“I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I have ever known.” –Walt Disney
I’ve read five or six biographies of Walt Disney over the last thirty or so years. My aunt Gloria gave me my first (Walt Disney: An American Original) back in the mid 70s. I’ve talked on this site before about how Walt is a bit of a personal hero of mine so I won’t beat that dead horse again now.
I just finished Neal Gabler’s Walt Disney: the Triumph of the American Imagination and I have to say it’s the best of the biographies I’ve read to date. At over six hundred pages, it’s exhaustively detailed and apparently Gabler’s research spanned seven years with unprecidented access to the Disney archives and the Disney family themselves. Even after those half a dozen other books, there is still information here that was new to me. Details mainly, but it made the reading a worthwhile experience for yours truly. If I had a complaint it would be the author’s persistent psycholoanalyzing. Gabler’s overriding theme is that Walt was a control freak– intent on reshaping a world which was not to his liking. While there may be some validity to this assertion, it seems somewhat trite and shallow to me. I did find Gabler’s theorizing annoying, but it did little to hamper my overall enjoyment of the book. I’d recommend this biography to anyone who is either already familiar with Disney or is curious about this iconic figure who had such an impact on American culture.
Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination
Neal Gabler
**** (out of five)
* * *
[Author Michael Barrier takes a somewhat dissenting viewpoint from my own. Although I think his review of Gabler's book comes off as somewhat self-serving (Barrier's got his own biography of Disney coming out soon) I do think he makes some good points. Check out his review
If Barrier's own book is half as good as he apparently thinks it is (and his Hollywood Cartoonswas a fine book) maybe it will supplant Gabler's as my favorite. Here's hoping.].
I recently upgraded to Wordpress 2 (primarily because I was getting my ass spammed off in the comments section and 2 had some solutions for that). I figured, while I was at it, I might as well make some slight changes to the visual theme too. Expect me to continue tinkering with the look and feel more in the coming days. (Aren’t you excited?!).
Director Richard Donner was hired to direct both Superman the Movie and Superman II –simultaneously, in fact. While deep in the midst of this herculean project, Donner fell out of favor with the films’ producers and was let go. “The Movie” is entirely Donner’s work. Richard Lester (A Hard Day’s Night) was brought in to complete “II” on Donner’s behalf. I remember thinking (the last time these flicks were released on DVD back in 2000 or 2001) that “II” was hokier than I recollected. In fact– while still a lot of fun– it seemed a lot more like a kids’ movie to me. For years, there was talk of somehow cobbling together the version that Donner would have made and now that’s finally come to pass. With the release of Superman Returns on DVD (as well as the crazy 14 disc comprehensive collection of which I’m now a proud owner) also comes Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. This reconstruction of what Donner would have done had he been allowed to complete “II” on his own is very interesting indeed. It isn’t fair to call it a film in its own right– it includes (by necessity) some of the material shot by Lester as well as some screen tests of scenes Donner never got to shoot on proper sets. So, what’s the verdict? I like this cut. It’s certainly a good deal more mature (and in some ways more epic) than the iteration that made it to theatres. In it’s current form, this flick is nothing more really than a curiousity, but I think I would have dug Donner’s take more than Lester’s. You can’t go too far wrong with either version though– I mean, come on, what’s wrong with Supes fighting three super-powered villains in the streets of Metropolis? Not a damn thing, that’s what.
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
Richard Donner, director
(1980)
*** (out of five)
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