Barrier Michael. The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney

Berkeley - Los Angeles - London: University of California Press, 2007. — 394 p.Walt Disney (1901-1966) was one of the most significant creative forces of the twentieth century, a man who made a lasting impact on the art of the animated film, the history of American business, and the evolution of twentieth-century American culture. He was both a creative visionary and a dynamic entrepreneur, roles whose demands he often could not reconcile. In his compelling new biography, noted animation historian Michael Barrier avoids the well-traveled paths of previous biographers, who have tended to portray a blemish-free Disney or to indulge in lurid speculation. Instead, he takes the full measure of the man in his many aspects. A consummate storyteller, Barrier describes how Disney transformed himself from Midwestern farm boy to scrambling young businessman to pioneering artist and, finally, to entrepreneur on a grand scale.Introduction: It’s All Me
The Pet in the Family
On the Farm and in the City, 1901–1923
A Cute Idea
The Self-Taught Filmmaker, 1923–1928
You’ve Got to Really Be Minnie
Building a Better Mouse, 1928–1933
This Character Was a Live Person
The Leap to Feature Films, 1934–1938
A Drawing Factory
Ambition’s Price, 1938–1941
A Queer, Quick, Delightful Gink
On a Treadmill, 1941–1947 168
Caprices and Spurts of Childishness
Escaping from Animation, 1947–1953
He Was Interested in Something Else
Escaping from Film, 1953–1959
Where I Am Happy
Restless in the Magic Kingdom, 1959–1965
He Drove Himself Right Up to the End
Dreaming of a Nightmare City, 1965–1966
Afterword: Let’s Never Not Be a Silly Company