The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney

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It also means that the chapters on Disney's golden age are the most elaborate and the most interesting.

The original boy’s animated universe: a cracking theme tune, top powers and an ever expanding world that still merits further investigation.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). If you are looking for a Disney-sanctioned biography of one of the Twentieth Century's greatest entrepreneurs, this isn't it. Even if you don’t agree with some of Barrier’s more eccentric opinions (among those would be his distaste for Pinocchio, which comes from a valid place but still seems totally nuts to me) you’ll find the best, most entertaining and streamlined survey of a truly great artist’s career. Some lesser ones are acknowledged (chain-smoking and a penchant for profanity) but never used as sensationalist crutches. Unlike other Disney biographies, Michael Barrier presents a Walt who was neither a saint nor a demon, but a complex human being.

Appreciated as well the connection of Disney's life to the greater animation landscape of the first half of the 20th century. Author Michael Barrier manages to weave together various threads and the various parts of Walt's career and show how one interest lead to the next and the next. Mostly not emitting any judgements, but letting facts and others' words tell the story, you read through these discovering the man, and always relearning who he is as his personality is changing over the years. The poor assumptions made during the planning were corrected by spending plenty of time joining guests on the rides and walking through the park. And yet when he is talking about the failings of Walt as a man, he is careful to present both sides, leaving us with a picture of a man who was often short tempered but many people loved anyway.The later animated films are covered much less intense, with 'Lady and the Tramp' being hardly mentioned, at all.