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owlwise67's review against another edition
5.0
Going into this book, I thought I knew quite a bit about Eisner's regime at The Walt Disney Company. I was quickly detracted from that thought. While charted many of Eisner's successful early years at the company, the main focus of this book is the downward spiral both he and the company found itself in from the late 1990s onwards.
This is an enlightening look to both how a major company can work and how quickly it can all go sour.
I would recommend anybody with even a passing interest in Disney or the studio industry to pick this book up. A truly fascinating read.
This is an enlightening look to both how a major company can work and how quickly it can all go sour.
I would recommend anybody with even a passing interest in Disney or the studio industry to pick this book up. A truly fascinating read.
scrambled_feet's review
informative
fast-paced
4.5
Read this from a Jesse Armstrong recommendation and was not disappointed. Puts you right in the room with Michael Eisner, over the 20 year period that he both catapults Disney to untold riches and success. He is both comically inept/petty, and staggeringly prescient and clever. Thanks to a proliferation of notes and letters he would send everyone in his orbit, no detail is spared and it's an engrossing read.
wy_'s review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
Despite this book lack of a strong ending note (considering where Stewart decided to end this book and when it was published), Disney War manages to accumulate over 20 years of corporate history into a single narrative that cautions the lure of too much power, greed, and corporate intrigue.
Disney has always been a presence in my life--from my time as a youth where I thought of them as fun and the makes of some of my favourite movies and TV shows, to when I became an older teen and viewed them cynically for their endless remakes and never-ending aquisitions, to now where I think I view them as they truly are: a company trying to make money.
The insight this book manages to give me about Disney, Eisner, and the behind-the-scenes stories behind some of my childhood favourites makes this truly a gem of a history text. As someone who inexplicably loves learning about Jeffrey Katzenberg, his and Eisner's history was particularly of interest to me--along with the horrid fallout of the "Michaels" (Eisner and Ovitz). Unfortunately after those sections of Disney War, I found myself occasionally getting bored, especially as a significant amount of the last third of the book is dedicated to ABC and ABC Family. Although, I will admit that their string of passing on what would be come extremely succesful shows was equal parts hilarious yet tragic. Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself throughout this book. While I don't know if I'll ever come back to it (because dammit, this book is HUGE), I can confidently say that this wasn't a waste of my time.
So yeah, nothing else to say but men will literally rather run a company into the ground than go to therapy 🙄
Disney has always been a presence in my life--from my time as a youth where I thought of them as fun and the makes of some of my favourite movies and TV shows, to when I became an older teen and viewed them cynically for their endless remakes and never-ending aquisitions, to now where I think I view them as they truly are: a company trying to make money.
The insight this book manages to give me about Disney, Eisner, and the behind-the-scenes stories behind some of my childhood favourites makes this truly a gem of a history text. As someone who inexplicably loves learning about Jeffrey Katzenberg, his and Eisner's history was particularly of interest to me--along with the horrid fallout of the "Michaels" (Eisner and Ovitz). Unfortunately after those sections of Disney War, I found myself occasionally getting bored, especially as a significant amount of the last third of the book is dedicated to ABC and ABC Family. Although, I will admit that their string of passing on what would be come extremely succesful shows was equal parts hilarious yet tragic. Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself throughout this book. While I don't know if I'll ever come back to it (because dammit, this book is HUGE), I can confidently say that this wasn't a waste of my time.
