Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Having collected and read about Walt Disney and animation for 30+ years, I found that the only proper way to read Gabler's biography is as follow-up to the great book by Michael Barrier, "An Animated Man", also available on Amazon. Barrier gives the structure of Walt's life as centered on Walt's true loves: his animation and his parks. While Barrier's book is a very pleasant read, and gives insight in what made Walt tick. As a contrast, Gabler recites data as if it was a class in Latin and represents Walt as a kind of nut. Gabler clearly neither likes nor understands Walt. He also has no knowledge of--or love for--the medium of animation, and he keeps talking of Walt's "animations," an expression that is only used by people who have no idea what they are talking about. But he did have access to the Archives, and thus some things are only to be found in his book. There are many, many factual errors in Gabler's book. A huge list can be found on Barriers's site (Google "GablerErrata"). And as a final note, on that same site, one can read that Diane Disney Miller herself thinks the Gabler book is a gross misrepresentation of her father (Google "Diane_On_Gabler"). So buy both books, read Barrier first, then Gabler, and then make up your own mind!