the Today show, I was convinced that I needed to read his book. I was not disappointed. It took me about eight months to get through it (the book is over 600 pages), but it was worth it. I now feel that I know the inner workings of a man whose imagination and genius have captured my heart and soul ever since I was a child.
For me, the only things that were missing were the details about the design and construction of the rides at Disneyland. As a kid, I oftened fantasized about jumping off the boat in the Peter Pan ride and runnng around in the sets and playing with the characters. I wanted to see up close how the characters and props moved and operated.
That said, Gabler's storytelling is superb. He goes into incredible detail about Disney's private life and clearly describes his motivations, frustrations, and fears. Disney was a complicated man, and the author conveys that message to the reader.
The eight months that I spent reading Walt Disney was an enjoyable investment of my time. I would especially recommend this book those whose have been to Disneyland or Disneyworld and have wondered where the genius and inspiration for those two magical places came from.
Mitch Paioff, Author, Getting Started as an Independent Computer Consultant
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2: Don't believe the hype!
What I have to say has already been said in several two-star reviews: for all its impressive length and alleged research, Gabler never gets a proper handle on Disney as either a man or a creative artist. The new Mike Barrier book is better. The old Richard Schickel book is better. The short chapter in Leonard Maltin's "Of Mice and Magic" is better. Heck, there are websites devoted to Disney that are better!
Somehow - I guess because of its length and sanctioning by the Disney organization - this has been annointed as the "definitve" Disney biography. But it misses by a mile. It's boring, pretentious, and very unsatisfying. You'll get much more of out the shorter, better-written book by Mike Barrier - a lifelong animation scholar who understands Disney in ways that Gabler simply can't.
Please believe me (as somebody who's read nearly everything about Disney, and has been a major animation buff/collector for 40 years) when I say that this disappointing book has been insanely overpraised!
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3: Even-handed, thorough, and extremely readable
Neither a love letter nor a scathing attack, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination is an even-handed and thorough examination of one of the undisputed icons of 20th century popular culture. And written in Neal Gabler's clear, crisp narrative style, it's dense but enjoyable reading.
Gabler clearly has done his homework, and done it extensively (and, he notes in the afterword, he did all his own research rather than passing the legwork off on assistants). It makes for a cohesive look at how Disney decided animated characters needed to evoke emotional responses; created the first feature-length animated film; promoted both Technicolor and color TV in their infancies; became the first motion picture studio executive to work directly with nascent television networks; and, of course, redefined the concept of the amusement park.
At the same time, Gabler discloses Disney's involvement in the anti-Communist and blacklist hysteria; his reluctance to credit individual studio artists; and how, later in life, he became a tyrannical figure at Walt Disney Productions while simultaneously always pursuing innovative projects.
Especially important, Gabler shows how Disney consciously created (and even licensed to his own studio) a "Walt Disney" public persona while remaining intensely private -- and how he was never satisified with resting on his previous accomplishments and, in fact, seemed embarrassed that his legacy would be what he had already done.
While it takes a while to read, Neal Gabler has produced a biography that shows how Disney both directly and indirectly influenced how generations experienced entertainment -- and their expectations of it.
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4: "It was all started by a Mouse"
As with any major celebrity, there is fact and there is legend. With Walt Disney, the lines have become blurred as Walt the man has been supplanted by Walt the icon. Most people today have gotten to know the image of "Uncle Walt," the paternally avuncular picture of middle American success -- the man who went from animated cartoons, feature films, to television and Disneyland and its successors. Yet there was another side to Walt. He was by turns a workaholic, hard-driving taskmaster, visionary, storyteller, tinkerer and technical wizard -- a man who inspired and infuriated subordinates, colleagues, competitors. Ever the perfectionist, he sought to elevate entertainment above the simplistic to the artful.
Neal Gabler crafts a splendid examination of the life of this enigmatic man -- labeled by many as "An American Original." Going beyond the superficial press releases and stock images, he looks not only at Walt Disney the entertainer, but Walt Disney the man. He presents a well-researched, meticulous, balanced portrait of a unique individual -- a genius, who nevertheless possessed deep flaws and human weaknesses. We discover a man who, despite his upbringing (or perhaps because of it), rose to become a giant in the entertainment world. In the process, he became a symbol, alternately, of innovation, artistry, daring, conventionality, stodginess, and ultimately, an icon synonymous with happiness (albeit at an often hefty price).
The author explores his personal relationships with family and friends, including his brother Roy, his wife Lillian, and the animators and studio employees from whom he would later distance himself as he grew in ego and stature. Uncle Walt succeeded in reinventing himself in the image of the quintessential American of his own making.
Mr. Gabler chronicles not only Disney and the company that bears his name, but also an industry and an era long past, but whose roots still entwine the American imagination.
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5: Tremendously Detailed Biography of Walt Disney: a Man of Great Vision, a Risk Taker and a Success
If you ever wanted to know virtually everything about Walt Disney and the Disney company, this is the book for you. The author has almost overwhelming detail of Walt's early upbringing and difficult life to his unfortunate early death while in the middle of planning out Disney World and Epcot. This book is not for the light reader on the subject, the biography is massive with over 600 pages not counting the notes and index. But you will come away from the book adoring the man that never stopped planning and making improvements from not just the way cartoons were drawn but by making them more artistic, utilizing new techniques and cameras with an analyzing eye for detail. Often on the brink of bankruptcy, Walt, with the huge contribution of brother Roy, continued to make improved products equiring outstanding loans throughout much of his career. Betrayed initially by a film distributor who not only stole, legally, Disney's Oswald character and stole many of his staff, Disney and his top artist Ub Iwerks, develop the life changing Mickey Mouse. But as Gabler tells the story, Disney's studio grows and so do the risks with perhaps the greatest risk at that time, Snow White, the first full length animation film. What almost seems like a pattern, Walt continues to make improvements, hire increased staff and take out loans as he produces more, works staff long hours to put out a higher quality package. The book also provides a sobering view of Disney as sometimes the pressure was too great for the great story teller and the advent of unions and the need for stock sales along with bankers starting to provide over sight leads to greater restrictions and frustration but then Disney thrives with less costly non-cartoon films such as Davey Crocket that become quite a rage along with the Mickey Mouse TV show and eventually his plan for Disneyland that was an attempt to fulfill his boyhood dreams of his small town life in Marceline, Missouri. Fascinating detail on such things as Ub Iwerks as the actual artist who drew the early Mickey, the need for Donald Duck as a charcter to offset the corporate wholesomeness now required of the mouse, Roy Disney who held the finances together to allow Walt to plunge on and and Disney's plan for developing not only Disney World with modern monorails but Epcot. The sad end of the book of course is Walt's death of cancer that is well hinted very early on by references to a hacking cough many years before. What is really unfortunate was Walt Disney's plan for Epcot that was never completely fullfilled that was to be more of a town with living areas for Disney employees creating a village concept that is actually being realized in many communities today (office parks with stores, landscapped lakes, and condos or apartments). Regretfully as Roy Disney said, the great plans for Epcot died with Walt. Primarily because Walt reached higher and higher, his ultimate plans with stringent notation to detail crerated a fascinating entertainment industry.
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