WAKING WALT is a spellbinding take on one of Americas most enduring urban legends. Could it be true; Walt Disney was never cremated and buried at Forest Lawn as the official story goes? Imagine that, for nearly 40 years, the great entertainment genius has been in cryonic suspension, waiting to return when a cure for his lung cancer is found. Now, an experimental drug being tested looks like the answer. The waiting is almost over. Then, disaster strikes! In a déjà vu nightmare for The Disney Company, a ruthless corporate raider launches a takeover attempt, planning to sell off the companys assets to the highest bidders. And this time there are no white knights in Disneys corner.But the Circle is still there, the small group of confidants who helped Walt escape death and who have been guarding him and his secret ever since. Even though theyre all old men now, theyre not about to let Walts company be torn apart without a fight. And they know just who can lead them. However, as they scurry to wake him, the Circle discovers there are powerful forces that want the dead to stay dead. But they dont know Walt Disney!
Waking Walt A man named Nolan under the guise of “Dr. Zelenski” convinces the nurses he’s there under the orders of Dr. Bell to give his second opinion for a “link patient” that’s being tested for cancer. He makes it into her room and takes some of her medication for an experimental drug that’s being used to treat cancer, the way out he collapses in the parking lot from a blood clot. Other men arrive and place him in a car leaving behind his medical bag. Security tries to chase down the car, but they get away. The security person receives a verbal lashing from Dr. Bell has him collect all the tubes he finds in the parking deck, scolds him harshly, and tells him not to let it happen again. (The security person’s name is Stan Kubeck).
Kubeck finds Nolan’s ID card in the parking lot and shows it to Bell. Bell gives the name to someone in records and they find out he worked there 40 years ago and for some unknown reason just quit. By this time, Kubleck has found the plates number of the car. But Bell tells him to leave it to him. He’ll find out who Nolan’s friends are by the end of the day. Harry Poole gets a call from Lisa (one of the men’s nieces) with the four men (who we find out are Robert, Sloville, Fred, and Alex) that says he’s inheriated a million dollars from his estranged Uncle’s estate. Bell speaks to Stansbury who tells him one of was an attorney for Disney and the other who quit, did around the time Disney died in Sain’t Joseph’s hospital.
Bell realizes he’s trying to connect this with the myth that Walt Disney was never cremated and instead his body is being held in suspended animation under the Pirates of the Caribbean. Stansbury tells him to meet with someone named Garth and bring someone along if he likes. Lisa worries that she can’t get her father on the phone. Kubeck and Stanley are instructed to find out where Disney is being held. They find one called Vanguard Institute that closed in 66 (the year Disney died). Kubeck thinks of something he saw in the desk.
There’s a commotion at the Barrington estate (Lisa’s dad). The guard won’t let anyone through. Thomas says Mr. Barrinton hasn’t answered the phone. They all search the house. Harry is taken to the bank with Lisa and given a safe box. In it is a letter from Arthus telling how he meet Walt when he was a doctor and brought in as a cancer patient. Walt talked to him about his plans for EPCOT. Arthur talked to him about his desire to be an artist. Walt made him a deal that if he helped him wth a projext he’d make sure he saw his dream come true. He talked about his circle of friends and how now it was on him as his successor to carry on where he left off (should he accept this). Harry wants no parts of this, but Lisa invites him to meet the circle for dinner.
The men tell him their parts in Walt’s “death” and Harry decides to join the group. They tell him they meet once a year. They then fill him in on his Uncle’s death and how he was unsuccessful in trying to get the Lenaqual. That’s where he comes in Lisa tells him her plan to speak with the doctor over the program. She thinks that if she can get the right patient and have them agree not to link it to the media. Harry can come with her because he was once in advertising -known for pitching sales-. Harry says he’ll think on it. Later, The doctor who spoke to Bell speaks to Honoloki who had Stan follow Harry. He then reads him the letter from his Uncle he found in his hotel room. The doctor tells him what to do next.
Harry finds Robert in the pool. He’s not dead and they all call the paramedics. He tells them all what happened. He says he thinks they found out the truth about Walt. (t was Don and kubeck). They think all these things might be connected between the missing letter and the man they saw with the acne. They think it might be Garth’s people (a man who is planning a Disney takeover) and think he can’t be all that happy if he finds out that Walt might return. It wouldn’t have been hard for the man with acne to follow them and find out which and find out they meet with Rebecca Ling who does research on cancer. There’s a man named Peter Roth that’s in the circle. He’s over the chambers. TThey decide he should be alerted. Even if the place was supposedly said to be closed. There’s still a way to find businesses no longer in operation.
When they get there two cars are already there. Inside, one of Roth’s assistant is on the floor unconscious. Then they hear a clank. (The lock has been broken on the door). They find Fred at the bottom of a set of stairs struggling with a man who runs off into the dark. Fred runs off after the man. He runs into an alcove and shuts the door. Through the window, they see Don in the chamber where Walt is held. Don is hammering one of the cylinders with a sledgehammer. Fred then jumps Don. (Honoloki). Something happens to Honoloki. Liquid nitrogen starts to leak out. The Polynesian falls to the floor. Honoloki tries to open the door but collapses. Thomas and Harry go to look for the doctor. By the time Skoville gets to Fred in the chamber he’s died.
Kubeck results this to Stansbury (by someone who helped). He tells Kubeck to go back to Bell and tell them he didn’t find anything. Dr. Ross shows up. When the tubes all break all the other bodies are destroyed but Walt was moved earlier. Now they have to move him to a proper medicial center before he dies. So, they take Walts body to Paradise Palms Nursing and Retirement Center. They borrow a boat from Lisa’s ex-husband and dump Fred’s body into the water. They all takes turns watching Walt’s body. It’s said in the paper, “teens” were the ones that broke into Vanguard. Rebecca gives Walt daily injections. Roth tells Harry they have no experience with a patient whose been frozen but Robecca says she’s heard improvements in his breathing. Still, everything is unclear how Walt will come through this.
After talking to Roth on a shift, Harry finds out more about Roth’s attempted solutions to cryogenics. Later, he sees Walt’s index finger move. Then he sees Walt’s eyes have opened and he’s now staring at him. His brows moves and then his mouth opens. This happens a second time. Harry notices the pained expression in Walt’s eyes. Then Walt slips back into unconsciousness. Roth is there. He asks what Walt whispered. Harry tells him it sounds like he said when. As if to say what year it was. Or the time. Which made sense to Roth because he always thought he’d come back so they wouldn’t mess up his project. He just wasn’t expecting it would be 40 years later.
Cane and Barrington are paid a visit by Bell. He accuses them of trying to destroy his research project. Alex just tells him the truth about Disney and says they're also trying to cure Barrington’s paralysis, but they had to try it on Walt first because well. Bell thinks they’re both crazy. They tell him they won’t be back. He leaves.
Harry finds out from a nurse, Walt wakes up again and when Peter (and another doctor) told him about the company, he became upset and kicked them out of his room. She suggests he speak with him. After explaining to him what happened, Walt asks about his wife and daughters. Harry tells him Lily remarried but she was happy. She passed on. His daughter was married to a man named Ron but got divorced and now works on community stuff. She also produced a movie about him. Sharon died also from cancer. He then gives him all the current updates (and (and a kind of review of history). He talks until Walt falls asleep.Walt continues to progress. He and Harry speak more about world events leading up to the current days. After Harry leaves and Muller takes over the shift, he does some channel surfing There’s a special announcement about to be given on Fox but before Disney can hear it, Rebecca Ling comes in, shunplugs the tv, and sends Walt back to bed. The doctor and the four men have all agreed not to reveal too much too soon to him about the company. But after having a meeting, they decide they should all tell him (well Harry should). But Barrington will join him. So they do taking him through what went on in the company after he died until now. Then they tell him about Garth and the takeover and tell him he has to make it known he’s returned to stop it. Rebecca Ling seems to think he’ll be ready in two weeks. Harry gets some news that Kisner is (the owner of the Disney property) is going to sell some of the unused land. Then one of the employee staff says the FBI is coming to check on violations. So they decide to move Walt. They split into two groups. One will be a diversion. The other (Harry, Muller, Walt, Pether, Wilson head to Florida. This group almost gets caught by Stansbry who comes to investigate “a man pulling one over on nursing residents then killing them” when they forget the linaqual.
Stansbury is working for Garth and reports that he checked all the nursing homes and didn’t find Disney so either he’s not in any of them or he’s been moved. Garth isn’t pleased and Stansbury tells him he’ll try again the next day. When they reach their destination, the next day Kershner makes an announcement He says as chairman the board of directors approved the sale of some of the property to give them enough money to buy out a takeover. One night, Walt sneaks out and catches a ride with some teenagers who are head to Walt Disney World. Meanwhile, Standsbury shows up at the beach house in guise of a “real estate agent”. They all think that Walt went out on the boat and some of the want to take a boat out to look for him, but Harry realizes Walt went to look at EPCOT. Harry heads to Disney World When they get there, Walt loses his nerve and realizes he’ll easily be recognized so he stays in the car. Kuckeck follows Walt. Stan kidnaps Lisa. Walt decides the trip to EPCOT wasn’t worth it. But then one of the employees tells him about Celebrations (a real housing community on the property) and this piques his interest. After coming out of American Adventure, Walt makes his way to a restaurant and is found by Harry.
