Behind the Attraction

I'm NOT the correct demographics for this type of content (and from the reading the reviews seems like it's not great for hardcore fans either). I've always been anti-Disney. I think the happiest place on earth should be your home. However, I understand that's a privilege that not many have access to. Walt Disney's intention was to create a place for happiness for the masses.

I'm a huge fan of behind the scenes content. 6-7 episodes in, I'm fascinated by the ingenuity and engineering Disney and crew have been able to accomplish through out the years when access to such "tech" was not viable. I learned interesting facts and tidbits about Disney that I would otherwise have not pursued on my own.

Does the series feel like propaganda, YES. Does the series get super deep into the weeds, no, but for someone that isn't super interested in the Disney "world", this series has been great for me. The series has provided me a view into understanding why Disney has such a huge fan base.

Will I become a Disney fan, no. But I can appreciate what it's done for humanity (good or bad).

This is Disney Plus' Toys/Movies that Made Us which if you haven't already please watch both of those series they're great. This series focuses on the behind the scenes of the Disney rides and resorts showing how much it took to make the magical experiences come to life; which as a Disney fan I always love to peak behind the curtain. When I was watching I couldn't help but smile at everything they were showing me which is great but they don't really dive into the greater details of the development. There's a review here by nrshoeter that says "This is very good, but the light hearted presentation style lacks depth and detail at times." which I agree with the light hearted presentation and not covering the troubles and hardships of creating the individual attractions. An example being the development of Disneyland Paris's Space Mountain and the Disney company needing it to secede due to the French not attending the park leading to the resort's HUGE debt. Also it would've been fun if they poked fun at themselves some to show more humanity but that's just a personal wish. The main complaint I had with them skipping on the larger details is rectified in 2019's "The Imagineering Story" witch explores the vast history of the people who made the Disney ride which I would recommend watching before this; but that's a problem, what if someone doesn't want to watch that and just watch this you're going to miss out on some of the greater context and hardship that made these attractions. But all in all this is a fun watch I would recommend for everyone who likes Disney.

And here I was, thinking this would be more in the lines of "The Imagineering Story". Spoiler alert: it is not.

Who ever gave a thumbs up at Disney for these series? There is so much wrong with it. The first episode is just an elongated "Jungle Cruise"-the movie trailer, and somehow it does not catch my attention during any of the episodes.

The different episodes try to talk about what is behind the attraction, but just at the moments when you think "ooh, that is interesting, tell me more", they slap you in the face with a dumb joke and they move on to the next subject. It is horrifying to see such interesting documentary material be degraded by the company who thought of the brilliant attractions this series is about.

What a shame.

I was so excited to see a Disney+ documentary series specific to some of my favourite attractions after really enjoying imagineering last year. Sadly, this couldn't be more of a disappointment. The narration style is utterly horrendous even chipping in with silly single words to quickly chain together heavily cut interviews, stupid one liner dad jokes and 'witty' quips and comments at every opportunity. It seemed like the whole thing was sped up to 1.5x speed for no reason.

Painful to watch and such a shame. When you get to hear the imagineers talk it is interesting but I couldn't get past the annoying style and turned it off after only watching a few of the episodes. A wasted opportunity, I hope they make more in the future but aimed at an adult audience.

All the information here is fascinating. But it speeds through it with a very annoying narrator who gave me a headache. Slow down this isn't a mishmash of tik tok videos. We are genuinely interested in the information and want to hear the imagineers talk about it without a narrator talking over them and cutting them off for unfunny useless comments. The editor on this project should not have another editing job period.