Book Review: HABST AND THE DISNEY SABOTEURS

Leonard Kinsey hit one out the (theme) park with HABST AND THE DISNEY SABOTEURS.  His fictional follow-up to OUR KINGDOM OF DUST pulled me in almost immediately and he kept his foot on the gas pedal for the entire book, creating a funny and exciting novel about every Disney fan's dreams.

I don't want to spoil the book here, so I'll just mention that the story involves Reginald "Habst" Habstermeister and his backstage explorations of Disney's Florida theme parks.  Habst uses his fake cast member credentials and more than a little cunning to gain access to the behind-the-scenes areas of several rather unpopular attractions and posts the videos to his YouTube channel in order to earn Google Ad revenue.  When "Sat-Com" contacts him he begins uploading them to another location on the Darknet, and after he posts his videos, it seems something bad happens to said attraction.  It doesn't take long for Habst and Disney Security Chief Charlie Walker (you might remember him from HOLLOW WORLD?) to link the two.  What follows is an exciting adventure to find the culprits and find out what their intentions are.

I would recommend this book to most anyone, but especially to mature fans of the Disney parks.  (By mature, I mean, this isn't for kids.  Or for the easily offended.  Or those who like their Disney sanitized and idealized.)  Anyone can enjoy it, but my five-star rating (forthcoming on Amazon) is because I am that sort of Disney fan.

I hope Kinsey's work gets a wide audience because it's that good!

Here's the link to buy it for $3.99 in the Amazon Kindle Store:  HABST AND THE DISNEY SABOTEURS

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Meanwhile, feel free to check out my book, Doing Disney: How To Spend A Week At Disney's Florida Resort   It's available on Amazon for $2.99.

Thanks!

*****

Book Review: HOLLOW WORLD (from Bamboo Forest Publishing)

Thriller fiction set in Walt Disney World!  Yeah!  And it's from Bamboo Forest Publishing, who brought us Leonard Kinsey's OUR KINGDOM OF DUST and THE DARK SIDE OF DISNEY along with books by Dreamfinder (Ron Schneider) and Rolly Crump!

So I picked this up and read it (along with the three short prequel stories that are published separately, and at a cost of $0.00 (!) under the title HOLLOW WORLD:  ORIGINS) and it grabbed me.  It starts off in Detroit where Detective Charlie Walker is wrapping things up in preparation for a vacation to Walt Disney World with his beautiful wife Meghan and his two precocious daughters, and everything is going smoothly.  But when visiting Epcot Center, Charlie finds his wife talking to a cast member and she seems upset.  But she brushes it off and convinces him to return to the Magic Kingdom, and then to ride the PeopleMover instead of finding a good spot to watch the fireworks.  When the ride breaks down in the darkest area of the track, Charlie finds his wife and daughters have vanished from their ride vehicle!  In their place is a manila envelope with instructions on what he is to do if he ever wants to see them again.

What follows is an exciting story where the cool rational detective is tested by an unknown (to him) adversary and ultimately meets up with a CIA team who is intent upon capturing the bad guy.  It's a story which features great characters, from Charlie and his wife and family, to the five people on
X-Ray Team to the bad guy and his minions.  Fast paced and packed with action, it was a "can't-put-down" book for me.

I think that Nick Pobursky has created an original character in Detective Charlie Walker, one who is more cerebral than most fictional sleuths but capable and believable as an action hero as well.  I can definitely see Walker as the protagonist in many future thrillers.

This is a Disney themed blog, and that's part of why I am posting a review here:  the Disney resort, theme parks and hotels especially, have become sort of an extra character in this story; even though it's a tale that could have been set elsewhere, the Disney setting added a richness to the story that I don't think would have come through in another location.  There are lots of details here about a Disney vacation as many of us experience it.  The story, like Kinsey's OUR KINGDOM OF DUST, is not for kids.  It's a gritty, violent tale that fits with its thriller book brethren, and if you're not a fan of that genre of fiction, it might not be the best choice for you.

You can get this book here at Amazon:  HOLLOW WORLD

                                                                HOLLOW WORLD: ORIGINS (three free short stories)

*****
If you get a chance, please take a look at my latest offering, 14 Dark Windows, on Amazon for Kindle.  It's a collection of short stories, some horror, some milder with supernatural or horrific elements, some just nice stories, available in ebook form for $2.99!  Thank you!


*****

Book Review: OUR KINGDOM OF DUST by Leonard Kinsey

I read The Dark Side of Disney and was impressed with Leonard Kinsey's writing skill. He made everything interesting, even when I wouldn't have necessarily been interested in reading about certain subjects. Even though I didn't think it was for everyone, I enjoyed the book - less as a guidebook to Disney and more as just an entertaining read.

So I was glad to see Our Kingdom Of Dust, a work of fiction centered around Disney World.  And when I finally got around to reading it (I've been busy with some other stuff, as you may have noted from the previous two posts), I found that I truly enjoyed it!  I expected no less.  I already knew that Kinsey could write.  What I didn't know was whether he could write fiction, and the answer to that question was "Yes!"

