One Little Spark!: Mickey's Ten Commandments and the Road to Imagineering

by Marty Sklar

We've all read about the the artists, the scientists, the engineers - that special group of people known as Imagineers for The Walt Disney Company. But who are they? How did they join the team? What is it like to spend a day in their shoes?

Disney Legend Marty Sklar wants to give back to fans and answer these burning questions. When Marty was president of Walt Disney Imagineering, he created a list of principles and ideals for the team, aptly named Mickey's Ten Commandments. Using this code of standards as his organizational flow, Marty provides listeners with insights and advice from himself and dozens of hands-on Imagineers from around the globe. It's a true insider's look like no other!

The full copyright information can be found

2015 Marty Sklar Creative, Inc.

P 2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

“One Little Spark” Words and Music by Richard Sherman and Robert Sherman 1981 Wonderland Music Company, Inc. (BMI) All Rights Reserved. Used With Permission.

“Meet The World” Words and Music by Richard Sherman and Robert Sherman 1982 Wonderland Music Company, Inc. (BMI) All Rights Reserved. Used With Permission.

“There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” Words and Music by Richard Sherman and Robert Sherman 1963 Wonderland Music Company, Inc. (BMI) Copyright Renewed. All Rights Reserved. Used With Permission.

“It’s A Small World” Words and Music by Richard Sherman and Robert Sherman 1963 Wonderland Music Company, Inc. (BMI) Copyright Renewed. All Rights Reserved. Used With Permission. Academy Award and Oscar are registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Audiobook, Memoir, Biography Memoir, Personal Development, Professional Development

Audible Audio

First published September 1, 2015

About the author

Marty Sklar worked for the Disney company for over 50 years. He was hired shortly before Disneyland opened and rose through the company to become Vice President of Creative Development. He was honored as a Disney legend and with a window on main street. Now in retirement he has released a book chronicling his tenure for Disney.

Reviews

[Zander]

Picked up this book on my kindle hours after leaving Disney Sea but it got lost amongst the holidaying. Maybe it's just because the only theme parks I had been to were Luna Park, Wet n Wild, Movie World and Dreamworld but I was pretty taken by the scale of the Disney parks and the level of effort put into creating immersion with every element. Sklar quickly gets into outlining the creative strategies of the parks like using tall objects (weenies) as navigational references and the importance of songs in the Disneyland philosophy.

Our Guests don't go out of the parks whistling the lights or the architecture

There are some valuable lessons about being multidisciplinary in your creative approach, starting a project with a wealth of research and the ways that Imagineers have questioned everything about the theme park experience, including the conventions of queues (which are still very much present for the most part). There's twelve Disney parks around the world and Marty Sklar is quite upfront with some of the mistakes they made along the way, both in terms of design and applying the Disney formula to different cultural contexts. I'm always a skeptical about excessive deification of Walt and the Disney brand generally but I appreciate the acknowledgement of fallibility here.

It's an incredibly accessible read, which is both a strength of the book and a weakness. There's a lot of a surface level about situations that barely cover a page that I would have loved diving into with a full chapter. I could have easily spent pages reading about the construction process of the Castles or Mount Prometheus at DisneySea. However, for anyone who just wants to get a bit of an insight into the process behind a Disney Park and the creative enviroments the Imagineers (atleast purport to) foster, this is a great read.

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you know me you know I love Disney. Marty Sklar is one of the most iconic Disney Imagineers. If you are a fan of the Disney parks I highly suggest this book!

[Vairavel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is written by an "Imagineer" who has worked in Disney for a long time. In this book, Martin shares about the ten commandments/principles that Disney has always followed in terms of designing and implementing theme parks and their attractions. The first portion of the book talks about the ten commandments that are quite interesting. The second portion of the book is a collection of experiences shared by many people who have worked for Disney one time or other. If you are short in time, I would suggest that you skip Part 2. I have given only 2* for the book since the author talks nothing outside of Disney (quite understandable since he has not worked elsewhere, but that is not worthwhile if you are looking for a broader perspective).

[Cindy (BKind2Books) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting look behind-the-scenes at Walt Disney from a longtime Imagineer. The author starts off discussing the 10 Commandments of Mickey. These are the guidelines that assist the team in developing the guest experience at the various theme parks and other Disney enterprises (like the cruise ships). He also provides examples of the best (the Mousecar ....like an Oscar, get it?) and the flubs (the Goof award). After that, he draws on the folks that know Disney best - the Imagineers themselves - for insights and advice to those interested in this as a career. It is mostly interesting, although a few times it drags or becomes repetitive. Overall, this original Mouseketeer liked it just fine.


Quotes to remember:

If everything works the first time, you’re probably just repeating what you did last time.

That is what additive collaboration is about: not being afraid to make someone else’s idea work or to enhance an idea of your own by incorporating others’ ideas and designs into it.

