[Insert post by "Crazy 'Pirates of the Caribbean' Lawsuit Guy." Who urges us all to realize that there is a huge conspiracy involving Jason Surrell and others about stealing his Pirates movie idea]

Jim, I'm surprised you didn't mention that the 2007 painting of Grizzly peak shows one way that WDI is considering redoing that whole section of the park- getting rid of the Condor Flats theme and making it all more "National Park-ish". It even shows some 1930's vehicles in the Sunshine Plaza area. Or the 2 2007 pencil sketches for Grizzly Peak show little Mine trains chugging around the mountain. Of course all this stuff has been discussed but it's neat to see it.

Honestly though I'm a bit disappointed in the book. Most of the artwork HAS been seen before, and the book is spread between so many mountains that some things are very underrepresented. For example it would have been neat to have better explanations about things like the RCA Home of Future Living (hey maybe some photos?) and maybe more than 3 Marc Davis sketches for Western River (I'm thinking a fold out- that would be cool). Neat that they did the book, but if you're a Disney nerd who's been online in the last 10 years most of it you've seen or heard before.

'Tis true that a lot of the material herein has been publicly seen before, but, the quality of the prints in the book are far superior than many of the images that have been posted online.  And, the text is really superlative in information.  Of course, if a person goes for artwork only, and, is used to the imagry on the net...well, as McCluhan said, "the medium is the massage."  Personally, I think it's a great addition to the Imagineering reference bookshelf.

I'm surprised, Jim, you didn't go into the "sordid" history of 'Holiday Hill'...it isn't much, really, just that one of the horticulture cast members in the early days was using a secluded section of the top of the mountain for growing his own private stash....;)  (True story, btw...)

This book sounds incrdible. I realize most of the info is still online, however I'd rather own it in book form, and this book looks beautiful.

Being that Jason Surrell is an acquaintance/friend that I knew from our days of hourly entertainment together, I will probably purchase this to show support for him.  I think it is great to see somebody I know, who proposed on top of Abu the Elephant float, become successful.

I know his passion will come through in this book.

The book feels like an extended commercial for Expedition Everest. While a worthy attraction, Surrell just glosses over Mysterious Island in Tokyo and briefly expands on the other Thunder Mountains- Yeah, we know they're similar but different, so HOW are they different? Why didn't they add the cool explosion from Paris into any of the others? Barely mentions Tokyo's Splash Mountain and misses a ton of opportunities to go into more detail about these great rides.

Plus, all the old chestnuts of the Walt Disney legend are getting old. No less than four of my Disney books talk about Walt looking at Holiday Hill and telling whoever asks that he's looking at his mountain. It would have been awesome to see some clear pictures of what the Matterhorn looked like when it was hollow.

Sheesh.

That story about Holiday Hill sounds awesome- got any more details?

fioricet with codeine