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For fans of Disneyland, Disney music or both, let me say that this is hands down the most extensive, best put together, longest set of park music ever put out. At a whopping 7 1/2+ hour running time, this collection can certainly sate even the most ardent Disney maniac, and if you listen to the whole thing in a row, you might just start hallucinating and believe you are actually physically in the park. That said, the collection doesn't include absolutely everything one might want in a 'complete' set, so this review warrants a little detail about what is and isn't included.
The 65 track collection covers pretty much every major attraction in Disneyland, and some minor ones, and the remastered recordings truly sound great. Comparing the track 'Fantasyland Darkride Suite', which has appeared on almost every park music cd put out over the past 20 years, with previous versions, the clarity of the remastered tracks is indeed noticeable.
I should also mention that there is a great hardcover book included with the collection that speaks specifically about the park and its music. This has obviously never been available with previous sets, and is in itself a fascinating Disneyland collectible. The coffee table-style book is in beautiful full-color, and details the development of music in the park on a land-by-land format.
There are quite a few selections in this collection that are either 'rare' or 'previously unreleased', and one of the great features of this set is that Disney decided to include quite a few tracks that would not have made the cut on a single or double disc collection. Main Street usually gets shorted on park cds, but in this case they included a selection by the Main Street Sax Quartet, The Melomen, Alexander's Ragtime Band and others. This is an excellent beginning to the set, since almost any visit to the park begins with the familiar sounds of these groups. There are some oddballs on the set, which in most cases are also nice to have. For example, a violin quartet version of 'Feed the Birds' is featured as music that one might hear when dining in the exclusive Club 33. 'Love is a Song' as played in the Disney Gallery is also included. I'm not sure that these stand out as very relatable to Disneyland, but they are nice recordings and flow well on the collection.
As far as the soundtracks for the rides, one of the great things about this set is that in most cases Disney splurges with time and puts the full soundtrack on here. Pretty much any ride with a well-defined pre-recorded musical track is included. Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye is on here, as well as Star Tours, Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin, and many others. Some previous collections have short shrifted two of the most important rides - The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. Happily, this set includes a full 14 minute Mansion track and a 16 minute Pirates track. There are longer versions available on previous sets (specifically the ride soundtracks for either attraction, which are rare but obtainable), but the tracks for this set tend to be a little more accessible and enjoyable to listen to. The versions here include the full show, but blend the track and music together better so as not to be quite as disjointed as they are when floating through the ride. There are also quite a few gems from closed attractions. Most notably, the original Submarine Voyage narration is on here, as well as Voyage Thru Inner Space.
The shows make a decent appearance on here. You get the full Tiki Room show, which is nice, as well as the original Golden Horseshoe Revue, the 50th Anniversary fireworks show (which is great) and the full Fantasmic! show. A 9 minute version of the Main Street Electrical Parade is included, which is considerably shorter than the 15 minute version on the Main Street Electrical Parade and Fantasmic! soundtrack cds. I am also happy they included Small World Holiday and Haunted Mansion Holiday, which previously were only rarely available.
So, given the laudable inclusions on this set, what's missing? There do seem to be a few glaring omissions, which is probably understandable since there's no way Disney could include everything from the past 50 years. Still, it would have been nice to have 'Fantasy in the Sky' (the fireworks show that ran for several decades) and 'Light Magic' (a short run replacement for the electrical parade, which failed but had an excellent soundtrack). These have not appeared since the 1992 Official Album, which is quite impossible to find.
There are also no tracks from Disney's California Adventure on this collection, which is most likely because they wanted to keep this a Disneyland collection. This is fine, except that DCA is now part of the Disneyland experience and it would have been nice to have some of these tracks, particularly Jerry Goldsmith's rousing soundtrack to Soarin' Over California. There are DCA tracks available on the 2-disc 'Happiest Celebration on Earth' set, but this doubles up on almost every Disneyland track.
It might also have been nice to have more selections from former attractions. Perhaps there aren't a lot of closed rides with good soundtracks, but as someone who never visited the park before 1980 (due to not having been born), I'd like to hear some of the classic attractions that no longer exist.
In the category of 'unnecessarily included', I would point out there are three full shows from the Country Bear Jamboree - the original show, the vacation hoedown, and the holiday show. I'm not sure 45 minutes of Country Bear Jamboree was warranted, and these tend to stick out as some of the only 'unlistenable' tracks.
So, overall this is a great offering by Disney with relatively few problems. For the casual park fan, this is probably all you'll ever need to sufficiently satisfy your Disneyland craving. For the truly devoted, this is also a must-have, but you will probably want to supplement it with the 2-disc 50th anniversary set, both the 1991 and 1997 versions of the 'Official Album of Disneyland', and perhaps the Disneyworld 2 disc 'Happiest Celebration on Earth' set (if you like Disneyworld music, which tends to be a little lame). Hardcore fans will also want to get the ride soundtracks to Pirates and Haunted Mansion, which are rare and usually only available in the park or by online auction.
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Customer reviews
W. Smith and others already had a good review on details of this CD box set. I would like to point out some other things. This set is almost but not perfect; I appreciate every original track and found the book is very informative.But in term of collection I have some comments, first this box set has very big size (W x H), it's difficult to place it on shelve with other collections. Second, there always have very small pieces of paper on CD, they come from the package itself, because they use a low quality paper for CD package. Third, (from my point of view), screen on CD is very ugly. It looks like they use free download clip art for screening.
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