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Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth
A Gallery Book. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 29, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 1, 2026
For what this book is—a memoir and account of three years that he was CEO and his eventual removal—it’s a solid 3.5 to 4 stars. I think more pointedly Bob Chapek wrote this book to communicate the “forces” as he calls them to postpone and eventually sabotage his tenure as CEO. I think he succeeded on that front. I have sympathy for Bob. Though the beginning I thought was quite boring and generic, it picks up just before the halfway point.
Bob Chapek is obviously a very smart guy and an incredible businessman, particularly on consumer products. Doing a little research online, he was obviously a wildly successful CEO in terms of shareholders and the business. Specifically with how he handled COVID.
It’s also true I don’t think Bob had the impact he wanted to have as CEO from a guest and fan perspective. He had several policies, including changing Fastpass to Genie+. Charging more money for that pass, tickets, and more that are still perceived extremely negatively. I do believe the phrase “the magic is gone” started showing up around the time Bob Chapek became CEO.
That doesn’t mean he intended to affect people the way he did. I tend to believe him that he had his heart in the right place.
The side of me with corporate experience also says, welcome to the club, Bob. This is the same machine that churns through workers and leaves them underappreciated. The same machine that employs people like Bob Iger, who will stab you in the back and take your dreams away, in his case, extremely disrespectfully. The same machine that doesn’t really care you worked somewhere for three decades. If it wants you out, whether you made them money or not, you’re out.
The Disney magic won’t save you.
I do wish your long career at Disney would have ended in a more respectful and kind fashion. I often think now, it doesn’t matter if they cut you and gave you $20M, at the end of the day, you’re a human like the rest of us, and for it to be your dream and to have it cut short still hurts.
Bob Chapek is obviously a very smart guy and an incredible businessman, particularly on consumer products. Doing a little research online, he was obviously a wildly successful CEO in terms of shareholders and the business. Specifically with how he handled COVID.
It’s also true I don’t think Bob had the impact he wanted to have as CEO from a guest and fan perspective. He had several policies, including changing Fastpass to Genie+. Charging more money for that pass, tickets, and more that are still perceived extremely negatively. I do believe the phrase “the magic is gone” started showing up around the time Bob Chapek became CEO.
That doesn’t mean he intended to affect people the way he did. I tend to believe him that he had his heart in the right place.
The side of me with corporate experience also says, welcome to the club, Bob. This is the same machine that churns through workers and leaves them underappreciated. The same machine that employs people like Bob Iger, who will stab you in the back and take your dreams away, in his case, extremely disrespectfully. The same machine that doesn’t really care you worked somewhere for three decades. If it wants you out, whether you made them money or not, you’re out.
The Disney magic won’t save you.
I do wish your long career at Disney would have ended in a more respectful and kind fashion. I often think now, it doesn’t matter if they cut you and gave you $20M, at the end of the day, you’re a human like the rest of us, and for it to be your dream and to have it cut short still hurts.
September 29, 2026
Sorry I had to be the first person to log this book. It appears I was one of the only people genuinely interested in the tenure of Bob Chapek at Disney.
Writing a college essay on the game changers in media. I ended up writing a bit about Disney’s transition into the pandemic and how it changed how it delivers media. I wanted to know more about it so I sourced this book. Bob likes to call himself a disruptor, I think he’s more of a destructive force if anything. He, himself, has made decisions that while he justifies in the book, have had damaging effects on Disney’s brand in the long run. Direct to Video Sequels, Shortening theatrical windows, Pushing Disney Plus. All terrible in my opinion.
Writing a college essay on the game changers in media. I ended up writing a bit about Disney’s transition into the pandemic and how it changed how it delivers media. I wanted to know more about it so I sourced this book. Bob likes to call himself a disruptor, I think he’s more of a destructive force if anything. He, himself, has made decisions that while he justifies in the book, have had damaging effects on Disney’s brand in the long run. Direct to Video Sequels, Shortening theatrical windows, Pushing Disney Plus. All terrible in my opinion.
September 29, 2026
I’m having a hard time deciding if I don’t like this book, or if I just really don’t like this human… I had no meaningful exposure to Chapek prior to reading this.
The whole thing drips with arrogance and so much “me, me, me”. Full of reminders of the worst “leaders” I have had throughout my career. I have the ick.
“Woe is me. I’ve been through so much, I am so strong, they are mean. I work the hardest, I am the cleverest.” Ick ick ick.
“I’d like to think I never made it about me” might be the most delusional sentence ever written in an autobiography.
The whole thing drips with arrogance and so much “me, me, me”. Full of reminders of the worst “leaders” I have had throughout my career. I have the ick.
“Woe is me. I’ve been through so much, I am so strong, they are mean. I work the hardest, I am the cleverest.” Ick ick ick.
“I’d like to think I never made it about me” might be the most delusional sentence ever written in an autobiography.
