Disney Facts Revealed: Answers to Fans’ Curious Questions

by Dave Smith, Al Giuliani (Illustrations)

Dave Smith, the retired Chief Archivist of The Walt Disney Company, has continued his "Ask Dave" column through the D23 website. In recent years, questions have gotten more interesting and difficult for Dave to answer, as the more common answers can now be found online. Now with another critical mass of about 1,100 new Disney trivia Q&A, Dave is ready to assemble his second volume, Disney Facts Revealed. Divided into chapters covering a specific aspect of Disney history-including Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney films, Disney television, Disney characters, Disney collectibles, and more-many of the questions lead Dave to fascinating information that has not been published elsewhere.

Genres: Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published May 3, 2016

About the author

Dave Smith was the founder and chief archivist at the Walt Disney Archives, which is located at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Very interesting book. Recommend for Disney fans.

[Amanda [Novel Addiction] · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've heard Dave Smith is the go-to guy for Disney facts and trivia, and no wonder, since he's the head of the Disney Archives (talk about a dream job!). This was a fun read, and Dave is a good story teller, which is obvious even in these short answer snippets. So I'll gladly be checking out more by him.

[Nicholas Ball · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and sometimes obscure collection of Disney minutiae; I also found the sometimes rambling nature of question phrasing and tetchy responses a novelty. Apart from subject chapters (Disney world, characters, Walt's personal life) there's no searchable index or way to quickly find a certain topic (e.g. Cinderella)

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my 1000th book on Goodreads. In this non fiction book, Disney historian takes to answering difficult questions from Disney fans about various topics such as movies, characters, the theme parks and more. Some of the questions are definitely more interesting to some than the others. The book was a quick flip but I learned a little bit about certain characters and some of the theme park attractions. I wish that some of the questions would have been just a smidge longer because I would have liked more depth from this very knowledgeable man!

[Hudson Christmas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here's the thing. I don't think I understood what this book was before reading it. Dave Smith is a Disney Expert who was significantly involved in the Disney Archives. He hosted a question answering column, answering hundreds of questions from Disney fans about every type of subject. This book is a collection of a lot of his questions. I came into it thinking that it would be a list of various trivia and secrets about the parks. However, it is a lot of Q&As regarding everything Disney (and I mean everything). It is impressive to see Dave Smith's extensive Disney knowledge, but I found myself a bit bored. However, I did learn a lot of random Disney trivia. If you're a fan of Dave Smith, I'm sure you will love this, I was a little bored.

[Terry Collins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun, but scatter-shot and random with no efforts to provide any connecting tissue. Basically fan questions about Disney with brief and breezy answers.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a little Disney Q&A and this book is just amazing, it’s so many questions that I would never think to ask about but now have gotten the answer to!

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is basically a collection of questions and answers regarding all things Disney. The author is the Chief Archivist of the Walt Disney Archives and questions are divided into twelve chapters: Animated Features, Animated Shorts, Disneyland, Live-Action Films, Merchandise and Collectables, Miscellaneous, Music, Publications, Television, Walt Disney, Walt Disney Imagineering and Walt Disney World. This is a book that is of interest to the adult Disney fan, although children might be interested in some of the facts.

[Dan Stern · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't a book that you're going to read cover-to-cover, although I did. It's really meant for the Disney fan that wants to spend a few minutes reading up on different Disney trivia questions and learning a lot about the Disney Company in smaller, bite-sized chunks. That being said, it's still fun to sit down and think about the questions before reading Dave's responses. Sometimes you know the answer and sometimes, you might be surprised.

There's no index to the book and, frankly, it would be impossible. But Dave has broken the book into 12 major chapters. The chapters do vary in length (like the chapter on movies is much longer than the one for Disney Imagineers), but there are plenty of questions and answers to keep the Disney Nerd satisfied.


This really is a hard book to classify, but it's one that most casual Disney fans are going to enjoy. Especially fans of Walt Disney World that might not be as familiar with the film or television aspects of the company.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for any Disney history buff. Dave Smith shares trivia about everything from Disneyland to Imagineering.

[Tiffany Hurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun factoid book about random Disney knowledge. An interesting read for a Disney fan.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book for Disney fans. Written in Q&A form, it covers the Parks, the Movies, the Music, Walt's life and much more. Thought I would just skim through but ended up reading almost all of it.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was fairly excited by the premise, but disappointed in the execution. While the author clearly has a wealth of knowledge and access to information about Disney, some of the questions chosen for this book are so inane they don't warrant any answers. Particularly ones that come from later versions of the newsletter this book is based on, as many are EASILY answered by a quick Google search. I would have preferred Dave Smith just pick and choose his own facts and stories, in the style of other Disney authors such as Jim Korkis.