Customer Reviews

The Disneylands That Never Were

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Where to start with the problems of this book...

Well, first it's self-published and printed by an on-demand service. The type seems to be meant for a large-type book. The editing is terrible with many misspellings and a number of grammatical errors.

I've been collecting Disneyland memorabilia for 25+ years. Most of this info in the book is gleaned from other books a collector would already have in their collection. What's worse is that some of the info. is completely wrong (I used to work both at Disneyland and the Walt Disney Studios). The chapters jump around, seemingly to simply follow Finnie's train of thought as various items came to mind. He tries to present the material in a proper time-line, but just can't stay the course, making for a frustrating read.

The final nail in the coffin: NOT ONE SINGLE PICTURE!! Not one. This is the primary reason people buy books on Disneyland. One wants to see the artwork Finnie's describing.

Don't waste your money. Look for anything with Bruce Gordon (used to be in the WDI Mac club BOD with him - great guy - recently laid off after 20+ years at WDI) or anything officially published by Disney.

Jim

The author seems to have taken material that is availble elsewhere and repackaged it in this book. Virtually nothing in the book was new to me. Had the author included pictures illustrating the information he presented, it could have been forgiven to rehash old material, but as it is, this book just isn't worth the money.

This book is a flawed product of good intentions. It is poorly edited, misstates facts and names, and generally makes a mishmash of its subject, but it is still full of interesting stuff for the casual and inexperienced fan of things Disney. Most of the info here is better told in first-hand memoirs of Disney people, the book is poorly organized, and the author, who clearly hails from the UK, uses mistaken terminology to describe American subjects in a way that grates if you care about language as I do. The book jumps back and forth, repeats itself, and is kind of painful to read...BUT...the info is there hiding beneath the bad writing, so if you really want the basic background on many historical curiosities about the Disney theme park empire and especially about the attractions and plans that were never completed (even though many of the reasons and facts given about WHY they weren't are wrong or half-baked) then read the book anyhow. But you've been warned. It is realy rough going.

Who is Shaun Finnie and why did he write this book? I have collected Disney books for decades now, and this is the first time I recall seeing his name. So I took a close look at this book, and here's what I found:

- All the names in Acknowledgements are first names.
- There are very few attributed quotes.
- There are no illustrations.
- The book was originally self-published on the Internet.
- There is an extensive bibliography.

My conclusion is Shawn is a Disney fan who started this project for the sheer love of it, gathered his information mostly from what I would call a "literary search", and arranged for publication himself.

This book would be easy to nitpick: I did seem some typos and some grammar errors, much of the information could be more complete, and this type of book cries out for pictures. But it does contain some good information and is easy to read. So Disney fanatics will be disappointed, but the general public can learn something.

As a recent visitor to Disneyland Resort (all the way from the land Down Under) I found this book interesting in parts, but most definitely "put-downable". I agree with the criticism of other reviewers regarding no photos (boring!) and the ridiculously large print. Much of the information was not news to me. Although a Disney fan would probably enjoy this easy read, there are in my opinion more professional and coherent offerings available regarding "The Happiest Place on Earth".

Yes, I agree. This book is not very professionally done. It jumps around, somewhat organized by park, somewhat organized by oldest to newest, but even there it is erratic.

It has large print, which is nice as you don't have to put your reading glasses on. However, it has no illustrations at all, and that is a severe limitation in a book about Imagineering.

Still, it is chock full of fascinating "what-ifs", Disney Theme Park history, and trivia. I am glad I bought it, "warts and all". There is no book that really covers this. Oh sure "Disneyland, the Nickel Tour" (and if you are a super Disneyland fan, get it, it is worth the super high price- put it on your Christmas list!) and others touch upon many of these, but none cover the subject of "what might have been" as extensively as here.

I'd like to see the author get a commission to do this again, with the full backing of Disney, fully illustrated, and professionally printed. It's a book that needs to be done, and until then, this will have to do. So, I give it a charitable ***.

If you have read the previous reviews, then you are aware of the problems. However this book is clearly a work of love. Shaun has a lot of material here. It's a great read for an introduction to Disney history. All of the attractions discussed have concept drawings that are available in other Disney books. However, the little authors such as Shaun don't have the funds to pay the copyright fees. Those fees are huge, so unfortunately, Shaun had to go with no pictures. That said, I have to like this book. Shaun clearly loves Disney and it shows throughout.

For true fans of the Disney theme parks, this book is a good list of the many ideas considered by Imagineers for projects that, for various reasons, were never completed.

If you can ignore the many typos -- and the self-published vibe -- of the book, you'll enjoy the research that reveals the dozens-and-dozens of concepts for attractions, hotels, shops (and entire theme parks) that were never built due to politics, finances and/or public resistance.

My one MAJOR complaint is the complete lack of any photographs or artists renderings of all the "lost" Disney ideas. The writing is decent, but in no way is able to fully convey some of the GREAT ideas that have been tossed-around in the hallways of Disney's Imagineering division. Not having pictures for this sort of premise is silly (though I understand that Disney was probably uncooperative on this venture), and in a way, self-defeating. I'd love to see a revision -- under the Disney publishing arm -- loaded with the artwork from Imagineering's "morgue" of discarded ideas. Maybe the author can approach Disney with that proposal in a year or two?!? One can hope...

Poorly written, but worst of all - innaccurate and just plain wrong as to facts. Do not waste your money on this book.

reading this book is like having dinner with a person who has done all the work for you learning about the Disney park experience.

others have noted that this is all available out there, and i suppose it likely is. the author appears to not be a Disney insider, but rather a Disney aficionado. in a conversational tone, the author provides you with a great overview of the evolution of Disney theme parks.

this is a great place to start, especially if you have been going to Disney parks for some time, but have never really dug into the history before. a lot of things will start to make sense, but you wont get overwhelmed in the process.