Customer Reviews

Disney and His Worlds

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This book is a useful entry point for those wishing to learn more about Walt Disney, the Disney theme parks (mostly Disneyland and Walt Disney World), and the academic criticism of the two. Bryman writes in a straightforward style, although a bit dully at times, that provides a solid foundation and useful biography for these topics. The first part of the book focuses on Walt Disney and Life after Walt, roughly. The second part of the book focuses on the theme parks and the major themes/issues that academics have touched upon. Warning: It is not, however, an in-depth examination of the theme parks, as such, and readers looking for detailed descriptions of the theme parks would be better off looking at Fjellman's Vinyl Leaves for that kind of work.

What is most useful about Bryman's book is his distillation of others' writings. for example, Bryman helpful provides a compilation of those writers who examine the Disney theme parks from a postmodern perspective. This provides the reader with a sort of "for further reading" list and crib notes for those authors' stances on Disney and postmodernism. Other themes and threads Bryman introduces include: Disney and control, families, the cinematic experience, tourism, other theoretical perspectives, etc. In many ways, Bryman's book would be a good introductory textbook on Disney Studies and/or it operates as a bio-bibliography.

This is not to say the book shies from its own critique. With regard to postmodernism, Bryman's perspective is quite clear--he doesn't think it works too well. Overall, Bryman's interest is in examining Disney theme parks from the standpoints of business and tourism. In this, Bryman offers some perspectives on Disney that have, to date, been underdeveloped. Useful are his characterizations of Walt Disney as a charismatic leader and Corporate Disney as a culture. His development of Chris Rojek's (and others) representation of tourism and post-tourism (a development of tourism studies that is more in keeping with postmodernism, and perhaps more accurate to the study of Disney).

The book was well worth its original price, if for no other reason than it provides a wealth of information on other writings on Disney. If you don't mind Bryman's sometimes stilted prose, or lots of summary on others' ideas, or the sense that sometimes Bryman feels obligated to defend Disney from an academic (rather than personal) standpoint, it's a good choice. Speaking from the perspective of an academic who is avidly trying to read as much as possible on Disney, I can truthfully say the book is invaluable. Bryman has done his homework--and my homework, too!