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29th out of 37 books
—
91 voters
The Gremlins: The Lost Walt Disney Production, A Royal Air Force Story by Flight Lieutenant Roald Dahl
Published in 1943 and long unavailable, this landmark book is from the author of such beloved tales as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "James and the Giant Peach" and "Matilda." Digitally restored, this remarkable presentation of Roald Dahl's classic story is lavishly illustrated by the artists of the Walt Disney Studios.
The story of the The Gremlins concerns the misc...more
The story of the The Gremlins concerns the misc...more
Hardcover, 56 pages
Published
September 12th 2006
by Dark Horse Books
(first published 1943)
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Oct 15, 2011
Bonnie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
kiddie-books,
read-in-2011
The Storyline
“In this most beautiful green wood there lived a tribe of funny little people who were quite different from the rest. They had funny horns growing out of their funny heads and funny boots on their funny feet, and with these boots – and this was funniest of all – they could walk upside down under the branches of the trees. Oh, it was a happy and peaceful life that these little men led – until the humans came.”
And so begins the story of the Gremlins who were torn from their homes whe...more
Author: Roald Dahl
Illustrator: Disney Studios
First Published: 1943
Foreword: Leonard Maltin
Re-printed in commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of USAF.
Introduction from Andrew J Stephens, 11th Wing Historian, Bolling AFB.
While it is a picture book, with full page, full colour pictures illustrating the text, the narrative is more novella length. This is a significant work.
Forget for a moment this is a Dahl book. Let's look at it as a children's book written during WWII, optioned and illustrated by...more
Illustrator: Disney Studios
First Published: 1943
Foreword: Leonard Maltin
Re-printed in commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of USAF.
Introduction from Andrew J Stephens, 11th Wing Historian, Bolling AFB.
While it is a picture book, with full page, full colour pictures illustrating the text, the narrative is more novella length. This is a significant work.
Forget for a moment this is a Dahl book. Let's look at it as a children's book written during WWII, optioned and illustrated by...more
Gremlins are, of course, those pesky little creatures that only fliers can see and which wreck havoc on their planes. In Dahl’s version of the story, the Gremlins were living happily in a lush northern England wood when one day, some humans showed up with the big trucks and machinery. First, the humans cut down all the trees and rolled over the dirt until it was hard-packed. Then, they built a factory that produced airplanes. In the process, they destroyed all of the homes belonging to the Greml...more
We have a copy of this book that was given to Dad when it was published. He was a boy in Yorkshire during the war, and someone had the good sense to give him this book. It's now 70ish years old, has been dropped in at least one bath we know of, made it's way from England to Australia, and is simply a little worse for wear.
But I am so glad it made this journey as it allowed me to read a book that no one else my family that I know of has read. As a kid, that was so incredibly cool!!
And it was a bo...more
But I am so glad it made this journey as it allowed me to read a book that no one else my family that I know of has read. As a kid, that was so incredibly cool!!
And it was a bo...more
I feel like we were tricked into buying this book. We got it while visiting Pearl Harbor. It was sealed in cellophane, marked special edition "The Lost Walt Disney Production". Jake was egging me onto buy this, so basically we paid $12.95, to discover that there was a reason this was a Lost Production. However, I did find the article at the beginning of the book interesting. It told some interesting history about how Walt Disney Studios was commandeered to make training and other war-related fil...more
I was thrilled to stumble upon this little beauty at my local library. Gremlins is Roald Dahl's first book, and I knew I would track it down some day. It's not overly memorable, but a fan can see glimpses of the writer Dahl was to become someday. As a bonus, Leonard Maltin gives a bit of the back story behind Walt Disney's work on a Gremlins movie that never got off the ground.
It is rare that anything by Roald Dahl disappoints a reader due to his masterful storytelling and superb understanding of both child and adult minds. However, this is one of Dahl's first stories; perhaps it's due to youth--or to the mutual lovefest described in the book's forward--but the dumbed-down taint of Disney's hackneyed approach to stories is spread thickly and liberally throughout this picture book.
The story of the Gremlins is disjointed by poor writing that flows like a backed-up toil...more
The story of the Gremlins is disjointed by poor writing that flows like a backed-up toil...more
Easy to see why this was out of print for 60+ years. Fairly weak and not well written story, although some of the artwork is pretty good. A dated and disappointing artifact.
A sly, semi-autobiographical commentary on post-traumatic stress disorder: an injured RAF pilot makes peace with his "gremlins".
A cute simple story, and a great explanatory intro by Leonard Maltin. Not as subtle as Dahl's later work, but I'm glad I read it.
I was actually expecting something a bit more. I picked up this book because it was referenced by Lost in Shangri-la. Gremlins, for those of you not in the know, are these little creatures that run amok on airplanes causing all sorts of problems. The book was cute, but not much more than that.
it is interesting to see how much the acceptable content of children's books has change in the last 50 years.
This was on my wish list for years as copies were wayyy out of print and going for over $500. Luckily fantagrapic books had the insight to reissue this thing.
It might be of interest to fans of animation history as this was originally intended to be a feature length Walt Disney production. Leonard Maltin added a decent forward going into more detail about their work together and why the project ultimately failed. While i wouldn't say this children's book is Dahl's best work... its an ok read. Ama...more
It might be of interest to fans of animation history as this was originally intended to be a feature length Walt Disney production. Leonard Maltin added a decent forward going into more detail about their work together and why the project ultimately failed. While i wouldn't say this children's book is Dahl's best work... its an ok read. Ama...more
Strangely, I don't like the illustrations.
Cute story.... not amazing though. In some places, the story felt a bit disjointed and I had to re-read sections to figure out what was going on. For all that, it was still a fun story and the artwork was eye-catching. It was quite interesting to read in the forward the history on how Walt Disney had planned to make this into a film and how it almost happened and why it didn't!
Apr 30, 2012
Cheryl in CC NV
marked it as library—to—read
2 ILL, no CC
Now, I love Roald Dahl. A lot. But wow, this story was stupid.
Due to the extremely primitive prose of Roald Dahl here, the characters' motivations are near-incomprehensible. But the design of the gremlins themselves is classic--and tragically little-used--Disney. They would make great tattoos, if you're into that kind of thing.
Jun 03, 2012
vicki_girl
marked it as to-read
Good review found at the following link:
http://animatedviews.com/2006/book-re...
http://animatedviews.com/2006/book-re...
The Gremlins is a very charming story, the first published work by Roald Dahl, complete with illustrations courtesy of Disney Studios, since it was originally slated to be a feature-length animated film.
Although the artwork in this book is wonderful, the story is choppy. I did enjoy the forward in the book that gives a really nice background to the story. Read it once and move on.
May 13, 2013
GlacierTink
added it
May 12, 2013
Xahne
added it
May 08, 2013
Angel Reader
marked it as to-read
May 06, 2013
Devin
marked it as to-read
May 05, 2013
David
marked it as to-read
May 01, 2013
Soren
marked it as to-read
May 01, 2013
Kristia
marked it as to-read
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Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Norwegian descent, who rose to prominence in the 1940s with works for both children and adults, and became one of the world's bestselling authors.
Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was Shot Down Over Libya. Today the story is published as "A Piece of...more
More about Roald Dahl...
Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was Shot Down Over Libya. Today the story is published as "A Piece of...more
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