Review by: Barbara Franchi
February 2003
www.reviewingtheevidence.com
The Disney Corporation is going down the tubes after a series of bad decisions:
the blockbuster movie WORLD WAR III cost a bundle but took in a pittance. TOY
STORY IV made money, but PIXAR made the movie. Disney only released it. The
land bought in various regions of the US to build gated communities a la Celebration,
became worth less than the company paid for it. And the tumble continues.
A new cancer treatment has been discovered and is in the testing stages, but it seems to work, so it is time for The Circle, a group of men who have kept the dream alive and Walt in a cryogenic facility in Bakersfield to get to work. Just steps ahead of a pair of murderous thugs, Walt is taken to a nursing home where he is treated with the new cancer fighting agent. In order to stay one step ahead of the hired guns, they go to Florida and stay in an almost abandoned Walt Disney World guest house about an hour's drive from the park.
The Inner Circle realize that they are aging, and one has died, so in two cases, their successors, younger relatives, are brought in and are made members of the circle. Walt thaws out and appears to recover very quickly. The portrait of Disney is the best part of the book. He is depicted as irascible racist sexist anti-semitic arrogant spoiled brat. His non-pc comments are as one expects from Disney were he to be brought back to life today. There are also some touching moments, as when Walt first sees Epcot and Celebration and realizes that his dream never did come true as he had visualized it.
WAKING WALT is more of a black comedy thriller than a mystery. Some valid points are raised however, as for example, what would happen to inheritance law if someone were placed in cryogenic suspension instead of dying. If you would like to keep your belief that Walt Disney was an avuncular, loving man who developed Mickey and friends and the theme parks out of a wish to entertain the young, don't read this book, but if you want to meet Walt with all his warts, and a Walt who has the capacity to change to meet the new century, this book is for you.
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