Disney is inviting its theme park fans to go "Behind the Attraction" one more time.
On November 1, Disney+ will debut another season of the behind-the-scene docuseries about the company's theme parks. This six-episode second season features two of the attractions I worked back in the day at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom: Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. So I was especially excited to see a preview of the season earlier this month at Walt Disney Imagineering's headquarters in Glendale.
Director Brian Volk-Weiss returns for the second season of the show, which employs what series producer Brian Gewirtz called the "spinach and ice cream" approach of "mixing facts and knowledge with just pure fun."
"You don't even realize that you're learning something while being entertained and watching it," Gewirtz said. After the preview, Gewirtz and others involved in the production answered questions for the invited guests at WDI.
Many docuseries introduce viewers to something new, but "Behind the Attraction" instead tries to show people something fresh about destinations that millions of people already know and love.
"You could watch a great docuseries on Abraham Lincoln or Napoleon or the dinosaurs or true crime or aliens, but for the most part, people don't have that personal connection to it," Gewirtz said. "They don't have that shared experience and that personalized, visceral feeling when you're watching it, [that] unlocks all these memories that you had experiencing, as a kid or as an adult with with family."
"That was really like the magic of Season One is that everybody can take a little trip back in time... and truly connect with each episode and unlock their own personal memories."
Season Two's first episode certainly unlocked a memory for me, when it showed us backstage in the control room of Pirates of the Caribbean - a place where I spent countless hours decades ago, but have not seen since I left the company. But "Behind the Attraction" isn't just about the voyeurism of peeking backstage. Like any good documentary, it tells a story - this time, about Disney's storytellers themselves.
Disney+'s publicity photo for the Pirates control area. The show controls have changed juuuuust a bit over the years."One of the things that I love about 'Behind the Attraction' is that it's a love letter to the many generations of Imagineers, cast members, and everyone who's put into making what we do over the last almost 70 years," Jeanette Lomboy, Executive Producer, Creative Ideation, Walt Disney Imagineering, said.
"My favorite episode this season is the first episode with Pirates of the Caribbean," Lomboy said. "It's a perfect example of this love-letter mentality. We have that classic attraction expressed in many parks around the world, and yet, what Luc Mayrand and the team in Shanghai did was to elevate [that]."
The episode follows the development of Disney's Pirates franchise from its beginning in Walt's final years through to that triumphant reimagining at Shanghai Disneyland. Other episodes in this season feature Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Indiana Jones Adventure, EPCOT, The Food of Disney Parks, and Nighttime Spectaculars.
On that last one, I enjoyed a story that Disney Live Entertainment's longtime Parades and Spectaculars Executive, Steven Davison, told us at the preview. It illustrates the thoughtful point of view that allows Disney to create attractions that connect with guests in such deep ways.
"When they asked me to do my first fireworks show, I said, 'Why? I hate fireworks,'" Davison said. "At the '84 Olympics, I had to watch two hours of fireworks from around the world and I couldn't care less. So the head of entertainment at the time said, 'I don't want a firework show, I want a story in the sky.' And I said, 'Oh, I'll do that.'
"Because that's a whole new way to think about it. I looked at fireworks and said, 'Oh, they're actors. You're scary. You're funny. You're beautiful.' And we did a whole new approach to it."
The result, "Believe... There's Magic in the Stars" set a new standard for Disney nighttime entertainment. Ultimately, it's that drive to take what Disney established in the mid-20th century and improve upon it that pushes the narrative in "Behind the Attraction."
"If you remember where you came from, I think it's really easy to dream about the future make that a reality," Lomboy said. Despite all the tools and technology now available to Imagineers and other attraction designers, "at the heart, if you don't have the story, and you don't believe in making the impossible possible, then you don't really have a Disney theme park."
Disney+ subscribers can watch all six new episodes of "Behind the Attraction" starting November 1.
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Just love this series, can't wait to see the episodes on Big Thunder and Pirates.
Amazing lol
Just more cheap filler junk for Disney+. Wonder why they are losing subscribers.
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Love it. I only wish the episodes were longer and had more detailed facts. But I'll take what I can get.