"Where Magic Lives" DVD?

[sbelyo]

I understand that there is a DVD called Where Magic Lives. I want to know if it's still available in WDW?

It looks pretty cool.

 

[FatCow]

Yes it's still available, at least at World of Disney at DTD.

Although it's very interesting, it's bad compression results in APQ (Atrocious Picture Quality)

I own that DVD and wouldn't recommend it even to my arch enemy.

 

[JEANMR1]

It is pretty bad but it is better than the one they had just entitled 'Magic Kingdom' I think. It was like paying $20 for a very very very bad commercial.

 

[FatCow]

agreed. The one entitled Magic Kingdom is much worse.

 

[d-r]

but I may not, I have a question to ask that mabe someone can help me with that it depends on.

First though, the "where magic lives" dvd is really just the same exact footage that was on the "Four parks, one world" video. If you already have that one, then I don't think that "where magic lives" is superior at all. Unless you really want that footage on dvd there isn't much reason to get it. There really aren't any special features (the free vacation dvd has better special features than the "where magic lives" dvd). It is really just a rehash of old footage. Some of it is stock footage that has been around for quite a while. I haven't looked at it since we first bought it many months ago, but if I remember correctly (and I may be wrong) some of it is even wrong, like showing disneyland's space mountain. I may be wrong about that though. But overall I think it is a pretty bare bones disc without a lot going for it. That said, if you don't have that older footage it is probably worth the price if you want a wdw video.

The magic kingdom video, on the other hand, has a lot of new footage. I wish, especially in places, that the video quality was a bit better, but I appreciated the new footage. The only parts that were really recycled was the footage from inside the dark rides, such as inside the haunted mansion and pirates. Actually, that is really old footage, the same as on the "where magic lives" dvd and going back a lot farther than that. Honestly, I think that the haunted mansion footage is from the old world of disney special with the osmond brothers on it. That's just my belief of course, but I really think it is. At least it wouldn't surprise me. I also think that the pirates footage is from the old world of disney special (that you could see on the pirates of the caribbean movie dvd). Again, could be wrong, but it does go back a long way for sure. We probably have that stuff 1/2 dozen times or more in various formats, but it doesn't bother me if I think about it, because it would probably cost a lot to set up the lighting and stuff to film in those dark rides, so why re-do what you already have. Plus, again, the bulk of the footage on there is new (although, again, the video quality isn't exceptional). I'm OK with it. I like the bonus features on the magic kingdom video. Overall, I think it is a superior dvd than the four parks video. That's just my opinion of course and your milage may vary.

That said, here is my question for anyone who has the magic kingdom dvd. How is the audio on it? On ours it is horrible. You almost can't hear the front channel because the back channels are mixed in so loud. The background noise is horrible. I ask because I wonder if we got a bad one. I was planning on taking it back and exchanging it on our next trip - I really like the dvd but it is hard to watch with the audio so I'd like a new one if this is just a bad one. So, anyway, if you've watched the magic kingdom video was the audio mix messed up so badly that you couldn't hear the main front channel? Thanks for any replies.

IMHO, I think it boils down to this if you don't have the previous releases of things like "four parks, one world." If you want an overall summary of all four parks, then the "where the magic lives" dvd is probably the best one to get. If you want a more in-depth look at the single park, the "Magic Kingdom" dvd is the way to go, imho. There is also an Animal Kingdom dvd now, so maybe there will be new ones for Epcot and the studios coming. It is sort of up to what an invidual person is looking for (giving the benefit of the doubt about the audio on the disc we have; if the whole production is that bad, then it is a shame and nobody should buy it unfortunately).

One should remember that these are wdw in-house productions, not "Disney DVD" (or Buena Vista Home Video) productions and in places they are not that "slick." The menu on the magic kingdo one, for example, seems really, well, amateur. They aren't super high budget polished productions. They are what they are, souvineers. They aren't put together by Leonard Maltin. They are both vidoes from wdw about the parks, if you like that sort of thing you'll enjoy it, if not it will probably seem like a commercial about the parks to you. I really don't know what to say about that. It's pretty much what it is.

What I think would be really cool is this. If they could use technology, and take a dvd like the magic kingdom one, and charge you for a video guy to come out and film your family and 1/2 dozen or so standardized locations (sort of like the personal photography packages you can buy), and then "insert" your family footage in to the stock dvd in to designated spaces so that you had a personalized one that they could send to you. That would really be neat, and I think that the technology is possible for the right price.

Anyway, thanks for any info about the audio of the magic kingdom dvd.
DR

 

[FatCow]

That said, here is my question for anyone who has the magic kingdom dvd. How is the audio on it? On ours it is horrible. You almost can't hear the front channel because the back channels are mixed in so loud. The background noise is horrible. I ask because I wonder if we got a bad one. I was planning on taking it back and exchanging it on our next trip - I really like the dvd but it is hard to watch with the audio so I'd like a new one if this is just a bad one. So, anyway, if you've watched the magic kingdom video was the audio mix messed up so badly that you couldn't hear the main front channel? Thanks for any replies.

