Customer Reviews

Screenplay by Disney

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I enjoyed this book and found it's insites fun and entertaining. As for a "manual" for writing in the Disney style it is not. The author even admits that he set out to find the "magic formula" and found there was none. Animation by it's very nature is very fluid and the "script" is actually developed in storyboards not 3x5 cards. To truely appreciate the Disney method would require a book on storyboarding, acting, directing and story development with the script taking second fiddle.

It's evident the book is written by a true Disney fan, plus there are some great little bits of humor that make it quite entertaining. There were a few instances where I was reading a section and thought "oh this quote from Walt would be so relevant, or this movie reference would work here nicely." More often than not, as I read a little further, or read the little notebook quotes, it was exactly what I was thinking of. Then there are the little teasers about future projects like Rapunzel Unbraided and especially the quote from Mary-Jane Ruggels about doing an animal-caper, a mystery and Latin American based movie. I've made a point of collecting Disney books (I probably have at least half of those mentioned in the endnotes), yet this book still offered new stories and insights.

My expectation was that this was a writing manual based on the techniques used at Disney. It didn't give any new information that most Disney fans already knew about Disney movies through other books, DVD features, and the like. I found myself scheming a majority of the book because it didn't really offer anything new and refreshing. I would recommend reading Disney bios, Walt:The Man Behind the Myth doc, and the Imagineers books if you want an inside look into Walt Disney and his world. You can even go to Youtube and find the same information.