October 1, 2026
Flat, tone-deaf, and out of touch, this memoir reads like a high schooler’s college admissions essay where they pull in everything they can and try to make it relevant to the program they want to impress.
Chapek’s journey through the Walt Disney Company is presented as “I was amazing in all the ventures I did, and Bob Iger’s ego would never let that last.” While true, Iger’s ego might certainly be the plague that ended Chapek’s career, Chapek never steps back and wonder whether or not the criticism levied at him has any truth in it. Failures such as the Galactic Starcruiser, the rise in ticket prices, and cast member protests were hand-waved. Ticket prices HAD to increase for better guest satisfaction. It wasn’t ACTUALLY cast members who were protesting, it was people tangentially related to them. The starcruiser tested well and it was IGER who ruined it.
But worst of all is Chapek’s failings as a writer. This book is littered with Corporate jargon, as if he expected his words to be presented in a board meeting and not to a reader sitting on their couch. Whether it was because of his CEO millionaire background or his ineptitude as a writer, there are whole chapters of the book that feel as if it were an emotionless robot taking charge.
“They called me. They told me I was fired. I was angry. My kids came over and we shared an emotional moment.” Does any of that inspire you to visualize or feel the events? If the answer was yes, then I truly do fear for the future of literacy.
Chapek’s journey through the Walt Disney Company is presented as “I was amazing in all the ventures I did, and Bob Iger’s ego would never let that last.” While true, Iger’s ego might certainly be the plague that ended Chapek’s career, Chapek never steps back and wonder whether or not the criticism levied at him has any truth in it. Failures such as the Galactic Starcruiser, the rise in ticket prices, and cast member protests were hand-waved. Ticket prices HAD to increase for better guest satisfaction. It wasn’t ACTUALLY cast members who were protesting, it was people tangentially related to them. The starcruiser tested well and it was IGER who ruined it.
But worst of all is Chapek’s failings as a writer. This book is littered with Corporate jargon, as if he expected his words to be presented in a board meeting and not to a reader sitting on their couch. Whether it was because of his CEO millionaire background or his ineptitude as a writer, there are whole chapters of the book that feel as if it were an emotionless robot taking charge.
“They called me. They told me I was fired. I was angry. My kids came over and we shared an emotional moment.” Does any of that inspire you to visualize or feel the events? If the answer was yes, then I truly do fear for the future of literacy.
October 1, 2026
Ok so I read this book because, as a fan of Disney, but also a fan of the “chisme”, I wanted to know what this guy was going to do with a platform. What was he going to say about his time? Was he going to give any behind the scenes into the operations at Disney? I’m always down for a peek behind the curtain, and the audiobook being narrated by the author always adds to the experience.
Well, friends, I listened to approximately 7 hours of a mid white man, with a net worth of 20 million, whine about how he made great business decisions and anything that went wrong was because Bob Iger was sabotaging him. He contends that Bob Iger somehow is a clairvoyant and saw the a Covid pandemic happening and quickly passed the hot potato to him as a fall guy, only to swoop in like an albatross at the right time to “save” the company, even as Disney was reporting amazing profits - due to Chapek’s prowess with Disney+ streaming decisions, of course.
Anyway, the tea is piping. If you can get through the whining. 3 stars because it’s actually interesting from a business perspective in how he describes his time in packaged and consumer goods and I like chisme.
Well, friends, I listened to approximately 7 hours of a mid white man, with a net worth of 20 million, whine about how he made great business decisions and anything that went wrong was because Bob Iger was sabotaging him. He contends that Bob Iger somehow is a clairvoyant and saw the a Covid pandemic happening and quickly passed the hot potato to him as a fall guy, only to swoop in like an albatross at the right time to “save” the company, even as Disney was reporting amazing profits - due to Chapek’s prowess with Disney+ streaming decisions, of course.
Anyway, the tea is piping. If you can get through the whining. 3 stars because it’s actually interesting from a business perspective in how he describes his time in packaged and consumer goods and I like chisme.
October 1, 2026
It’s possible there has never been a more “me me me” book ever written. Chapek took every opportunity to take a dig at others and express how wonderful he is and nothing could possibly be his fault. Gross. Waste of time read.
October 2, 2026
As a fan of the Disney brand, I was anxiously awaiting this one by Mr. Chapek. So, what can I say? Just like any other scorned lover story, there's three sides to the story: Chapek's (which we get), Iger's (which we don't), and the truth, which is usually somewhere in the middle.
Chapek has NO problem telling you how great he was working for the Disney company in this memoir. In fact, he goes out of his way to highlight all of his accomplishments, some of which are MORE than embellished to make himself look like the greatest thing since sliced bread.
With that said, was he screwed by Iger as he claims he was? Probably. But you would think that after four years of reflection, he might hint at some of his own faults for the reason. Instead, we get a litany of complaints about how Iger treated him, how he was seemingly blindsided by the quickness of the move, and more.
