A MICKEY MOUSE READER

A MICKEY MOUSE READER                        GARRY APGAR

                                       
                                             Ranging from the playful, to the fact-filled, and to the thoughtful, this collection tracks the fortunes of Walt Disney's flagship character. From the first full-fledged review of his screen debut in November 1928 to the present day, Mickey Mouse has won millions of fans and charmed even the harshest of critics. Almost half of the eighty-one texts in A Mickey Mouse Reader document the Mouse's rise to glory from that first cartoon, Steamboat Willie, through his seventh year when his first color animation, The Band Concert, was released. They include two important early critiques, one by the American culture critic Gilbert Seldes and one by the famed English novelist E. M. Forster.

Articles and essays chronicle the continued rise of Mickey Mouse to the rank of true icon. He remains arguably the most vivid graphic expression to date of key traits of the American character--pluck, cheerfulness, innocence, energy, and fidelity to family and friends. Among press reports in the book is one from June 1944 that puts to rest the urban legend that "Mickey Mouse" was a password or code word on D-Day. It was, however, the password for a major pre-invasion briefing.
Other items illuminate the origins of "Mickey Mouse" as a term for things deemed petty or unsophisticated. One piece explains how Walt and brother Roy Disney, almost single-handedly, invented the strategy of corporate synergy by tagging sales of Mickey Mouse toys and goods to the release of Mickey's latest cartoons shorts. In two especially interesting essays, Maurice Sendak and John Updike look back over the years and give their personal reflections on the character they loved as boys growing up in the 1930s. 

PAT'S REVIEW 

 

This is not a coffee book of pictures about Mickey Mouse, this book is a reader like the title. You get a very short concise history of how Mickey came into creation after Walt Disney and the rest of his team were pushed away from the Oswald cartoon character. There are books that go into this with great detail. Any way on his return trip with his wife across country from New York back to California she suggested that he decide what character to work on when they get home to California. They settled on a mouse which became Mickey. Which led to Steamboat Willie and as they say the rest is history. This book takes you from Steamboat Willie through the changes and the adding of different characters, Donald Duck, Minnie, Pluto, ETC... This is a very well written book and done in chronological order and the author gives credit to the artists as well which is good. Overall I have no completes and being a Disney person I thought this book to be well done. I got this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 5 stars. Follow us atwww.1rad-readerreviews.com