Disney Reading Recommendations

Walt Disney World
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Hey Guys ! I received a few gift cards for Xmas, and would like to invest in a few books. I would like your recommendations - what are some of your favourite reads about our favourite place ?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions of titles or authors ! :smile:

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Walt Disney and the Promise of Progress City by Sam Genneway.

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“Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination” by Neal Gabler is an AWESOME biography of Walt. Also gives a very good history of the studios and the construction of Disneyland. One of the best biographies I have read.

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“The Art of Walt Disney” by Christopher Finch is a “lavishly” illustrated “coffee table” book that gives a solid, if not overly detailed, history of the Disney Studios. I have the original 1973 hard cover edition, but Finch has more recently done an updated version (that I want to get). Also of the “coffee table” variety is “Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life” by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson. This is an amazing “textbook” on how “Disney” animation is done; gives an amazing insight to what it really took to bring the classic, hand-drawn, animated films to the screen. Currently out of print, but try to find a hard cover copy on Amazon or ebay (the paperback was seriously abridged - as was the paperback release of the original “Art of Disney”).

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You can also read Carl Hiaason’s book Rat Race. It details how Disney set up shell corporations to buy land in Florida. If they came in as Disney, they most likely would have hit price gouging.

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I fully agree with @bswan26 about Frank and Ollie’s “Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life”. It is essentially the animator’s Bible, but even if you are not interested in the technical detail it is full of beautiful artwork.As he mentions, you want to look for an original edition of it (1981 Abbeville Press ISBN 0896592332) - if I recall correctly the subsequent editions were made from scans of the original, so the quality of the artwork suffered significantly.

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Thanks so much, @bswan26 ! I appreciate your extensive knowledge and detail.

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When anyone asks for Disney books, I always post this link. It is where I found most of my favorite Disney books. Hope it helps!

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This is great ! Thanks, @Mandakjane !

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