The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History

This is a refreshing history on Disney animation. I am an animation scholar and was impressed by the detailed scientific descriptions which are not usually found in popular history books but blended in well with the biographical narratives. What I was most surprised by, however, was how positively Walt Disney was depicted. I have read numerous Disney biographies but none of them have included his relationships with his female employees. I was surprised to find that Walt Disney was a champion of women! This is not a book with an agenda as I had first suspected, instead it is a story extremely well told!

This was an amazing book. Nathalia does a wonderful job letting the reader in on the artists and their lives, their passion for their craft, and their place within the Disney family. The details and historical significance are wonderful to read about. Loved it and was sorry to see it end. Kudos to Ms Holt!

This is a really inspiring book for ALL illustrators and animators out there, but especially women. A lot of the challenges mentioned here still persist to some extent. It's a great, very fast read. Holt lays out timelines very well. There are a lot of historical moments presented that really offer insight into how the WD Studio began. Interesting for any WD fans out there too.

With the publicity this book is receiving, one would expect something more than the disappointment that it actually is.

 I purchased both the hardcover and the audio book (through Audible.)While some of the information within these pages is good (much referenced from other books,) it also contains a tremendous amount of wild misinterpretation of the jobs these women were doing and what their circumstances were.  Overall, there is, sadly a large dose of incorrect information.

To begin with the author exhibits a complete lack of understanding into the process of making an animated film - and specifically how that work was done at the Disney Studio from the 1930s through the 1970s.  Research for a book of this sort should be done by accessing original sources and that clearly was not done in every case here.  Also, the stories known by surviving family members should be corroborated. They are often poor sources of accurate information, and much of this book seems based on these narrow, misinformed and inaccurate accounts.

In spite of the fact that the subtitle is “The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney…”, many of these stories have indeed been told before — in other books that offer the reader a far better understanding of who they were, how they worked and where they fit into the wider field of animation.

This all leaves me to ask; 
Who was in charge of fact checking this book? Hello, editor…?    Hello, Little Brown and Company…?    

I wonder if they would be interested in publishing a companion book to address the loads of erroneous information presented in The Queens of Animation?One final note: he dramatized segments in the audio book are beyond laughable. Mostly though, I found it too hard to listen to with all of the inaccuracies.  

Bottom line – don’t bother.I will be seeking my money back.

Did not make it past page 100. Felt no connection to the women and it was way too heavy on the men v women. Would've been wonderful if it had focused on the animation and beginning of Disney as a whole. Would not recommend.

Beautiful condition for one. For two Nathalia Holt has a fantastic way with words and descriptions. For me this is a great view and depiction of the animation industry as well as informative on the issues women had to actually encounter. In this book she explains the struggles the women dealt with while creating unacknowledged work at the most magical place on earth, Walt Disney Studios. In the animation story department, it was primarily men only, though Walt hired a few women... This is their stories and it is beautifully depicted by Nathalia Holt.

Holt has written another compelling history of people who deserve more attention and accolades for their creative contributions. Those contributions helped make Disney, an American cultural Goliath, what it is today! This was a fascinating book to read, with a lot of info I'd never heard before. Great for any fan of Disney, animation or the history of women in the U.S.

I gave this to my sister for Christmas. She is an artist and does many styles of art but her full time job is as a computer animator and she has always loved Disney. She said the book is wonderful and she loves it.

While Nathalia Holt is to be commended for bringing to light the artistic legacies left by these early women pioneers of Disney Animation, this book should carry an X-rated certificate lest today's Disney-loving children are mistakenly drawn to it. The Story is always more palatable than The Truth and nobody knew this better than Walt Disney. That's why he built the brand name; not because his ego wanted to take all the credit, but because the brand of Walt Disney gave his artists something higher to reach for than the day to day struggles that everyone must face whether male or female, gay or straight, rich or poor.It was a pity that Bianca Majolie succumbed to alcoholism, but when she returned from her vacation to discover she'd been fired it's a bit unfair to say “...her high-school friend Walt did not take the trouble to say goodbye.” I thought Walt didn't know Bianca at school, merely signed her yearbook before heading off to work for the Red Cross ambulance service? Yet he still gave her a job at his studio some years later. Perhaps this was a kindness for 'old time's sake' of having attended the same school, even though many other talented women might have applied for the job at the same time. Perhaps Bianca's 'secret drinking' had been known to Walt for a long time, so what better time to release an employee - who came to loathe the studio - than during her vacation? He never said the job of working in a male-dominated environment would be easy. And most of the studio's artists were laid off soon afterwards anyway, none of whom got a personal “Goodbye” from Walt. Bosses generally don't do that sort of thing when they have over a thousand employees (all of whom are disgruntled about something) on their payroll.In fact the theme of alcoholism seems to run through this book, as it did through America and the rest of the world – yesterday and the day before, as it does today and likely will do tomorrow. We all have to face hardship in our lives, to learn to avoid temptations, overcome defeatist habits, addictions, and blame, and to muddle through as best we can. Mary Blair managed to 'rise above it' and decided to share not a lie, but a story of her life as she wished it to be, rather than the trauma it had become. It was her right to do this and we should honour that. Walt did. He had to rise above the difficulties of his own life – starting very early – to build a better life for his own and other people's children through the films and theme parks which have since become the Walt Disney legacy. It's no wonder Mary and Walt got on so well; they were kindred spirits and knew what was important.Like many children, Disney-time at Christmas and Easter was for me the perfect refuge from a difficult childhood. I aspired to work in the Paint and Trace department at Walt Disney Studios, but if I had read this book as a teenager I would likely not have kept the faith that such a dream was attainable, or the opportunity to animate on a feature film even possible. Animation studios during the 90's and beyond were in some ways different, yet in other ways the same as they were during the time Walt was alive. Pay issues, job security issues, expectations of screen credit, overtime issues, sexist boys' club, etc. etc. Yet to reach the end of one's life and to have contributed – even in a small way – to one or two great films which survive long after we've gone is an honour in our world of famine, floods, earthquakes, wars and dead-end jobs that someone has to do. I, personally, wouldn't want to fish dead bodies out of the river or out from a motorway crash and am thankful that my short-lived career in animation meant I didn't need to do such things. TVM to the frogman and motorway patrol so that I could drive my car past the remains of the wreck or gaze across the river and watch the patterns the leaves make as they land on the water's surface, hoping that the memory stayed with me long enough to translate into my animation scene.In the end it's simply not helpful to know too much about the lives of the animation artists who brought to the screen their director's vision. The film is what is important and the artwork they contributed is what all the artists would rather be remembered for – including Mary Blair's husband. The unpleasant aspects of their marriage are Mary's business, not ours.I also find the words “Disney's true heroines” on the cover to be rather cringe-worthy and detracting from what these women left us with. They were not heroines, they were artists who wanted to practice their art, get paid fairly for it, and further their own careers. They did not do what they did for the rest of us women or for animation artists who came later, neither did they sacrifice themselves for a needy cause. Any sacrifices were 'for the art' which is another matter entirely.That said, Rest In Peace, ye great Queens of Animation; your artwork and your names live on.

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As a long time animation follower this book surprised me with a wealth of new material. Understandably, there is not much in the way of illustrations from the movies talked about, but the incidental artwork opens a window in to the difficult world women in animation dealt with. All this really needs is maybe a dozen more pages of artwork from these important figures in animation. I hope the author continues and produces another book on women at the other studios.