DisneyWar

Written by James B. Stewart

Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

DisneyWar is the breathtaking, dramatic inside story of what drove America’s best-known entertainment company to civil war. With access to both Michael Eisner and Roy Disney, company executives and board members, as well as letters and documents never before seen, James B. Stewart gets to the bottom of mysteries that have enveloped Disney for years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Jun 27, 2005
• ISBN: 9781455105786

James B. Stewart

James B. Stewart is a columnist at The New York Times and the author of numerous books including the blockbuster Den of Thieves, Blood Sport, DisneyWar, and his most recent New York Times bestseller, Unscripted. He won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the stock market crash and insider trading. He is a regular contributor to SmartMoney and The New Yorker. He is a professor of business journalism at Columbia University and lives in New York.

Reviews for DisneyWar

[gregorybrown-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A pretty fascinating recounting of the last two or three decades of Disney history, although it suffers somewhat from predating the Iger-era. I would have loved to hear about Pixar's acquisition, but what's in the book is more than enough drama.

Eisner is pretty vividly portrayed as a guy who was a big shot of creativity and energy that the company needed at a crucial time, but who was best when kept in check and when a string of hits staved off the infighting that later consumed the company. From the mid-90s on, the company culture comes across as deeply perverse and it's amazing that it continued to survive as well as it did (largely thanks to the Pixar deal, the ascendancy of ESPN, and Bruckheimer's event-films).

The sections of the book covering the early years were the most interesting to me, if only because it described the process by which some of the company's best work was done. Later on, the book shifts significantly toward corporate intrigue and chronicling how executive after executive fell victim to Eisner's paranoia (or worse, adopted it for themselves). Even Iger doesn't come off as spotless, though the whole thing has a similar premise to Mad Men: people trying to be good in a morally-perverse environment, and deciding which parts of their personal morality they can sacrifice to survive.

The prose itself is workable, but the research is impressive and piecing it together into a coherent story must have been endless amounts of work. Not a great book, but worth your time.

[placebogirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

To me, this book read like a Michael Crichton financial thriller without all the tropes. Yes, you know how it ends, but the exploration of Eisner's hubris and the Disney board's Regan and Goneril to his Lear along the way are fascinating all the same.

[code51 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Disney War by James Stewart (2005) reveals what drove one of America's most powerful media and entertainment conglomerates, the Walt Disney Company, into a corporate civil war. Stewart's thorough investigative work provides insight into the people who control the Disney superpower such as Michael Eisner, Chief Executive Officer for the Walt Disney Company, and the corporate maneuvering endangered the company over the last ten years. Stewart gives details about how the Walt Disney Company, one of the most well-respected businesses in America, has staggered in the past few years amidst internal corporate level battling and poor business decisions. Stewart portrays the positives and negatives of Michael Eisner's leadership. Stewart begins with a description of Eisner's early accomplishments in renewing Disney's theme parks, runaway animated motion picture successes such as The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, as well as profitable partnerships he formerly built with Pixar. Besides these positives, Stewart also reveals the details of Michael Eisner's disagreements with Jeffery Katzenberg, founder of Dreamworks SKG. Moreover, the author describes the bad business decisions that Eisner made by missing opportunities afforded to Disney through the successful blockbuster motion picture Lord of the Rings as well as his severance from Pixar Chairman Steve Jobs and the Weinstein brothers of Miramax.

[atomicmutant · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Reads like you are there in the halls of Disney during this incredible period. Be amazed at the petty and juvenile antics involving hundreds of millions of dollars. It's like a school play yard without any adult supervision. Incredible. My wife used to be a playground monitor at an elementary school. While reading this book, I told her that I thought that she could have done a lot of good keeping the Disney board in line during this time! What a mess it was.I had never realized that there are times when a corporation says "our shareholders", and what they really mean is "the small handful of people who own most of our stock". Certainly as things unravelled Eisner and crew did NOT have the best interests of the company, shareholders, or the Disney Legacy in mind.If you love Disney, it is hard to see these shenanigans going on behind the scenes, but there you have it. I only hope that Lasseter, et al, are not saviors, that would be asking too much. I just want them to work with the best interests of "the soul of the company" in mind. Provide value for shareholders by "Being Disney". It's worked before, it'll work again.Well written and researched, this book plays out minute by minute like a thriller. If you've even a passing interest in Disney, or in corporate shenanigans, this is a great read.

