Customer Reviews

Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look At Making the Magic Real

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are looking for a book to explain how Disney makes the magic come to life, you've found the right book! This book is filled with fantastic photographs, sketches, paintings, and other products of Disney's Imagineering. A "coffee table book" actually worth reading! The Imagineers give away a lot of their secrets, but don't expect to learn it all. Just when you think you've cracked the Imagineer's vault, they change the subject on you. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting a "behind-the-scenes" look at how the Disney parks were made into the wonderful places they are today.

This is the BEST book I have EVER read. I'm 14 years old and ever since I came back from Walt Disney World in 1999 after seeing the Millennium Celebration, I have wanted to be an architect for Walt Disney Imagineering. I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Disney or wants to be an Imagineer. It has inspired and motivated me to be the best I can be and to look at everything as an oppritunity to see and learn new things. I have never wanted to be an Imagineer more since reading this book. It gives you a beautiful and rare collection of WDI drawings and paintings and what it's like to be an Imagineer. They explain the jobs there and tell you what it was like to work for some of their biggest projects. I was sad when I finished this book! Each page motivated me to turn to the next and keep reading until my eyes fell out! There are inspiring quotes from Walt Disney and the Imagineers themselves. The the Best and Only book on Walt Disney Imagineering.

This is an absolutely fantastic inside look at the design process of Disney Imagineering. The book details the past, present and future projects along with great anecdotes from the Imagineers themselves. The book is also filled with rich pictures, illustrations, and sketches from projects both built and left on the "shelf". As one who wishes to pursue a thempark design career, this book acts as a great reference tool and both inspires and motivates your creative juices.

-Ken G.

I saw this book in Downtown Disney while visiting. It is the most interesting behind-ths-scenes look into Disney's imagineers. I can go to any of the parks and be awed over and over and over again. This book lets you see how things came to be. It includes information on rides, parks and lots of other stuff. I suggest getting it from Amazon where it is much cheaper. I would have waited and ordered it from them if I knew they had carried it. A must have for any Disney fan's library.

The Imagineers, who have been put together by Walt Disney himself from his staff of animators, put their imagination and engineering expertise to work, making their movies in three-dimension. Anyone who visits Disney World, Florida will immediately note that not a detail gets by them where there is no cultural or graphic response to the scenery. All parts are integral, and the Imagineers recognize this. Some of the most wonderful aspects of their work is in the smallest detail, so as not to stand out, instead, it blends into the environment (like it should). The book is set up into parts of the varying departments of the Imagineers, in the stages in which they prepare a project. Like Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas' book 'The Illusion of Life' they do not fail to recognize good work from a particular artist. Even here, in the lesser known trait of architecture and engineering, the names are noted as any famous artist, which is refreshing and respectable for the artists in their own respective fields to be continually influenced by their peers. A wonderful book that is easy to read, does not burden the reader with too much technical jargon, and easy to appreciate the many pictures of their work. Certainly Disney enthusiasts will enjoy this book, as well as a prospective Imagineer.

This book is my favorite book of the Imagineers. There are a few on the market now, but it seems that this one is just... complete! So many great stories, drawings and interesting facts... IT makes you want to design your own park!
The book is well illustrated, written and composed. There is actualy a story-line! All the way from the beginning to the latest developments!
This is an edition to keep.

As a former Disney Imagineer, I was curious to see how the old gang at Disney Imagineering would tell "our" story. Not Bad. A visual feast filled with the stories behind designing the world's grandest theme parks. They were less generous than they could have been when naming key players on several projects--especially if those Imagineers had moved on before the book was compiled. All-in-all a fun, fascinating and accurate look backstage at the Disney Dream factory. Unless you go to work there, this is the closest you'll get to seeing concept paintings, models, mock-ups and images of great ideas that never got built. As our boss, Marty Sklar, once said, "Dead projects tell no tales" Now, they do in this big, heavily illustrated book. Congrats to Bruce Gordon, Kevin Rafferty, Dave Mumford, Mel, Pam, and all the delightful "pinheads" who pulled this together. It was worth getting one more memo (inside the book) from Marty (in an in-house mail, manila envelope) with his now-famous red felt pen notes scribbled accross the page.

I absolutely cherish this book and reviit it time and again just to look at the photos and drawings. Contains detailed information about how the Imagineers go about creating the Disney theme parks and hotels and shows all of the imagination and attention to detail that goes into that process. No wonder these are some of the most magical places on earth. Everything is engineered to the human experience.

Contains photos from WDW, Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Tokyo, and sketches and models of some attractions never built. Shows the entire process from conception of an idea to developing color schemes, to building models, to actual contstruction.

Let me start off saying that I am a Disney fanatic. Particularly anything that has to do with the construction and design of the disney parks. This book has it all everything from the idea of a ride right up to the installation process. I keep this book with me at all times, constantly rereading it time and time again.

I was lucky enough to purchase it (in hardcover) 2 years ago in Walt Disney World, and I have not stopped reading it since. I only wish there were more imagineering books out there. To the Disney Imagaineers- Thank you for giving us a peek at what must be a very rewarding job. A job I hope to have someday.

This has to be one of the best Disney books I've read. I recently bought it at the Walt Disney Family Museum, and I just cant put it down! Its informative, colorful, and a great Disney Geek book! I recommend this to anyone interested in how the imagineering process works, and how they do the things they do! If your a Disney Geek, You aren't yet complete with this book.