What do you think?
Rate this book
Building A Better Mouse, 40th Anniversary Edition: The Story Of The Electronic Imagineers Who Designed Epcot
On October 1, 1982, The Walt Disney Company opened its EPCOT Center to the world, heralding changes that would take the Disney property in Florida from a mere theme park to a world-class resort destination. Authors Steve Alcorn and David Green were there, as employees of Disney's WED Imagineering. "Building a Better Mouse" tells the tale of the "hundreds of mostly young, mostly bright and all embarrassingly idealistic people" who worked on Epcot, and gives a unique insider's perspective on what it was like to be in the trenches as a Disney Imagineer in the early 1980s, from pixie dusting - when new employees are indoctrinated into all things Disney - through the craziness of the engineering design process, right up until the last frantic dash to opening day. It is a breathtaking, breezy, E-ticket ride of a book, required reading for both hard-core Disneyphiles and people interested in the business side of themed entertainment. This 40th Anniversary Edition features new cover artwork, and is now also available in hardcover.
157 pages, Hardcover
Published August 16, 2023
2 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
About the author
Steve Alcorn
55 books42 followersSteve Alcorn is the author of a wide range of fiction and nonfiction works. His novels include the mystery A Matter of Justice, the historical novel Everything In Its Path, and the romance Ring of Diamonds (under the pseudonym Sharon Stevens). His best-selling history of the Imagineers who built Epcot, Building a Better Mouse, was co-written with author David Green.
During the past decade Steve has helped more than 30,000 students turn their story ideas into reality, and many of his students have published novels they developed in his classes, taught through http://writingacademy.com
When he isn't writing and teaching, Steve is the CEO of Alcorn McBride Inc., a leading theme park design company.
During the past decade Steve has helped more than 30,000 students turn their story ideas into reality, and many of his students have published novels they developed in his classes, taught through http://writingacademy.com
When he isn't writing and teaching, Steve is the CEO of Alcorn McBride Inc., a leading theme park design company.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 17, 2025
This was a really deep dive read for any Disney fan! This book primarily focuses on how the Electronic Imagineers made Epcot come together, from the drawing board and design room in California to installation and real time debugging in Florida leading up to opening day.
It chronicles the move from a few offices in the middle of nowhere, to taking over full warehouses with a security guard. It was upsetting to read how people were putting in 100 hour weeks for months on site in Florida to make this a reality, and then nearly all of them were laid off! But before all that... it really was a fascinating read.
The second half of this book really chronicles the American Adventure show installation and it's absolutely crazy to me that these 20-something year old "kids" were given so much autonomy and responsibility to do these installations, handle the wiring, the moving of heavy machinery, and were doing it all while working for 24-36 hours straight typically with a 4-6 hour nap in-between.
Reading about their time on-site was really neat too. The first-class corporate policy and sports car rental cars, and everyone lived in trailers side by side at the Fort Wilderness resort and campground and ate at the one cafeteria on site that served frozen food.
A really interesting and deep dive into the behind the scenes, accompanied with real excerpts transcribed from tape recordings from one of the Imagineers.
A note I want to make is this book is riddled with typos, wrong characters, extra words, and general grammatical issues. It did slightly detract from the reading experience for me personally.
It chronicles the move from a few offices in the middle of nowhere, to taking over full warehouses with a security guard. It was upsetting to read how people were putting in 100 hour weeks for months on site in Florida to make this a reality, and then nearly all of them were laid off! But before all that... it really was a fascinating read.
The second half of this book really chronicles the American Adventure show installation and it's absolutely crazy to me that these 20-something year old "kids" were given so much autonomy and responsibility to do these installations, handle the wiring, the moving of heavy machinery, and were doing it all while working for 24-36 hours straight typically with a 4-6 hour nap in-between.
Reading about their time on-site was really neat too. The first-class corporate policy and sports car rental cars, and everyone lived in trailers side by side at the Fort Wilderness resort and campground and ate at the one cafeteria on site that served frozen food.
A really interesting and deep dive into the behind the scenes, accompanied with real excerpts transcribed from tape recordings from one of the Imagineers.
A note I want to make is this book is riddled with typos, wrong characters, extra words, and general grammatical issues. It did slightly detract from the reading experience for me personally.
Displaying 1 of 1 review