In this book, a rich but messed up young man decides to move to the Beach Club at Disney World, and he meets up with another messed up guy, who happens to be his limo driver.  The guy has this incredible collection of Disney memorabilia and collectible items, and he finances it by selling the "Dust", which gives users "that Disney Magic" feeling (my quotes, not quoted from the book).

It's a very entertaining story, a quick read, and it focuses on characters I might like to read more about someday.  Not necessarily for Disney "fans", but if you like a good story that is well written, you might want to give it a try.  And if you like stories centered around something Disney, this will work that much better for you.  If you don't want to read anything that doesn't put WDW or Disney Corp. on the highest pedestal, or don't like adult situations and some foul language in your books, do yourself a favor and don't read this.  But if you're not easily offended and you like humor and irreverence, Our Kingdom Of Dust might be for you!

*****
If you get a chance, please take a look at my latest offering, 14 Dark Windows, on Amazon for Kindle.  It's a collection of short stories, some horror, some milder with supernatural or horrific elements, some just nice stories, available in ebook form for $2.99!  Thank you!

*******

Disney Books: THE KINGDOM KEEPERS POWER PLAY

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you may or may not recall that I've reviewed other books in this series:  the first two books and the third book.   This is the fourth book of the series, and in my view, it is the best yet.  To me it looks like Mr. Pearson took the plotting of this book very seriously, not allowing it to become overburdened with details and keeping the story moving (my criticisms of the third book) and kept it consistent and sensible (my criticism of the first book).  (I liked the second quite a bit; I thought that was well done.)

In this story, it seems like the Keepers themselves are being compromised in some way, and when they discover that a couple of new evil Overtakers have taken over the leadership of that group, they learn why:  the Evil Queen (from Snow White) can cast spells.  And the OT's can now access the DHI servers and can become DHI's themselves.  And they have a plan, and the Keepers are having trouble ascertaining exactly what they're trying to do.  The OT's are keeping the Keepers off balance with recruits from their high school and with continual wrenches thrown into their best efforts to guard the Kingdom. 

The story takes a logical and welcome step forward with the addition of the "good" Disney characters, who will hopefully play a major role in the next book (which has been out in hardcover for some time now), and I look forward to reading further in the series.  I've known that Mr. Pearson is a very good writer from reading a few of his adult novels, and was waiting for that talent to manifest in this young adult series.  It has done so in this book, I feel.

*****

Disney Books: The Dark Side of Disney

Ok, I finally read this book.  Hadn't heard anything good or bad about it, really, before buying it, but I was intrigued by the description and read a bit of the first review.  Heck, it was only $2.99 on my Kindle, so it wasn't like I was paying a lot.  Plus, with that cover, I thought that it might be a book better confined to my Kindle in our house.  In any case, here's my Amazon Review:

I love most things Disney, and this book kept popping up on my "recommendations" (since I have a "list" here on Amazon of the books on my Disney Bookshelf, I guess). The cover was intriguing - so un-Disney! So I finally bought it, and read it very quickly.

What I found were a lot of fun stories and 'tips' that really are of no use to me. But so what? It was well written enough, and interesting enough, that I don't really care that I'll never do the things that the author or some of his subjects do at Disney. The irreverence comes through loud and clear in the sometimes 'R' rated language and depictions of occurrences. I find that refreshing in a way. It's sort of a way of experiencing some things at Disney vicariously, things I'll never experience in person. There's no way I'm jumping off a ride vehicle to explore the sets in a particular ride. I'm not going to crash the Utilidors, or look for a place to have sex or score drugs. I'm not all that concerned about saving money while I'm there; I'm on vacation and it's all about convenience for me. The most useful information I got was about the DVC point rentals and about the scams for discounted tickets that are so prevalent just off-property. I'd wondered about both of those things. This book talks in a general way about these and other issues.

If you're easily offended, or if you hold your Disney experiences to an almost-religious standard, this book might not be for you. But if you just like reliving your own Disney experiences and maybe getting some of those questions you might have answered, this is a fun fast read!

I wrote the review without reading too many of the other reviews, just the first couple, which were positive.  But after my review went live, I read a sampling of the other 81 reviews, and was amazed to see how differently people see things. 

First, it is definitely NOT for kids, or for those who are easily offended.  I'm not offended by "bad" words in a book, and I thought that this author's use of them fit his irreverent tone perfectly.  He uses them almost conversationally.  I actually know a few people who talk like that.  The words have lost their shock factor for them; they're just a handful of extra words that help convey meaning.  I'm always amused by people who say that using "swear words" shows a lack of intelligence; why would that be true?  We could say that people who used "hot" and "cold" and "straight" and "curved" have a low intellect just as easily, since there are plenty of words that are more colorful and nuanced that convey the meaning.  Neither is accurate.  There is a time and place for those words; this book uses appropriate words for its tone.  If "swear words" offend you, don't buy this book.

