I'd been looking forward to reading Neal Gabler's Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination. Well, that was before I read his essay "Walt Disney: Man or Mouse" in the LA Times. It was, shall we say, curiously flat for such a meaty subject.
Michael Barrier's review of Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination has pretty much killed my interest in Gabler's book—now I'm waiting for Barrier's The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney.
What convinced me? Not so much Barrier's citation of the errors in Triumph as his contention that Gabler "doesn't recognize the entrepreneur in Walt Disney." That entrepreneurial drive seems pretty central to the Uncle Walt who pioneered TV, redefined amusement parks, and, oh yes, created such a huge library of iconic films, both animated and otherwise.
