''The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney'' is a 1968 book by Richard Schickel. It is a biography of

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...

. It was one of the first polemical books about Disney that takes a harshly critical view of much of his work.

Reception

Stephen J. Whitfield of

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

wrote that the book was "one of the best studies ever done on American popular culture ... unfailingly, consistently intelligent, and eminently readable" while Pauline Kael described it as "a revealing part of American cultural history".

Criticism

Other critics perceived a hypocrisy and a dubious reliability mainly due to the fact that the book was written and released after Walt Disney's death. In his 1982 book '' The Hollywood Musical'', critic and author Ethan Mordden wrote that the book "is favored by the cognoscenti", but "Schickel's resentment of Disney's wealth and power" stood out "like a soapbox nut's exhortation - horror of horrors, the genius turned out to be a capitalist". Disney historian Didier Ghez called it "a strange psychological analysis of Walt and his works".DidierGehz.com
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Disney Version 1968 non-fiction books Books about Disney Works about Walt Disney Simon & Schuster books American biographies Non-fiction books about film directors and producers

Reception

Criticism

See also

References