Originally Posted By ecdc I won't get my copy until Christmas but I'm anxious to know what people thought of the long-delayed Treasures set, Disneyland: Secrets, Stories, and Magic. Is it good? Does it please even the most diehard fans? Let's hear those reviews!
Originally Posted By pecos bill I have watched my copy over the last couple nights, and I am mostly impressed. I thought that the actual secrets,stories and magic segment was a little boring for your more learned Disneyland admirers. You know, the usual collection of Imagineers reminiscing about how the different things came together, with the same old anecdotes,"When they filled the Rivers Of America, the water disappeared into the sandy soil!" we have read many times before. The Disneyland USA segment was great in what appears to be a restored widescreen Cinemascope presentation. Disk two is a compilation of three broadcast episodes of Wonderful World Of Color, and two segments dug out of the vaults. They have an old grainy black and white about the television crews setting up for opening day called, Operation Disneyland. Then there is a 1962 broadcast of the 2000th show at The Golden Horseshoe. That is followed by Disneyland Goes To The World's Fair, from 1964. Then there is Disneyland Around The Seasons, from 1966. Lastly as a bonus, they have a pretty nice selection of speeded filming of construction in different sections of the park. This is nice footage, most of which has not been seen by the public. I think overall, that purchasing this set is money well spent, and now I can toss out a few of those VHS tapes from the old Vault Disney series.
Originally Posted By cheesybaby The first half or so of the Secrets, Stories, and Magic documentary is excellent. A lot of stuff you've heard before, sure, but great footage that I had never seen before. I thought this part was magic, and was very much fitting for the Treasures series. But then when Walt dies, it's as if the documentary makers don't know what to do, or they just miscalculated, and it morphs into a very corporate-feeling PR film where it had not before. The historical stuff just stops in 1966 - no Tomorrowland 67, no NOS apartment, no Club 33 - these aren't even mentioned. The whole tone just gets very generic suddenly, and the specific bits that are talked about (Museum of the Weird) are just random anecdotes that don't add up to much, as if they had the footage so they just threw it in regardless of context. I am not a rabid Jay Rasulo-hater, but in the second half we start seeing more of Tom Fitzgerald and Jay Rasulo, and for the first time the word "relevant" is used. And it is used again. And again. And it gets annoying. It stopped feeling like a historical documentary that belonged on the Treasures series and started feeling like a casual, corporate Travel Channel special (not that there's anything wrong with those). The second half is still good, but just... different and a little soulless. And then they cut back to Julie Andrews to close, and we get more images fitting of the first half and it just felt... odd. The tones of each half were very different, at least for me. One highlight: at one point Tony Baxter takes a slip of paper out of his pocket that will leave hard-core Disney geeks utterly blissful. Nice surprise. The only other piece I've seen so far is the Disneyland USA segment from 1956, which is astonishing. The Frontierland section in particular... you are there, touring 1956 Disneyland. Just amazing.
Originally Posted By DAR <<The first half or so of the Secrets, Stories, and Magic documentary is excellent. A lot of stuff you've heard before, sure, but great footage that I had never seen before. I thought this part was magic, and was very much fitting for the Treasures series. But then when Walt dies, it's as if the documentary makers don't know what to do, or they just miscalculated, and it morphs into a very corporate-feeling PR film where it had not before>> That sums up my feelings exactly. The disc is at it's best when it covers the history of the park. Though I will say I found a lot of it interesting. Even though I've heard some of these stories, I've never been to Disneyland so it does come across as interesting to me. But I can't wait view the rest of the disc, I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy that immenseley.
Originally Posted By pecos bill One sidenote, on viewing the "Disneyland Goes To The World's Fair", and Disneyland Through The Seasons" episodes, both have narrated run throughs of "Its A Small World". One is at the World's Fair, and the other is at the opening at Disneyland. For me, that is a lot of Small World, and I really think we would have been better served had they also dished up "Gala Day At Disneyland" which had the openings of Matterhorn, Submarines, and Monorail all in one episode.
