Six new episodes of Behind the Attraction are heading your way on Wednesday, November 1st, streaming exclusively on Disney+. A collaboration between Disney, the Nacelle Company, and Seven Bucks Productions, the creative team recently gathered with some of the on-camera talent from this season at Walt Disney Imagineering’s campus in Glendale for a press conference. Following an introduction by Walt Disney Imagineering President Barbara Bouza and Chief Creative Officer Bruce Vaughn, members of the press got to see highlights from the new batch of episodes before participating in a panel, moderated by Yellow Shoes’ Michael Loughran.
(Walt Disney Imagineering/Kevin Yoneda)
As an icebreaker, the panelists were asked to share their favorite Disney memories. Director Brian Volk-Weiss remembers wanting to experience Mission to Mars over and over again as a child. Brian Gewirtz (SVP of Production for Seven Bucks Productions) credits an encounter with Captain Hook in 1980 for inspiring his love of writing for bad guys, a skill he used as the head writer for WWE, where he met Seven Bucks Productions co-founder Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Becky Cline, Director of The Walt Disney Archives, remembers seeing the Bird-Mobile at The Enchanted Tiki Room at the age of 4, believing it was the most beautiful thing on the face of the earth. Karlos Siqueiros (Disneyland Resort Food and Beverage Synergy Manager) remembers bringing his daughter to Walt Disney World for the first time, which in turn inspired her own dreams of working for Disney. Steve Davison (Disney Live Entertainment Parades & Spectaculars Executive) remembers Bob Gurr coming up to him after seeing World of Color and saying, “Walt Disney would be very proud of you.” And Jeanette Lomboy (Walt Disney Imagineering Executive Producer) shared a recent memory, the way Guests and Cast Members celebrated each other when Disneyland Park reopened from the pandemic after a 13-month closure during the pandemic.
Where did the idea for Behind the Attraction come from? Executive Producer Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was a fan of another Nacelle Company series, The Toys That Made Us, which led him to reach out to his buddy Brian Gewirtz. He was inspired to create a similar series about the creation of iconic breakfast cereals, but a dinner at a New York City restaurant, ironically owned by Kellogg’s, found the conversation steering away from food and towards theme parks. The creatives decided to take the idea to Disney+, and Brian Volk-Weiss even brought a visual aid to the meeting. On a previous trip to Kansas City, the Disney fan paid a visit to the building that once housed Walt Disney’s Laugh-O-Grams Studio. While there, he noticed that a piece of the brick exterior had broken off the building. Knowing that it could not be reattached, he took the piece and had it framed. But he brought it to the meeting to demonstrate how much he values Disney.
Steve Davison is a name many diehard Disney Parks fans will recognize, but they may not know how he came to be a mover and shaker in Disney Live Entertainment. Growing up in Palm Springs, he loved going to Disneyland, but more often found himself going to see his uncle play as part football as a member of the San Diego Chargers. While the football games didn’t capture his attention, a visit to Super Bowl XI allowed young Steve a chance to see behind the scenes of a Disney production when they handled the halftime show for that game. Now, he creates live spectacles for Disney Parks around the world, which is the focus of an episode this season titled “Nighttime Spectaculars.” It was interesting to hear that Steve wasn’t a big fan of fireworks until he was asked to design shows with them. Always looking for ways to innovate and “plus” experiences, Steve mentioned that a lot of work is being done to incorporate drones into nighttime spectaculars at the parks.
(Walt Disney Imagineering/Kevin Yoneda)
Karlos Siqueiros is featured in an episode all about “Food,” a fitting choice since his Disney career began as a server at Carnation Cafe. As a child, Karlos was in awe of the experiences at Disneyland, such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion. But his mom “ruined everything” when she said it was time to eat. Food wasn’t an important part of the Disneyland experience in his youth, with lunch typically being a bland hotdog ate over a trash can. Combining his love of Disney and food, he and his team have been working to integrate storytelling into the dining experience. One of his most proud moments was working on the team that created Haunted Mansion Holiday (including Steve Davison). The gingerbread house in the ballroom is made of real gingerbread, with a brand-new design each year that keeps Guests coming back year after year during the fall and winter months to see (and smell) it.
As a representative of Walt Disney Imagineering, Jeannette Lomboy shared that one of Walt Disney’s famous quotes (“It takes people to make the dream a reality”) is at the heart of Behind the Attraction. None of these episodes would be possible without the collaborative efforts of everyone involved. The same is true throughout The Walt Disney Company, with everyone working towards creating something worthy of the original Imagineer’s name, Walt Disney. They’re continuing to open new doors in search of innovative tools to raise the bar.
The teams at Nacelle and Seven Bucks had the unenviable task of whittling down all of the creativity, history, and fun of Disney Parks into a digestible runtime. The early cuts of each new episode sometimes clocked in at several hours in length. Director Brian Volk-Weiss described it as sculpting a piece of marble, chipping away pieces until each episode told the story it wanted to share at around an hour in length. But what makes the art of Behind the Attraction resonate is that most people watching the show will be able to relive fond memories of past visits while learning how the magic is made. That mix of nostalgia and something new is at the heart of all Disney visits, and viewers will be able to experience that with these six new episodes: “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Big Thunder Mountain,” “The Indiana Jones Adventure,” “EPCOT,” “Food,” and “Nighttime Spectaculars.”
All six episodes of season 2 of Behind the Attraction debut on Disney+ on Wednesday, November 1st.