193 of 209 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Good thing this guy doesn't have Pinocchio's nose!, July 21, 2010
This review is from: Cast Member Confidential: A Disneyfied Memoir (Paperback)
As a fifteen-year Cast Member at Walt Disney World I feel the need to write a review on this book, something I have never done, never intended to do, and certainly never expected to use my valuable time for. The abuses of fact in this memoir are so pervasive that those who are considering purchasing this book deserve a warning: If you swallow this tale, do so with a sizable grain of salt.
None of the errors, individually and on their own, are fatal. But there are so many, and of such variety, and turn up with such frequency, that one really must question the authenticity of anything claimed by the author.
The author tells of a year-long stint in an operating participant (non-WDW Cast Member) entry-level job at Walt Disney World. He lived among and played with front line WDW Cast Members. It appears that these are the facts. He professes an "insider's knowledge" of the WDW Character Department. This is subjective, and subject to his extremely limited tenure with the company, limited theme park exposure, and limited acquaintance with a few individuals that comprise this WDW-wide department. Yet he seem to imply that he speaks for "The Character Department" - as well as that of the photography group - in their immense entireties. I will heartily agree that the Character Department is indeed full of "characters" and almost anyone who has ever worked at WDW probably has a memoir lurking just under their conscious thoughts, but I would hasten to add that this memoir is entirely suspect. Here are a few of the reasons why:
The author professes a life-long love of Disney and as the story develops, he admits to becoming "Disneyfied." No one who knows/loves/respects Disney, and certainly no Cast Member, would refer, much less repeatedly refer, to the "Haunted House" (Haunted Mansion), call the place Disney World (it is WALT Disney World) or mention a guest eating a popsicle. Popsicles are not sold at WDW. Itzakadoozies and fruit bars, yes. Popsicle no. If you want to portray yourself as an "insider" don't come off sounding like an uninformed tourist.
He claims to have gone on an adventure with another Cast Member "onto the long stretch of highway that leads to the East Coast through the Everglades." The road(s) that lead east from Disney end up east. At the Atlantic. The Everglades is south. It is WAY south of, and nowhere near, WDW. Later, he is driving North on I-4. Even someone who doesn't live in Florida but has a casual knowledge of the USA interstate system would realize that as a "4", an even numbered interstate, this is a road that travels east/west. I-4 does head north, as the crow flies, through a portion of the Orlando metro area, but from Disney property, I-4 does not go "north" toward Kissimmee, which he claims to be doing in the course of another one of his yarns. Later he is in Clermont and makes plans with a friend there to meet in half an hour at Universal, since it is so close. Clermont is not convenient to Universal, nor to I-4, nor is it "close."
Some of these errors-of-place very much appear to be due to or for the sake of "his writing" (which, it must be noted, is strewn with the most bizarre metaphors, alliterations and analogies ever collected under one cover.) Either that or the guy has absolutely no sense of direction, or sense enough to check his "facts." What kind of editor did he have!? And when he gets going with some of his wordsmithing, it gets far worse than this description of an encounter with Ariel, the Little Mermaid: "She had eyes the color of fresh-cut grass and cheekbones like the high, carved peaks of the Matterhorn." Lame writing and phoned-in editing.
In the telling of a tale from an incident at Pleasure Island, the author states that a bouncer deposited an unruly drunk "on his head in the parking lot." A Disney bouncer is not likely to treat a guest in such a manner. Even if this were true, the author did not, could not, see a guest deposited in any fashion in "the parking lot," since the lot is nowhere near the clubs of Pleasure Island.
It is little things like these statements of "fact," which are made clearly for the sake of story telling and what he assumes to be clever turns of phrase, that leave me skeptical of every word he writes. This is not to say that some of the stories are not entertaining. Some are. But others (insider stories he claims to have experience with) are the product of great manipulation of fact. If geographical facts - which can be easily researched or known by people other than Disney Cast Members - are so sloppy and egregious, how can one be certain that anything he writes about "behind the scenes" is any more accurate? One can't. And while I will not even pretend to refute, nor even sanitize some of the scandalous claims he makes - - quite the contrary. My 15 years at WDW were some of the most "entertaining" of my life! - - I am simply saying that Mr. Mitchell's story is so full of holes, errors of fact, and manipulations that I stopped believing a word of it shortly after his late-night drive down "the road to the east coast through Everglades."