Originally Posted By ecdc Thanks for the thoughts! I'm almost more anxious for some of the extras - I've never seen the Golden Horseshoe Revue, being relatively new to Disneyland fandom. I've loved listening to it on the Musical History CDs. Same goes for Carousel of Progress and it looks like there's a glimpse of that on the World's Fair broadcast.
Originally Posted By BlueDevilSF I've watched the first disc so far and have rather enjoyed it, but I echo some of the opinions already expressed here about the unevenness of the main feature. There was far too much footage culled from marketing and promotional materials that has been seen so many times. On a different note, does anyone have a problem with the first disc in their sets? During the main feature, about 10 minutes into the program, the picture pixellates on Roy Disney's portrait. It's definitely a disc glitch as there is nothing on the surface that would cause it. I'd hate to have to try to exchange this, as the place where I got it has been out of stock virtually since last week.
Originally Posted By Daannzzz I agree about the main feature. It could have been a lot longer and a bit more focused. At one point you can hear Bruce Gordon's voice trail off as they fade out!!!! The People and Places feature is incredible. The opening helicopter shot of Disneyland is worth the money I paid for all the imagineering and Disneyland books combined. This is an awesome piece that give a fairly detailed look at the park at that particular time period. You can even see visual intrusion from outside and the place looks like the living desert in many spots!!! I have yet to watch it with the commentary or the 2nd disc.
Originally Posted By BlueDevilSF I just got done watching the 2nd disc. Apart from a significant amount of carryover from the World's Fair special to the Seasons special, there is some very good material here. I can see myself pulling this out every so often to watch. By the way, the problem I described with disc 1 appears not to be limited to my copy. Others are reporting the same thing.
Originally Posted By gadzuux After reading the thread, I went out to pick up a copy. No stock at 'borders' or 'barnes and noble'. I decided to venture down to the disney store at union square on the weekend before christmas. It was as bad as I expected. And they didn't have it. I went next door to another 'borders' - they didn't have it either. I finally went to the 'virgin megastore' on market street. They had it, (and one other copy), but it was buried on what they call a "crash cart" that's like a library pushcart on wheels. It took three employees ten minutes to find it. I feel lucky that I got one ($32.99). I've been watching it over the past couple of nights with a friend, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly - he isn't. You really have to love DL to understand the charms of these discs. And I agree that the main doc has an abrupt shift in tone 'after walt'. Brief mentions are made of 'gala day' and blink-and-you'll-miss-it shots of the 'party gras' parade, but I would have liked much more. I was chafing in my chair while rasulo talked about the "relevance" and contemporary appeal of 'star tours' - without a hint of irony that it's been sitting there for over twenty years and references a pop-culture movie from 1977. Some "tomorrowland", huh. An interesting quote from tony baxter - that after the demise of the old skyway buckets, he thinks they still need to get the guests elevated over the park for views. Since he's still calling shots in the park - and TL specifically - I wonder if he's got something up his sleeve? And as said in earlier posts, I just gawk flap-jawed at all the helicopter shots over the various areas of the park. This is the sort of thing that I eat up with a spoon, but non-disney dweebs just don't get it. So how much you enjoy this disc set is directly proportional to how afflicted you happen to be with the DL "bug".
Originally Posted By brotherdave I guess I was very lucky finding mine. Sam's Club - $21.99 each!!! And no problem finding them, either. I guess that it helps living in a smaller city far away from Disneyland sometimes!!!
