Between Books - Walt's People Volume 6

At a certain point you cannot ignore the impact that the Walt’s People series has in capturing and distributing Disney history in an accessible and portable form.  In the end, I can only continue to compliment editor Didier Ghez’s work and inspiration to countless amateur and professional Disney historians.

Walt’s People Volume 6: Talking Disney with the Artists Who Knew Him captures interviews with over 20 Disney artists and figures of interest.  The interviews range from a few pages to long form interviews of 25 plus pages.  The two categories, that I self-created, that really stood out to me in this volume are animation and the Disney family.  For animation, interviews and segments range from the golden age with Michael Barrier interviewing Carl Stalling about early Disney shorts and his musical contributions, Wilfred Jackson and other animators discussing features like Pinnochio, and the 1980s and story development with Steve Hulett.  The Disney family is very well represented with interviews including Lillian Disney, Roy O. Disney, Edna Disney, Sharon Disney, Diane Disney Miller and Ron Miller.  The volume literally includes thoughts from those closest to Walt Disney and saw him at home as a father and husband not just an entertainment giant.  Along with the interviews there are articles and profiles that are reprinted from earlier out of print animation magazines. 

I really enjoyed Walt’s People Volume 6: Talking Disney with the Artists Who Knew Him.  It may have been one of my favorite volumes as it contained a mix of new animation personalities to me while also offering voices, like Roy O. Disney, that I really wanted to hear from.  I found at times I was frustrated because I had to put the volume down or that the interview was over.  I found myself shopping for another volume even before I finished this collection.  And yet again, I can only strongly recommend these books to Disney history fans.  

Between Books - Mouse in Transition

I am a big fan of Waking Sleeping Beauty.  But I have yet to pick up a book that covers this era of decline and rise in depth from the animation point of view until now.  Steve Hulett provides readers an inside look at part of this period with his memoir which details the decline of Disney feature animation.

Mouse in Transition: An Insiders Look at Disney Feature Animation by Steve Hulett details the author's tenure as a writer for Walt Disney Productions.  Hulett was hired on, perhaps as a legacy, in the 1970's and continued into the 1980's working on features and other assigned animation products.  Hulett takes her readers through becoming part of the Story team which included veterans who had worked with Walt Disney and new young artists looking to shake things up in what was at times an old boys unit.  Through Hulett's eyes we participate in Woolie Reitherman's marathon (and frustrating) story meetings.  The reader joins Hulett as he collaborates with Ken Anderson on a feature film and learns about Anderson's personal desires and failings.  And Hulett discusses the beginning of the Michael Eisner era as new leadership takes over the House of Mouse.  Eventually Hulett finds himself on the outside of the Disney gates.  The text is full of office politics and personalities as Hulett outlines his good and bad times at the Studio.  The book concludes with appendixes that include Hulett's interviews for a Pinocchio article, the completed article and short biographies of the animation staff he worked with. 

There are several things that Mouse in Transition make clear for me as a reader.   First, it takes a whole village to write a Disney animation feature!  The movies that Hulett discusses in production include The Great Mouse Detective and Fox and the Hound and he talks about his efforts on these films taking what seems like months into years.  But Hulett is also not the only one working on these films, as seen by Reitherman's mammoth story meetings.  And several people contributed to the final stories of the animated films between writers, story artists, directors, producers, animators and the kid in the mail room (okay maybe not him, but remember a lot of staff started in Traffic).  During a strike, Hulett an experienced animation writer attempted to find writing projects in television.  He was denied out of concerns he could not keep to the pace needed on the small screen.  Basically, they worried he could not write quick enough because of the leisurely pace animated features provide.  Second, there was a lot of office politics both before and after Eisner's entry into the House of Mouse.  Some artists like Pete Young became experts on how to balance their own creativity with inter-office squabbles.  Others did not do as well.  But working at Disney with longevity required learning how to play a game that not everyone was up to.

Mouse in Transition: An Insiders Look at Disney Feature Animation by Steve Hulett showcases a Disney animated feature department that has been on the decline.  The price of production had gone drastically up.  The quality of the pictures had become stale.  And a massive change was about to begin as the old guard stepped down for a new wave of artists like John Musker, who wrote the introduction.  Hulett shows his readers the state of a studio in decline.  Sadly for us, Hulett had moved on before his cohorts could fully raise the studio to new heights of creativity under the Eisner leadership.

Review Copy Provided by Theme Park Press