Second, why does telling a story about something that happened, whether perpetrated by the author (Leonard Kinsey) or someone he interviewed, and whether legal, illegal, or borderline, make it a bad book?  I for one will never use 99% of the "tips" offered in this book, but it was still sort of fun to read about them.  I thought the stories were interesting and made for a good read.  If you don't want to read about drug use, or people having sex on Disney property, or tresspassing backstage at the parks, this is not the book for you.

Personally, I thought it was pretty fun to read, and that was a tribute to the author's style, because there was plenty in there that I wouldn't really care about otherwise.  He made reading about bedbugs and fireants sort of fun! 

I'll probably try his fictional work, Kingdom of Dust, because if he can make bedbugs entertaining, he might do even better with a made-up story!

*****

Index Post

Now that the Bulls have lost (see my post at Chitown Sports Ramblings if you're interested in my feelings on that last game) I turn my attentions to the Cubs and maybe a little back to Disney.

Thought I'd put up an "Index" post. I'm not going to include the links, because I don't have time to do all of them, but I'll put up the months and if you want to read my thoughts on the subjects, click the year and month over to the left and click on the post. They're mostly titled pretty clearly.

Disney Books

The Kingdom Keepers 3 - March 2011
Theme Park Design by Steve Alcorn - January 2011
Walt Disney World: Then Now and Forever - December 2010
The Pixar Touch - October 2010
The Imagineering Field Guide/Disney's Hollywood Studios - August 2010
Project Future - July 2010
The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World - June 2010
Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince by Marc Elliot - March 2010
Kingdom Keepers 1 and 2 - November 2009
Team Rodent September 2009
The Mouse That Roared - September 2009
Down And Out In The Magic Kingdomby Cory Doctorow - August 2009

Disney Movies
The Sword In The Stone - May 2011
The Sorcerer's Apprentice - March 2011
Alice In Wonderland - March 2011 (live action version)
Tangled - January 2011
Tron: Legacy - December 2010
Toy Story 2 - October 2010
Toy Story 3 - July 2010
Prince Of Persia - June 2010
The Princess and the Frog - December 2009
Up - June 2009
Pinocchio - May 2009
Bedtime Stories - January 2009
Bolt - December 2008
Presto! - December 2008

Check 'em out if you're so inclined!

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Disney Books: KINGDOM KEEPERS 3 - DISNEY IN SHADOW

I finished Ridley Pearson's third book in his Kingdom Keepers series. I have mixed feelings about the book. I liked it for the most part. It held together and was consistent (for the most part). It resolved well. But I can't give it an unequivocally positive review in spite of those things.

For one, it was simply too long. I don't know how to put this other than for a large part of the book, I felt like the plot and the characters were just spinning their wheels, so to speak. The story wasn't really advancing. Was I learning anything new about the characters? About their nemeses? About the plot in general? I didn't feel I was. I wanted something more punchy, more to the point, with less meandering.

It almost seemed like Mr. Pearson had a laundry list of scenes and locations he wanted to make sure he fit into the book, and proceeded to force them all into the story whether they added to it or not. The Epcot settings for this story are a lot of fun, being quite detailed and varied. I understand wanting to get a lot of that detail into the book. Perhaps that's partly what drives readership among Disney fans - the detail they can ascertain, the familiarity they derive from reading those details, much like a search for hidden Mickeys. But it's at the expense of the flow of the story, in my opinion.

Briefly, in this story, Wayne is being held by the Overtakers somewhere, and through Jess's dreams, the Kingdom Keepers figure that "somewhere" is in Epcot. There are many ingenious methods the kids use to try to figure out where he is. Along the way they battle crash test dummies, Vikings from Norway, and Gigabyte, the giant snake. Meanwhile, their method of getting out of the DHI entities and back into their real selves (who are asleep in their own beds) is lost and the kids are all trapped in the "Syndrome", from which their bodies cannot be woken up. Meanwhile, Wayne continues to send cryptic messages through Jess, who, with Amanda, has been turned into a DHI hologram to fully aid in the efforts of the Kingdom Keepers.

I loved the ideas Pearson put forward in the first of this series, but did not like the execution or the ending in that book. I thought the second book corrected all the flaws I found in the first, continuing the story in a satisfying and consistent manner. This third book is consistent, but the story suffers, in my opinion, from a lack of editing and an overabundance of "stuff" happening, making it simply too long and lacking focus. But I'll read the fourth book when it comes out in paperback and hope for a tighter story focus with the same fun ideas and characters.

(Read my thoughts on the last Kingdom Keepers books HERE.)

(Read Imaginerding's review of this book HERE.)
*****

Disney Books: Building A Better Mouse

I finished my read of Steve Alcorn's and David Green's Building A Better Mouse - The Story of the Electronic Imagineers Who Designed Epcot last night. I've mentioned before that I thought it was a little pricey at $19.95 when it clocks in at 130 pages or so. I suppose you can chalk this up to the fact that it's published in limited numbers by ThemePerks Press - I know that doing these sorts of books in this manner results in a higher-than-it-should-be unit price. (I remember having the opportunity to read Tim Pratt's Bone Shop, an urban fantasy novel that he was self publishing, and balking at the price tag of $19.00. I ended up buying it for the Kindle for $5.00. Well worth it at that price!)