Additionally: In discussing Grimm/Disney/Snow White, the author is unable to distinguish "plagiarism" from "adaptation." He puts far too much exposition in the form of conversational quotation, and it not only sounds contrived, it IS. He makes a point of mentioning that, in September, the weather has cooled and the constant hum of AC units backstage has abated. Really. Florida. In September? Disney has turned off the AC! But THEN, a mere month after this apparent cold snap, he profusely whines about the Florida heat. The Universal Studios ride, "Dueling Dragons" was originally to have been built at Disney's Animal Kingdom. (OMG!) Gay Days is noted as taking place "usually sometime in May." (For twenty years, never once has it been in May, but always on the same Saturday in June, Gay Pride MONTH. JUNE.) The Magic Kingdom serves sherbet. (!) At Epcot, he watched guests feeding the koi at the China pavilion (there are no koi in China but many live in the pond at the Japan pavilion.) These are just a few of the inaccurate "details" he has peppered this memoir with. One must wonder what other "spices" his stories contain.
In the end, the book just annoyed me. It will no doubt annoy many readers. Other Cast Members will find any number of reasons to be disturbed, for any number of (other) reasons (not mentioned here.) For any reader, if this had been written without the ill-conceived attempt to "write," if it had been an accurate, honest book, giving ANY reason to believe that any of it were true instead of repeated examples of falsehoods, this might have been a successful memoir. As it stands, it would best be read as if it were fiction. If read at all.
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97 of 105 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
More fantasy than a fairytale movie!!, March 22, 2010
This review is from: Cast Member Confidential: A Disneyfied Memoir (Paperback)
As a former cast member myself, I looked forward to reading this book long before I actually got it in my hands. I loved my years at Disney, but knew about the seedy side of things as well and looked forward to what he had to say. Once I started reading this book though, I was highly disappointed.
The author spends the first half of the book bemoaning Disney and what it stands for, acting like he was too cool and above it all. Then the second half disallusioned that Disney didn't give him the escape he'd been looking for. I don't even want to get started on how much of this was just over the top exageration.
The "characters" in this book are too unbelievable to be real. They're just too outlandish and are not actual human beings. Yes, there is drama and scandal a plenty in DisneyWorld. I would never suggest that Disney World is the perfect work environment but nothing like the author "claims". I was so disappointed in this book, I struggled to finish it.
I looked forward to a book that would spill some of the secrets, backstage stories and experiences that happens unbeknowst to the guests just 20 feet away. What I got was a book that was so crazy, exagerated and outlandish, that it should be under fiction.
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41 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not what you expected, February 21, 2010
This review is from: Cast Member Confidential: A Disneyfied Memoir (Paperback)
I am not here to berate the author. This book is well written, well edited and flows nicely. That's what the 3 stars are for. As for the book, it is more an autobiography of an adult who hasn't grown up and is still dealing with his hatred of his brother and the dysfunctional relationship with his mother and father. Yes he does spend a year working at Disney World, so he was a Cast Member. If you are a Disney Fan thinking you are going to get a dose of Disneyana, you are wrong. Sure he puts in a little trivia at the beginning of each chapter and throws in a footnote or two. However, the Disney part consisted of devoted Cast Members who work for minimum wage, live in the Cast Member ghetto, look for every nook to have sex and spend all their remaining time (if they are not partying and getting drunk) trying to break the Disney rules without getting caught. Somehow the words "devoted" and "break the rules" just don't seem to go together. I still couldn't understand how people could live in poverty and still find plenty of booze and drugs. I guess you just need to know how to set your priorities. So if you are person who loves Chris Mitchell and wish to read his autobiography which includes his one-year experience at Disney World then this is the book for you. If you are a person who wishes to read a book about, in his own words, the "deviant characters and manipulative Cast Members" of Disney World, who by the way are all homosexuals, then this is the book for you. Otherwise avoid this book.
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