"A book any Disneyphile would love!"
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 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
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.
Reviewed by Janet Miller
Posted June 6, 2003
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