It’s slick. It’s handsomely produced. It’s the new Disneyland souvenir book: “Disneyland Resort: Magical Memories for a Lifetime” (2002 Disney Editions).
So why I am reluctant to give this book a really enthusiastic thumbs up? Well, in spite of the fact that “Disneyland Resort: Magical Memories for a Lifetime” is 176 pages long, this full-color volume feels a bit on the thin size. At least to me.
Sure, the book is crammed full of photos. Dozens upon dozens of high quality, carefully cropped photos (several of which you may recognize from their initial use as Disneyland publicity shots and/or photographs that were specifically created to sell Disney vacation packages). It’s the accompanying text that I really have problems with.
According to the info that you’ll find on Page 2, “Disneyland Resort: Magical Memories for a Lifetime” was written by Tim O’Day and Lorraine Santoli. And given that these two have both written wonderful books and articles about the Walt Disney Company in the past, I know better than to lay any blame at the feet of these two.
You know what I think the real problem here is? This is the very first book that attempts to cover the entire Disneyland Resort: Disneyland Park, Disney’s California Adventure, Downtown Disney, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel, et al. And — somewhere along the line — someone at Disney Editions evidently remembered the old cliché: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” So they decided to cut most of the words in favor of folding in more photos.
So the text for “Disneyland Resort: Magical Memories for a Lifetime” (which was reportedly culled from O’Day’s earlier Disneyland book as well as Santoli’s unpublished making-of-DCA book) has basically been reduced to photo captions. By that I mean: there isn’t a story in this entire book that runs more than two or three paragraphs long.
The entire rich history of the Disneyland Resort reduced to Cliff Notes. It just sort of boggles your mind.
You want to know what the really funny part is? On the very same shelf where I found the copy of “Disneyland Resort: Magical Memories for a Lifetime” that I purchased, I saw the brand new Disneyland Resort pictorial souvenir. A slim softcover book that reuses much of the same imagery that’s found in the hardcover “Magical Memories for a Lifetime” … only with even fewer words!?
Which (I’m guessing here) means that the new Disneyland Resort pictorial souvenir is a book that’s intended for folks who just hate to read.
I know, I know. “Disneyland Resort: Magical Memories for a Lifetime” as well as the new DLR pictorial souvenir are intended to be just that: souvenirs. So it’s really not fair to pull Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” and try and use that to determine whether or not these two are actually good books.
But based on the Disneyland souvenir books from years past (which — in addition to featuring lots and lots of great photos — did also find room to include tons of wonderful stories), I have to admit that I found “Disneyland Resort: Magical Memories for a Lifetime” a bit wanting.
Then again, it is the very first time that Disney Editions has attempted to do a book that covers the length and breadth of the Disneyland Resort. Hopefully, they’ll get the balance right (I.E. More words. Fewer photos) on their next go-around.
And — given that Disneyland’s 50th anniversary is virtually around the corner — I have to assume that Disney Editions has a really-for-real book in the works somewhere. Something that — even though it’ll toe the official party line when it comes to the history of the Disneyland resort — will still manage to be a pretty entertaining read.
If that’s NOT — in fact — in the works … then you know who would do a great job with a project like that? Tim O’Day and Lorraine Santoli. The very people who carefully researched, then wrote the text that was used as the basis for “Disneyland Resort: Magical Memories for a Lifetime” … only to see their carefully crafted stories reduced to sound bites.
As is evidenced by the thousands of people who regularly come by JimHillMedia looking for one of my long winded tales, there really is a market out there for Disney-related stories that run more than two or three paragraphs long. Were the Walt Disney Company to actually produce a book like that about the Disneyland Resort, I can almost guarantee that it would sell.
For now … well, I guess we’ll just have to make do with what we have and hope that the next version of the official Disneyland Resort book has a bit more heft.