Disneyland U.S.A. was one of the initial releases of the Walt Disney Treasures DVD series back in 2001. The two-disc set contained "special historical broadcasts," such as "The Disneyland Story," the first episode of Walt Disney's Disneyland TV show that introduced the idea of the park to the public in 1954; "Dateline Disneyland," the recorded-live opening day festivities at the park in 1955; "Disneyland After Dark," a 1962 broadcast of various live acts performing at the park; and "The Tenth Anniversary Show," wherein Walt Disney celebrated the 10th anniversary of the opening of Disneyland by giving viewers a sneak peek into some of what was to come at Disneyland in its second decade, including Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion.
Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic is, in a way, a follow-up to Disneyland U.S.A., and at the same time a near-perfect companion disc set to it. Secrets, Stories and Magic comprises two more DVDs (packed with even more material than in Disneyland U.S.A.) that add onto the material presented in the first Walt Disney Treasures release, taking viewers from behind-the-scenes of the park's live opening broadcast, right up to its 50th anniversary in 2005.
As with all Walt Disney Treasures DVDs, both discs comprising Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic start off with an introduction by film historian Leonard Maltin. These are great for providing context to the content of the discs, since the features that follow are not re-edited or otherwise "reframed" from their original 1950s-'60s broadcasts.
The first feature is the documentary that the entire DVD set gains its name from: Disneyland: Secrets, Stories And Magic Of The Happiest Place On Earth. This is a feature-length documentary originally made for the park's 50th anniversary in 2005, so you'll hear a lot of the marketing slogans from the 50th's promotion scattered around within. However, this is the first time that this documentary is seeing the light of day, right here on this DVD release. A few comments throughout are already dated, such as one interviewee remarking about the "two" Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but they aren't too distracting.
While the documentary has a nice feeling of polish to it, and it rounds up an impressive cast of interviewees (from some of the original Imagineers who built the park to those folks who have more recently left their creative marks on it--George Lucas, John Lasseter, Michael Eisner and Matt Ouimet), it ends up being one of the less interesting features of the whole set (which actually says more about the discs' other features than it does about this documentary).
Article comments
1 - eric
Great review. I just got this disc for Christmas and have enjoyed it immensely. I had a question,I was hoping someone would know the answer to. At the beginning of SSaMotHPoE a song plays over shots of the park. I want to say it's from Illuminations, but I could be (and probably am) wrong. If anyone knows the name of this song and where I can purchase it, that would be great. Thanks very much.