Cost notwithstanding, I enjoyed this book quite a lot. It's a series of anecdotes about the construction process of the unique theme park known as EPCOT or EPCOT Center or simply Epcot, whatever you prefer. It focuses a lot on the processes at The American Adventure, where Alcorn seemed to spend most of his time and energy.

We know something of Steve Alcorn's work through his book Theme Park Design; he is an electrical engineer if I read it right. David Green is less familiar to me - his bio on the back cover states that he is the president of Monteverdi Creative, Inc, a company that provides creative and technical design services. It seems David worked as a "wirelister" at EPCOT, though I am not entirely clear on what that is exactly.

It's amazing that these young engineers put forth the effort and the imagination they needed to put forth, all on short and irregular sleep hours and for not much pay. It seems like the engineers certainly enjoyed the perks of the job provided by Disney - merchandise, access to the parks, free lodging that tourists/guests were paying big bucks for. But they had a lot to contend with - not the least of which was union employees who had an interest in dragging out the job as long as possible instead of finishing on time or (God forbid!) early. Plus, the union rules required that union employees do all the wiring, even of sophisticated electronic circuit boards with which many of them had no experience or training. Mistakes were often made. And some of them were perhaps not mistakes but actual malicious actions in order to keep things from working right for whatever reason.

I didn't mean to recap the work, but it's a lot of fun to read and I'm glad I own it, even at the somewhat higher cost. I'd love to take Alcorn's class on Theme Park Design and learn even more about his experiences.

One somewhat depressing side effect of reading the book: the realization of the actual cost of doing a world class theme park. EPCOT was budgeted at 400 million dollars around 1980. It actually cost 1.2 BILLION to build it. Three times the original estimate. What would it cost today to do something like that? Probably 4 billion or so. Maybe more. That's sort of daunting. (Okay, more than "sort of"...) Who possibly could finance something like that? Anyone who could is going to want total control of such a project. There goes my plans! ;-)

*****

Disney Books - the next title

I placed my order with Amazon yesterday. The main thing I was ordering was the Les Miserables BluRay of the 25th anniversary concert at the O2. But since I was ordering, I also bought Building A Better Mouse by Steve Alcorn. (It's got a much longer title, and you can click the link if you want to see it all.)

It was a little pricey at $19.95, but I've heard such good things about it from several online sources that I decided that it would be worth it to me.

I also ordered KingdomKeepers III - Disney in Shadow in paperback, which is a title both I and my kids want to read.

I also got something by Cory Doctorow, a bargain book. I loved his Down and Out In The Magic Kingdom. (I blogged about it a ways back. Not going to go look for the link right now but if you want to read my entry on it, look under Books or Book Reviews on the key words.) I am looking forward to this book, and if I like it, to more books by him.

Currently reading John Scalzi's Zoe's Tale, the last book of a four book series that starts with Old Man's War. Very good reads, all of them. The best SF I've read in a while...

That's all for today! Happy March!

*****

Disney Books: THEME PARK DESIGN by Steve Alcorn

While it's not strictly about Disney, this title from engineer Steve Alcorn has a ton of Disney-related content - stories about development of a handful of attractions at Epcot, especially the American Adventure show. And while this is not strictly a review in the sense that I'm not looking to critically analyze this book and tell my readers (optimistic, I know...)whether it's good or bad and why, I am going to tell you that I really enjoyed it and flew through it.

Others' experience with the subject matter may vary, but what anyone buying or borrowing this title will get is a sometimes very technical look at the processes behind both theme park design and attraction design. Alcorn might lose some readers when he starts talking about digital signal processors (DSP's) and video formats and programmable logic controllers (PLC's) and scripted show controllers and such. The level of detail is perhaps a bit intimidating at times, but it did (for me, at least) reinforce the idea that Alcorn knows what he's talking about.

(I guess that's sort of a review, after all...)

Anyone who's read this blog for a while or read back entries of the blog knows that I'm interested in theme park design from my own angle - conceptualizing and designing an original theme park in my area, near a major northern midwestern city. I'm not a city planner or an architect, not an engineer, not an artist, and I don't have a theater background. In short, I have no reason to think I could ever actually do this, but it remains a dream, and I keep working on it. Knowing this about me, one can maybe understand why a book like this would attract me. I've never come across a whole BOOK on this subject.

I thought it was interesting that Alcorn points out that when he hires, he looks for certain things. Obviously, since his is an engineering firm, he hires engineers, not artists or business people. But he also looks for experience in themed entertainment. He lists some examples of something that might look good is someone who worked at a theme park during the summer, or worked as part of the stage or technical crew for a local theater group, or even playing in a rock band. (I'd qualify on the last one - I've played in a dozen different rock bands over the years.)

Alcorn also talks about "empty theming" in his last chapter. He mentions that he thinks it's crazy for a restaurant to just nail "junk" to the walls and consider this a theme. I thought immediately of TGI Fridays. They do exactly this. This could probably apply to so-called theme parks like Six Flags and many others. They're big amusement parks with very superficial theming at best. Naming a coaster "Batman" then putting up some Batman artifacts or pictures does not make it a "themed" ride.

I also thought it was interesting that he points to the CN Tower in Toronto as the first place for a motion simulator to be used outside of industry or commercial application. I was on that simulator, watching the movie and riding in the motion theater, riding a log down a river and through a sawmill among other experiences. I thought it was interesting, and I also thought that the Ripley's Believe It or Not motion theater in Niagara Falls was interesting, if not all that impressive. It points to the widespread use of these simulators as entertainment, no matter how thin the theming is.

All in all, this was, for me, a very rapid read that inspired and informed me about some of the things I might actually need to consider if my blue sky dreaming was to ever get any closer to reality. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the technical side of developing and running a theme park, and to anyone with aspirations to work in the field of themed entertainment.

*****

Book Review: THE LOST HERO by Rick Riordan

Finished up my read of this book yesterday, and I was engrossed by the story almost immediately. It is a continuation of the story told in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, and I was happy to revisit this universe, where Greek gods still exist and still wreak havoc in our world.

Interestingly, this book takes a small twist, recognizing the differences between the Greek and Roman gods. At first glance they would seem to be the exact same gods, just called by different names, but Riordan recognizes that the Roman gods were more warlike, more disciplined. He builds the basis for this second series in these differences, and it promises to be a good one, I think.

The story starts with the "extraction" of three young demigods from their school in Nevada. Piper and Leo are more or less what they appear, but who is this Jason kid? They all seem to remember him, all but Coach Hedge, who is wondering just where he came from. The students are on a field trip when they are attacked by vengeful storm spirits, or venti. And Jason shows that he's no ordinary demigod.

But that's about as far as he can go because he doesn't have any memories - and doesn't know anything about himself or his past. Where did he come from? Who are his parents?

We find out a lot about Jason, Piper and Leo as the story progresses, and we also meet some characters from the first series, including Chiron, Argus, and Annabeth (among some other demigods at Camp Halfblood). But conspicuously missing is Percy Jackson himself - he seems to have disappeared and no one knows where he went.

Jason and his two friends get sent out on a mission to stop another massive war between the gods and their foes, somewhat different enemies than last time. Along the way they meet Medea, King Midas, Boreas (god of the north winds) and Aeolus (god of the winds), who provide them with plenty of peril.

It's a fast paced, well written young adult novel, that grabs the reader and pulls him/her in to the story quickly. For a long book, it doesn't take long to read (as is the case with many young adult novels). I for one am really looking forward to more books in this series, as well as Riordan's Kane Chronicles series which deals with the Egyptian gods.

*****

Book Review - THE LONG TAIL by Chris Anderson

Off topic, perhaps, but still interesting to me...

Right before I read THE PIXAR TOUCH, I read this book by the editor of WIRED magazine, Chris Anderson. It's title is THE LONG TAIL: WHY THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS IS SELLING LESS OF MORE, and it deals a lot with online retailers such as eBay, Amazon, Lulu, iTunes and Rhapsody, as well as with the blogging industry such as it is. Anderson examines how it becomes profitable to offer consumers more choice, beyond the culture of "hits", as it were - hit TV shows, hit motion pictures, hit songs, and hit books.

I found it interesting that this "fringe", consisting of mostly "niche" products and works, is providing a significant portion of the sales and profits from most of these online businesses. These are the products that the big box retailers, the big record labels, the big publishing houses, do not care to carry, simply because it makes no sense for them to do so. There's limited capacity. Limited shelf space. Limited screens to show films on. Understandably those sellers and publishers and labels and such want to spend their time, resources and space on the big ticket, big money making items. The hits.

The hits are the "short head" of the market, the part where relatively few products account for most of the sales. The "long tail", by contrast, is the part of the market extending out past the first 100, the first 500, the first 1000 maybe, works. So while a conventional retailer must figure in the costs of having an item physically present, a "long tail" retailer can stock larger and larger numbers of works. Songs, to Rhapsody and iTunes, take up just a small part of the digital storage available. Amazon can store ten times, maybe more than that, the number of books that your friendly Borders brick-and-mortar store can stock. eBay does it even more differently - they don't have anything to do with the merchandise. The author also mentions Alibris, a network of used bookstores that, like eBay, simply aggregates the information about merchandise located all over the United States.

One thing that struck me (and other Amazon reviewers too) is that most of the examples Anderson gives are from entertainment product fields. eBay is not stricty that, but other than media, I don't know how this would work. A "long tail" is possible where the means of production have become cheap, where almost anyone can record their music, write and publish their book, even make a film. But perishable products certainly do not fit the model as well, nor do products that take specialized manufacturing. There aren't a million people out there making, oh, say, plastic buckets. Or car parts. Etc etc.