So yeah, nothing else to say but men will literally rather run a company into the ground than go to therapy 🙄
bks37's review
4.0
It is always so interesting getting to see behind the curtains of a company that plays such a large role in media and culture. Growing up in the late 90s/early 2000s meant that all of the political machinations and internal power struggles within the Disney Company amounted to little more than fun movies and a memorable trip to Florida when I was 8. I also was not aware Disney buying ABC and other networks without seemingly any plan to fill them. I remember watching Lost, but the strife around landing other big shows is surprising. I know the industry is cut-throat, but ABC had a chance to make Survivor, CSI, Law and Order and others and blew it. Disney as a studio also passed on producing the Lord of the Rings. I honestly can't even think of a nightly lineup for ABC growing up that could rival NBC, CBS or even Fox. Considering this book came out in 2004, my favorite little easter egg was in the meeting our author got to sit in on with the creative team to discuss upcoming movie plans. Because they were in early development, most had code names or simple titles but reading this in 2024 gave some clarity. It's crazy that the animation studio was struggling so hard when they were about to release Frog Princes, Rapunzel and Snow Queen (Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Frozen) shortly after.
A specific complaint about this book was the sheer volume of names presented. Sometimes it felt like a never ending carousal of people coming and going which might have been accurate but not always interesting. I liked it better when the book focused on a specific person or department and stuck with it for a while. Eisner would always make his appearances in all of them, but when you could follow smaller players for a while it was a great narrative. I honestly want a book just about the animation studio in the 90s now. That will probably devolve into an Eisner/Katzenburg spat, but I can't imagine it being boring to see the creation of the Disney Renascence movies.
Reading this it's amazing just how long Eisner lasted and how much money he made working for Disney. Given his constant self-horn tooting about being a creative CEO I can't remember an example of his hands-on style paying off for Disney. In fact they make it pretty clear he was too involved with Euro-Disney and it hampered the project and drove it over-budget. You'd think there would have been at least one positive instance outside of greenlighting certain movies, but even those are overshadowed by pointing out the movies he either passed on or were made despite him and went on to be successful. This didn't even feel like a huge hit-piece against him. He was constantly bringing in value, it just didn't appear tangible to me what he was doing. Especially because I know they left a lot out when it came to the theme parks (barely mentioned), Downtown Disney, ESPN Zone, the video arcade adventures and more that he championed over the years.
In addition to the upcoming movie tidbits I mentioned earlier there were a few other things to mention with hindsight. The author was really hyping up M. Night Shamalan after his critical successes without knowing that flame would quickly fizzle. Harvey Weinstein was presented extremely positively - his history and allegations wouldn't come out until years later. As big of a focus as Katzenburg got, we didn't hear much about Dreamworks, but there golden years with Shrek and Kung Fu Panda were just starting.
A specific complaint about this book was the sheer volume of names presented. Sometimes it felt like a never ending carousal of people coming and going which might have been accurate but not always interesting. I liked it better when the book focused on a specific person or department and stuck with it for a while. Eisner would always make his appearances in all of them, but when you could follow smaller players for a while it was a great narrative. I honestly want a book just about the animation studio in the 90s now. That will probably devolve into an Eisner/Katzenburg spat, but I can't imagine it being boring to see the creation of the Disney Renascence movies.
Reading this it's amazing just how long Eisner lasted and how much money he made working for Disney. Given his constant self-horn tooting about being a creative CEO I can't remember an example of his hands-on style paying off for Disney. In fact they make it pretty clear he was too involved with Euro-Disney and it hampered the project and drove it over-budget. You'd think there would have been at least one positive instance outside of greenlighting certain movies, but even those are overshadowed by pointing out the movies he either passed on or were made despite him and went on to be successful. This didn't even feel like a huge hit-piece against him. He was constantly bringing in value, it just didn't appear tangible to me what he was doing. Especially because I know they left a lot out when it came to the theme parks (barely mentioned), Downtown Disney, ESPN Zone, the video arcade adventures and more that he championed over the years.
In addition to the upcoming movie tidbits I mentioned earlier there were a few other things to mention with hindsight. The author was really hyping up M. Night Shamalan after his critical successes without knowing that flame would quickly fizzle. Harvey Weinstein was presented extremely positively - his history and allegations wouldn't come out until years later. As big of a focus as Katzenburg got, we didn't hear much about Dreamworks, but there golden years with Shrek and Kung Fu Panda were just starting.