Sigh … Where’s a beach when you really need one?
Here we are, in the depths of December. (No lie, folks. I just looked at my outside thermometer. It’s just three degrees above zero up here in New Hampshire). So what turns up on my door step today? The perfect beach book.
Make no mistake, kids. “Waking Walt” is NOT “War and Peace.” If your idea of a fun read is some sort of serious novel which is loaded with subtext, then this is not the book for you. On the other hand, if you’re in the mood for some frothy fun that Michael Crichton or Jackie Collins might have whipped up (provided – of course – that these two highly commercial authors had ever decided to collaborate), then you might want to give “Waking Walt” a whirl.
So what’s this book about? Well, author Larry Pontius has taken that hoary old urban legend (I.E. Walt Disney isn’t really dead. He’s just being held in cryogenic suspension until a cure for cancer can be found) and used that notion as the jumping off point for his first novel.
Now, I understand how some Disneyana fans might find the idea of basing a book on this somewhat gruesome premise as being in bad taste. Ah – but Pontius has an ace up his sleeve, kids. You see, Larry actually used to work for the Walt Disney Company. He was the VP in charge of marketing for Disneyland and Walt Disney World from 1974 to 1980.
This means that Larry has first hand knowledge about how the Walt Disney Company actually operates. More to the point, as part of his old Mouse House marketing job, Pontius would come in regular contact with longtime employees who’d actually worked with Walt. Sometimes, these Disney Company vets would share stories about their old boss with Pontius. And Larry would just file away these anecdotes, thinking “I should really do a book about Walt someday …”
Well, “Waking Walt” is that book, people. But don’t pick this volume up thinking that you’re going to encounter the same old kindly “Uncle Walt” that the Disney publicity machine put up on that pedestal 36 years ago. The Walt Disney that is recreated in this fantasy novel is the real deal, folks. Charming one moment. The wounded bear the next. Able to beguile you with a well told tale and/or cut you dead with a single raise of an eyebrow.
The plot (what there is of it) will sound oddly familiar to those of you who have been following Disney history. “Waking Walt”‘s back story deals with how the company has been allowed to drift into perilous corporate shark infested waters. Disney’s post-Eisner CEO Jay Kershner okayed production of one too many big budget bombs. Which is why corporate raider Arnold Garth has come sniffing about, sensing the billions that could be made if the Disney media empire were broke up and sold for parts.
It’s this development – plus news that trials of a revolutionary new drug, Linaqual, show that this medication may possibly cure cancer – that finally forces “The Circle” (the six somewhat elderly gentlemen who have been entrusted with Disney’s deepest, darkest secret) into action. In order to save the Walt Disney Company from imminent destruction, these guys decide that it’s high time that they finally get around to “Waking Walt.”
Of course, it’s not like they can just pop the “Old Mousetro” in the microwave. There are the inevitable complications. There are murderous former FBI men agents and enormous Polynesian hitmen hot on the trail of “The Circle,” determined to do whatever they can to stop the thawing of the Walt-cicle. There are also deadly gun battles inside condos in eastern Florida, frozen fisticuffs inside leaking cryogenic chambers, sudden storms, close calls, even a gator attack or two.
But in the end, what really carries “Waking Walt” (particularly through some of the story’s more overwrought plot points) is the absolutely masterful job that Pontius does with conjuring up a flesh-and-blood Walt Disney. It’s worth it alone to pick up this book just for the chapters (chapters 30 – 32, to be exact) where Walt finally makes it over to Disney World and starts wandering around Epcot and Celebration.
Again, “Waking Walt” is NOT what you’d call great literature. Not by a long shot. But what it IS is a really fun read cobbled together by a very good storyteller. If you’re headed to the beach anytime soon (or wish that you were), then I highly recommend you pick up a copy of Larry Pontius’ “Waking Walt.”
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Do you want to buy a really cool book as well as help support JimHillMedia.com? Then order your copy of “Waking Walt” from Amazon.com by clicking the link to the right. Your cost will (unfortunately) remain the same. But – if you go there through us – we get a tiny cut of what you spend. So if you’re planning on picking up the book, help keep Jim Hill behind the computer where he belongs and order a copy of “Waking Walt” through the link to the right. |
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