Mark Mayerson · From fps #8 · June 22, 2006 | This book is a collection of interviews with Walt Disney that appeared in a variety of publications from 1929 to his death in 1966. In addition, the book contains a speech Disney gave to his employees in 1941 and his testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in 1947. Unfortunately, the book rarely rises above the superficial. The fault lies with the journalists who interviewed Disney, the format of this series of books on comic artists, and with the editing.

Walt Disney: Conversations Edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson University Press of Mississippi, 2006 143 pages Shop for Walt Disney: Conversations: Amazon.ca Amazon.com

None of the interviewers here had any substantial knowledge of the animation, film, television or theme park businesses. If they did, they never used it to probe beyond Disney's answers, which were crafted to publicize his studio in terms that the general audience could understand. The majority of these interviews cover the same material; Disney's rise from rags to riches based on hard work, his wide-ranging imagination and his common touch. At the time these interviews were done, journalists were too respectful of their subjects to dish dirt on them, but neither did they research Disney or his company enough to come up with questions that would have illuminated the man or his working methods.

Want to read the rest of this review?

You'll find it and many other articles in the June 2006 issue of fps, available for only $1.49 cents US.