Originally Posted By ecdc I've really, really enjoyed this set. I echo what others say about the main feature - after Walt dies (and there's some really wonderful comments about the day he passed away), the documentary shifts entirely from a chronological narrative of the park's history to a sort of topical/promo feel. Don't plan on hearing about the development of attractions in the 70s, like Big Thunder or Space Mountain. There's almost nothing on Indy, either. It's sort of a ragtag effort to showcase the newest things or the those with name brand attraction (Star Tours) to get people in the park. One quick thing, if anyone is still following this thread: I was shocked when I popped in the DVD and found out the main feature is filmed in widescreen but isn't anamorphic. Is my disc defective or is this correct? (For those who have no clue what I'm talking about, anamorphic enhanced DVD's will "unsqueeze" an image onto a widescreen TV.) As it is right now, I have to use the zoom button on my remote to fit the picture to the screen, and it naturally loses a lot of resolution. I also echo the comments about the helicopter shots in the Disneyland USA segment. That's actually better than the main documentary and definitely worth the price of the set, IMO. My kids have also had a blast with the trivia section, even if it wears on me after a while As much as I love Disney and am a huge fan, I sometimes tire of the seemingly endless need they have at self-promotion. This documentary could have been a really superb look at the park that appealed to both diehard fans and newcomers alike. Sure, it's mildly interesting and entertaining; it's not a complete disaster. But for once I'd like to see Disney produce a scholarly piece of work on the park that's just aimed at educating, and not selling tickets.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I was shocked when I popped in the DVD and found out the main feature is filmed in widescreen but isn't anamorphic. Is my disc defective or is this correct?<< Only partly. Some of the footage is, in fact, fullscreen 4x3. This is just where we're at now in TV production. When you have footage in both formats, you just have to pick which TVs are going to get a small image in a black frame. Considering this video was originally produced for release a couple years ago, it was reasonable to format it for optimum viewing on 4x3 screens. Now, maybe not so much. And I certainly prefer them doing it this way to doing a 16x9 crop-and-zoom on the 4x3 stuff, which I HATE. I'm going to guess that the interviews were shot 16x9 so they can be used in future 16x9 productions, and not to drive us crazy. That's pretty common practice nowadays. (Disclaimer - I only spot-checked this DVD during a break at work to see if the letterbox report was true. I haven't actually watched it yet. So if they did something stupid like miswiring the component cables again or forgetting to include sound, I'll be along to whine about it later.)
Originally Posted By Inspector 57 I agree with everyone about the main feature: it contains nice footage; is unfocused; and in the second half is filled with far too many meaningless generalities spoken by corporate guys. It really feels as though it was cobbled together without a specific goal or audience in mind. While I haven't yet watched much of rest of Disc 1 or Disc 2, there already seems to be a lot of footage that I just saw in the main feature. Oh, well. I guess I can consider that feature to have been a teaser. I think the graphics on the titles are poorly done. The fonts and the lack of contrast to the backgrounds make them very hard for me to read. I'm not sure if this is related to the earlier pixellation question, but aspects of the background in the Leonard Maltin sequences "vibrate" in my system. You know, the way that a shirt with thin alternating stripes of black and white appear to "vibrate." Actually, there's a shirt and a jacket (two different guys) that do that on my set, as well as the Maltin scenes looking weird. Got it for $24.99 from disneyshopping.com -- no shipping fee. I'm very glad to own it. Despite its shortcomings, I think it's a good value.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< I think the graphics on the titles are poorly done. The fonts and the lack of contrast to the backgrounds make them very hard for me to read. >>> Maybe you're just getting old.
Originally Posted By mawnck I'll pretend I didn't just read that. Yes, there is some "vibration", and it's not really a defect. It's a typical problem with standard definition video. It's caused by, to give an example, trying to reproduce 300 individual stripes with only 200 lines of pixels. Converting from high definition to standard definition (especially *letterboxed* standard definition) can make the problem worse due to pixel misalignment, and I suspect that's happened here as well. I can also confirm the hits in the video on the Roy Disney photo. That's not a disc defect - it's from earlier in the production process, and is yet another one of those things that any production house worth a toot should have caught about 10 times, and would have been unimaginably simple to fix. (I haven't even put Donald in the player yet. I wonder what's wrong with it?)
Originally Posted By Pirate Mickey There has to be a lot of Disneyland fans out there and they only made 50,000 copies? What gives? Is it sold out everywhere? Costco and Sam's here are all sold out. Can we write to Disney and tell them to make more? I don't want to buy one for $100 on ebay.
Originally Posted By SuperDry I found one at Fry's last week. I wasn't even looking for it, but it was sitting on the New Releases shelf, and said "SuperDry, buy me!" as I walked by.
