Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney

by Russell Merritt, J.B. Kaufman

During the Roaring Twenties--from 1921 through 1928--Walt Disney and his friends made more than ninety silent cartoons, turning them out as often as one or two per month. Years before Mickey Mouse, the young entrepreneur recruited and nurtured an extraordinary array of talented people. Drawing on interviews with Disney's coworkers, Disney's business papers, promotional materials, scripts, drawings, and correspondence, the richly illustrated Walt in Wonderland reconstructs Disney's silent film career and places his early films in critical perspective.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Film, Art, Media Tie In

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Sean Wicks · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first, Russell Merritt's book is a tough book to get into as the first chapter describes in almost frame-by-frame detail the action of Walt Disney's earliest cartoons - and just as it sounds, reading a cartoon is not nearly as exciting as watching one. However, once past that first section the book settles down into Walt Disney's origins at Laugh-o-gram in Kansas City before moving to Hollywood to produce the silent live-action/animated combination ALICE series of films for distributor Charles Mintz. The book details some of the early beginnings of the Disney "style" as well as his collaborations with his staff especially the most famous, Ubbe Iwerks (sometimes spelled as Ub Iwerks). This all leads to the creation of Oswald the Rabbit and the film series for Universal which Charles Mintz famously under-minded Walt on and signed a majority of his staff to keep the costs down and keep more of the profits for himself. It was this underhanded move that inspired Walt to go off on his own and not be tied to someone else who could so easily steal his creations, and the book ends with the birth of an American Icon and the ultimate cartoon character as well as corporate icon - Mickey Mouse.

The history is told in a very straight forward fashion, with not too many flourishes with the primary attraction to it being storyboards, artwork, advertising materials and on-screen and off-screen stills for a period of the Disney history which isn't all that well-know and some of the films themselves have been lost thanks to the passage of time.

Purely for anyone solely interested in the beginnings of Walt Disney, but by no means a compelling read or a must-read.

[Priscilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a fantastic overview of Disney's silent era films. it's not a biography of Walt as much as it's a biography/analysis of the films. it includes a complete filmography describing all of the films, a number of which have been lost over time.

[Dennis Lynch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exhaustive and thorough history of Disney’s silent films: Laugh-o-Grams, Alice and Oswald shorts. Detailed and many illustrations.

[Gijs Grob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rijk geïllustreerd relaas van de eerste jaren van Walt Disneys carrière, vóór het klassieke verhaal van het succes van Mickey Mouse. Bevat resultaten van nieuw onderzoek en veel gedetailleerdere informatie over deze periode dan in andere boeken over Disney. Bevat enkele inzichten over de animatie zelf, die maken dat je niet kan wachten tot je de films zelf gezien hebt.