University of California Press The Animated Man: A Life Walt Disney

I'm not really a Disney fan and probably wouldn't have sought out a book about him but heard about this book and decided to give it a try.I found myself fascinated by the story of Disney and how he came to be an animator.It also led me to become interested in seeing the cartoons and animated movies that he and his crew created. It really opened my eyes to the level of quality that they produced and how poor many of the modern day animations are.Disney and his animators had a very large impact on entertainment in this country and around the world. And to have the vision and ability to create Disney Land and Disney World is pretty impressive to say the least.This book really shows how all that came about from Disney's earliest days to the very end and beyond.I would recommend this book to anyone even if you are not interested in Disney or animation.

Michael Barrier's The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney is one of two recent biographies released on Disney, the other being Neal Gabler's Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination.Although he may not have had the unfettered access to the Disney archives accorded Neal Gabler, one would hardly be aware of that particular handicap. He was able to utilize a great deal of information housed there, which along with interview after interview makes for a mighty informative read. And since many of the interviews utilized throughout the book date back over 30 years, Barrier was able to talk with many Disney employees who "were there" at or near the start of Walt Disney's impact on the world.This book is so rich with detail! You can picture yourself there when a young Walt is growing up as a farm kid in Marceline, Missouri, or later when he's struggling to make a living.

In preparation for a recent trip to WDW, I wanted to read a biography the man himself. I spent a good hour looking around on amazon at different bios and what sold me on this one was that it was the most recently published bio and it seemed to be written from a more scholarly standpoint by someone who had done significant research. Also, the page count told me that it was not the standard 200 page fluff bio.Having read the book leading up to my trip (finishing it sitting by the pool at my resort in Disney), I really felt like I had a better understanding of what went into making a place like Disney. The visionary nature of this guy was clearly explained.If you prefer longer, more in depth bios, this is the one for you. If you are looking for a shorter, more populist treatment, buy something else.My one complaint would be that when the author starts explaining the process Walt used for the creation and release of each film, he seems to go into extreme detail that goes beyond what is needed in bio of a man and would fit better in a history of the company. But, I tended to just skip over 3-10 pages when I realized he was geeking out on that. The author's other book is on something about animation history or something, and this probably gave him a larger than normal interest in film history.All in all, I loved reading this book especially leading up to and during a trip to Disney World.

Here at Denny Magic Studios we make it a point of acquiring any and all books about the Disney Brothers because we are attempting to follow their lead. We have all the previous biographies, and although they are informative there was something special about "The Animated Man" that REALLY painted what we feel is the most accurate picture of Walt. We knew going in some 40 years ago, that Walt was human, and flawed just like the rest of us... however we knew that previous biographies might take creative license by eliminating certain things that may have painted Walt in any unfavorable light. But this is life. And... Life, in order to be portrayed accurately, must include the good with the bad. Therefore we think that this book may just be one of the more accurate biographies ever printed, and we especially recommend it to anyone who is really struggling to "know" Walt Disney better. We bought the book because we must buy and read everything Disney... And... because it had already garnered good ratings from others.If you are a detailed person, this book will provide some insight into the Walt Disney persona.

In the late 2000s, two biographies of Walt Disney were published, one year apart from another. Michael Barrier and Neal Gabler wrote very different bios on Disney. Between the two, Barrier is unquestionably more qualified to discuss Walt Disney as he is a leading expert on the man and his films. This makes the narrative more engaging than Gabler's is.Most of Barrier's resources were his own interviews that he conducted with hundreds of Disney veterans over a 30 year period in addition to some primary sources from the Disney archives (Gabler had extensive access to the archives but also used several spurious sources).This narrative paints an honest portrait of Disney, a flawed human being with great dreams and aspirations that he was largely successful in achieving. The low points are not white washed nor magnified and the common misconceptions and charges against Walt (such as whether he was anti-semetic) are refuted.There is a lot more discussion of the projects that he worked on and how they were made (this is most evident with the films). I would have liked to have seen more discussion on how he worked with and managed his artists, considering he didn't draw nor create any of the characters, but was a driving force behind it. One example being how many of them over the years mentioned how he was able to get results out of them that they would otherwise not been capable of achieving.Of the more recent bios on Walt, read this one to get an honest perspective on the man. Gabler's bio, while longer and having more details, does not have an appreciation for Disney or animation. It's actually quite demeaning to Disney and his artists. Barrier gives Walt justice. The one thing you get a sense of was that Walt was always busy with something and determined to see it through. That's how Walt should be portrayed and Barrier succeeded in conveying that.One can wonder what an interview with Walt conducted by Barrier would look like if the circumstances were right.