Behind the Attraction (2021– ) User Reviews

About time...but could be better

[nrshorter · 8/10 · 22 July 2021]

After the excellent Imagineering Story, Disney Plus was crying out for a series on all the attractions.

This is very good, but the light hearted presentation style lacks depth and detail at times. Its very much a copy of Movies That Made Us on Netflix in terms of style.

Disney parks fans love details, give the audience what they want.

I've always been Anti-Disney, but I really enjoying this series.

[me-12308 · 8/10 · 17 November 2023]

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).

A very funny thrill-ride!

[freekverzijl · 9/10 · 12 January 2022]

If you like the Netflix series "The Movies that made Us" you will love this series "Behind the Attraction". It's good fun and informative at the same time. Paget Brewster is doing a hell of job with her witty and very funny narration. Do yourself a favor and don't pay any attention to the sour reviews of humorless people and enjoy this treat of a series!

Absolutely fantastic!

[bgbqsd · 10/10 · 26 August 2021]

This show captures the history in such an amazing and fun way! I highly recommend this to anyone!

FINALLY

[Tramdog · 10/10 · 22 July 2021]

This is exactly what we all have been waiting for, name being an extreme Disney fanatic, I've been waiting for a show that delves deep into behind the scenes.

EXACTLY WHAT WE WANTED!

[matthewrivera-69637 · 9/10 · 21 July 2021]

Disney Parks are severely under represented on Disney+ and this series is absolutely perfect!

In the same spirit of Disneyland (all parks really), I hope this never ends as the parks continue to grow and add on!

Wow, just wow

[jascraig · 10/10 · 22 July 2021]

I went to Walt Disney World first in 1976 at 7 years old. I fell in love with it. I went a couple more times with my parents. I hired on as a food associate in 1990 at the MGM studios. I've ridden each of the rides from this series. I have tried to research the history of these rides. I never found a better source of information than this. Kudos for Dwayne Johnson producing this. I'm a fan!

This is a fun watch

[Wookie_Wookie · 6/10 · 23 July 2021]

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.

Bring back all my memories

[MK_Movie_Reviews · 7/10 · 23 August 2021]

I have so many great memory about Tokyo Disneyland, when I was a little girl my parents take us to Tokyo Disneyland. My brother and I were having so much fun there and everything I've experienced there is my treasure.

I have so many pictures from age 6 to 18. As I get older, I'm getting lost interesting in Disney, but recently I'd like to love Disney again. Thanks to Disney Plus.

Incredible missed opportunity on Disney+

[jacobfuller-03631 · 2/10 · 23 July 2021]

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.

Missed the mark

[daniel-hope-97863 · 4/10 · 29 July 2021]

After nailing The Imagineering Story, I was extremely excited to hear that Behind the Attraction was coming out! I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to learn even more than we as the general public had no idea about & see archive footage of the construction of the rides.

Instead, we received a very fast paced (almost TikTok style) video with even fewer facts than many of the amazing YouTubers have told us. It felt aimed at teenagers, but also, not gripping enough to keep their attention.

It was a shame as I feel the style & pacing of Imagineering Story was so perfect & this could have been a beautiful continuation of that, but you it just feels like you've ridden Mission Space for 45 minutes straight!

Is this aimed at children?

[laurazeman · 3/10 · 27 July 2021]

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.

No depth, just one big commercial with horrible jokes

[NiekNiek · 3/10 · 27 July 2021]

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.

Disappointing

[King2017 · 2/10 · 25 July 2021]

The Imagineer Story that debuted last year was an amazing documentary with expansive detail - this is the opposite of that. As a fan of the Disney parks I was looking forward to this series, but the harsh narration, quick cuts and limited detail make it impossible to watch. The episodes feel as if they were developed for children. Appreciate the interviews with Imagineers, but hope Disney corrects tone, narration and editing style for any future iterations. A completely missed opportunity.

Excellent informercial disappointing documentary

[otto_tieleman · 2/10 · 22 July 2021]

I am a huge fan of the original Walt Disney Imagineering and I have the books to proof it. Because of that I was looking forward to the first episode about The Jungle Cruise and boy did it disappoint. The whole form is so badly written and lacks any depth it's amazing a company as Disney would approve it. The jokes are even worse than on the original ride and the whole "make it bubbly and fun" sauce that is dripping over the end product takes away the hart and passion the people who worked on it.

It wouldn't be a Disney product if it didn't had cross promotion shoved in it and so the upcoming Jungle Cruise movie is slapped in there taking even more away from the quality of the documentary.

Nothing You Can't Read on Wikipedia

[LoveStallion · 4/10 · 9 August 2021]

I'm mixed on this new series. I love learning about the history of Disney parks and attractions. As many others have noted, last year's "The Imagineering Story" was an absolute home run, a true documentary rich in detail and context.

"Behind the Attraction," on the other hand, is confusing. It just zips along with odd structure and jokes, and spends very little time treating the subject as something worthy of legitimate examination. As I say in my headline, you can just read the Wikipedia entry in each ride and learn just as much, if not more.