Finally, and what I find most ironic, Chapek claims that he was all about the guest experience, cast members, and others; yet clearly what you see in most of these pages is how he was able to re-make divisions of the company and turn a larger profit for the shareholder. That, and only that, is what he was good about (by his own account). And that's the ironic part or the part that he doesn't seem to get: the one area where he failed was networking and communicating effectively with others; and he didn't do it. Sure he blames Covid; but it plays out on these pages as a cop out.
In the end, a good read; but there was a lot of chest thumping about how great of a job he did, and a lot of whining about his all too short time at the top. By all accounts from the pages in this memoir, Chapek had a lot to get off of his chest, and he had no problem doing so. If you're a Disney fan, whether you're in Chapek's camp or not, you'll enjoy this one -- and probably find yourself agreeing and disagreeing with a lot that is brought up. There are many other topics I would have loved to have seen mentioned (park increases, Lightning Lane prices, discontinuation of Magical Express as examples); but I'm guessing Chapek probably wasn't thrilled about having to bring up those topics (to his detriment).
Chapek has NO problem telling you how great he was working for the Disney company in this memoir. In fact, he goes out of his way to highlight all of his accomplishments, some of which are MORE than embellished to make himself look like the greatest thing since sliced bread.
With that said, was he screwed by Iger as he claims he was? Probably. But you would think that after four years of reflection, he might hint at some of his own faults for the reason. Instead, we get a litany of complaints about how Iger treated him, how he was seemingly blindsided by the quickness of the move, and more.
Finally, and what I find most ironic, Chapek claims that he was all about the guest experience, cast members, and others; yet clearly what you see in most of these pages is how he was able to re-make divisions of the company and turn a larger profit for the shareholder. That, and only that, is what he was good about (by his own account). And that's the ironic part or the part that he doesn't seem to get: the one area where he failed was networking and communicating effectively with others; and he didn't do it. Sure he blames Covid; but it plays out on these pages as a cop out.
In the end, a good read; but there was a lot of chest thumping about how great of a job he did, and a lot of whining about his all too short time at the top. By all accounts from the pages in this memoir, Chapek had a lot to get off of his chest, and he had no problem doing so. If you're a Disney fan, whether you're in Chapek's camp or not, you'll enjoy this one -- and probably find yourself agreeing and disagreeing with a lot that is brought up. There are many other topics I would have loved to have seen mentioned (park increases, Lightning Lane prices, discontinuation of Magical Express as examples); but I'm guessing Chapek probably wasn't thrilled about having to bring up those topics (to his detriment).
October 2, 2026
I’m a sucker for business stories and especially Disney. The book was engaging and shared a lot of background of the company. I’m being generous with my 4 star review because of those things. I don’t like the approach Bob Chapek took to go after and share what happened with Bob Iger. It does not come off well. Bob Iger is a well liked executive with minimal complaints from staff that I can tell. It all may be true but they come off as slights instead of sharing. There may have been several actions taken by Bob Iger that were unfair but more evidence should have been shared with more background or witnesses or independent reports. On another note his comment about becoming CEO of disney or he would be a failure after all the great things he did was childish. Becoming CEO of a public company is not probable let alone CEO of Disney. It is an example of challenges in life. The approach could have been I want to be CEO of Disney because I can be a great CEO and it would be a great experience but if I can’t I will be CEO of another company or top Disney executive. You push are grateful for the great opportunity you earned and were given.
September 30, 2026
The book starts slowly, and I wasn’t especially interested in Chapek’s childhood. It gets much more compelling when he describes his career at Disney, his decisions as CEO, and his increasingly strained relationship with Bob Iger.
I don’t completely buy Chapek’s self-description as a disruptor. Much of what he calls disruption sounds like a business leader making decisions to protect the company and grow profits. But that’s part of what I found interesting. Disney may inspire unusually strong affection, but it is still a corporation with shareholders and financial obligations.
This is clearly Chapek’s side of the story, so it deserves a skeptical read. Still, he gives enough detail to make me question how much room Iger really gave his successor to lead. Having read Iger’s memoir, I especially enjoyed seeing the contrast.
I don’t completely buy Chapek’s self-description as a disruptor. Much of what he calls disruption sounds like a business leader making decisions to protect the company and grow profits. But that’s part of what I found interesting. Disney may inspire unusually strong affection, but it is still a corporation with shareholders and financial obligations.
This is clearly Chapek’s side of the story, so it deserves a skeptical read. Still, he gives enough detail to make me question how much room Iger really gave his successor to lead. Having read Iger’s memoir, I especially enjoyed seeing the contrast.
October 2, 2026
Some interesting business insights at times, especially the clear prioritization of shareholders, but clouded more than the skies of wherever, IN with far too many mentions of the smokestacks of industrial Indiana as a metaphor for “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” Snore.
October 2, 2026
So bad lol
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews