The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney

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John Canemaker Print “Animated Man is the book I've always wanted to read on Disney the person, and the one that I've enjoyed the most (of the two recently released and the previous few). This book, although something feels a tad bit archaic about it, is a behind-the-curtain peek at animation's most beloved proponent, and a very good way to get to know Walt, his ideas, and his modis operandi a little more intricately. There are a lot of things that can be associated with the start of a new school year; for kids it’s the excitement (and sometimes nervousness) of new. If you are looking for a Disney-sanctioned biography of one of the Twentieth Century's greatest entrepreneurs, this isn't it.

Barrier’s excellent work enriches both the man and the Disney features themselves, and one can look upon them with new appreciation and understanding. The Animated Man is by far the best critical study to date of Walt Disney and his worlds: corporate, personal, ideological, architectural. Barrier observes that Disney's career had thus seemed to "run in reverse", creating a great achievement of storytelling and art in Snow White in the 20s, and regressing to "playing with toys" by the 60s.

Michael Barrier's The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney is one of two recent biographies released on Disney, the other being Neal Gabler's Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. Samantha Friedman Arkansas Democrat-Gazette “I have always believed, and recently increasingly believe, that Walt Disney was one of the most important entrepreneurs of our time.

It's certainly typical in its structure, from rural upbringings on a farm and then Kansas City in the early part of the 20th century on to Hollywood and his start-up of drawing (with good ol' Ub Iwerks! Indeed his personal shift away from animation is likely what allowed Disney Company animation to continue at all. There is a strong narrative leading from one Disney project to the next, helping the reader understand the 'why' behind every major project -- financial contraints, technical limitations, personality conflicts, etc.It also means that the chapters on Disney's golden age are the most elaborate and the most interesting.