megwithtong's review against another edition
4.0
It was really in-depth and really fascinating. But it was also really long.
nymfan86's review against another edition
4.0
Neal Gabler's "Walt Disney" presents a detailed, informative and well-written biography of one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. Disney transformed the entertainment industry by consistently pushing the boundaries, from adding sound and color to cartoons to creating immersive theme park environments. Gabler had the support of the Disney family but does not shy away from criticizing Walt. The bulk of the book concentrates on Walt's early years and the development of the Disney company, though the most interesting part is his development of Disneyland. The book ends with Walt's death. I would have liked to have seen an epilogue explaining how the company survived without him as it was feared that it would die with him. Overall, a very good biography. At over 600 pages, the book is very dense but not boring.
alex_hev's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Slow to start but once you get to the part where they start making Snow White and the other animated movies, it starts moving pretty fast. Probably helps that was the part I was most interested in. Very long book.
reginaxgore's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
slow-paced
5.0
bequibuho's review against another edition
4.0
I finished the longest audiobook in my collection to date. This book was over 30 hours long.
I thought this was such a well written bio. There was so much research done, this book had interviews and cited articles . This book follow Disney’s entire life. I thought it was fascinating to hear his process for creating so many movies that defined my childhood. This book really humanized the man behind the larger than life company.
I am giving this book a B. This is a very detailed book, it got overwhelming at times.
It is very hard to write a reviews on biographies. I find myself mesmerized by the person and I tend to loose focus on the writing. I do recommend this to all the Disney lovers hour there, I just suggest you stagger it out.
I thought this was such a well written bio. There was so much research done, this book had interviews and cited articles . This book follow Disney’s entire life. I thought it was fascinating to hear his process for creating so many movies that defined my childhood. This book really humanized the man behind the larger than life company.
I am giving this book a B. This is a very detailed book, it got overwhelming at times.
It is very hard to write a reviews on biographies. I find myself mesmerized by the person and I tend to loose focus on the writing. I do recommend this to all the Disney lovers hour there, I just suggest you stagger it out.
booked_for_weeks's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed learning how Disney got started!
curiousreader's review
Neal Gabler has written, rightfully, the definitive portrait of a very beloved and controversial character in history - Walt Disney - with such splendor, that it's certainly a must-read for anyone interested in the man. What Gabler does best is his balanced depiction of a life filled with ups and downs, successes and failures, strengths and weaknesses; this is truly a nuanced portrait of an internationally well-known figure, who on the surface seems to be the ultimate success story of hard work and will power.
This biography opens with the story of Walt's family, their roots in the US and moves on to his childhood. These parts were to me of less interest on their own, but more so in the value Walt himself apparently gave his upbringing and childhood in shaping his personality, life chances and ultimate choices. We see the young man going to war, returning to make a life for himself, and the early days of his career as he is trying to become an animator. Eventually we see how his aim shifts from art to story telling, from a focus on the medium and its development to something grander and more ground-breaking. We follow along as Walt, together with his team of artists - changing in the members through the years, makes his first short films and moves on to feature films. How he dabbles with live-action, then tries to build an empire - Disneyland and then later on Disney World. But of course, these are just examples of his accomplishments in the physical form. It's no secret that Walt Disney was an incredibly important person for the development of animation, in America and in the world, as well as motion pictures in general and even in popular culture and imagination. He was, unquestioningly, a man of great successes and influence on the world around him and the one too, he left behind.
But Gabler doesn't just talk of Walt as a entrepreneur, animator, businessman, and 'imagineer'. The portrait of Walt gives you an idea of the brother, the son, the boss, the husband, the father, the friend; all of the other roles he played throughout his life and how all of them were significantly shaped by his work and his visions in life. He seemed to be constantly reaching for greatness, and this resulted in a sometimes absent father and husband, a mood-swinging, angry and stressed boss, an unreasonable and unfair brother, and ungenerous son. As I say, this is a balanced portrait and as such you are invited in to all sides of Walt - the good and the bad. We see him making unreasonable demands on his staff, being slow to forgive, forgetting to give credit where credit is due, being self-centered or thoughtless, other times slightly bonkers. But the portrait is complicated by showing the wonderful sides of Walt, the sometimes contradictory sides to him - as a fully fleshed person, with good and bad days, and better or worse periods in his life. What I loved about Gabler's portrait is that he never takes the easy way out in making Walt this or that, but makes it a point to say 'he is this, AND that' - he is both, sometimes at the same time, he is wonderful and he is horrendous, he was happy and he was sad, he was successful and he was unsuccessful. The book stands as a true depiction of a life filled with trials and a legend that himself seemed never to be content with what he accomplished.
The first third or so of the book might give the impression of a success story after all; the Snow White success being what stands out of course and the launching of Disney as a brand and name. But so much of his work after was either met with disappointment from others, or from himself. He tired of his work as animation-imagineer sooner than might be guessed, he had already moved on to new things when some of the (in my opinion) best work came out of the studio; these were instead led by other significant members of the team. Walt was actively working on the first movies to the millisecond, but by the time Sleeping Beauty came out had shifted his focus towards things leading up to Disneyland. The fact that Disney himself was always reaching for something new, insatiable as a person and as a worker, also meant that he was not as happy and content as he might have appeared to be. The same could be said for his group of friends and fellow members of the company, he might have seemed to be constantly surrounded by people who loved and admired him - which was partly true, but throughout this book Gabler point to his loneliness and tendency to isolate himself, both emotionally and physically.
