Review by: Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
October 16, 2003
Book brings Walt back, minus pixie dust
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Time for another installment of the Taking Names book club.
Disney on ice.
Disney fanatics may have a heyday with the premise of Waking Walt, a thriller built around the urban legend that Uncle Walt was never buried, but rather cryogenically frozen. (At least those perky Disney "cast members" claim it's just an urban legend.)
The story unfolds as the dead visionary is reanimated and ready to take on corporate raiders who are trying to take apart the Disney company over Walt's not-so-dead body.
Sound depraved? Sound disrespectful? Well, you should know that the author is a former top-level Disney executive. It's Longwood resident Larry Pontius, who worked in California and Orlando for seven years, much of that time as marketing vice president for both theme parks.
Pontius said he sensed some reluctance from some publishers in printing the book because of what he calls his accurate treatment of Walt. "I didn't want to pixie-dust him," Pontius said. "He likes his scotch. He has some prejudices. And his mouth is not completely clean."
Overall, though, Pontius said the book (wakingwalt.com) depicts the big guy as the smart and genuine man he was.
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