Review by: Janet Miller
Author
of A Christmas with Sarah
Review
Online
The time
is the fairly close future and the Disney company is on the ropes. Through bad
investments, poor planning, and lack of clear guidance on the part of management,
the stock price is at an all-time low and a hostile take over is at hand by a
man named Arnold Garth. Garth is a ruthless businessman whose first act will be
to break up the company and sell off the assets, dismantling the corporation that
was built on a mouse. To the members of "the Circle" there is only one
thing left to do.
It's time to wake up Walt.
The
premise of "Waking Walt" is that the old urban legend of Walt Disney
being frozen just before his death is true, and that he's been in cryogenic storage
for the past forty years. One member of the Circle is a former doctor, and he
takes the lead in attempting to steal an experimental drug that is said to be
a miracle cure for lung cancer. When he's unsuccessful at the theft and has a
stroke in the process, his nephew, Harry Poole is brought in to take his place.
The rest of the Circle is too old to be doing so much running around. Nearly fifty
himself, Harry isn't your typical run of the mill hero but that doesn't stop Lisa,
one of the Circle's granddaughters from taking an interest in him, though romance
isn't really what this book is about.
Harry must help out Lisa, her grandfather,
and the rest of Walt's inner circle to pull off a miracle and thaw out Walt so
he can save the company before it's too late. As if cheating death wasn't enough,
they have other problems. There are several people who have no interest in seeing
Walter Elias Disney come back from the dead... and they aren't particular who
they have to hurt in the process.
In addition to the action adventure plot of getting Walt out of storage, treating him for his cancer, and evading the bad guys, the book is filled with information about the Disney Company. Some of these are historical facts, and others are the kind of tales that long-timers in a company like to share over cocktails or dinner. And when the resurrected Walt is telling the story the reader almost feels like they really are getting it from the horse's mouth.
The author knew that Disney had his faults and shows the man as he was, with sometimes-extreme prejudices, but he also shows a man capable of learning, and in serious love with the future. When Walt sees some of what has become of his dream you feel cheered at the parts that worked and sad over the ones that didn't. This is a book any Disneyphile would love, if only for the stories most of which have been documented before, but never so poignantly.
The
book is exciting and action-packed, and very well written. The characters were
interesting and charming. This isn't a romance as the plot isn't about a man and
woman relationship, but "Waking Walt" is an excellent book, different
and a lot of fun.
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