Good biography of complicated popular entertainer and founder of an empire. ( )

A great, in-depth look at the man and his entire life. A whole lotta reading but well worth it. ( )

I just finished Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal GAbler.

A very interesting cradle to grave biography. While to those of us who are enchanted by Walt Disney, some of the general information is well known, but I was unaware that after World World due he disengaged and from hisanimation studio to a large degree to instead focus on what developed into Disney Land.

I found his voyage from boy, to Red Cross Volunteer in World War I, to a cartoonist/animator who along with his brother Roy ultimate founded the many renditions of Disney Studios and the creator of Mickey Mouse.

A innovative animator and entrepreneur who changed the way cartoon and animation were performed and perceived. He took the field from shorts for children to his first full length feature in Snow White. Many of what we now consider classic animation was not as financially successful at the time as we would think of it in retrospect.

Walt Disney Studios engaged in what we would consider pro war propaganda films and training films in World War II.

A giant of a man who even as he evolved in public perception in many ways never seemed to lose his midwestern persona who in spite of fame and wealth was every working man.

I would encourage those interested in business, animation, early cartoons e.g. Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney himself to read this moderately lenth biography. ( )

This is a monster of a book, and dense...took me far longer to finish than I expected. Gabler covered pretty much everything and he certainly didn't "Disneyfy" Disney, but he did convey, warts and all, the brilliance that Disney was.

Recommended, even if you aren't a fan...there is much to be learned (or recounted) from the steps he took in his innovations;from animation, to sound animation, to realism, to a theme park unlike any other. Who knows if the vision of EPCOT would have been realized had he lived to see it through? He made all his other dreams comes true. ( )

Good bio. Kind of.

I did have my problems with it. The author, whether for dramatic effect or disenchantment during his research, didn't seem to be on Walt Disney's side very often. In fact it seemed to have a kind of pro-leftist union feel to it. Gabler rarely came to Disney's defense on issues, branding him constantly dissatisfied and naive, especially when it came to politics. Walt was a conservative, not for naivete, but for certain convictions. The author subtly peppers his opinion throughout the more trying times in Walt's life, and more often than not he's a little unfair.

Also, despite Gabler's attempt to soften the issue, it is plainly apparent that the unions, more than once, ruined Disney's vision and were the source of much, if not all, of what went wrong with Walt Disney Productions. Disneyland was also plagued by union labor.

If you can look past the sympathies Gabler offers Walt's enemies and the grumpy asshole he paints Walt as at times, you do actually end up with a good idea of what this great man was like. It will take a careful reader to preen the facts from Gabler's misdirection though.

One more thing. The narrative was infected with if/then clauses and other devices that make long stretches of reading obnoxious. There were other constructions too that just made me cringe when I came to them.

OK. One more thing. The author did, in agreement with other reviews, make jumps in time that were a little confusing. You will read 50 or so pages and think you have a good idea about what was happening at the time, but then he goes back and, in effect, ruins or at least alters the perception you spent the last half-hour building. It's not bad, per se, it was just, well, fucking annoying.

It's a 4-star on account of the information, but on style and delivery a less than solid 2.5

I would have liked A LOT more information on Disneyland.But that's just me. ( )