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The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life
by
Steven Watts
The Magic Kingdom sheds new light on the cultural icon of "Uncle Walt." Watts digs deeply into Disney's private life, investigating his roles as husband, father, and brother and providing fresh insight into his peculiar psyche-his genuine folksiness and warmth, his domineering treatment of colleagues and friends, his deepest prejudices and passions. Full of col...more
Paperback, 568 pages
Published
October 1st 2001
by University of Missouri Press
(first published 1998)
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A very detailed account of Walt Disney’s life and beliefs as they relate to his life’s work, although it falls short of truly developing Walt as a person. All of the facts are there, all of the details about employees, creative and business ventures, analysis of films and other works, construction of theme parks, etc. And I believe that the author did his best with the information available – this is no criticism of him. As interested as I was in the subject matter, because of the lack of per...more
After reading The Disney Version by Richard Schickel , I thought I'd check out another Walt Disney bio.
This book is an overarching look not only at Disney's life, but also at the company he created. While the material is covered chronologically, there are also thematic elements running through it as well. As others have observed, Walt's creations were reflections of the times: a funny, endearing Mickey Mouse was just the ticket in the Depression, while the full-length fairy tale ada...more
This book is an overarching look not only at Disney's life, but also at the company he created. While the material is covered chronologically, there are also thematic elements running through it as well. As others have observed, Walt's creations were reflections of the times: a funny, endearing Mickey Mouse was just the ticket in the Depression, while the full-length fairy tale ada...more
Offers an interesting analysis of Disney's cartoons, rather than just a straight biography. Though some might disagree with that analysis, Watt's book's great service is to move beyond Disney's cultural influence and study his ideological and political thought in detail. Can often seem overly theoretical, and just as often shallow.
I love anything Disney, which was why I decided to read this biography. And at first it was pretty cool talking about Walt Disney and where he came from and his childhood and family. But then they started with chapters about the political undertones of the Three Little Pigs and it just got silly. I couldn't finish it. I would like to pick it up again at a later date and read about the development of the park in California, but that will have to wait.
Wish I could have gotten through this one, but it was just too dry for me. It's very informative and seems quite balanced.
This is a good book if not a great one. The author tackles Disney in a different way from most authors focusing on the impact of his efforts more than the efforts themselves. He tries and, for the most part, succeeds in producing a balanced view. Any imbalance may just reflect the imbalance of DIsney's impact on different elements of American society. If after a person ides, what we see is predominantly a reflection of their impact, we should by thinking about and discussing Disney for many ...more
This is the best, most interesting, and most even handed look at Disney's life that is out there. A little slow in some places, but way less so than other bios.
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Shelves:
film-studies,
autobiography-biography
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