Kubeck sees Harry and Walt as they get away on a noat. Before going hom, Harry takes Walt to Celebrations. He’s saddened when he learns three have died there because of a road malfunction. Then angered. Overall, he’s not impressed with Celebrations. Harry wakes in to find Lisa held off by Standbury. Harry dives at him and knocks the gun out his hands. He knocks him unconscious. When they look for the gun, Lisa has it but she’s got it pointed at them. She works for Garth. So it goes she worked for Garth to pay off her ex-husband who made a porno tape of her and kept blackmailing her with it. So since she has stock in Garth Industries she can’t let the takeover fail. There’s a shot and then Lisa falls dead.
Kubeck is standing there in the doorway. He ties up Stansbury and tells Harry and Walt there’s no need to complete the mission. Garth’s takeover was successful. The nurse gives Stan a sedative to keep him knocked out. Walt says he wants to go see Garth to make him a better offer. He takes the doccor and Kubeck with him. Walt makes a deal with with Garth that he’ll trade with him the rights to the cancer solution for his property. Walt tells Herry later that he wants him to be over Disney but Harry turns it down. He’s mad that he gave up Linaqual, but Walt tells him that the drug doesn’t work. Linaqual chases off the cancer, but it comes back even stronger. He also says he has plans for a new EPCOT in another location. Harry accepts his offer.
My Thoughts Even though this got a little “busy” with keeping up with all the “Bad guys” that all seemed to be connected in some way, this actually was interesting. Certain parts of it got a little “wordy” and I had to go back and re-read it over to make sure I understood it clearly. But hit was a good concept to write a book where Walt Disney came back. I think the author did a good job of his portrayal of him in the book. The “voice” matched what I’ve seen and heard in depictions of him in movies. I think one of the closest I’ve seen was in the movie “Saving Mr. Banks”. Not that I knew Walt Disney but I think that movie and this book were believable enough that he’d be much like this. At first, I wasn’t all that crazy that he made that snark about the black man (Wilson) but then I had to remember what age he was from and I have heard some things. Wasn’t like it was the first time. What was most interesting to me was to read his commentary on things that have gone on with the company since his death. Particularly with EPCO because this is always the park I can never remember going to. I’m not quite sure what Disney had in his head for this park but when I think of Experimental City of Tomorrow. I have a TOTALLY different vision from what it became. What I’m seeing is a world that reminds you of the Jetsons. There was a video I saw on YouTube once. The name of it is “A Day of Glass” (if you want to look it up. If it even is still on there). But this is probably more what Walt Disney had in mind. It’s more what I have in mind if if were going to develop someplace like EPCOT. I’m not even sure how a showcase of different countries got added in a CITY OF TOMORROW! So if I woke up after 40 years and found out someone had went in another direction from what I originally wanted and it was nothing like I wanted my park to be like YEAH I was be MAD. I’m sure he was thinking what the hell did you even wake me up for. It was also a plus to the story that it took you through the history of what happened to the company and his family after his passing. So not only was it a good plot it was informative.
Rating: 7 and a half
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
If this had been about anything other than Walt Disney (theoretically being unfrozen and kicking ass), I would have given it only 3 stars. Because it was average in story and writing.
However, if you’ve ever wondered about the urban legend that Walt is waiting on ice to come back…this is a fun read.
A sort of "what-if" story - what if Walt Disney really had been cryogenically frozen? In this story, the Disney company falls into trouble, and Walt is woken up to save it. But he has to get around business pitfalls and shady dealings, all while trying to keep the public from discovering that he's still alive. The author does a great job of portraying Walt as a real person, and doesn't make him into the sort of "saint" that many people seem to think he was. Plus, who doesn't wonder how Walt would react to seeing what's become of his dreams?
A spec-fic thriller... what if Walt Disney had been cryogenically preserved & was being resurrected to save the company... what lengths would a greedy take-over artist go to in order to prevent that from happening?
It was an enjoyable (and lengthy at 442 pgs!) read - tho I'm not sure anyone not into Disney history/trivia (and not just the happy shiny mousie part) would really appreciate it.
We have all heard the stories of Walt being frozen. This story takes that myth to a new level and wakes Walt up and gives a perspective on what Walt would think of the modern day WDW and an adventure follows.. It is written by a former WDW and Land VP of marketing.