The popularity of the Disney+ original documentary series The Imagineering Story showed that Disney fans don’t just love the company’s history of creativity—they love knowing how that creativity came into being. But The Imagineering Story is just one example of offerings on Disney+ that take viewers behind the scenes to reveal how beloved stories were created. Here are just a few of those documentaries—some of them fascinating and revealing, others not so much.
Frank and Ollie (1995)
Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston—the two last survivors (now all sadly gone) of the “Nine Old Men” from Disney’s golden age of hand-drawn animation—are profiled in this documentary directed by Frank’s son, Theodore Thomas. Not surprisingly, it’s a love letter rather than a warts-and-all exploration, revealing the (at that time) 60-plus-year professional collaboration and personal friendship between Thomas and Johnston, who were octogenarian next-door neighbors. There are some charming moments conveying the connection between the two men, but Disney fans will be most thrilled by sequences in which the two master animators reveal how they were able to find the emotional center of the characters they brought to life, or the specific inspiration for memorable moments from Bambi, The Jungle Book, Robin Hood and more. If you adore classic Disney animated features, this is a fine celebration of some of the people whose work allowed those features to endure.
Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy (2004)
Over the course of 40 years, a whole lot of information has gone out into the world about the origins of one of the most popular franchises in film history; it’s still great to have so much of that material collected in one place. Originally an extra for the 2004 DVD release of the Special Editions of the original Star Wars trilogy, and later broadcast on A&E in a shortened form, this 2-1/2 hour documentary traces the arc of the saga’s creation from George Lucas’s film school career through the massive success of his galaxy far, far away. While hard-core fans likely have heard most of these stories before—the unexpected popularity leading to the toys being unavailable for several months, for example—there’s still a great treasure trove of material conveying all of the things that went just right, nearly resulted in a catastrophe, or could have gone much differently. Have you never before seen Kurt Russell’s screen test for Han Solo? You will here.
Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009)
The “Disney Renaissance” in feature animation of the late 1980s and early 1990s gets a comprehensive, surprisingly honest treatment in this documentary by animation veteran Don Hahn. The era covered showcases much of the same content as the tell-all 2005 book DisneyWar, but provides a wealth of terrific archival footage and thoughtful commentary by talking heads describing how close Disney was to shutting down feature animation after a string of financial failures in the 1980s. Are you interested in getting a glimpse of a morose-looking fellow named Tim Burton at his Disney animator’s desk? Or watching lyricist Howard Ashman coach Little Mermaid’s Ariel, Jodi Benson, on her performance of “Part of Your World,” and perfecting the tempo-building finale for Beauty and the Beast’s “Be Our Guest?” Then this is just the ticket for you.
Marvel: Assembling a Universe (2014)
Someday we’ll get a probing documentary revealing how the Marvel Cinematic Universe went from risky proposition to sure-fire blockbusters—but this isn’t it. Created as a one-hour ABC TV special, this mini-doc delivers a few tidbits about the origins of the MCU and plenty of gushing commentary by actors and creators, but precious little insight into how all the pieces fell into place. Indeed, while there’s a bit of fun information about the short films created in the wake of Avengers’ massive success, fully a third of the running time is actually an extended promo for then-upcoming MCU features like Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It is a little entertaining, however, for what it pointedly does not include; good luck catching any glimpse of Edward Norton, for example, in the segment about 2008’s The Incredible Hulk.
Marvel 75 Years: From Pulp to Pop! (2014)
Another ABC product from 2014; another thin excuse on which to hang a lot of cross-platform marketing. There’s at least a bit more legitimately interesting history on this one, which devotes about 25 of its 41 minutes to a sprint through the history of Marvel Comics from its 1939 origins through bankruptcy and into pop-culture juggernaut status. For the uninitiated, there is some solid material about the shifts in the comic-book industry through the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, as well as the company’s other attempts to bring their characters to life on screen in the 1970s. But there’s also plenty of recycled material about how awesome the MCU is—some of the interviews are probably the same ones conducted for Assembling a Universe—plus an extended preview of the yet-to-be-unveiled Agent Carter series. It gets frustrating digging for the kernel of information wrapped in huge ball of hype.
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Let Us Hear From You
Do you miss the Imagineering Story? Have you spent any time exploring some of the other behind the scenes types of content on Disney+? Let us know what you like and what you’ve found in the comments below!