Customer Reviews

Walt Disney Treasures - Disneyland - Secrets, Stories & Magic (Collector's Tin)

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I generally enjoy Disney's "Treasures" releases, due to their wealth of insiders knowledge and vintage film and shows that appear in these special collector's packages. I do own Walt Disney Treasures - Disneyland USA, and watch it from time to time, fascinated by the many selections offered. I was so happy to learn that Disney was releasing a new set of videos, "Disneyland- Secrets, Stories and Magic".

This two-disc set offers a small variety of shorts, clips, and films that were used to promote Disneyland in it's earliest stages. The first disk contains a recent documentary on the creation and development of Disneyland, with many, many interviews by Disneyland insiders still living, which provides a fascinating look at how Walt built the park. This doc tends to concentrate on the early years, instead of a broader fifty year view of the park.

The treasure on this disk, however, can be found in the "People and Places" documentary filmed in a new technology at the time, "Cinemascope". Filmed in all four lands, this film shows Disneyland in it's true infancy, with stage coach rides, the trip to the moon, and a park without New Orleans Square. Despite it's occasional un-PC tone (you audibly groan as the narrator talks about Native Americans), it's a fascinating look inside the park early on. I watched it once, then immediately watched it with the insightful commentary track by Leonard Maltin and Tony Baxter. Wheeeee!

Disc two is a bit more disappointing. There is an unexplicable boring "Operation Disneyland" made for TV stations showing the technological nightmare of bringing the live opening day Disneyland broadcast to the public. I stopped it three minutes in for fear I'd fall asleep. Fortunately, "Disneyland through the Seasons" makes up for this faux pas. I loved watching it, despite the hint of sadness, realizing Walt had died just prior to its broadcast.

I gave this set, which in my opinion is sold VERY cheaply, four stars, only because I want more. As a true Disney fan, who loved Disneyland ever since he was six years old, it's hard to satisfy my hunger for Disney information. This is a great, great appetizer, though!

When the "Walt Disney Treasures" sets started in 2001 the very first one I purchased was the Disneyland set.
I love it & still watch it now.

Why did it take Disney 6 years to put together another set/package for Disneyland is beyond me.
WAY TOO LONG to wait Disney.

I love this set.

Some of the episodes I have on video tape already. It is so nice to have all of them with perfect picture. Having the "Disneyland "U..S.A." show in wide screen is great & the commentary with Leonard and Tony is fantastic.

Let me say this to Disney-PLEASE DO NOT TAKE ANOTHER 6 YEARS TO GET ANOTHER DISNEYLAND SET/PACKAGE TOGETHER.

And, my requests for the next set/package. 1959 for the opening of the Matterhorn, Monorail & submarines, 1967 for the opening of Pirates & the new Tomorrow land & 1969's "Disneyland Showtime" for the opening of the Haunted Mansion with Kurt Russell & the Osmond Brothers.

This review was going to be strictly for the Annette Funicello fans out there until I previewed one of the episodes. I only bought this DVD because it contained a show entitled THE GOLDEN HORSESHOE REVUE which aired on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color some 45 years ago. The Revue is a staple at Disneyland. Here, it was presented for TV with a few Guest Stars, one of whom was Annette. I am a Annette "completist". I hadn't seen this since it was first aired. I had been working late and so I thought I'd just take a look at Annette's song "Mr. Piano Man" and watch the entire DVD some other time. I ended up watching the entire episode. This show never looked so good. Remember the kaliedoscope opening with a chorus singing; "Color... color!"? I was hooked from the start. Some quick math indicates that Annette was about 18 years old here. She's even prettier than I remembered and, not only does she sing "Mr. Piano Man", she sings something called "The Buffalo Round-Up" which I didn't even remember at all! I also loved Betty Taylor as Slue-foot Sue, a pretty Patti Page type with a nice strong vocal delivery. I had forgotten how entertaining Wally Boag could be with just a few props, a rubbery face and a contortionists' body. His style reminded me of a slightly less handsome version of Dick Van Dyke. Ed Wynn and Gene Sheldon are here along with a staged saloon fight that has become a staple of theme parks throughout the country but never done better than on this show with musical accompaniment. I had forgotten how good wholesome family entertainment could be! This really took me back. Now, I can't wait to see all the rest of the features on this set. Five stars!

