DisneyWar

DisneyWar

Front Cover
Author	James B. Stewart
Language	English
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Publication date	2005
Media type	Paperback
Pages	608 pp.
ISBN	0-684-80993-1
OCLC	57654006
Dewey Decimal	384.8 22
LC Class	PN1999.W27 S74 2005
Preceded by	Flight: In Search of Vision
Followed by	Tangled Webs: How False Statements are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff

DisneyWar is an exposé of Michael Eisner's 20-year tenure as chairman and CEO at The Walt Disney Company by James B. Stewart. The book chronicles the careers and interactions of executives at Disney, including Card Walker, Ron W. Miller, Roy E. Disney, Frank Wells, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Michael Ovitz, Joe Roth, Robert Iger and Stan Kinsey. The book was released in 2005, and was published by Simon & Schuster. Its uniqueness was attributed to the large amount of access allowed to Stewart in putting the book together.

Content

Stewart's book describes some of the following:

• Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold's removal of Disney CEO Ron W. Miller in 1984.
• Stan Kinsey's clash with Jeffrey Katzenberg over creating films using computer animation.
• The struggle to get Who Framed Roger Rabbit made in time and on budget despite the ambitions of Robert Zemeckis and Richard Williams to make the film bigger and bolder.
• Eisner's tension with Frank Wells before Wells's death.
• Eisner's friendship-turned-rivalry with Jeffrey Katzenberg.
• Eisner's tension with Michael Ovitz during Ovitz's short-lived presidency.
• The purchase of the ABC Family channel and content, and the fallout resulting from Disney's inability to revive it.
• Eisner attempting to shut down the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
• Roy E. Disney's abrupt resignation in November 2003.
• The Comcast hostile takeover attempt.
• Hilary Duff's decision to quit the Disney Channel because of low salary.
• Pixar's decision not to renew its relationship with Disney.
• Financing of the film Fahrenheit 9/11.
• The 2004 shareholders' meeting that led to Eisner's resignation as chairman.

Reviews

A USA Today article by journalist David Lieberman stated that the story "may not sound like a page turner, but DisneyWar is." He referred to Stewart as an "accomplished storyteller who had the luck or foresight to stake out a company filled with colorful executives in a glamorous business—at the moment investors decided they had had enough".