[Daisylotz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

Loved the highly applicable Ten Commandments and reading about how they played out in some of the decisions that were made at Disney.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for something a little meatier in terms of content. The Ten Commandments weren't bad and I'm glad they included some examples. The second part of the book was only brief backgrounds of different imagineers with their take on how to succeed, which could all be summed up as 'do what you love, be passionate, etc'. There weren't any parts of the book that included any really concrete ways to start becoming an imaginee or how that process works, which was more of what I was interested in reading about.

I can see this being a good book for younger kids because there are a lot of encouraging quotes and ideas in it. For someone who wants to delve deeper into the creative process, there are a few interesting aspects but nothing more beyond that.

[Alex Baron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a follow up to Sklar's original book Dream It! Do It! My Half-Century Creating Disney's Magic Kingdoms. After his sudden passing earlier this year I wanted to revisit both his books and learn about the man and his time with the Disney Company. Dream It! Do It! is a fantastic book that is a must read for any fan of the Disney parks. The stories Sklar tells give a really interesting behind the scenes view of the making of the magic. Unfortunately, I do think that One Little Spark reaches those lofty heights.

This book is broken down into two main parts: the first third focusing on Mickey's Ten Commandments, while the rest focuses on input from current and past Imagineers and their experience in making Disney parks and attractions. The first part is largely an extension from a small chapter in his first book. Sklar himself invented Mickey's Ten Commandments from his many years of experience working for Walt Disney Imagineering. they are essentially the ten principals that he believes should be followed to create truly magical lands, attractions and shows for guests to visit at Disney parks. The best part of this section is that Sklar lists an example of a failure and a success for each Commandment. For example, under the Commandment of "Know your Audience" Sklar calls Cars Land at Disney California Adventure a success while the Meet the World attraction from Tokyo Disneyland a failure. He explains his logic behind each of his choices and most are fairly straight forward. This section is the highlight of the book for me and I would have liked to see it expanded to include more examples and highlight why certain things in the parks either succeed or fail.

The second part of the book should be better but unfortunately comes up a little flat. It was written with the audience of those that want to pursue Imagineering or theme park design as a career. What results is a lot of text that is encouraging people to find their passion and work towards it. There is plenty of good advice in this section from clearly very talented people, but I found it to be very repetitive and not all that enlightening. It is almost too much information for any person to really take in and have a good sense of what to do with their future careers. I think this section could have been better balanced with a few more stories and personal anecdotes from the Imagineers. As there is no right way to enter Imagineering this book struggles because it can never give a definite path to take. While to some that can be inspirational it made for a frustrating read at times.

Overall, the book is decent companion to Sklar's original work. As he focuses more on the concept of Imagineering rather than telling stories Sklar doesn't quite reach the levels he previously did. Most Disney parks fans will likely enjoy it but your mileage may vary depending on your interest in Imagineering.

[Connor Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the past few months I’ve been taking a children’s literature class and have read nearly 20 books. I didn’t want to blow up everyone’s feeds with 3 YA books a week, so I put this series on hold. Now that I’ve finished that course I’ve started reading for pleasure again and started with “One Little Spark!” written by Imagineering legend Marty Sklar.

I found this book at a thrift store in Carrboro, NC while wasting time before a show at the Cat’s Cradle. The cool thing about this copy is that it is signed by Sklar himself! If you are unaware, Imagineering is the group of engineers/artists/storytellers/etc. who create the attractions at Disney theme parks. Since I was a kid I’ve been fascinated in the artistry that goes into themed entertainment so I picked this book up as soon as I saw it. I think if I read this book as a kid beginning to be fascinated in this type of stuff, it would have made a lasting impact on me.

The book is split into two parts: first is Sklar explaining his Mickey’s 10 commandments in detail and the second is essentially a guide for young people on how to become an imagineer. The first portion of the book was a fascinating dissection of the creative process Sklar and others use with anecdotes on how it was used in various projects in the Disney parks, in both positive and negative ways. The second section was a bit more dry and longwinded with long sections of advise on how to succeed. It’s about 80 pages written by dozens of imagineers that boils down to “be inspired, work well in a team, and never stop creating!” It gets a bit stale. As a 23 year old with limited artistic talents, I think the ship has sailed for me to be an imagineer (although the book did teach me that they hire librarians to work at WDI), but I can see this being an extremely powerful piece of writing for young people who want to be creative. If you have a young person in your life interested in this type of stuff GET THEM THIS BOOK! They will eat it up. However, as an older person with no realistic aspirations to work for Disney, the enjoyment I received from reading this was limited.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a little disappointing. The 10 Commandments had a little less punch than I was expecting, but they are tried and true for anyone who works in a customer service or creative field. Learning about wienies - an object that beacons people towards it - was particularly fascinating, and I'll be using that knowledge whenever I design anything in the future.

