The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney
by Michael Barrier
Book Summary Information
Author: Michael BarrierEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-07
ISBN: 0520256190
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: University of California Press
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780520256194
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney
Book Review: To much guessing
Summary: 2 Stars
This book is full of a lot of opinions
As someone who has had access to the Disney Vaults and have done much research on Walt E. Disney myself, I have found that a lot of Michael Barrier's research seems to be his opinion. It is fine to have your own opinion or how you interrupt memo's from meetings that happened that long ago; it seems to me that he relies strictly on those memo's that he quotes but then later he just fills in his own opinion and in several cases is very short of just (for lack of a better word) bashing Walt Disney. This book is titled "The Animated Man A LIFE OF WALT DISNEY."
Once again I have had time in the Disney Vault with the Archives but if I would have had as much time there in the Archives, I would have never came to the same conclusions as Michael. We are talk about a Man who was by far way ahead of his time and revolutionized not just cartoons but live action movies like we see today. In this book I have found a lot of inaccuracies because I have seen some of these memo's (no I can not release my source at Disney so don't ask.)
The memo's that he list within the first 150 pages are all focused on getting more work production, we see that in our everyday lives at our own jobs. He doesn't spend a lot of time going over the Oswald series or really explaining how Mickey Mouse came into existence, maybe one paragraph. I am sorry but Mickey Mouse is what brought the Disney Brothers back into the business and gave Walt the confidence to go ahead and make a full length cartoon feature called Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Michael spends too much time on the negative, saying Walt was not that involved that much in the film, I have seen more memo's and photos of Walt being heavily involved in the film to the point of acting out every scene. He does not spend enough time on all the positive that Walt did.
I would only recommend this book if you want to read opinions of one person compared to what is truly in the Archives granted many will never get the opportunity to see them but speaking from someone who has I know that all the time he was in the vault he must have only been searching out negative comments or he just read them that way. Yes some of the memos have language that would not be suitable for younger audiences but if you read past them you will see that Walt was trying to motivate his animators and get them to push themselves to what they would be able to do. Again this is seen even today in our own jobs. I really wish I would have been able to meet Walt himself but I am a little to young for that. With that being said again I would only recommend this book if you only want opinions and not true facts.
The more I have read this book the more I am on the fence about Michael Barrier at times it seems I can see where he is coming from with his opinions and at others I have to disagree, for the simple fact this book is suppose to be about Walter Disney and it seems more or less about other people and how they saw Walt. I guess if it was called The Animated Man a life around Walt Disney instead of The Animated Man a life of Walt Disney it would be easier for me not to be this harsh on this book but I have to be harsh about my criticism just because it is not just about Walt it's about everything else.
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