Most of us have been waiting for years to get this DVD, It is finally here!

Disc #1

DISNEYLAND SECRETS, STORIES AND MAGIC (2005 documentary updated for 2007, produced for the 50th anniversary of the park.) Well, no real secrets here. This is basically a 'talking heads' documentary intercut with behind-the-scenes clips that Walt had shot for his Wonderful World of Color show. While it is nice to see Walt again explaining how things work, these segments are clearly staged. The new interviews with those who had worked on the park back then add some first hand insight about their perception of what happened. You will still feel their emotions as they relate the shockwave that hit when Walt died.
It is at this point, 50 minutes in, that the documentary starts to die. The focus seems to be lost and the interviews disjointed. One gets the impression from this documentary that the Disney company lost all creativity after Walt's death. Disneyland turns to the creative force of George Lucas for Star Tours and Indiana Jones. The direction of this documentary goes chaotic in the last 15 minutes & I had trouble keeping interest in what was being said, as some of it repeated the first half and the rest was just promotional fluff.
We get teased about the Disneyland that never happened, with a few examples of attractions that never got past the planning stages. This should have been expanded to replace the last 15 minutes. This could have been some of the secrets promised by the title.
This documentary could have easily been the full two discs of this set, many early segments in the first half seem too short. There are many more stories we would like to hear. Some of them are related in other Disneyland DVDs.
(I almost reduced the star rating to **** because of the weak ending, but I decided the DVD set as a whole is worth ***** )

PEOPLE AND PLACES: DISNEYLAND U.S.A. (Widescreen theatrical short from the mid 1950's). A Technicolor Techniscope look at some of the Disneyland attractions in the mid 1950's.

Disc #2

OPERATION DISNEYLAND (14 minute film for ABC-TV discussing the difficulties involved with broadcasting from the park). You get to see all of the behind-the scenes activities that brought the live broadcast to air. Even I didn't know that they had to borrow coaxial cable from as far away as San Francisco, and all three major networks supplied video cameras (as well as local television stations). This was the mid 1950's and television equipment was not as abundant as it is today. This B&W film is a real treasure!

THE GOLDEN HORSE REVUE (Disney's Wonderful World of Color 9/23/62)features Annette, Ed Wynn & other Disney stars performing on the Disneyland stage.

DISNEYLAND GOES TO THE WORLD'S FAIR (Disney's Wonderful World of Color 5/17/64)

DISNEYLAND AROUND THE SEASONS (Disney's Wonderful World of Color 12/18/66). This TV episode was filmed just before Walt's death but aired after he had died. It must have been a little morbid to see this on it's first airing as all viewers knew he was gone.

BUILDING WALT'S DREAM: Disneyland Under Construction. This is a 35 minute time-lapsed filming of the building of Disneyland. Walt had set up permanent cameras to record this historic event on color film. The studio did not know what this film was, it was just marked "Walt's Film". When they viewed it they realized they had found a treasure. Disneyland Imaginers & historians give details about what is going on to further your enjoyment of this film record.

Still frame galleries.

All of the films presented here are gloriously restored and look like they were shot yesterday.

This 2 DVD collection is simply superb. If you are a fan of Disneyland and want to know how it all started, then these documentaries are for you. There are some lands and attractions that you hear from older Disneyland 'enthusiats' that are documented and well talked in there.

The one documentary that I found was quite amazing is People and Places: Disneyland USA. It is quite fantastic and so well restored; it look like it was filmed 25 years ago, not in 1955

The one thing that is quite apparent throughout the documentary is the almost palpable absence of Mickey Mouse in the first years of the park. He is at the entrance (with the famous flower face) and there is a little Mouseketeers area, but that's pretty much it.