I consider this post to be off topic, but I think there are some tie-ins with Disney and Pixar. Disney may well have been sort of a part of a "long tail" back in the early 1900's when they were making animated films and struggling financially. Back then there was no internet of course, but movie houses were different - they were almost like social gathering places. Not like multiplexes today. There were places to put Disney products in almost every small town in America. Of course, today, Disney is part of that "short head", wanting copyright protection extended on everything they do to protect their investments. (As they should.) But back then, they were making films that, really, they didn't know if there was a market for them.

And Pixar, well, there is a classic example of the production technolgy being used for something that no one exactly knew what would come of it. The idea of making a feature animated film with only the computer was far-fetched back then. The tools of production found their way to the dreamers. Much like independent filmmakers today can make films on a shoestring. (I heard about a new film about a sports talk show guy, something like Nice Guy Billy or something like that, made on a budget of 25K, and it will not be released in theaters - it is going right to NetFlix, iTunes, On Demand platforms, and of course DVD. The director talked about how he had a camera and film editing tools, and was able to make the picture so inexpensively. Classic long tail - a film that otherwise would be seen by virtually no one outside of a major city with an art film theater will now be ONLY available through these long-tail types of outlets.)

I keep thinking about how the long tail relates to my own entrepreneurial ambitions, but I'm coming up dry so far. I'll keep thinking on it though. In the meantime, this book is a worthwhile addition to my (and maybe to your) library. A quick read and full of interesting theories and information.

*****

Book - THE PIXAR TOUCH by David A. Price

THE PIXAR TOUCH: THE MAKING OF A COMPANY, by David A. Price, was a fascinating look at the history of Pixar, who we all know is making animated feature films for the Walt Disney Company these days after Robert Iger and Steve Jobs were able to come to an agreement that made Jobs the largest Disney shareholder by a wide margin, made Ed Catmull the president of both Disney and Pixar Animation, and made John Lasseter the CEO of both organizations, as well as principle creative advisor to Walt Disney Imagineering.

But that merger/acquisition is the culmination of a much longer story, and really is nowhere near as interesting as Pixar's history as a company. For example, I had read that Pixar started their existence as a hardware company, but I really didn't know what that meant. The more accurate way of portraying things, according to Price, is that Pixar was always a company, from the moment Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith joined together in New York at the New York Institute of Technology with Alexander Shure as their wealthy patron, that was primarily focused on using 3D computer animation to make a feature film. It was Catmull's interest and it was Shure's interest as well.

The company ended up at Lucasfilm when that organization hired Catmull to head its new computer division. The only trouble with LucasFilm was that George Lucas did not see computers or 3D computer graphics as the future of filmmaking; he saw computers as a tool that could make film production easier, faster, and of higher quality.

The technologies that Lucas was looking for - digital film compositing, digital audio mixing and editing, and digital film editing - existed, for the most part, only in Lucas's own fertile imagination. Catmull would just have to dive in and cope.

Their breakthrough came in 1981 when they were contracted to make a short sequence for the STAR TREK film, THE WRATH OF KHAN. The scene where Kirk, Spock and McCoy watch a simulation of the so-called "Genesis Device" - an animation of a world being consumed by the device and finally coming to life anew as the device worked its magic - that was the one of the first real scenes in a movie that was computer animated entirely, and it was done by Industrial Light and Magic - or more specifically, by the computer division of ILM. The first Pixar film, really.

In late 1983 the group had an opportunity to hire a Disney animator, someone who had just been let go by Disney. You can guess who this was - of course it was John Lasseter. The trouble was that George Lucas did not see his computer division as a filmmaking unit, he saw them as a computer group. Lasseter, an animator and a born storyteller, didn't really fit in. But it didn't stop Catmull and Smith from getting him on their payroll; they gave him the title of "Interface Designer" and they were off to the races.

Can you tell by reading, so far, that I was fascinated by the company's history? The author does a fine job of detailing that history, through Steve Jobs' purchase of the company from LucasFilm, from Jobs' own reservations about the company's ambitions as filmmakers, from the money they lost for Jobs, and finally, for the money they made for him, and for themselves.

But Pixar was never about money, and doesn't seem to be about money today - they are about artistic achievement in 3D computer animation. The book details the progression of their skills and their technology from the first TOY STORY movie, through CARS and RATATOUILLE. The epilogue talks about WALL*E and about the state of the principle characters since the Disney merger/acquisition.

I couldn't put this book down - it rivaled some of the best fiction I've been reading lately. A must read for anyone interested in animation history, in business, in filmmaking, or in Disney.

*****

Disney Bookshelf: PROJECT FUTURE Book Commentary

Having been interested in the process of how the Walt Disney World Resort came to be in Florida, I was excited to see the announcements about Chad Denver Emerson's work, PROJECT FUTURE: The Inside Story Behind the Creation Of Disney World and went looking for it immediately. Of course, the brick-and-mortar bookstores didn't carry it, so I finally ordered it from Amazon (with some other things) and had it in time for our trip to New York. I was then able to read it on the plane and before bed at the hotel.

