Customer Reviews

Mouse Tales: A Behind-The-Ears Look at Disneyland

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Oh! This book is a keepsake.
Whether you are a big Disneyland fan or just not a swooner for Disneyland, you will find something in this book you'll enjoy reading. You see although many wonderful, magical things have happened inside Disneyland, several naughty things have happened too. This book will expose the employee that liked to take his pants off and run around the elevator in the Haunted Mansion (page 87). The submarine worker who stripped down to his underwear to save a mermaid. The worker that used to hide under the Haunted Mansion track to put his hand under women's skirts. The overweight man stuck in Injun's Joe's cave. The rats that used to jump around Tom Sawyer island. The kitty cats that hide in the forestry waiting for Disneyland to close. The obese woman stuck in the railcar. Her husband had too push her out with his feet to get her out (page 121).
The lovers did what on the Inner Space ride? Security was waiting for them at the end of the ride.
Did you know that New orleans Square had a jail . It was not an attraction, but the real thing. That was where security took the unruly guests the park.
Security used to be in every dark corner and entrance/exit. Now they have cameras in trees, in the walls and on the rides. You can see one on the Splash Mountain ride hidden in a little house with a roof. Security can even be dressed like a guest waiting in line in front or back of you.
Also you will learn how the creator of Mickey Mouse's voice and cartoonist, Walt Disney had this idea of creating a new modern amusement park that almost was built in Burbank. You will see just what was on those acres of land before the bulldozers took over. With only one year to build the castle and Disneyland, Opening Day, July 17, 1955 had many embarassing bloppers especially on live television as Art Linkletter recalls. Even Walt Disney got caught in an embarassing moment.
Every story is accurate and true as told by former cast memebers. Author, David Koenig painstakingly contacted over 200 employees, went through libraries, examining 650 Superior Court cases against Disneyland and still even more eye-blurring research just to get the facts ma'am for what turns out to be a very entertaining and funny coffee table book. It sits nicely on your bed table too.
Second book: "More Mouse Tales: A Closer Peek Backstage At Disneyland.
Third Book: "Mouse Under Glass: Secrets Of Disney Animation And Theme Parks"
Special 50th Anniversary Edition: "Mouse Tales: A Behind-The Ears Look At Disneyland: Golden Anniversary Special Edition" with Audio CD. (Hardcover).

This book gives the reader information about what it must be like to work at the Disneyland Park. It gives information about the building of the park, the people who work there and some of the things that Disney Company does to try to maintain the feeling of magic for its customers.

I enjoyed reading about the many things that happen every day and night at Disneyland that help to make the customer experience better. One example is the army of workers that come out at night to make sure that everything is clean and safe for the next day's customers. I think that it would be fascinating to watch what happens at night at Disneyland or Walt Disney World but I doubt that I will ever have that opportunity.

This book shows that Disneyland is like all other parks in that there are the unglamorous and even dangerous areas. I think that the author might have gone into more detail on some of the more gruesome accidental deaths than I would have liked. However, I appreciated that the author presented this information in a factual way and did not betray the reader's trust by getting on a soapbox to preach and draw unsubstantiated conclusions based on these isolated incidents as other authors have.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how Disney runs their parks and makes those parks so popular. This book is an easy and quick read and gives the reader a lot of information is a fairly short amount of time.

I bought this book with some reservations since I saw both positive and negative reviews from former "alleged" cast-members. Thankfully, I discovered that Mr.Koenig DID document his sources so one can make a judgement as to what is likely truth and what is possibly fiction. Apparently, he did pull a good amount of his information from microfiches of local newspapers in addition to cast and ex-cast interviews.

In a nutshell, the book shows that Disneyland, despite its magical mystique, is still a very human place with gemstones and lumps of coal. The one chapter that lost my interest was "Lawsuit Land" which, after going through several other stories of how guests can be so careless or thoughtless, began to be redundant.

Overall, the book was an enjoyable and easy read. It's a collection of interesting notes and stories of the park, its founder, its cast and its guests; not an intellectual dissertation of Disney's impact on culture. There's a laugh here and there; some awe at peoples' kindness or stupidity; and interesting snippets of the park's growing pains. It certainly left me with a better appreciation of what troubles the cast-members have to go through, and an understanding of how to be a more gracious guest on my next trip to the kingdom.