This collection is limited to only 50 000 (just like all the other Walt Disney Treasures). Make sure you grab it now if you want it; it is a 2007 release and once it's gone, it's gone! There is no known instance of Walt Disney Treasures that are re-edited.

Something I highly recommend.

I bought this for the opening day parade footage. The only place that Disney could get the costumes for the characters in the parade was Ice Capades! The show that season included all of the wonderful Disney favorites of the time, and they were in town. Disneyland should have been very thankful, for the characters made the day! My father, Frank, was Grumpy in the Ice Capades show and in that costume in the parade. It is only a short glimpse, but I can see he was having fun. What a wonderful image of my father.

The rest of the story provided on the disc just fills my childhood excitement of everything Disney. My heart still beats fast when I think of going to Disneyland. It may slow down to a near stop when I get there and see the lines these days, but the magic is still, well, Disney.

Put this DVD set with "Disneyland USA" and "Your Host Walt Disney" and you have a complete history and retrospective of the most famous theme park in the world. Nostalgia, entertainment and wonder all in 2 discs of DVD magic.

If you love Disneyland, buy this DVD, it is just that simple. This DVD had special meaning to me because I attended Disneyland at the age if 5 in the year of its opening. It has tremendous nostalgic value. I highly recommend it to those of you who love Disneyland and still feel the magic when you go there. I have taken my children to Disneyland and hope to take their children there one day. The video has some great old shots of Disneyland in the early years and shows the evolution of it to now with many stories about its development and the people who contributed to its success and contains many interesting facts and figures about the park and interesting stories about attractions of the past that came and went. Walt Disney makes several appearances. It includes a show of the fabulous Golden Horseshoe Review with Annette Funichelo and even an interactive trivia game about Disneyland and includes a replica book of the old A, B, C, D, and E tickets from the old days. I absolutely love it and think you will too. Treat yourself I have only had it a few days and have watched it twice.

This is just the best ever for any Disney enthusiast! Besides the new film (done about 2 years ago, but just now released her) there are so many "extras" about the building of the Park. They literally had cameras going to show each land being built. We get to see everything being erected and much more footage never before seen of Walt in the "orange groves"! Another film (that was released in the theatres in 57)shows the whole Park like a travel log. Then there are the Disneyland TV Shows hosted by Walt that were part of the ABC/NBC Sunday Night series. I cannot rave enough about this set! JUST BUY IT - I cannot imagine anyonbe who loves Disney being disappointed!

One piece of footage on this DVD is so funny I was in tears laughing at it. I had once read that when Disneyland was under construction, that Walt would be driving around and if he caught your eye, he would speed up and make a crazy face and then start laughing. To my surprise he was caught on film doing just this!!! What fun it was to see this!

There is so much that makes this a fantastic collection; from the footage mentioned above, to the footage of Annette, Wally Boag, and Ed Wynn together at The Golden Horse Shoe.

And for those who have the previously released opening day telecast, there's something for you too. How about a behind the scenes film released strictly to ABC via closed circuit TV and never seen publicly describing in detail how that broadcast was done. Doing live broadcasts today is "old hat" but in those days this was brand new. Don't forget that none of those TV cameras had wireless ability. There really was in fact, miles of cable running throughout the park and here we get to see those cables!

This package includes a Disneyland trivia game that is a lot of fun. When you complete a section of the game it rewards you with choices of extra footage, including the interior of the Disney family apartment above the firehouse on Main Street USA.

There is also footage of interviews with various Imagineers including Tony Baxter, the late Marc Davis and the recently late Bruce Gordon.
Mr. Gordon recently died at a very young age. He was the author of two Disney related books and had an unauthorized online fan club dedicated to him. He was much beloved by the surviving Disney family members and they created a page dedicated to his memory that can be found on the Walt Disney family museum web site.

My conclusion: Get this DVD!