daliseurat
Member
OT Disneyland Imagineering the Magic DVD review
I finally got my copy of this. On the website, Disney said it would be shipped in 10 days. It took 20 days, but I guess 10 until it shipped and 10 more for shipping...
So, for anyone who's interested, here's my thoughts.
It is not an in depth, secrets revealed DVD that will give you new stories you've never heard. It doesn't really have any footage you may never have seen. It is not the DVD that was seemingly promised. It is a DVD for the casual Disneyland guest who doesn't really know much about the park.
What it is is a mildly entertaining look at Disneyland with various imagineers giving you some stories and history. Nothing new or groundbreaking. Marty Sklar, Tony Baxter Kevin Rafferty and a couple others tell entertaining stories you've probably heard. But, It's always fun to hear them tell these stories.
Now what is truly TERRIBLE about this DVD (or set of 2) is that it production value is horrible. The DVD is shot with WIDESCREEN. All of the old footage, and the stock footage, as well as many still photos are squashed into the widescreen frame making everyone look short and fat. This is distracting enough to stop watching. And this is happening for MOST of the 1 hour documentary. Also, the resolution seems vary bad. Some of the footage we've all seen somewhere else in much better condition. They also used NEW music instead of Disney music. While this was a contractual thing, according to the discs producer, I'm sure the contract didn't state that the new music should be TERRIBLE.
The second disc has 5 features.
The first is IMAGINEERING DCA. It's more of the same stuff from disc one, except it's DCA. Boring.
The second is WHAT IS IMAGINEERING? Sounds pretty good, but they sum it up in a sentence or two and don't really give us anything to ponder. A missed opportunity.
The third is Mickey's Trivia tour. Awful. It's another of those badly done quiz games. And the answers are shown as clips from the documentary. Lame, Lame, Lame.
The fourth is IMAGINEERING NEW ATTRACTIONS. This is a little better, because you get to hear some excitement from Tony Baxter about FINDING NEMO subs. And some rationalization about turning TOM SAWYERS ISLAND into PIRATES LAIR. Nothing new or exciting. On second thought, this was bad as well.
The last is IMAGINEERS ON IMAGINEERING. Mostly they reflect on their first time at Disneyland and how much they love being an Imagineer. No insights. Another wasted opportunity.
This set is 2 discs. Disc one is the one hour documentary with the wrong aspect ratio footage, and Disc two has the five features that are about 30 minutes in total. Why all of this isn't on one disc, I couldn't tell you.
It's nowhere as good as the DISNEYLAND : SECRETS, STORIES AND MAGIC Documentary. And I felt that one was maybe a C+ at best.
As a theme park souvenir it would be okay if they hadn't messed up the aspect ratio of all the older footage. But it falls far short of it's concept and even further from what any fan would want.
The producer, MARK RHODES actually responded to criticism on MICE CHAT. He was surprisingly candid and admitted that he had made several mistakes (including his decision to squash the old footage into the widescreen aspect ratio) and asked for suggestions to make it better. While I applaud his honesty, all he really is saying is that he had a good idea and then had no idea how to actually pull it off in a way that was any good. He made many bad decisions, and was clearly only doing what Disney marketing department demanded. I would hope that if he does get another opportunity, he does really listen to the criticism and produce something that is worth watching.
Bottom line, most Disney fans will be disappointed with this. Nothing new. However, if you are a completist, or really want to hear the imagineers talking about Disneyland without telling you anything new, see if you can borrow a copy before spending your money.
I finally got my copy of this. On the website, Disney said it would be shipped in 10 days. It took 20 days, but I guess 10 until it shipped and 10 more for shipping...
So, for anyone who's interested, here's my thoughts.
It is not an in depth, secrets revealed DVD that will give you new stories you've never heard. It doesn't really have any footage you may never have seen. It is not the DVD that was seemingly promised. It is a DVD for the casual Disneyland guest who doesn't really know much about the park.
What it is is a mildly entertaining look at Disneyland with various imagineers giving you some stories and history. Nothing new or groundbreaking. Marty Sklar, Tony Baxter Kevin Rafferty and a couple others tell entertaining stories you've probably heard. But, It's always fun to hear them tell these stories.
Now what is truly TERRIBLE about this DVD (or set of 2) is that it production value is horrible. The DVD is shot with WIDESCREEN. All of the old footage, and the stock footage, as well as many still photos are squashed into the widescreen frame making everyone look short and fat. This is distracting enough to stop watching. And this is happening for MOST of the 1 hour documentary. Also, the resolution seems vary bad. Some of the footage we've all seen somewhere else in much better condition. They also used NEW music instead of Disney music. While this was a contractual thing, according to the discs producer, I'm sure the contract didn't state that the new music should be TERRIBLE.
The second disc has 5 features.
The first is IMAGINEERING DCA. It's more of the same stuff from disc one, except it's DCA. Boring.
The second is WHAT IS IMAGINEERING? Sounds pretty good, but they sum it up in a sentence or two and don't really give us anything to ponder. A missed opportunity.
The third is Mickey's Trivia tour. Awful. It's another of those badly done quiz games. And the answers are shown as clips from the documentary. Lame, Lame, Lame.
The fourth is IMAGINEERING NEW ATTRACTIONS. This is a little better, because you get to hear some excitement from Tony Baxter about FINDING NEMO subs. And some rationalization about turning TOM SAWYERS ISLAND into PIRATES LAIR. Nothing new or exciting. On second thought, this was bad as well.
The last is IMAGINEERS ON IMAGINEERING. Mostly they reflect on their first time at Disneyland and how much they love being an Imagineer. No insights. Another wasted opportunity.
This set is 2 discs. Disc one is the one hour documentary with the wrong aspect ratio footage, and Disc two has the five features that are about 30 minutes in total. Why all of this isn't on one disc, I couldn't tell you.
It's nowhere as good as the DISNEYLAND : SECRETS, STORIES AND MAGIC Documentary. And I felt that one was maybe a C+ at best.
As a theme park souvenir it would be okay if they hadn't messed up the aspect ratio of all the older footage. But it falls far short of it's concept and even further from what any fan would want.
The producer, MARK RHODES actually responded to criticism on MICE CHAT. He was surprisingly candid and admitted that he had made several mistakes (including his decision to squash the old footage into the widescreen aspect ratio) and asked for suggestions to make it better. While I applaud his honesty, all he really is saying is that he had a good idea and then had no idea how to actually pull it off in a way that was any good. He made many bad decisions, and was clearly only doing what Disney marketing department demanded. I would hope that if he does get another opportunity, he does really listen to the criticism and produce something that is worth watching.
Bottom line, most Disney fans will be disappointed with this. Nothing new. However, if you are a completist, or really want to hear the imagineers talking about Disneyland without telling you anything new, see if you can borrow a copy before spending your money.
No. No that's not ever gonna happen.