Walt Disney: Conversations (Conversations with Comic Artists) [Paperback]

Kathy Merlock Jackson (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Conversations with Comic Artists | Publication Date: November 30, 2005

The imagination of Walt Disney (1901-1966) is still seen in theme parks throughout the world bearing his name, on numerous live-action films and television specials, on toys and assorted merchandise, and on an international corporation known both for the high quality of its creative output and its ubiquity.

Walt Disney: Conversations collects interviews and profiles of the man who created Mickey Mouse, and produced such full-length animated classics as Snow White, Cinderella, Fantasia, Bambi, The Lady and the Tramp, Dumbo, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, and Pinocchio, along with countless short cartoons.

Bringing together over twenty pieces from the late 1920s to the late 1960s, this book traces Disney's career from the early classic Steamboat Willie to the construction of Disneyland, and the live-action ventures The Mickey Mouse Club and Mary Poppins. Walt Disney: Conversations shows how Disney saw his productions as shapers of popular culture and reveals how firmly he understood the issues of his time.

Featuring an interview conducted by producer Cecil B. DeMille, Disney's testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and rarely seen pieces from the Disney corporation's archives, Walt Disney: Conversations reveals a complex visionary whose impact on animation, live-action film, television, and theme parks has never been equaled.

Kathy Merlock Jackson is professor and coordinator of communications at Virginia Wesleyan College. Her works include Walt Disney: A Bio-Bibliography and Images of Children in American Film: A Socio-Cultural Analysis. She has also been published in the Journal of Popular Culture, the Journal of American Culture, and the Journal of Popular Film and Television. She lives in Virginia Beach.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jackson explores the man behind the Magic Kingdom, evoking Disney's folksy yet driven personality through interviews he gave and speeches he delivered between 1929 and 1966. From a Ladies' Home Journal celebrity profile (entitled "Mr. and Mrs. Disney") to an informative dialogue from the Disney archives, it's clear that Disney's leading quality was persistence. Though Disney was criticized for his films and underpaying employees, this work defends his taste and management style. Most interesting are the contradictory critiques of his work. Told his films are maudlin, Disney responds: "Millions of sentimentalists have taste as schmaltzy as mine." When slammed for the darker elements of his works (the witches, ogres and dragons), he claims all his films illustrate that "[l]ife is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows." Of particular note is Disney's testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, where he named suspected Communists. Aside from a brief intro, Jackson, a communications professor at Virginia Wesleyan College, doesn't put Disney's remarks in context, leaving readers to assemble a full portrait of the man on their own. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Although these 19 interviews and profiles constitute a volume in the Conversations with Comic Artists series, Walt Disney wasn't much of a cartoonist, and although his name is attached to many beloved movies, he wasn't a filmmaker in any typical sense. As he readily admitted, his role was to get the best out of the talented staff he assembled to produce his animated classics. In that capacity, he became more famous than genuine movie directors, appearing on dozens of magazines' covers and hosting a weekly TV show. The pieces here range from a brief newspaper story from 1929 (the year after the first Mickey Mouse talkie, Steamboat Willie) to a magazine piece from 1966, the year Disney died. Editor Jackson dug deep for some of them, such as a 1938 radio interview conducted by Cecil B. DeMille, a 1941 pep talk to Disney studio employees, and Disney's 1947 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, in which he inveighed against the Communist infiltration of Hollywood. Of interest to fans and scholars alike. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 143 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (November 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578067138
• ISBN-13: 978-1578067138
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #938,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #70 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( D ) > Disney, Walt

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In Walt Disney's Own Words, October 28, 2010

By 

C. Ayars (Corona, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Walt Disney: Conversations (Conversations with Comic Artists) (Paperback)

I have read several books written about the man Walt Disney, but this book compiles several of Walt Disney's speeches and interviews and presents Walt Disney in his own words. This has been a tremendous resource in the pursuit to understand one of the greatest minds of the 20th century.