Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World (Library of Contemporary Thought (Los Angeles, Calif.).)

Rating:
Summary: TRASH--Really stupid trash!
Review: I have no affiliation with Disney. This "article" (too short to call a book), is really a waste of time and money. It seems the author, along with a slew of reviewers, are very sour about something. Reading through the reviews, it seems that most who enjoyed this book seem to have failed in life. Most intelligent, reasonable readers would see Hiaasen's work for what it is: an impotent attack on a company which scorned him. Save your money.

Rating:
Summary: The author's book only scratches the surface....
Review: Amusing and frightening all at the same time. Hiaasen's description of Disney's autonomous government is delicious food for any paranoid nut case. But it's also good for those who want to hear the good, the bad, and especially the ugly about the Disney empire. I worked for Disney after graduating college. Picture a starry-eyed theatre graduate who has dreams of success, fame, and riches all compliments of the mouse. I was ready to eat, sleep, and sh*! pixie dust. What I got instead was a 2 1/2 hour wait in the employment office only to be intervied by some middle management company loyalist who shuffled me off to a $5.95 an hour job parking strollers for "Pocahontas and Her Merry Band of Woodland Creatures" (I'm actually paraphrasing the title of the show, but you get the idea.)And what's worse, I asked about how long it would take to get a promotion into an area related to my field and I was told it generally takes two to three years. A schlep with no social skills, a bad haircut, and a computer science degree can go make $50,000 plus for a software firm his first year, but it will take me 2-3 years to have the chance to hand the title character from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" a cup of Gatorade when he comes off stage after his big musical number. Anyhoo, this book is a great read for all anti-corporate supporters. Some other issues I would have like to have seen would be the company's labor exploitations, since this is the area I have most familiarity with. Believe me, there's nothing like going home and looking at your hard earned college degree staring at you on the wall as you strip yourself of your "Camp Minnie Mickey" camp counselor jean shorts, shirt, and boots (all company property and is to be returned at the time of termination, or something like that). But something tells me I was stripped of something other than company owned threads. I was stripped of personal dignity (for having to wear those ridiculous duds) and faith in Disney as a company who valued imagination over profit. Oh well, serves me right for having faith in a multi-national conglomerate. Maybe I should go work for Microsoft.

Rating:
Summary: Needs more
Review: He starts to make some valid points (take it from someone who attends the university across town) and tells some entertaining stories, but it is poorly organized, overly short, and under researched. He could have put together something far more powerful with much sharper teeth. Come on Carl, we know you have more to say.

Rating:
Summary: Book not recommended for intelligent readers
Review: I'm no big fan of Disney. I have never been to any of the Disney properties during the score of times I have been to central Fla. or the 100 or so times I have been to the Los Angeles area, and I probably never will visit a Disney property. However, I was completely turned off by the preachy, pious tone of the author. A reader can tell it was written by a newspaper reporter because the attempts at humor or sarcasm just don't work. Newspapers, for the most part, are out of date and out of touch with what is happening, and just too square. This author obviously has spent too much time in what probably is the most un-hip place on earth--the newsroom of a major newspaper. Authors like this are one reason why people are leaving the newspaper "profession" in droves--nobody wants to be around sour, pious, sarcastic people such as this author. Also, the book doesn't contain much substance. One can read it in less than an hour. This author needs to study some Cliff Notes on what's hip in today's world.

Rating:
Summary: A wickedly funny polemic on a fullly deserving corporation
Review: As someone who witnessed, firsthand, the attempts by Disney to force feed their American history theme park down the throats of the good people of Northern Virginia, I can say that every word, comma, period and exclamation point in Carl Hiaasen's polemic rings clear and true. Also, sad but true, I have witnessed what Disney has done to Florida, as Hiaasen's so eloquently details in Team Rodent. In my and my collaborator Parke Puterbaugh's book, Florida Beaches (Foghorn), we detected the Disney fallout on nearly every beachhead on the Atlantic coast, and anyone who loves the Panhandle beaches better get ready to be disgusted because Disney (under the guise of a holding company) is getting ready to do to that area what it did to Orlando. I can say, from experience, that Disney is deceptive, sneaky, arrogant, bullying and they also lie regularly, when it behooves them. It would not surprise me in the least that the people who rated this book one star were hired by the company...or are stockholders.

Rating:
Summary: Hiaasen's wit helps numb the pain of reality
Review: Having grown up in Pinellas county Florida in the 60s it was easy to hate and be militant toward the obvious developers such as Hunt Corp., etc. In "Team Rodent", Carl Hiaasen provided me with the much-needed jolt to get over the quasi-hypnosis caused by a bunch of cuddly cartoon characters. Disney is nothing more than a corporate conglomerate that is wreaking far-reaching havoc on the environment under the guise of good family fun. Hiaasen's humor is not only welcome, it is necessary as it enabled me to get through the material that otherwise would have had me throwing up. I read this entire book on one flight and couldn't help but laugh out loud when reading about his scenario of the bull alligators in Bay Lake. People around me were giving me funny looks. It's not often a book causes me to lose control to that extent. There is a glimmer of hope offered when reading how the people in Virginia were able to thwart Disney's plans near Manassas. Unfortunately for Florida it's too little, too late. The only negative I could come up with in the book is the reference to orcas as "killer whales". A similar expose' needs to be done on Sea World. And by the way Carl: Let me know if you need any assistance with those bull alligators.

Rating:
Summary: Hiaasen always hit the mark
Review: Regardless if you agree with Hiaasen or not (I agree with him whole-heartedly) you have to admire his talent as a writer and envy his extensive vocabulary. I pity the readers who missed the treasure trove of delicious humor. If only more people were as passionate about the environment.

Rating:
Summary: my sentiments exactly!
Review: now feel free to substitute "mcdonald's" for "disney" or "dismal world" as my friend/former mouse employee called it.

Rating:
Summary: An entertaining expose of Insane Clown Michael and Co.
Review: I bought this book expecing to read a scathingly funny attack on Disney and I was not disappointed. As amusing as it often is, though, Hiaasen has also clearly spent a fair bit of time researching his subject so that as he's attacking Team Rodent, he does so knowledgably and thouroughly as possible. Could've been longer but even as it is, it's a short but fulfilling dose of vitriol.

Rating:
Summary: NOTICE WHO IS TRASHING THIS BOOK:
Review: Most of the negative reader reviews that complain about something other than the books brevity are by folks with Disney affiliations! I think this just proves Hiaasen's point: that the Mouse is intent on warming every heart in the world, whether they want warm hearts or not. This mission includes the extremely unsettling lengths that Disney has gone to to create a propaganda machine: ABC, a dozen cable channels, magazines, newspapers, and of course, film studios. No wonder Disney means wholesome family entertainment to millions of people: the idea has been spoon fed to them since conception. DOWN WITH TEAM RODENT!