Working with Disney: Interviews with Animators, Producers, and Artists

by Don Peri

In this volume Don Peri expands his extraordinary work conducting in-depth interviews with Disney employees and animators. These interviews include conversations with actors and performers rather than solely animators.

This book offers Peri’s extensive interviews with Marc Davis, Frank Thomas, and Ollie Johnston, three of Walt Disney’s famed “Nine Old Men of Animation.” Peri interviewed two Disney Mouseketeers―Bobby Burgess and Sharon Baird―from the original Mickey Mouse Club Show , providing valuable perspectives on how the Walt Disney Company worked with television. Lou Debney, a Disney television producer, discusses the company’s engagement with television and live-action film. Walter Lantz talks about his work in the animation business, especially with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit . And Dave Hand discusses his legendary work on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs .

Taken together, the interviews in Working with Disney create an enlightening perspective on the Walt Disney Company as it grew from its animation roots into a media powerhouse.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2011

Reviews

[Gijs Grob · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is literally a series of interviews, conducted by Peri between 1976 and 2005. Some are with well-known animators, like Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and Walter Lantz, others with obscure Disneyland employees. I mostly enjoyed the interviews with animator Bill Justice, and, to my own surprise, with former Mousketeers Bobby Burgess and Sharon Baird. However, they cannot hide the fact that most of these interviews are neither very informative nor essential. For example, it's fantastic to hear the voice of Mickey Mouse-animator Frenchy de Trémaudan, but unfortunately the interview adds nothing to general knowledge. Thus 'Working with Disney' is a pleasant, if rather insubstantial read. For Disney historians and completists only.

[Amanda Vollmershausen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great concept, but really dry. The book is dominated by interviews with animators, many of whom repeat themselves. Interesting in the way of understanding Walt Disney's relationship with his underlings and how the company got started, but it doesn't feel exceptionally well compiled or edited.

[Brett Dewey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful first-person nostalgia for the glory days when Walt built Disney. A mix of creative, business and personal stories, these interviews tell talkes of the days of the early animated shorts, through Snow White, features, the animators strike, the war, to the creation of Mouseketeers and Disneyland... all told by people who were there, who worked for and with Walt Disney and who are mostly no longer with us.

[Barry Simiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of interviews with animators and staff of Disney animation studios and Disneyland, all old timers, most of whom have passed. It's a testament to Walt that these people still love(d) him and continue(d) to sing his praises. He was a visionary, a man ahead of his time (fortunately). I fear that if he were trying to start out today he wouldn't get his ideas off the ground. A dry read, but an interesting one.

[Dianne Lipe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is Part 2 of the author's interviews with those people who had worked with Walt Disney--many of whom have since passed away. How neat it is to read first hand from people who were part of creating such legendary work. Each of the 15 interviewees provides another layer in my understanding of what the real Walt Disney was like.

[Theodore Kinni · Rating 5 out of 5]

More one-on-one interviews with people who worked at Disney in the Golden Age of Animation.