Theme park Imagineers spill secrets on new Disney+ series 'Behind the Attraction'
Did you know Disney Imagineers scoured southern California neighborhoods and asked homeowners to uproot their landscaping to decorate a certain Disneyland attraction?
How about this one: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was originally pitched as a real hotel where guests could stay overnight?
Here’s one more for you: The Haunted Mansion attraction is underground in Disneyland, but above ground at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World.
Disney is spilling behind-the-scenes secrets and backstories on many of its most-loved attractions. The first five episodes of Disney+ series, "Behind the Attraction," is now streaming.
It’s executive-produced by movie star Dwayne Johnson, who stars in the upcoming Disney film "Jungle Cruise."
Deciding what attractions would be featured wasn’t an easy task. Executive producer and director Brian Volk-Weiss said the team started with a list of more than 100, but quickly whittled it tdown by focusing on current attractions.
Volk-Weiss said there were classics they had to include, like It's a Small World and the Haunted Mansion, but they also did episodes on the famous Castles and beloved Trains, Trams, and Monorails.
“Instead of always racing to their favorite attraction that they do every time they go to the park… somebody is going to say to their parents, ‘I want to go to the monorail.’ And why do you want to go to the monorail? Did you see the show?’” said Volk-Weiss, whose background in comedy comes through in the witty storytelling of the episodes.
The shows go well beyond their simple titles. Star Tours, for example, doesn’t just tell the secrets of this first-of-its kind simulation attraction. It also explores the relationship with "Star Wars" creator George Lucas and even details the creation of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
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Disney Imagineer Jeanette Lomboy started at Disneyland in 1995 as a Fantasyland cast member, and went on to work on Pandora, Avenger’s Campus and Aulani, Disney’s resort in Hawaii. She said the series lifts the curtain on the impossible, fun and magical parts of the attractions.
“You can bet that there's a lot of stories… that guests never hear and they just see the end product of that,” Lomboy said. “To talk about it, like to be asked questions that were not typically asked about, like, ‘why did you do it this way’ and ‘what did you really mean by that? And were there challenges and was it fun?’ I mean, it really was great for us to get in mind through the process of what we go through together to make these things come to life.”
The series includes plenty of interviews with Disney Imagineers like Lomboy, and Disney legends who created, developed and built these iconic attractions. It’s important for these cast members to carry on the mission of Walt Disney and continue the tradition laid before them.
“At the end of the day, our goal is to make an emotional connection with the guest,” said Disney Imagineer Diego Parras, who immigrated to this country when he was 10 years old and vividly remembers going to the Hall of Presidents on his first visit to Walt Disney World in 1983.
“I very much realized that this was a great representation of what I had become a part of,” said Parras, who has worked on Pandora and Star Wars: Galaxy Edge among many other Disney attractions. “Those are the emotional connections that we’re able to make and it’s continued from a little kid to working here for 30 years. It’s still like the very first time that I went there. Just knowing that it’s something a lot bigger than me, but now I’m a part of that.”