After describing the 10 Commandments Marty shares real examples of times when Disney/Imagineers succeeded and failed each commandment. This was particularly interesting, as you got to learn about their mistakes (and fascinating lessons); but I felt many of his examples had nothing to do with the commandment in question. I kind of think he was just picking stories he wanted to tell, regardless of if they actually had anything to do with the topic. I was glad to finally hear someone say that the outside appearance of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland was a mistake, though.

The second half of the book, "The Road to Imagineering," was less interesting and the most disappointing. It consisted of letters from current and former Imagineers and was full of inspirational quotes like "When one door closes, go find a window to climb through" (I kept a notebook of all the great quotes), but there was no real substance. You learned what traits make a good Imagineer (e.g. cheerfulness, humility, curiosity, a love for teamwork) but not how to become one. That's just not enough for a book partially called, "The Road to Imagineering."

[Tom Hinkle · Rating 3 out of 5]

One Little Spark! is, as reviewers before me stated, a book that is really divided into two parts. The first part concerns Mickey's Ten Commandments and the second part is Imagineer letters of advice on becoming an Imagineer. I think a person can learn from both section of the book in various ways. Obviously, you learn more about the philosophy behind striving to be an Imagineer and working at Walt Disney Imagineering in the book's first part. But for me, one can glean from the Imagineer's writings that of inspiration; not just on how to become an Imagineer, but as encouragement for other life events an individual is engaged in. You might say that the Imagineer's letters transform the Imagineer into a mentor to help the reader face everyday situations. I believe if a reader does not confine the ideas contained to just Disney and apply them to their ordinary life, they will be inspired.

I gave a rating of three stars becuase of a feeling when reading the book. Mr. Sklar's Disney knowledge is amazing. However, I became agitated when reading the book and he would write of being a team and everyone's ideas counting, but succeeded those paragraphs with paragraph(s) of event(s) using a singular pronoun. It felt contradicting to the message and suprising considering Mr. Sklar's education and experience.

I would recommend the book for a better understanding of Walt Disney Imagineering and Imagineers.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Absolutely incredible book! For anyone who's ever wondered "why did they do it that way?" at a Disney theme park, this is the book for you. The guiding principles of design are all laid out, with examples of where it worked, and more interestingly, where it DIDN'T work. The "how I became an Imagineer" stories I could more or less do without - I felt like that was a topic for a whole different book. But the sheer amount of critical thinking applied to creativity made me immediately want to pick up a pencil and start drawing.

I would LOVE to see a book more filled out with all these Disney park design concepts! There's plenty of books out there that show you the (gorgeous) artwork... but how they marry story, guest needs, visual design, and technological and budget constraints into one cohesive, EFFECTIVE attraction is its own topic. It feels like this book only scratched the surface...

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a huge Disney lover, this book has been on my list ever since it came out. I finally remembered to grab the signed copy from a sibling and started reading it a few days ago. It had a lot of great insights into Imagineers and Mickey's Ten Commandments which was pretty cool.

The insights to the commandments and Imagineers was really cool. You can kind of understand how and why they do things the way they do. Also, I learned a lot of new history and information from reading this which was a great plus because the author took time to briefly explain things that may not be obvious to others.

I know some reviews criticized the fact that the second half of the book talked about getting into Imagineering, but if they actually read the cover it says "Mickey's Ten Commandments AND The Road to Imagineering" right under the title in white.

This book is a decently quick read, but I ultimately put it at3.5 (rounded up to 4) stars instead of 5 because I was honestly looking for more in terms of content.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Marty's third book (Travels with Figment), this book is divided into two parts. The first part is the unpacking of "Mickey's Ten Commandments" for Imagineering - the key things to keep in mind in the process. For each of the "Commandments," Marty highlights a project that excels in that area . . . and one that fails.
The second half is all about "how to become an Imagineer." Some of the advice in the second half is a little too pointed towards kids . . . and as Marty has enlisted the feedback and advice of seventy-five separate Imagineers, there's actually quite a handful of contradictions, or maybe we should call them "nuances."
The whole book is full of really solid thoughts for a creative career. And I had my highlighter out within the first 10 pages. It will definitely be one I go back to and study again.

[Dalton Pittenger]

I'm going to finally mark this as "read" even though I didn't actually make it through all of it. For clarity- I was listening to this as an audiobook and the "Mickey's 10 Commandments" section, which is the first 1/3 or so of the book, was excellent. I thought it a little strange that the reader read the lyrics of "One Little Spark" out loud instead of just playing the song- I assume there's some good reason for it.