What I got was a fascinating, if a bit dry in style, account of the events surrounding the decision to move ahead with the project, then of the intrigue and subterfuge used in acquiring the approximately 27,000 acres in central Florida, and the legal maneuverings that preceded the unique "Reedy Creek Improvement District" and the idea that Disney was acting as the government for their own land, creating their own regulations and building codes, issuing bonds for improvements to the property, and incorporating two municipalities in the area. The book spells out the planning of the development and details the construction process until the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971. Well known names abound throughout the story, name Marvin Davis, Card Walker, Roy Disney, Joe Potter, Harrison "Buzz" Price, and of course Walt Disney, but the story gives names to the many behind-the-scenes players like Paul Helliwell, Jack and Bill Demetree, Robert Price Foster, and Roy Hawkins, who all played important and substantial roles in the land acquisition and the legal maneuverings before construction even began.

I don't think Disney fans wonder about why Disney wanted the structure of controlling the government processes for their land too much, but I think some people assume it was at least in part to circumvent certain codes for building and land use. It wasn't, not at all. Most of Disney's construction far exceeded existing standards. What they wanted was the ability to "innovate", to experiment by using better materials, better systems, new modes of transportation, and new ways to build their facilities. They got it and used it to create their city of the future. As we all know, it didn't turn out the way Walt, or maybe even Roy, envisioned, but it turned out okay.

I recommend this book to any Disneyphile, and anyone interested in the entertainment industry and its history.

Disney Bookshelf: The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World Review

I finished The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World and had a lot of fun reading it. I know that when we go to Orlando in November, I will bring this book along, and even if I don't carry it around the parks, I'll probably skim over the section on whatever park we'll be visiting on the following day, maybe making some notes into my iPhone (yeah, I've joined the 21st century and got the new iPhone 4!) on things to look for the next day. My sons love this sort of interplay; they love looking for the myriad of hidden details to be found in all of the parks.

One of the things I love about the parks is the attention to detail, with an Imagineer's eye on accuracy, be it regional, historical, or technical. You go into Fantasyland and you know that its themes are sort of clumped together (the midieval fair and the German village) but seamlessly, and with an attempt to make things as real as possible in the theme park environment. Same with the countries in Epcot, or the streets in the Studios. They really do try.

This book points out many illustrations of their attempts to "keep it real". I really liked that. In my last post I was less than halfway through the book and I said that I knew a lot of things that Susan Veness pointed out, but the flipside of that, more evident as I read on, was that there was a LOT that I didn't know, too.

I was entertained by her descriptions of the various lands in the parks, and informed by her interludes with various Imagineers. The "timelines" presented at the end of each chapter on a particular park were also interesting. I didn't know much about when things changed in parks, and what was there before what's there now came into being.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves to visit the parks. It's a good before-bed book, because it is easy to put it down and come back to it later, and I think it will be a handy guide to have with when actually visiting. Meanwhile, it's nice to take the virtual trip through Walt Disney World that Veness provides.

*****

THE RED PYRAMID by Rick Riordan

Published by Disney Hyperion Books:

Rick Riordan, the author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books, has begun a new series with the publication of The Red Pyramid. Instead of Greek gods, this new series revolves around Egyptian mythology, teaching the readers about Osiris, Isis, Anubis, Set, Ra and many other gods of the Pharoahs.

It's a fast moving, well written tale that starts this series, and will probably make a pretty good movie at some future date.

If I were Disney, I'd probably option and develop this, if they haven't already done so. Like the Olympians of Riordan's last series, this subject matter has the potential to engross both boys and girls, but probably moreso boys.

I had lots of fun reading the 516 page epic. It's young adult material, which means that for an avid reader like me, it didn't take nearly as long as most 516 books would take.

I'd recommend it if you're so inclined.

*****

The Kingdom Keepers YA novels

Last year I picked up an autographed copy of Ridley Pearson's THE KINGDOM KEEPERS: DISNEY AFTER DARK at Borders. I'm sort of a sucker for autographed books; if I even suspect I might like the author or content, I usually snap it up.

I later posted a review on Amazon.com, and here is the text of that review:

THE KINGDOM KEEPERS by Ridley Pearson is a young adult book about a group of kids who are chosen to "become" holographic guides at the Magic Kingdom. But somehow their holographic existence begins to sort of intrude upon their real life existence. And they find out from an old Imagineer that the Disney villains are coming to life, more or less, and are gaining energy enough to really make some trouble for the parks and for the world at large.

This sounded to me like a promising premise, and I think it could have been - if Pearson had not left SO MANY darned loose ends and introduced so much stuff that just didn't seem to go anywhere in the end. One of the worst ended books I've ever read. I had to go back and reread the last couple chapters to see if I missed something, but I didn't. It was just a bad ending. Very fast read, I probably knocked it off in a couple of hours total reading time. I don't know if the author just got sloppy, or was introducing a bunch of plot elements to set up sequels (which have come and which I haven't read...but may). As I say, it had promise, but didn't live up to it in the end. I really wanted to like this book more than I did.

