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883 reviews for:
Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel's Tween Empire
Ashley Spencer
3.99 AVERAGE
883 reviews for:
Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel's Tween Empire
Ashley Spencer
3.99 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
informative
medium-paced
I really enjoyed this book! Growing up, I did not have access to the Disney Channel. I was a full-on Nickelodeon kid - so while I was not part of the Disney Channel wave, I remember the zeitgeist around Hannah Montana, and Wizards of Waverly Place. I was so eager to delve into the stories of these shows and more!
The book started out slow. The first two sections were about how the Channel was founded, replete with political backstories and almost too many names to keep track of. It took me two tries to get through this section - I let the book lapse (thank you as always to our strong Library system and the Libby app!) and re-loaned it recently. Once I re-read this section and had the names straight, the rest of the book flowed. It was clear the author found many different sources to give weight to the stories around each show. I thought that the comments around the "talents" aka the kids who starred in the show were handled with grace and empathy. I really enjoyed this behind-the-scenes peek at the shows and movies that were pivotal to so many childhoods.
My favorite sections were when there was attention paid to how the different areas of the Disney Company worked together - as someone who has spent all of her adult life navigating corporate culture, it's nice to know that it's not better everywhere else. Different divisions at other companies are exactly as petty and short-sighted as they are in my lived experiences. It grounded the fairy-tale feeling of the kids journeys to become Disney Stars in the reality of them being cogs in the corporate machine.
Ultimately, I rated this book 4 stars. Great premise, the writing style flowed, and the focus areas of DCOM's (Disney Channel Original Movie) and shows made this an easy, quick read. However, the book did not have a strong epilogue. I felt like the book wanted to build up to.....something. But instead it ended with a whimper. A final note that the Disney Channel is not what it was, and won't be again. The specter of this ending wasn't hanging over the book, it just appeared. Because of that, the book then felt like just a series of stories, rather than a cohesive narrative.
If you great up loving the Disney Channel, or you like interesting behind the scenes stories, or you want to learn more about the origin stories of some of the biggest stars in the US today, then I'd definitely recommend this book.
The book started out slow. The first two sections were about how the Channel was founded, replete with political backstories and almost too many names to keep track of. It took me two tries to get through this section - I let the book lapse (thank you as always to our strong Library system and the Libby app!) and re-loaned it recently. Once I re-read this section and had the names straight, the rest of the book flowed. It was clear the author found many different sources to give weight to the stories around each show. I thought that the comments around the "talents" aka the kids who starred in the show were handled with grace and empathy. I really enjoyed this behind-the-scenes peek at the shows and movies that were pivotal to so many childhoods.
My favorite sections were when there was attention paid to how the different areas of the Disney Company worked together - as someone who has spent all of her adult life navigating corporate culture, it's nice to know that it's not better everywhere else. Different divisions at other companies are exactly as petty and short-sighted as they are in my lived experiences. It grounded the fairy-tale feeling of the kids journeys to become Disney Stars in the reality of them being cogs in the corporate machine.
Ultimately, I rated this book 4 stars. Great premise, the writing style flowed, and the focus areas of DCOM's (Disney Channel Original Movie) and shows made this an easy, quick read. However, the book did not have a strong epilogue. I felt like the book wanted to build up to.....something. But instead it ended with a whimper. A final note that the Disney Channel is not what it was, and won't be again. The specter of this ending wasn't hanging over the book, it just appeared. Because of that, the book then felt like just a series of stories, rather than a cohesive narrative.
If you great up loving the Disney Channel, or you like interesting behind the scenes stories, or you want to learn more about the origin stories of some of the biggest stars in the US today, then I'd definitely recommend this book.
fast-paced
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
Not what I was expecting, and I just found it boring.
informative
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I was so pleasantly surprised at how much I loved this book. It very much focused on the 2000s era of the Disney Channel, which is the era I grew up in, and I found it extremely interesting. I learnt a lot about the business model of Disney Channel at the time, why they made the decisions they did with certain shows, and the impact the shows had on the actors both growing up and in the future. I felt like it stsrted quite slowly and then ended very abruptly. I would happily read a sequel following the shows post 2010 (despite me having grown out of Disney Channel by then) and what lead to the downfall of the Channel despite their incredible highs during the 2000s.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse
Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Death of parent
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault
challenging
informative
medium-paced
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
informative
medium-paced