[jmcilree_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Seems like he rushed the book out to take advantage of the current controversy surrounding Michael Eisner and Disney. Could have been much better organized.

[mrtall_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Disney War is James Stewart’s exhaustive account of the Michael Eisner years at America’s Happiest Corporate Entity. Or, as Stewart shows us, its not-quite-so-happiest . . . .Although the title of this book highlights Disney itself, this book is really about Eisner. Virtually all of the incidents, anecdotes and conversations recounted here either involve him directly, refer to him explicitly, or are noted for their effect on him. Given Eisner’s larger-than-life influence over Disney for over two decades, this isn’t a flaw, but it may still frustrate those who are looking for a broader picture of Disney’s triumphs and travails in the past 25 years or so.On the whole, Stewart does an good job balancing narrative drive with lavish and often juicy detail; the arc of Disney’s/Eisner’s story remains clear, but characters emerge through Stewart’s illustration. If anything, Stewart errs slightly on the side of detail; I think the book (534 pages in hardcover) would have been better at perhaps a hundred pages less. In any case, I would recommend this one to anybody who’s interested in Disney, in business/corporate show-and-tells, or in what amounts to a high-quality biography of a modern CEO.

[jmcclain19 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This story could pass as an 8th grade girls soap opera - but instead it takes place in the boardroom of one of America's largest companies. Stewart paints Jeffrey Katzenberg as a recluse hell bent on revenge, and Michael Eisner as a spiteful, vindictive man, who's even evil at times to get what he wants. DisneyWar is pretty much made out to be Roy Disney and Co as the good guys, with Michael Eisner starring in the role as Enemy No. One. Eisner's list of failures as Disney's CEO is pretty astounding, and was eventually ran out on a rail never to return (but with a massive Disney funded golden parachute of course). It makes you wonder how Disney makes any money at all, or if the upper management is simply filled with some of the most odd personalities you've ever seen. While Disney had their heyday in the mid 90's, it's mind blowing to see all the opportunities they let pass right bay that turned into mega successes. The Sopranos was kicked to the curb. Pixar as a floundering new company that practically begged and pleaded to be bought up before turning to Steve Jobs for venture capital. (That worked out well many years later didn't it?) Disney also passed on the opportunity to have anything to do with Lord of the Rings. ABC was the first network to get the pitch for Survivor, and said no thanks. And the list goes on and on. Some other interesting parts to the book is when the author is allowed to go play Goofy in the Disneyland theme park for a day. Impressive the shear amount of time they spend on training just to play one character. Disney insists that a Goofy autograph from Anaheim & Florida match, so actors must practice signing with a huge glove again & again until they get it right. Walking and actions must also represent the characters, including arm movement and so on. It takes up the entire first chapter and may alone be worth reading the book.Roy Disney is also the hero of the whole tale, as he painfully and forcefully tries to hold onto his uncle's company legacy. Disney also invested heavily in building a theme park in Virginia, called "Disney America" with a revolution era theme but the idea drew a firestorm of historical preservationist objections and the idea was scrapped. It's enjoyable, although at times it's just incredible to believe how such powerful men could be so petty and small. Lots of little revealing sub stories on how animated movies made a huge comeback largely thanks to Roy Disney & Katzenberg. The two of them rebuilt Disney's animation empire, from mediocre productions to generating classics like Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Lion King and more. The book covers the entire Ovitz hiring & immediate firing saga, cand the mess behind go.com's disaster and how Disney bought ABC and how Disney grew the ESPN brand. If you enjoy a mild bit of soap opera mixed in with your business news, it's a good read. An insight into the entertainment industry as well that I'd never really read about before.