- Network: Disney+
- Series Premiere Date: Nov 12, 2019
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Critic Reviews
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It's an elegantly crafted, if unavoidably rhapsodic, history of Disney's theme parks that made me utter, "Wow!" multiple times while watching the first two episodes available to critics. It is, so far, the only series in this first wave of Disney+ programming that has enticed me to want to gobble up the rest of the season.
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If you're a hard core Disney fan, you'll love this deep dive into the history of the men and women behind the organization.
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If you can see past the Walt Disney hagiography, it’s well made and includes some rarely seen footage and new interviews with ride designers who occasionally take viewers behind the scenes.
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Hagiographic as regards Uncle Walt, who is present through much of the early episodes, and skating over whatever does not redound to the glory of the enterprise, it is nevertheless, like Disney+ itself, packed with good stuff.
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While Iwerks’ vision comes with its own biases and we know that current Disney leadership would never allow something too disparaging to anchor launch day of something as important as Disney+, The Imagineering Story is more candid than expected.
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It’s fascinating to hear the stories behind game-changing rides like Pirates of the Caribbean and the Matterhorn straight from the mouths of the artists and engineers who helped create them. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, it all comes with a heaping helping of corporate propaganda, with Bassett’s voiceover whitewashing such troubling legacies as Walt Disney’s well-documented history of union busting.
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It is a stunningly hagiographic piece of television that verges on placing Disney World in the same ranks as the Seven Wonders of the World. I love Disney World, but you’ll learn almost nothing from this series, one that should have taken a step back and attempted something greater than a long-form commercial.