Inside the Dream: The Personal Story of Walt Disney
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Ultimately, the book should be read in conjunction with viewing its other components. That could prove difficult as the documentary film, sadly, has had very little visibility. It was broadcast with commercials on ABC on September 16, 2001 shortly after its release. (Click here for Michael Broggie's review) Much like Theodore Thomas's marvelous documentary on his father Frank and his best friend Ollie Johnston, this film has had a sadly insufficient amount of marketing (Why are neither of these films available on DVD?) Then there's the CD-Rom. Just try to find a copy. I practically broke into a sweat when I saw a dust covered copy in a used bookseller's eight months ago still in it's original shrink wrap - the first and only such copy I've found anywhere other than eBay in the four years since its release. So the full impact of this book is left to readers who are devoted enough to assemble all the components from the farthest reaches of the globe.
In fact, there's a fourth that I haven't even mentioned which the authors curate on-line -- the official Walt Disney Family Museum at www.Waltdisney.org. I find it both odd and prophetic that my first column for LaughingPlace.com, a column intended to be devoted to taking a look at books about various Disney subjects, focuses on a book that heralds a more integrated approach to things Disney and which requires more than simply a book. We are moving closer and closer toward this kind of omnibus informational experience. I suspect that as we squirm through the first decade of this new century, books that have something as complicated as the Disney experience as their subject are less likely to be the single definitive approach to examining the topic. Similarly, I suspect that given sufficient time and the continued privilege of being published here, my reviews may one day focus on more such "packages" of media. In the interim, the advantages of coming here are that readers can learn about all the components through several columnists, and I encourage you to do so.
In future columns I will look at new publications, as well as re-visit previously published works. If there is any particular book on Disney that you long to see covered in this column, please let the site's editors know and I'll see what I can do to cover it.
Until next time, when I'll look at John Canemaker's Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation, I remain
Yours in Hyperion Delight,
Rhett Wickham
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- Purchase Inside the Dream from The LaughingPlace Store
- Purchase Walt Disney: The Man Behind the Myth from The LaughingPlace Store
-- Rhett Wickham
Rhett Wickham is a writer, story editor and development professional living and working in Los Angeles. Prior to moving to LA, Rhett worked as an actor and stage director in New York City following graduate studies at Tisch School of the Arts. He is a directing fellow with the Drama League of New York, and nearly a decade ago he founded AnimActing ©®™ to teach and coach acting, character development and story analysis to animators, story artists and layout artists - work he continues both privately and through workshops in Los Angeles, New York and Orlando. He can be reached through
[email protected].The opinions expressed by our Rhett Wichham, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future plans of the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
-- Posted April 2, 2002