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Title details for Walt Disney by Neal Gabler - Wait list

Walt Disney

The Triumph of the American Imagination

by Neal Gabler
Arthur Morey
Audiobook
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ONE OF THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER'S 100 GREATEST FILM BOOKS OF ALL TIME • The definitive portrait of one of the most important cultural figures in American history: Walt Disney.

Walt Disney was a true visionary whose desire for escape, iron determination and obsessive perfectionism transformed animation from a novelty to an art form, first with Mickey Mouse and then with his feature films–most notably Snow White, Fantasia, and Bambi. In his superb biography, Neal Gabler shows us how, over the course of two decades, Disney revolutionized the entertainment industry. In a way that was unprecedented and later widely imitated, he built a synergistic empire that combined film, television, theme parks, music, book publishing, and merchandise. Walt Disney is a revelation of both the work and the man–of both the remarkable accomplishment and the hidden life.
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography and USA Today Biography of the Year

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 7, 2006

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780739349229
      • File size: 963960 KB
      • Duration: 33:28:14

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Neal Gabler's encyclopedic biography of the world's most famous animator calls for an enormous vocabulary on the part of both narrator and listener. Many listeners prefer a narration like Arthur Morey's for lengthy nonfiction, a straightforward presentation without theater or animation. However, while his delivery has no faults in diction or clarity, he never seems to find complete comfort in his task. Still, his manner becomes somewhat more relaxed as young Walt learns he has a talent for drawing and a desire to control his future. From there the story increases its momentum as the narrator fades to the background and the story of a man's dreams takes center stage. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      Neal Gabler is the first Disney biographer to have access to the Disney archives, lending authenticity to this work. That access does not mean that the biography paints a whitewashed picture of this icon of twentieth-century American culture. Indeed, what emerges is a complex man with his own collection of human strengths and weaknesses. Optimistic and confident of his own vision and tenacious enough to stay his course in the face of obstacles, he was at the same time demanding and short on compassion and forgiveness for perceived betrayals. Leonardo Leoncavallo's narration is concise and straightforward. His relaxed tempo and clear enunciation keep the reader engaged in the story of this pioneer of animation, film, and television. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 25, 2006
      Few men could be said to have as pervasive an influence on American culture as Walt Disney, and Gabler (Winchell
      ) scours the historical record for as thorough an explanation of that influence as any biographer could muster. Every period of Disney's life is depicted in exacting detail, from the suffering endured on a childhood paper route to the making of Mary Poppins
      . The core of Gabler's story, though, is clearly in the early years of Disney's studio, from the creation of Mickey Mouse to the hands-on management of early hits like Fantasia
      and Pinocchio
      . "Even though Walt could neither animate, nor write, nor direct," Gabler notes, "he was the undisputed power at the studio." Yet there was significant disgruntlement within the ranks of Disney's employees, and Gabler traces the day-to-day resentments that eventually led to a bitter strike against the studio in 1941. That dispute helped harden Disney's anticommunism, which led to rumors of anti-Semitism, which are effectively debunked here. At times, Gabler lays on a bit thick the psychological interpretation of Disney as control freak, but his portrait is so engrossing that it's hard to picture the entertainment mogul playing with his toy trains and not imagine him building Disneyland in his head. 32 pages of photos. 100,000 first printing.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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