The Importance Of Walt Disney

By Don Nardo

Book Overview

Walt Disney was perhaps the greatest showman of the twentieth century. This fact-filled, moving biography traces his colorful life, from his humble beginnings in the American mid-West, to his single-handed transformation of the animated film, to his creation of a vast entertainment empire, to his incredible legacy.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560066059
• ISBN13: 9781560066057
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Lucent Books
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.5" x 7.5"
• Age Range: 12 to 15 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 10

Customer Reviews

Review by Nicki P.

By Nicki P. My book is called The Importance of Walt Disney and the author is Don Nardo. Walt Disney was one of the greatest entertainers ever. He was born into a large family in Chicago, and his parents felt there was so much crime and violence there, that they moved to a farm in Missouri. Even though Walt was very poor he loved being on the farm and watching the animals and all the colors. That's when he first started drawing! He drew on toilet paper because he didn't have enough money for paper! I think the conflict was Walt vs. himself because when he had a new idea for cartoon movies and people said it wouldn't be successful he believed it could and had the courage to try. When we think of Walt Disney's creations we think of Mickey and Minney Mouse, the princesses, Disneyland, the little mermaid, Tweety, Alice and WonderLand, Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast and more. When Walt Disney died, his legacy lived on for many generations and even now. Some books make you courageous, exhilarated, sad, happy and so on. This book makes you feel courageous. The book was exciting to read because before I read this I didn't realize that one man did all this great work. I grew up watching all the Disney movies and cartoons, so I really felt like I was inside the stories. The main conflict wasn't like in a big adventure or mystery story. It was a story of a man striving and dedicated to succeed his dream. The character of the book was a real life person and the make-believe characters seemed real too. At first when I read the ending I was disappointed that he died at age 65. But then when I read more I realized his life was so successful and his brother, Roy, continued to make more of Walt's dreams come true. I felt like the author was like a brother to Walt. He really understood everything about this man. He wasn't real technical about how cartoons and movies are made but instead he described how Walt wanted all the characters to appeal to the children with upbeat characters. I thought there were a lot of challenging words like formidable, integral, propaganda. I thought the author was really descriptive. For instance, when he describes the most famous cartoon character Mickey Mouse was born "with a long skinny tail and short pants decorated with large buttons." Don Nardo the author paid a lot of attention to detail and included frequent pictures and actual photos. My rating system is a 1-10, and I give the book a ten because I loved reading about a man who created all the movies and TV I've been watching all my life. I've been to Disney World, which was a place that Disney made sure all the people were clean cut American, happy friendly people. I recommend this to anyone that doesn't believe that his or her dreams can come true. If they read this they would see how a poor man could accomplish a dream through courage and hard work. If I were ever to be inspired by a person, Walt Disney would inspire me. He always believed in himself a

great book!

A fact-filled and riviting tribute to the world's most prolific and popular entertainer, bar none. There are dozens of volumes out there on Disney, many of them lavishly illustrated, which this one isn't. But they are not nearly so well written!

Well Written and Moving

This book about Walt Disney has few pictures and they are not in color, which seems odd for a biography of one of the most coloful movie makers of all time. However, even though I was put off by this when I first thumbed through the book, when I actually began reading it my opinion changed. It is one of the very best summaries I've seen of Disney's life and work, and I've read several. It's very well written and sometimes even moving, and it goes into a lot of the background stories about him and his brother, Roy, who was always worried that the company might go broke becauase Walt tended to spend so much money. As the author points out several times, Walt knew that he had to spend a lot of money to get the level of quality that the Disney name has come to stand for. Everybody interested in Walt Disney should definitely read this book.