Vault Of Walt : Volume 4 Review

Vault of Walt : Volume 4 is the latest book from Disney historian Jim Korkas, featuring a wide variety of stories about Disney and Walt Disney himself.  I’ve read a few of Jim’s previous books including Volume 1 and Who’s Afraid of the Song of the South?  Sitting down on vacation or during a slow week at work, its a great to use the time to learn some classic Disney stories and history, as this book can be picked up very easily because it’s all in small sections, rather than sitting down and reading it in big chunks.

The first section of the book focuses on giving details on where Walt lived, places he worked and spent time in. There is also a big section discussing Walt’s love of books and what books he had in his collection. Unfortunately this section feels more like reading a long list rather than hearing interesting stories, so I’m going to be honest, I felt this section of the book wasn’t as interesting as I had hoped after reading previous books from Jim. But thankfully the other three quarters of the book follow a more traditional storytelling mode and I think this section might have been better going last.

Part 2 focuses on the short film portion of Disney’s work including details on many shorts created from the 20’s on such as the Alice in Wonderland, Jiminy Cricket and more. There is lots of information about many of the Jiminy Cricket educational shorts.

From here there is a chapter about Tim Burton and his original Frankenweenie short film, what happened and the problems with it. This is where the book returned to typical form, rather than just a string of details. Another story discusses “40 pounds of trouble”, a movie created by Universal but featuring a huge scene filmed at Disneyland. This was a interesting story that I wasn’t aware of prior to reading the book and it’s interesting how a Universal film was shot inside Disneyland (I’ve since watched some clips of this movie on YouTube that I never would have been aware of before this book).

Gertie the Dinosaur was one of the first animated cartoon and learning about how this was made and how it inspired Walt Disney and how Gertie will be leaving Hollywood Studios for the upcoming Star Wars area. This again was a story I wasn’t aware of and one of the reasons I love Jim’s books. The final story from the short films chapter focuses on Oswald, how Universal controlled the character and how Disney got Oswald home plus how so many movies from that era were lost.

The third section focuses on stories from the theme parks, including details on the backstory on Tomorrowland and how it was never told to guests nor cast members. The story of Epcot’s Body Wars is told and why it’s not longer at the parks. There is also a interesting story about the railroad at the Wilderness Lodge being built, the problems it suffered with and where it is now.

One of my favourite stories from this book is some history behind the Haunted Mansion, one of my favourite attractions at the parks, we get to learn some early ideas from Ken Anderson, which was very different from the ride we saw, yet inspired many items. And the final story from this section explains the reason why Roger Rabbit was such a big hit but also why it vanished from the parks. Again a really interesting story for me personally as I’ve always loved the movie and how the deal worked with Steven Steilberg. This whole section was my favourite from the book.

The fourth section of the book goes into some more random Disney stories including some great details on Disney’s involvement in the Rose parade, plus some really great stories of what pranks the animators would pull on one another during the classic period.  The prank chapter was very enjoyable as it portrayed the animators as real people and about their personalities.   Other stories include some little gems about how New Orleans influenced so many parts of Disney, Disneyland and Walt Disney World plus some more on Clarence Nash, who voices Donald Duck.

This book feels like two books, the first section feels like a long log of technical Disney facts that while are interesting, I didn’t enjoy the style, which was completely different to the second half, which was much more enjoyable and easier to read.  These stories caught my attention, they are much more personal about interesting Disney people and events, I really got caught up in the second half and just kept wanting to read more and more.

I would happily recommend this book to all hardcore Disney fans who want to learn more about the man, the company, the history and the people behind it all.  If you enjoyed previous books from this series, you know what to expect and you won’t be disappointed.

Vault of Walt: Volume 4 is available to purchase from a Theme Park Press as a physical book and in digital format via Kindle.