Not only is this book a biography of Walt Disney's life and person, but it's of course unavoidably also a history of the Disney company and animation's early development. Many of the important people involved in the early work of animation and Disney's legacy make an appearance, like Iwerks, Fred Moore, and Ben Sharpsteen. This book is as much about the company named after the man as a separate living entity as it is about Walt himself. This is another reason I loved this book so much; any fans of the Disney company's work will love reading all about the processes of the animators, the changing in techniques to accommodate demands from Walt or motivated by lack of funds, the production of movies like Bambi and Pinocchio and of course - Snow White, the hundreds and thousands of people working under the Disney company's name and all the millions of people who loved (and hated) the works right when they were first coming out, in Disney's own lifetime.
Honestly I can't say enough good things about this biography. It is very thorough, all the things you could ever wish to know about Walt's life is here and as I've pointed out, it is to me a fair and nuanced look into a rather controversial person as well as paying tribute to the legacy he left behind. The writing is smooth and makes the book easy to read despite its depth and length. Simply a must-read for any Disney fan or anyone curious about the man behind one of the world's most successful and influential companies through the 20th century and beyond.
This biography opens with the story of Walt's family, their roots in the US and moves on to his childhood. These parts were to me of less interest on their own, but more so in the value Walt himself apparently gave his upbringing and childhood in shaping his personality, life chances and ultimate choices. We see the young man going to war, returning to make a life for himself, and the early days of his career as he is trying to become an animator. Eventually we see how his aim shifts from art to story telling, from a focus on the medium and its development to something grander and more ground-breaking. We follow along as Walt, together with his team of artists - changing in the members through the years, makes his first short films and moves on to feature films. How he dabbles with live-action, then tries to build an empire - Disneyland and then later on Disney World. But of course, these are just examples of his accomplishments in the physical form. It's no secret that Walt Disney was an incredibly important person for the development of animation, in America and in the world, as well as motion pictures in general and even in popular culture and imagination. He was, unquestioningly, a man of great successes and influence on the world around him and the one too, he left behind.
But Gabler doesn't just talk of Walt as a entrepreneur, animator, businessman, and 'imagineer'. The portrait of Walt gives you an idea of the brother, the son, the boss, the husband, the father, the friend; all of the other roles he played throughout his life and how all of them were significantly shaped by his work and his visions in life. He seemed to be constantly reaching for greatness, and this resulted in a sometimes absent father and husband, a mood-swinging, angry and stressed boss, an unreasonable and unfair brother, and ungenerous son. As I say, this is a balanced portrait and as such you are invited in to all sides of Walt - the good and the bad. We see him making unreasonable demands on his staff, being slow to forgive, forgetting to give credit where credit is due, being self-centered or thoughtless, other times slightly bonkers. But the portrait is complicated by showing the wonderful sides of Walt, the sometimes contradictory sides to him - as a fully fleshed person, with good and bad days, and better or worse periods in his life. What I loved about Gabler's portrait is that he never takes the easy way out in making Walt this or that, but makes it a point to say 'he is this, AND that' - he is both, sometimes at the same time, he is wonderful and he is horrendous, he was happy and he was sad, he was successful and he was unsuccessful. The book stands as a true depiction of a life filled with trials and a legend that himself seemed never to be content with what he accomplished.
The first third or so of the book might give the impression of a success story after all; the Snow White success being what stands out of course and the launching of Disney as a brand and name. But so much of his work after was either met with disappointment from others, or from himself. He tired of his work as animation-imagineer sooner than might be guessed, he had already moved on to new things when some of the (in my opinion) best work came out of the studio; these were instead led by other significant members of the team. Walt was actively working on the first movies to the millisecond, but by the time Sleeping Beauty came out had shifted his focus towards things leading up to Disneyland. The fact that Disney himself was always reaching for something new, insatiable as a person and as a worker, also meant that he was not as happy and content as he might have appeared to be. The same could be said for his group of friends and fellow members of the company, he might have seemed to be constantly surrounded by people who loved and admired him - which was partly true, but throughout this book Gabler point to his loneliness and tendency to isolate himself, both emotionally and physically.
Not only is this book a biography of Walt Disney's life and person, but it's of course unavoidably also a history of the Disney company and animation's early development. Many of the important people involved in the early work of animation and Disney's legacy make an appearance, like Iwerks, Fred Moore, and Ben Sharpsteen. This book is as much about the company named after the man as a separate living entity as it is about Walt himself. This is another reason I loved this book so much; any fans of the Disney company's work will love reading all about the processes of the animators, the changing in techniques to accommodate demands from Walt or motivated by lack of funds, the production of movies like Bambi and Pinocchio and of course - Snow White, the hundreds and thousands of people working under the Disney company's name and all the millions of people who loved (and hated) the works right when they were first coming out, in Disney's own lifetime.
Honestly I can't say enough good things about this biography. It is very thorough, all the things you could ever wish to know about Walt's life is here and as I've pointed out, it is to me a fair and nuanced look into a rather controversial person as well as paying tribute to the legacy he left behind. The writing is smooth and makes the book easy to read despite its depth and length. Simply a must-read for any Disney fan or anyone curious about the man behind one of the world's most successful and influential companies through the 20th century and beyond.
apattonbooks's review
2.0
If you have never read anything about Walt Disney than this book is great, but having read too much on Disney already there is nothing new in it. If fact I would suggest that you could watch the great four hour American Experience on Disney on PBS and have all the information in this book.
Plus I knock off a star due there being little on Epcot.
Plus I knock off a star due there being little on Epcot.
saras's review
4.0
Took me a really long time to read. But fascinating for a Disney fan to peek behind the curtain and learn how the classics were developed.