Book Review: The Story of Disney 100 Years of Wonder
The Story of Disney 100 Years of Wonder
is a coffee table book that shares a broad look at the history of the Walt Disney Company. It is a daunting task to identify and then condense 100 years of history into under 300 pages in a single book. Choosing the milestones to highlight, people to feature and imagery to include is a substantial challenge. John Baxter, Bruce Steele and the Walt Disney Archives team has put together a solid read giving you the highlights and at times a little depth about the company’s history.
As with a number of the Disney 100 offerings this one is organized in the same fashion as the exhibit. There are 10 chapters, and they are loosely organized by theme vs chronologically. The chapters are:
- Where It All Began
- Where Do the Stories Come From
- The Illusion of Life
- The Spirit of Adventure and Discovery
- The Magic of Sound and Music
- The World Around Us
- Innoventions
- Your Disney World – A Day in the Parks
- The Wonder of Disney
- We Are Just Getting Started
I always enjoy reading these types of books to see what the authors choose to shine a spotlight on. And more interesting to me what is left out or glossed over. There is a noteworthy fold out in the appendix of entitled 100 moments of Wonder and it’s a four-page listing of milestone dates.
I found The Story of Disney 100 Years of Wonder to be a good overview of the company’s history. As you would expect given the amount of time and scope of what needs to be explored the depth is not there in most cases. If you are looking for a good introduction or highlights this is a solid book. If you were looking for an in-depth history and maybe something new/unique you will most likely be disappointed in this book. The stories, details, images are all familiar if you have read/experienced previous books, shows or presentations.
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** A review copy of this book was provided to us