We don't get to go behind the scenes in 2021 to see how the attractions run. Heck, you can see more behind the scenes of the Haunted Mansion on YouTube. For a show trying to give us the definitive story of classic attractions and even "spoiling" some of their magic, this one seems to have little interest in truly letting us get to know an attraction.

It's still a mostly fun show, but this feels like a missed opportunity. I have to imagine Paget Brewster kicking herself over some of the narration she had to record.

And of course the episode focusing on the Jungle Cruise devoted time to promoting the movie.

Wasted potential.

[tonypiece · 3/10 · 2 September 2021]

Paget Brewster may have been the worst choice to hire as the narrator of this series. I say may have been because the actual worst choice was to employ the writer who penned her narration. The editing is awful as well. The scenes just jump with no flow at all. I want to love this series so much because I love these rides, but the episodes I have watched play out more like a director with ADD creating an interpretation of a fever dream about Disney rides. It's incredibly exhausting to make it through a single episode let alone binging a few in a row. For a concept with so much potential it was completely squandered to present this debacle now available on Disney+.

Confused about its target audience

[creechuur-36487 · 3/10 · 4 September 2021]

The subject matter is for Disney/theme park nerds, but the narration and fast pace of the show makes it seem geared towards kids (or the TikTok crowd as others have said). There are some YouTube channels with far better content.

No soul

[hellholehorror · 3/10 · 12 November 2021]

I really like theme parks, especially haunted houses. I also like understanding how things work. Sadly this show has nothing to make it worth watching. There are many far better documentaries on these attractions on YouTube. The show is all flash with little actual content, it's incredibly shallow. It is incredibly corporate with no soul or real opinion. The history they tell is selective and doesn't give any context. In terms of horror, look at the ear piercing! On the positive side there is some really interesting historical footage and shots from the Disney vault that you don't see elsewhere. The most annoying thing is the narrator and the style of the editing, it's often painful and disjointed to watch. The contributors can't say two words without being interrupted by the narrator or another contributor.

Worst Narrator Ever

[jamesfcall · 1/10 · 18 August 2021]

I couldn't watch this show for more than 10 minutes bc her voice is so annoying and all her jokes fall flat due to horrible delivery.

Nothing new.

[bpeter-01444 · 1/10 · 10 August 2021]

This is good if you have never watched any you tubers in the last decade. They do a better job talking about the rides than Disney does. You are hoping to see how the rides work and get a closer look but you don't. You just get history that any big Disney park Dan already knows. Isn't that what this was for? Nothing new... just watch YouTube instead.

How to miss an open goal...spectacularly.

[jay-70656 · 2/10 · 12 October 2023]

I was so excited when I found out about this series. Disney showing you behind the scenes of its biggest attractions and interviewing the imagineers behind them? Without having to travel to Florida and purchase a Keys to the Kingdom tour pass? I'm there!

Sadly, this show is just TERRIBLY put together. For some bizarre reason the whole episode feels like it is being played back at 2x speed, with the imagineers banned from saying more than 4 words at a time without the annoying narrator chipping in, all interspersed with 'wacky' camera angles and effects.

Hey kids, do you love TikTok? Do you have a 4 word attention span? Do you want to see some imagineers but not really hear what they have to say? Do you want to see 3 hours of info badly presented in 30 minutes? Well have at it!

Meanwhile, Disney execs are sat in a boardroom wondering why Disney+ is haemorrhaging money - if they saw this, they'd know.

Reality TV style vo ruins it

[gregfreegrove · 4/10 · 17 October 2021]

Some ok moments but the awful American reality TV style voice-over and editing ruin it. I'm not sure why TV companies continue with the incredibly irritating Kardashian style reality nonsense but it made this series very difficult to watch. A straightforward documentary would have been far more interesting.

For the YouTube generation.

[mikecoopey · 1/10 · 15 August 2021]

I tried to resist being one of those '1 star' reviewers, but this series is simply unwatchable. It could have been exceptional. I can only imagine how much rich experience, footage and trivia they could've uncovered for a wonderful series such as this, but they went down the over-stylised quirky YouTube snappy snappy smug narrative route. Both zippy narrator and zippy editing had me grasping for the off switch almost immediately. How can that possibly work for 45 mins..?? It's an insult to the creative legacy of the Disney brand and an absolute waste of such a great opportunity. Thanks YouTube generation, but no thanks. Such a shame.

Exhausting.

[edelapp112 · 3/10 · 10 September 2021]

I feel like there's some decent info in here, but after trudging through 20 minutes of the first episode, I finally gave up. I'll punctuate this by stating that I'm a diehard Disney fan, obsessed with basically any Disney documentary, and this was exhausting the keep up with. Imagineering Story was an absolute masterpiece, in fact I think I've watched it 3 times now. This however, is a mish-mash of dad jokes and quick edits, in an obvious attempt to recreate the feel of YouTube and TikTok videos. It unfortunately doesn't even capture that. I walked away feeling overwhelmingly annoyed with Padget Brewster's narration.