A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: Your Disney Library (2)

By Dave Shute

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

YOUR DISNEY LIBRARY: THE IMAGINEERING FIELD GUIDES TO THE PARKS

By Jim Korkis

• The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom Updated Edition (2009)
• The Imagineering Field Guide to Epcot Updated Edition (2010)
• The Imagineering Field Guide to Disney’s Hollywood Studios (2010)
• The Imagineering Field Guide to Disney’s Animal Kingdom (2007)

The Imagineering Field Guide series answers the question: “What would it be like to walk through a Disney park with an Imagineer by your side?” That Imagineer might share some interesting stories behind the making of something, or point out some storytelling details that are generally missed by a casual visitor. That is what this book series does.

The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World was released in 2005 and was instantly popular, with additional guides covering the other three WDW theme parks plus Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure soon following.

The editions for the Magic Kingdom and Epcot were updated several years after their first appearance, but while it is recommended to get these latest editions, the updating is not extensive enough to make the original editions without value.

Each guide is roughly 128 pages long (each volume includes the exact same thirteen pages of introductory information about Imagineering) and includes development art, sketches, schematics and color photos in addition to proprietary information from the files of the Imagineers about the particular park.

Author Alex Wright, an Imagineer based in Florida, has been involved in a variety of different projects over the years, ranging from Magic Kingdom’s Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor to the renovation of the Haunted Mansion (he worked on the staircase and the stretch room) to Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park.

Wright grew up in Pensacola, Florida and is a graduate of the University of Florida with a Bachelors degree in Design Theory. He began his career with the Walt Disney Company in 1995. Wright wrote and designed the books with assistance from Imagineers like Marty Sklar, Tom Fitzgerald, Jason Grant, Gary Landrum and others. His writing is clear, informative and accessible.

The odd dimensions for the book were because it was meant to mimic the extremely popular Hidden Mickey book series by Steve Barrett so that it would be easy to fit in a pocket or a purse while a guest is touring the park. The huge disadvantage and perhaps the biggest complaint about the books is that this size meant that the wonderful, never-before-seen art of these books was reproduced in such tiny images that it is difficult to really enjoy the details in the illustrations.

Some have complained that Wright only gives a brief overview of a favorite attraction, but they fail to realize that he was working under extreme page restrictions and that the books were never meant to be definitive. They are exactly as they are prominently described, field guides to help better understand and appreciate what is being seen. Each topic gets roughly two pages. For most park visitors, there is enough trivia and background in that limited sample to provide real value.

Unfortunately, since things change so rapidly at the WDW theme parks, these books are now often an ancient history lesson for some areas of the parks, while newer additions are undocumented. I doubt there will ever be a way for a book about any of the WDW parks to remain current for more than a few years but much of the information in these guides about the major attractions is still accurate and insightful.

Another advantage to this series is that it gives a nice glimpse into how Imagineers work and approach a project. Copies of all these books are in my personal library and one of the things I especially appreciate is that the information can be trusted.

Some readers of this column will already have these books in their personal library, but for those who don’t, they are a good investment and reading them will help you to better understand other things that you read about the WDW parks, the process of Imagineering, and the parks themselves.

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Thanks, Jim! I love these books. And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Call Me Walt, and his Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

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