The second 2/3 of the book is largely inspirational quotes and short stories from various imagineers. I'm sure this is great stuff in a coffee table book that can be physically flipped through, but hearing them rapid fire one-after-another in audiobook format isn't really all that engaging.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mostly quick read. I got through the first half in just about an hour. The second half was harder because it was all advice about how to become an Imagineer, which is not relevant to me and also wasn’t very specific. The first half contained interesting examples of Disney wins and “goofs”. They were examples from parks all over the world, which was not relatable to me, and it seemed like the author didn’t fully explain the examples, choosing brevity over understanding. I did appreciate how some of the “goofs” were some of the most loved attractions, and how they celebrate the goofs as learning experiences, which is a good lesson. Overall, this was ok, and I liked Creating Magic better.

[Jan Norton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting facts about Walt Disney, the company, and the path that many took to become part of the Imagineering section of the company. Mickey's commandments are Know your audice, Wear your guests' shoes, Organize the flow of people and ideas, Create a wienie (a visual magnet), Communicate with visual literacy, avoid overload - create turn-ons, Tell one story at a time, Avoid contridaictions - maintain identiy, For every ouce of treatment, provide a tone of treat, and Keep it up (maintain it).

[Jerome · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lazy - more than 50% of the book are quotes from other people. The author doesn't go into details, explaining how a commandement is implemented on a day to day, or how it's embedded in the culture, or giving counter examples. For each chapter he just writes 4 lines of summary and then pastes 5 pages of quotes that are all quite repetitive and don't bring much depth.
This book might have been written in 2 days (the actual bits that are his), and then his intern spent 2 weeks selecting the quotes for his review.

[Mo Brady · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yeesh. Sklar may have been great at ghostwriting Walt Disney's speeches, but this book is clunky as all get out. For a book that espouses the need to tell a clear story with "turn-ons," this book doesn't utilize storytelling hooks. Sklar does't go into enough detail in any of his anecdotes.

Then in the second half of the book, he bundles quotes from others without any real narrative weaving. What’s worse, in the second half you find out that the insights in the first half were basically direct pulls from others’ quotes in the second half.

What a nothing burger of a book.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good and full of advice from many, many Imagineers. Unfortunately, it was much vaguer than I'd expected. Good regardless, but it often felt lengthy and vague. At times also repetitive. I would definitely recommend it to prospective Imagineers, though it's not one of my favorites. For the best experience with the book, I would recommend buying it and flipping through it as needed rather than reading straight through it. I think if I'd done that, I would've enjoyed it more.

[Franny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this as part of my Imaginations finalist goodie bag 4.5 years ago and just now got around to reading it. I started it before my first trip to Disney World and wish I'd finished it before then. Having read this book and toured their HQ, they really are so impressive. As an advice book, I think it's so so. As a peek behind the curtain of what kind of people it takes to build the Disney parks, it's fantastic.

[Bill Gagliardi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great first half of the book. I love how Sklar discusses Mickey’s Ten Commandments and offered Park examples for each. The latter half was dry and didn’t offer much insight into being an imagineers. He saved the second half with the final chapter wrapping up a quality book. First portion of the book is worth reading in itself but as a whole, it was hurt by the second portion.

[Alexandra Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of the book was pretty interesting and I really enjoyed it. Like other reviewers have mentioned, I probably could have done without the second half. It offered lots of perspectives and great advice from Imagineers, but I don't know if it was necessary to include it in the book. I'm glad I read the ebook but I wish I didn't spend as much money on it as I did.

[Libbie George · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more, but it was less about Disney stories and behind the scenes and more like a self-help book about how to succeed and be happy in life. I love Marty, so I can hear his voice in all of it, but the last probably 60 minutes of the book is just advice from Disney execs on how to do well in life. Maybe a great book for a Disney crazed HS graduate.

[Kim Boulware · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love books on Disney! And Disney Engineering…Imagineering! A perfect fit for me! Written by Disney Legend Mary Sklar. He covers Mickey's 10 commandments, code of standards for guest experiences. Which could be used across many customer focused companies.
And then he asked 75 different Disney engineers to give advice or about how they got into Disney Imagineering.

[Em · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was really interesting to learn about the mousecars and goofs of imagineering. i guess i wanted to learn more about imagineering than reading 75 pages of other people saying the same thing about how to get a job there. after the first few, i got the gist and started to get bored. i had to force myself to power through all the quotes from other people.

[H.G. Howell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great little insight into the commandments behind the creative process for the Disney parks. Nice messages from current, and former, imagineers on how to become an imagineer oneself. Wished there was a touch more insight, but still a great little informative read!

[Iñigo Arrieta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing book, promising the keys for creativity at Disney, but no more than a compilation of employees recommendations and opinions.

[Alvaro Gestido · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book!

A “must” read book for everyone who wants to create magic by passion, hardwork, continuous learning and pursuit for dreams .

[Terri Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always looking for inspiration on creative projects. This is good. I will use several things in my class.

[Katy Pugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't get any better than Marty Sklar