A Review of the Mouse Machine

When many people think of a technology company, the Walt Disney Company doesn't come to mind. Yet almost since its founding, Uncle Walt's Company has pushed the boundaries of technology, first with film making, and then with robotics and theme parks. Yet the Disney Company, as we know it, would not exist without technology. Not many people think of Walt Disney as a great technological innovator, yet it is amazing to look back on the technology that his company helped to, at least in some small measure, foster.

J.P. Telotte's 232 page book, The Mouse Machine, attempts to look at the Walt Disney Company from a technological context, and to chart the Disney company's technological developments.

The book begins by looking at Walt's advances in sound technology, and Technicolor film animation. Eventually the book details such technological advancements as the multiplane camera, stereophonic surround sound for the movie Fantasia, theme park tech and then on to digital animation and digital film effects.

When Telotte is not writing Disney books he is a professor of literature, communication, and culture at the Georgia Institute of Technology. While this book is definitely an academic tome, you can definitely feel that Telotte has a real love and feel for the subject. Yet while the material in the book is fascinating, it is presented in a somewhat dry fashion, and surely suffers from the author's academic bent. Still this book would be a worthy addition to any one's library who had any interest at all in the Walt Disney Company, or the history of technology.

The book is published by the University of Illinois Press on June 9th 2008, and is available online at Amazon, and other book retailers.