DR

Nope, the audio is as atrocious. The rear channels are much too loud. I don't know who did the A/V compression and mixing for these parks DVD. They are definitely not trained to do so.

 

[iceskatejen]

On my Where Magic Lives dvd Space Mountain is definetely WDW's. Older footage apparently because those aren't the lap bars that were on it when I was there in April. DL's Space Mountain has 2 abreast seating--3 rows in each car, so 6 people per car and 12 per train.

 

[FatCow]

On the MK DVD, Space Mountain is DL's version.

 

[d-r]

Hey, thanks for the information about the audio. I guess we won't bother taking it back. That's really too bad, because it basically ruins the dvd, and it could have been decent. A shame. I might return it anyway, can't hurt. It challenges the "tourists won't be back to return it anyway" sort of notion at least.

Also, thanks for the info about the space mountain footage, I knew I remembered seeing disneyland's somewhere recently, but I wasn't sure where. That is something they do a lot, like on the wdw travel videos they send out.

 

[DemonLlama]

We brought home three DVDs and watched two of them yesterday before company came. The Magic Kingdom DVD was one of them. We were able to fix the sound. It was awful until we went into set up and changed it to stereo rather than surround sound and it made it 100x better! Maybe that will help someone else.

We enjoyed the MK DVD much more than the first one we watched. It was TERRIBLE. Do not bother getting The Magic of Christmas: The Merriest Place of World DVD: 18 minutes translates into more than $1 a minute for really bad, rehashed footage. The Christmas parade stuff must be at least 15 years old, which is kind of interesting but not exactly the kind of thing a person buying it as a souvenir of their trip really would be looking for. The running time was on the package, but I wouldn't have bothered if I knew what those "approximately twenty minutes" really were. A good section of it is Santa writing a letter to Karen about Disney World, without any footage of the parks at all.

We'll check out the Where the Magic Lives DVD later today. After that Christmas one, I'm pretty sure anything will look better to us!

 

[FatCow]

LOL! I feel the same way about those DVDs.

 

[DemonLlama]

Where Magic Lives is the SAME DVD as the 100 Years of Magic DVD, except it doesn't include the Walt Disney Story like the 100 years one does. So we paid $20 for a duplicate of half of something we already owned.

I guess we'll try again in ten years and see if there is any new footage. The Where Magic Lives DVD is bound for ebay.

 

[WaltD4Me]

I have the Where Magic Lives DVD (with all four parks) and the Merriest Place on Earth Christmas DVD and they are both pretty awful! I was REALLY disappointed in the Magic Lives one....it is just awful, awful, awful!

The Christmas one is a tiny bit better, but not by much and it is so short it's
ridiculous. The box says 20 minutes, but they count the rolling credits at the end in that 20 minutes.

I think Disney is really missing the boat on these park DVD's and tapes. If they made GOOD ones, they would fly off the shelves! Seriously, Disney makes incredible movies and they can't make a decent one about the theme parks? My brother took a better video of the Christmas parade than Disney did! Sheesh!

Bottom line.......Don't waste your money!

Lisa

 

[goofy4tink]

I bought the Magic Kingdom and the Magic of Christmas DVDs on our trip in Nov. The Christmas one was awful!!! I finally just taped the Samantha Brown Holiday around the World special. Much better for memories of our Christmas trips. The Magic Kingdom one was okay. I had no problem with the sound. That was fine, at least for me. I thought the subjects covered were just okay tho. It was made in 2003 according to the final credits. Aladdin's Magic Carpets are actually in it but the DL Space Mt is too!!! No double rider cars in WDW to the best of my knowledge.

I, too, wish Disney could come up with better quality souvenier dvd's/tapes. I would almost rather buy a good one than lug my video camera around!!!

 

[sbelyo]

I guess I'll pass on buying those dvd's when we go in a few weeks. I know I don't have any footage of that stuff at all, but I am a dvd fanatic and if the quality is sub-par then I don't want it.

 

[FatCow]

I guess I'll pass on buying those dvd's when we go in a few weeks. I know I don't have any footage of that stuff at all, but I am a dvd fanatic and if the quality is sub-par then I don't want it.

I'm a DVD nut myself and bbown about 1,200 titles and a couple hundred Laser Discs and zero VHS. That particular DVD is so bad I don't include it on my 1,200 list. I stack it together with other sub-par and pan-and-scan discs in one big box and put them in my cold cellar.

 

[sbelyo]

wow... I thought I was the only one that still watched laserdisc. Awesome... I have 2 DVD jukeboxes (500 dvd's) and around 30 Laserdiscs left. No VHS that's for certain. So it's that bad, yikes. The worst DVD I own is Convoy released by triumph marketing. It's in focus most of the time and the audio works as well. I wanted to see if the region 2 was any better, at least it was released by universal.