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Dwight Bain

Disney Fans - This is not the book you are seeking

Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2017

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Gabler's biography of Walt Disney is only for avid readers of history by examining all sides of this famous persons life, and at over 900 pages you have to be dedicated to press on into this well researched but ofttimes sad story.

WARNING to die-hard D23 Disney fans... this is not the book you are seeking; because some of the personal struggles and business decisions you don't hear about are carefully described in these pages. The success of this luminary is covered, as are the dark times, the nervous breakdown, the bankruptcy, the anger... and I'll stop there for fear of hurting your feelings by going further into the darkness. Uncle Walt was a genius in every way... including troubled childhood which fueled his driven need to create the "Happiest Place on Earth."

If you want to protect the happy Americana image of Walt Disney pick up the wonderfully cheerful biographies written by Bob Thomas or Pat Williams. They offer interesting stories of Walt, teach powerful life-application lessons about perseverance and creativity in a clever way that protects the fairy tale ending, while leaving out the dragons along the way.

Hard reading, but explained a lot to me as a life-long resident of Orlando about how one mans driven desire really did change the world.

Laurie

Excellent book on the life of Walt Disney

Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2017

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Having seen the terrific American Experience (PBS) two-parter on Walt Disney's life, I was interested to know more. This biography is very thorough and even handed, not skimming on criticism where it's due. We often forget that Walt Disney was a man before the name came to represent things. What we learn is that Walt Disney came from very little, never made it out of high school, and despite a few amazing successes, struggled to keep his studio alive following movies that failed at the box office. That those same movies are now considered classics that are integral parts of almost every Americans' childhood makes it almost unbelievable that they nearly ran Walt Disney out of the business of animation. All we know is the vast empire that exists today, but it's only because Walt Disney kept pushing forward in his desire to amuse and delight his inner boy in a way that also appealed to the broad need of most of us to have our stunted, immature selves likewise entertained with singing animals and amusement park fantasy lands. Neal Gabler does a great job capturing the boy, the man, the boy-man, and the man-child.

Among fascinating personal details are Walt's distant relationship with his father, his somewhat naive idea of women including a marriage that seemed more convenient than passionate, but was faithfully maintained to the end of his life, Walt's warm and cold relationship with his brother and business partner Roy, and the death of his mother, for which he blamed himself.

Gabler also touches on accusations often heard about Walt Disney of being a bad boss, a racist, and a Nazi sympathizer. Although he doesn't give Walt a pass, he does make sure to remind readers of the context of the times Disney lived in, and that there were no standards for animation and film workers as movies were just starting to find their feet in the 1920s and 30s.

As a film history through one man's life, this book also reminds us that Disney innovated things we take for granted now-- things like sync sound in cartoons, color animation, camera animation stands that allowed depth of field, and storyboards. The world of movie animation would be very different if not for Walt Disney and the talent he fostered in his studio.

Supercalifragilisticexpiadocious biography!!

Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2019

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Neal Gabler's biography of Walt Disney, who created so much of American iconic popular culture is really worth reading. And it's a book that grabs you like any good Disney movie and leaves you with images you can't forget. Only in this case, it's not mermaids, princesses or big-eared mice, it's images of America at the very turn of the 20th Century, the birth of film and the birth of, really, popular culture. And Walt Disney, who came from humble Midwestern origins, had the drive and talent to find his passion and transmit that to the masses.

The story starts out with Disney's father, a hard, cheerless man who yet was restless and sought to follow his dreams, albeit unsuccessfully. Time and again, chance and probably his temperament (not a nice guy) would take him close to success and then deliver a stinging blow. His own personality was pretty mean and a less-driven and let's say, optimistic person than Walt Disney would have been crushed. But none of Disney's early hardships (including literally being driven away from school to work a harsh paper route and other gigs for his father, who constantly took his money and kept it "lest you spend it unwisely." The tail end of World War One and a short spell in France as an ambulance mechanic and driver gave Disney the space to find work as a cartoonist and commercial artist.

His rise to creating an empire of entertainment and experiences that persists robustly to this day is right out of Horatio Alger and also uniquely his.

If you are interested in entertainment, or American History of the 20th Century or just love biography, you should read this. I really couldn't put it down for a minute. Well-written and filled with facts and stories you may never have imagined could be part of the Disney story. A must-read.

Top reviews from other countries

Henrycat

As fine as his best films

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 20, 2012

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Gabler's biography of Disney is the best I have read and I have read nearly all of them. The product of huge amounts of research, it is a well balanced and even handed review of the man's life and work. The writing is superb, drawing the reader on as Disney and his staff make ever greater leaps into the unknown in the 20s and 30s. The disappointments of the 40s and early 50s are well documented and Disney's move toward the theme parks is covered with impressive detail. More of the man behind the films emerges from this book than any previous biography I have read, (Leonard Maltin's was previously the best in my view) and although he remains a tantalisingly unfathomable subject, something of his personality emerges via the interviews and documentary evidence. The overall impression one gets from this book is of a man driven in everything he did, eventually stretched to point where, at his dealth aged 65, he'd packed in several normal lifetimes. Most highly reccommended.

Ron Cole

Detailed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 8, 2020

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Wow- everything you'd want to know about Disney- almost what he had for breakfast on any given date! Very thorough.