As you can see, it wasn't my favorite book. I haven't read many young adult novels (though as my son gets older, I am pretty sure that is going to change), so I don't know if it is common to plot and write this loosely. I've read other stuff by Pearson, and found his other work to be okay. Not great, but not bad, either. Readable.

When my son read this book, though, he zipped right through it and loved it. So we picked up KINGDOM KEEPERS 2: DISNEY AT DAWN for him this weekend. As he is engrossed in his first Harry Potter novel at this time, I picked up his new book and read it. Like the first book, it didn't take me much time to finish it. I started it Saturday and finished it Sunday, in limited reading time.

All in all, I'd say that the second book is a much better book than the first. While loose ends were left in this book, the main plot points were all tied up much more neatly than in the first. Those loose ends actually made me want to read a sequel this time.

In this one, the DHI kids (if you haven't read the first, DHI is an acronym for "Disney Host Interactive") are back, and once again are pitted against some of the Disney villians, who have sort of come to life and are trying to get some sort of existence beyond the Parks in Florida. This time, most of the action takes place in the Animal Kingdom, where Disney is preparing holographic animal hosts, just like these teens are for Magic Kingdom. Wayne, the old Imagineer, is once again on hand to provide guidance and technical assistance through the Virtual Magic Kingdom (VMK) world, which was closed by Disney when they realized that these villains were using it to gain a level of control over the parks themselves.

The first book and this book were both really good ideas. In my view, however, the first did not execute the idea well at all. The second book executes the ideas much better. Maybe it isn't the best book I've ever read, but it's pretty good.

A link to a Disney Bibliography

I love collecting the titles that relate the history and technical stuff, and even the criticisms of Disney. At 2719 Hyperion there is a pretty good list of titles that any fan of Disney parks should consider owning. I know that some of them are a little pricey, but I think I want them all eventually.

Here's the specific link to the post: Bibliography: Walt Disney World History

*****

Disney Fiction by Cory Doctorow

Wandering around the Disney blogs, I came across a link for a free download of Cory Doctorow's book, DOWN AND OUT IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM, and after reading the blurb, proceeded to download it. Reading it in that format, however, was just too annoying, and since there was another book I was wanting to order from Amazon, I sorta packaged this one in and had enough to get the free shipping. So I bought it, and even though it was available on my hard disc for free, I feel it was money well spent.

The idea of a science fiction novel set in Disney World, or any Disney park, has always appealed to me. I try to write some fiction now and then, and have kicked around my own ideas for such a novel, but I never came up with a good enough premise. Now I don't need to. Doctorow has done it for me. I can't imagine a better tale in this setting.

Jules is a member of the Bitchun Society, a government and life system where death has been conquered, energy and resources have become plentiful and apparently inexhaustable, and wealth is measured by Whuffie instead of by how much money one has. (We're not told how this comes about, exactly. It's just the way things are. If this bothers you as the reader, that the background for how these things have come about is not really explained, the book might not read as well for you.)

Jules has, in this part of the story of his life, realized his childhood dream and he now lives in Disney World, part of the ad-hoc committee that keeps the Haunted Mansion running. It seems that somewhere along the line, the cast members and fans at Disney sort of took things over from the shareholders, throwing them out and putting Disney parks in the hands of those who love them the best.

Another ad-hoc committee, which has recently finished a refurbishment of Pirates of the Caribbean, has just taken over the Hall of Presidents in Liberty Square, wresting control from Jules' own ad-hoc committee. Right before this happens, Jules is shot to death, and it appears that this new ad-hoc committee has something to do with it. They appear to be innocent, but in this age of clones, backups of one's mind, and no death being exactly "final", how would one really tell if they are responsible or not?

Jules becomes obsessed with the idea of protecting the Haunted Mansion from the new ad-hoc, which, it seems obvious, wants to spread their brand of rehab, which involves direct mental tie-ins to the guests. No more will the animatronics and the details have to come from the physical world; they can now be blasted directly into the minds of the guests. And it is a great experience...but one that Jules is determined to keep away from his beloved Haunted Mansion.

I don't want to give anyone the sense that this book is only about Disney. It's not. Disney World is, in my opinion, a major part of the book, but this is also a story about accomplishment, friendship, and the meaning of life, in a sense. With all of what we seem to value so highly today rendered almost meaningless, people in the Bitchun Society have to find different ways to make life interesting, to make it worthwhile. Jules strives to figure out, throughout his experiences after he's "killed", just what it is about life that still makes it worth living.

For me, this was a lightning-fast read, with engrossing characters and settings and plot. And one of the most interesting characters in the book was Disney World itself, as it might exist in a far flung future as a revered work of art as much as a simple fun place to go. I wish I could experience it again the way I did that first time.

Here's an interesting interview with Doctorow and a review of sorts of the book:
Cory Doctorow's Bitchun' World - P2P Gone Wild

*****