Behind the Ride: How Disney Imagineers Deliver the Magic

by David Mumpower, Bob McLain (Editor)

Every Disney attraction comes with a story, and every story involves a few tricks of the trade that only Imagineers know. Here's your chance to peek behind the curtain and learn some of the secrets about thirty of the most popular Disney theme park rides. David Mumpower takes you behind-the-scenes at Disneyland and Walt Disney World to reveal the inner workings of your favorite attractions. He’ll explain why Walt Disney chose many of these rides, and he’ll describe the challenges that Imagineers faced in doing the impossible by bringing them to life. Mumpower begins with the story of how a Russian monarch’s love of sledding indirectly led to the invention of the modern roller coaster. Then, he details the physical and thematic obstacles that Imagineers overcame to build iconic attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Of course, some of the best Disney rides are more recent. Mumpower also examines the difficulties in developing cutting-edge attractions like Avatar Flight of Passage, Radiator Springs Racers, and Slinky Dog Dash. Mumpower covers opening day rides still in operation today as well as some of the most recent additions to the vaunted Disney theme park lineup. He discusses all of these ride experiences plus the tricks that make them possible—and magical. If you've ever gotten off a Disney ride and wondered how they did it, or if you're the type of fan who'd rather examine an attraction than experience it, or maybe you'd like to be an Imagineer yourself someday, this is the book you've been waiting for.

182 pages, Paperback

Published August 19, 2019

Reviews

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Behind the Ride: How Disney Imagineers Deliver the Magic

This book as indicated goes into 30 popular Disney attractions and gives tips and background information about the conception of each ride. Some rides of which I was aware. Some I wasn’t. Mostly roller coasters. I had NO idea Disney (Land and World) had so many. A lot of times I felt like this should be named Behind the Coasters. What it did was give me an eye-opening look at now only what went into the ideas, but the cost. And maybe the timing of me reading this was perfect, because for some weeks now I got hit with this HUGE, idea for a theme park. As the idea grew and grew and wouldn’t let me rest, I started to brainstorm on it (writing out my idea in an outline) *still in the rough stages*. Then I started to think of ways to illustrate it. My thought was if I never see this built in my life time, could I at least *see* it. But this book smacked me in the face and said “Oh so you wanna have a theme park?” And I just wondered after reading this how Walt Disney was able to accomplish what he *did* do with Disney land. Millions and millions of dollars went into each of these attractions and Walt himself if you read any of the biographies about his life we learn did not come from a wealthy background. So when you read about all these attractions and how they advanced in technology over time, it really is quite impressive. There was slight repetition. The Matter Horns was mentioned back-to-back in to consecutive chapters. And weirdly when going behind the ride for the Haunted Mansion the author takes on the tone of the ghost host of the attraction, which thoroughly confused me because this didn’t happen anywhere else in the book and I wondered did he *voice* the attraction. But other than that it was interesting, easy to read, and what when I wasn’t familiar with a ride mentioned I could easily look up a walk-through for it on YouTube. I haven’t been to Disney World in some years and reading about all this background made me which this pandemic would end so my family and I could once again pack our bags, and be right back in Orlando at the happiest place on Earth.

Rating: 7

[Renée L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty cool look at the history and invention of about 28-30 Disney rides. It breaks down the ride into experience and the tricks behind them. Definitely gives you different things to think about your next trip to Disney.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very neat read of the behind the scenes of ride design. It was interesting to see how they have changed older rides to retheme and make them new. It was also interesting to read how they came up with the ideas and the designs for those rides at the parks.