Team Rodent : How Disney Devours the World

There's a bit of an Alien vs. Predator aspect, with old Florida biting Disney back, but in light of the various DeSantis shenanigans of the last several years, this feels endearingly quaint. Hiaasen, completely reasonably, could never have predicted Republicans taking the side of a culture war over capitalism and free-market principals.

It you want a quick catalogue of some of Disney's dastardly Florida antics up through Michael Eisner's reign atop that company, you're not going to find a better one, and Hiaasen is a hell of a writer, making everything lively and somewhat funny in spite of how grim some of the stories are.

I read this as Wendy was embarking on a three month gig working for Disney, via the Alliance Theater, on Elton John's "Aida" musical.

Carl Hiassen does a nice job balancing humor and journalism here, as he reveals that Disney - surprise, surprise - works to control their image in a manner that might lead you to believe they are the Mouse Mafia.

"Don the mouse ears, drink the Kool-Aid" seems to be the strategy. At least Hiassen shows us the horns on the mouse ears with his trademark wit.

Hiaasen is cranky and right. This book is old, but still relevant for anyone who wants to be reminded of some of the downside of Disney.

A fine journalistic essay. (For all that, I have to say, it's still an essay, a long feature-length Sunday newspaper article - but not a book!)

Hiaasen accurately sets out the Disney mind-set and why it should disturb us. It comes from the same Victorian stable as Ripley with his Believe-It-Or-Not antics. The entire planet was just a toy store; all the better if you're the owner!

For me, the most telling passage in an essay full of telling passages was: "Control has been the signature ingredient of all the company's phenomenally successful theme parks; every thrill, every gasp, every delightful 'surprise' was the product of clockwork orchestration."

While short, this essay reveals Disney's hubris, smugness and - most worryingly, its lack show more of scruple with the democratic rights of individuals.

This will be a theme for the 21st Century: how will democracy face down the power of big corporations? show less

Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World is written by Carl Hiaasen.
Carl Hiaasen is, hands down, one of my very favorite authors. His humor, wit and
sarcasm is legendary. He writes as an investigative reporter, a journalist, an author of
fiction and nonfiction for all ages. He is also credited as a bit of a songwriter.
His writing centers primarily on his home state of Florida and environmental concerns.

Team Rodent was published in 1998. It is short - my paperback copy is 83 pages,
but delivers a powerful punch to the workings and insatiable greed of the Disney
Corporation.
One reads it and weeps. *****

I love Disney. I own Disney stock, I have a Disney Visa. I've been to DisneyWorld at least 10 times and Disneyland once.

So it was with some trepidation that I picked up this thin volume. Hiaasen hates Disney with the passion that only a native Floridian can feel. He finds the dirt on Disney and Michael Eisner (the book was written in 1998), pulling no punches.

This is not a 2010 publication; it's an ebook release of a book from 1998. As I read this supposed 2010 book, I kept wondering why on earth Hiaasen didn't have any information from after 1995, so I went looking online, and of course, found the original release date. Wish my public library would stop buying older books that have been repackaged as "new" ebooks.

I love Carl Hiaasen; he's clever and raunchy and satiric, and a great storyteller. His adult novels skewer people who value money or power above everything else; his books for kids show the environmental impact of greed and mismanagement. I was hoping for a good look at how Disney's presence has changed Florida.

And in a limited way, that's what I got, but all the facts and show more figures are from the mid nineties, and so now nearly 20 years out of date! If you're looking for Hiaasen's wit, go read one of his novels. If you want information on corporate greed, look for a more up-to-date source. show less