The second season of “Behind the Attraction” is headed to Disney+, and Epcot lovers will find more than one episode that hits home.
The six-part series, which becomes available on the streaming service on Nov. 1, has an entire program devoted to the past, present and future of Epcot, plus episodes devoted to nighttime spectaculars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, theme-park food and Indiana Jones Adventure.
The format is the same as season one, flooded with factoids, quippy interviews with Imagineers and other Disney experts and off-screen narrator Paget Brewster. The series gets a lot of mileage out of time with veteran Imagineers Bob Gurr and Tony Baxter. The result is history lesson meets trivia contest.
The Epcot episode covers well-trod territory such as the original vision of Walt Disney, the pairing of Marty Sklar and John Hench, the architecture of Spaceship Earth and the morphing of Maelstrom into Frozen Ever After. The nighttime spectacular episode includes the now-gone “Harmonious,” dwelling on themes of international unity and technology.
“Behind the Attraction” is a bit self-congratulatory, but consider the source and the platform. It manages to work in snark. “Barge is putting it mildly,” Brewster notes in the construction of “Harmonious.” There’s a segment on whether Walt Disney actually used the term “kiss goodnight” in regard to fireworks shows. And, regarding updates for the Redhead/auction scene of Pirates of the Caribbean, a cast member ruefully says, “As time progressed, we thought maybe we shouldn’t be selling women.”
As for Epcot, Roger Gould, who works for Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, says Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is “basically Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride for the 21st century.” Imagineer Alex Wright recalls walking through the ginormous ride building for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind with awe-filled Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald, who said, “Dear God, what have we done?”
The series has a worldwide focus, tying in attraction variations in Asia and Europe as well as Disneyland and Walt Disney World parks. There are occasional lights-on glimpses inside attractions that are pause-button worthy. And there is some repetition/overlap among episodes, so watching back-to-back-to-back binging may not be the best method.
Without being too spoiler-y, here are five of the fun things we learned from the second season of “Behind the Attraction:”
• Gurr has a tattoo on his breastbone of his first sketch of a monorail car.
• The first person to be the flying Tinker Bell at Disneyland was a 70-year-old woman named Tiny.
• Dole Whips arrived at Disney World before churros became a thing at Disneyland.
• New fireworks technology is cutting down on smoke seen during the shows.
• Figment’s roots are in “Magnum, P.I.”
Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. My Threads account is @dbevil. You can subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.
