DISNEYLAND: SECRETS, STORIES, AND MAGIC

From CHUD,

The Nutshell

Disneyland: Secrets, Stories, and Magic is a detailed, multi-faceted look at Walt Disney's Disneyland Theme park, featuring an 80-minute documentary narrated by Leonard Maltin and Julie Andrews. This "flagship documentary" takes a look back at the design and implementation of the California park, including interviews from engineers and Disney staffers who helped open Disneyland in 1955. It includes a behind-the-scenes look at daily operations of the park, a look at "The Disneyland that never was", and a dramatic account of the park's problematic beginnings.

Other features include a duo of "Disney's Wonderful World of Color" featurettes about the park, a brain-smashingly difficult Trivia Game, a recording of the live TV feed of the behind-the-scenes opening of the park, and a showing of Disneyland's popular "Golden Horseshoe Revue."

The Lowdown

Here's the immediate lowdown for Disneyland: Secrets, Stories, and Magic (Henceforth referred to as Magic so as not to take up an entire line of text each time I type it): If you've been to the Disney theme parks and enjoy them, you'll probably like this DVD. If not, you'll be bored to tears, since Magic relies so heavily on its viewers' pre-installed love for the Disney parks.

Watching Magic is a little like stumbling across an old box in the attic of your childhood home. The box is filled with pictures, knick-knacks, the occasional dead roach, pamphlets, and other various items collected from your childhood. If you're a sentimental or reminiscent type, you've just hit a bonanza, but many of us might be bored by these relics and move on to the real reason we were in our parents' attic in the first place: finding your hidden childhood stash of nudie magazines. Parenthetically, I never did anything like that as a child.


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