Rating: 
Summary: The reviewer, DJ is a Disney Employee
Review: Below, is a scathing review of this perfectly valid book by "DJ".
A quick glance at DJ's other review of "Song of the South" leaves
no doubt in my mind that DJ works for the Disney Corporation.If this isn't the ultimate endorsement, I don't know what is. Look for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: A biased look at Disney
Review: Just the fact that a radical and twisted individual like Carl Hiassen wrote this book is sufficient to show how biased it will be. Like an inmature preteen, Hiaasen criticisizes things that appeal to the mass public in an sick and inmautre fashion. Of course, one must remember that Hiaasun, as the author of "Striptease" is obsessed with adult material and dark humor as well as hard rock. Of course he dislikes a family oriented company as Disney. In the end, the book only convinced me even further that the Disney theme parks are an ideal place for a family vacation. Don't waste your money on this senseless trash.
Rating: 
Summary: Unrevealing look behind the ears...
Review: As an avid, but suspicious, park goer, I read this book hoping to have "my eyes opened" to the deceitful and "evil practices" of the Walt Disney Corporation (and it's spin-off companies). Instead, this book provided nothing but old, dried out stories that really provided nothing that couldn't be garnished from TIME or Newsweek. In fact, Hiaasen stretches every "evil" Disney deed into something that even Eisner himself couldn't hope to do. For example; Hiaasen spouts off about Eisner's letter to stock holders in which Eisner sites the success of 101 Dalmations, the author hopes to place a seed in the reader's mind that Eisner/Disney should have had forthought enough to realize that placing dalmations in the public eye would inspire a rash of returned and abused puppies. The examples go on and on. This book is pitifully short and lacking in real sources and information. It's theory. It's hypothesis. It reads like a fourteen year old's journal, full of revolt against the current culture (even though the teen angst is often less unique than thought). In short; there isn't anything in this book that couldn't be said about any major corporation. Don't pay full price... you'll be wasting your money.
Rating: 
Summary: Dependable Kingdoms
Review: After a lifetime in Florida, Hiaasen has come to detest what Disney stands for, the great homogenizing force regressing all consumers to the mean. He truly delights in each Rodent mis-step, especially when financial loss, great public relations embarassment, and dead animals are involved. While this book can be read in a few hours, as it appears to be nothing more than recycled newspaper columns with some extra meat tossed in, there is something entertaining here. I am not familiar with Hiassen's other writing, but here he is genuinely amusing and original, especially when Disney Chairman Michael Eisner becomes his target. Hiassen has thought through in detail how Disney succeeds, especially in ensuring good press coverage by sponsoring junkets for small town newspaper writers. Hiassen attends one and attempts to pay retail for all services and fails despite his most earnest efforts. I would have liked to see more information on the methods Walt Disney employed to surreptiously purchase land and create an autonomous political entity, but that is short-changed here, other than to show that the resulting security force is out of control. The book was published in 1998 and now appears slightly dated, as the lustre appears to be off the Disney marketing juggernaut in the last few years. In an update, Hiassen could add mis-steps with Disney Stores and films to his gleeful telling of failures in residential real estate and Virginia civil war parks.
Rating:
Summary: the shady side of Disney
Review: I read this book several years ago and since then, I have become somewhat obsessed with Carl Hiassen and his writing. This is a very short book that details Disney's influence on S. Florida. Needless to say, the influence isn't wholesome, which is what makes this book fascinating: the dichotomoy between the public face of Disney and their corporate, anti-humanist reality. A chapter on a "model community" called Celebration foreshadowed "The Truman Show."
Rating:
Summary: Not the Happiest Place on earth
Review: This book is about how people tend to surrender their rights and minds to large corporations such as Disney. The author Hiaasen's gives descriptions of how Disney's is an example of this by sharing the good, the bad, and for the most part the ugly about the Disney empire. Despite all the sneaky evil things Disney has done people still feel that if there is any thing more irresistible then Jesus , its Mickey. The book is very informative and seems to have accurate information which lets the reader know Disney darkest secrets. Though at times it seems very biased and the Author is out to trash Disney any chance he gets. To me the message was that Disney and other large corporations are buying our trust as we grow up though Disney and these corporations are not someone to be trusted. We know only what we see and hear about these corporations and what we don't see and hear is kept form us for a reason. I read into this message by discovering that we should not always believe what we see and hear. We should look in to thing especially Disney because kids all around the world are being taught and entertained throughout their child hoods by this evil mouse house.
Rating:
Summary: A book not worthy of Carl's talent....
Review: As an avid reader of Carl Hiaasen's articles and novels, this work is simply not in the same class. The tone is snippy without being enlightening. The evidence presented in the book, although most likely accurate, is largely unsupported and undocumented. It is book that attempts to be both humor and documentary and fails on both accounts and reads like it was written in a weekend...
Rating:
Summary: the book is just fine !
Review: I found this book to be informative and entertaining. However, I admit it could have been better. I wanted even more examples of why Disney is bad. ...
Rating:
Summary: Standing Up Against the Mouse House.
Review: There are a lot of things that go on in this world and our country that most people are totally oblivious. There is a dark underbelly that seethes with evil. Granted, every organization of every kind is going to have some problems. The difference is what those groups do with those problems: do they hide them, or do they expose them to the light and move on? Hiassen asserts in TEAM RODENT that there is a lot going on with the Walt Disney Company that most people don't know about and would be shocked to learn. TEAM RODENT offers a few examples of the evil that lurks withing the mighty Mouse House and suggests that if the opportunity arises to stand against the Goliath Rodent, people should. I throughly enjoyed reading Hiaasen's book. It was short (like all the books in the Library of Contemporary Though series), but provocative. The accusations were sprinkled with just enough humor to make one laugh, yet not forget what was read. I was not at all upset by Hiaasen's bias against the Mouse House because it added to the flavor of the book. Besides, I have thought for a long time that Walt Disney would not be very happy where his company has been headed the last fifteen years. Just look at what Disney did with children's radio and Radio Aahs; that would make an excellent chapter in TEAM RODENT. Interesting reading that will probably provoke a few thoughts, produce a laugh, or both.
Rating:
Summary: Dichotomus
Review: The fact that Entertainment Weekly a shiny pimp for corporate Hollywood product (itself produced by their owners AOL/TIME WARNER) is here wheezing protestations on the impurities introduced into America by this countries own creations is laughably hypocritical. Salon.com bills itself as a kink for upwardly mobile yuppies on their consumer profiles, hopefully luring advertisers with the scent of such rotten meat, their gossip columns staffed by NPR (Archer Daniels Midland, Voice of America) poetasters and speech writers for Bob Dole. The New York Times encourages the sleazy globalist imperatives of Thomas Friedman's Corporate Zionism. So the critical reception is revealing, and this book is harmless pabulum for self-conscious suburban liberals who think it's hip to be anti-Disney. None of these American clowns are concerned with the extinction of cultural diversity and the hegemonic one world mono-culture their own country is largely responsible for. I haven't read Hiasson's fiction and don't plan to either but I see his publisher is WARNER books. QED.
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