I picked up this book because I wanted to research Disneyland even further. I currently work there. The book covers the history, the attractions, the workers, guests, future plans, and lawsuits the park has had. What I found to be the most interesting were the tales of guests getting out of hand. I could definitley relate to some of the experiences. Another wonderful chapter are the stories about rides. You'll find out which rides are the most dangerous, the most costly, and have the most unhappy workers. You'll find out which ride gave some lucky tourists "the dirty version". A revealing chapter is also written about the characters. You'll read about the bodily harm they endure on a weekly basis. The most touching part of the book talks about the day that Walt died. The only thing I would have changed is the fact that Eisner is not discussed much at all. I've been wanting to know more about him. This book was written very fairly and accurately. I would recommend this book to anybody curious about Disneyland.

Interesting, engaging, funny, and at times, very sad. An eye-opening look at what goes on behind the scenes at the "Happiest Place on Earth". A must buy for Disney fanatics, or trivia buffs!! (In short, it covers what's right, and what's wrong with the park, as well as a peek backstage.)

I bought this book and a couple others on Disneyland. I just got hired to work at Disneyland, so I wanted to read what it was like to work there. I was very excited to work there, until I read this book. It made me feel a little weird. It tells lot's of stuff you never hear about, or even think about, that happen at Disneyland. I wish he told more recent stuff, most of the things were before I was even born. I am 26. It was a little depressing, I can't think of another word, but I also found it interesting and kept reading and reading. If you don't mind having your image of Disneyland change, you should buy it.

This book is absolutely fascinating! If you've ever been to Disneyland and find that it still gets you excited when you think of going back, this book is for you.

There is so much interesting information. I thought I knew quite a bit about the Magic Kingdom. But, this book goes deeper behind the scenes. It exposes the good, the bad and the ugly. It is not a put down of the park. But, it does let you know from first hand interviews with former employees that it's had it's share of problems. This makes you appreciate all the hard work the Disney team does to make your day in the park seem "Magical".

Chapters like "Fatal Attractions" and "Tragic Kingdom" go into detail about those "down played" accidents and deaths. I remember hearing a little about some of them and wondering how things turned out. This book gives you the details, including the law suits which were filed.

Though I'm absolutely NOT a history enthusiast, I loved the history of Disneyland. Did you know that opening day was actually not so great? Do you remember the Flying Saucer ride and wonder why it disappeared? The answers are all here without the candy coating.

This book is the Special Golden Anniversary Edition. There are only 4,000 copies of this edition. This makes it a special collector's item for Disneyland's 50th Anniversary. I plan on buying the sequel book, too. It's hard to put this one down once you start. So, you better buy them both now so you don't have to wait for the next part like I am.

If you're looking for the hilarious behind-the-scenes dope on what really goes on in the Magic Kingdom, you won't be disappointed by this book.

I read it just before I went to Disneyland the last time, and highlighted some of the more curious passages. Then, while waiting in the interminable lines, we pulled it out of our backpack and read the anecdotes to each other. This made our trip to Disneyland far more interesting than it otherwise would have been (i.e. without the book handy, we would've been at a loss to remember the location of Walt's private apartment above the Fire House, and the forbidden door of Club 33--the snobbiest thing I've ever heard of in my life).

After reading the book, I have both more and less respect for the way Disneyland does business. More, in the sense that when they believe they're in the right, they fight for it in court; and less, seeing how guests are maniupulated and employees abused.

As the author of a mystery novel in current release that uses a fictional Orange County amusement park as a primary setting, I found David Koenig's MOUSE TALES fascinating. He did his research, and he presents what he learned in an entertaining manner. In MOUSE TALES, he tells some tales that Disney's Big Rats might prefer to remain untold, yet he is also fair. He shows his reader how Disney's theme parks are run and how they manage to remain the most popular amusements of their kind in the world. MOUSE TALES is a fair book. It is an honset book. It is a good book.

Have you ever wondered how Disneyland is able to transport you from the normal world you live in to the magical fantasy world of Walt Disney? This book explains a lot of the secret techniques used at Disneyland. You can learn about the only place in Disneyland that can sell alcohol or read stories of the people who worked there, went there and got married there. If you are a fan of Disney, you have to read this book