I am a Disney fan. Have been for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida was one of the most fantastic Mecca's of the world in my eyes. In fact, I remember my very first trip when I was six; it was a long, slow boring ride made more bearable by the mere thought of Cinderella's Castle. When we finally reached our destination, I had the time of my life - Disney World was everything I thought it would be...and more. However, as a young kid, I didn't really wonder (or care) about the inner workings of the park or how it all came together. It wasn't until years later, in between programs on the Disney Channel (before they started showing commercials!), that I caught a short featurette with some behind-the-scenes footage of the park and the creation of some of the attractions that caught my eye. Years later, the History Channel's Modern Marvels series turns it focus to Walt Disney World and its surrounding parks.

Broken into nine chapters, this ninety minute long documentary starts off with a brief discussion of Disney's legacy and Disneyland's opening day back on July 15th, 1955. Chapter two is all about the creation of Disney World and we're told how the designers continued after Walt's death, as well as how they learned from the mistakes made in Anaheim and rectified those problems for Disney World. I thought it was fascinating to see aspects of the park not normally seen, particularly the entire underground tunnel system. The third chapter talks about the audio animatronics created for the park, as well as how the research and development overcame problems with hydraulic fluid leaks far back as 1964. It gets slightly technical, but I thought this was pretty interesting - especially the incident at the World's Fair which prompted the overhaul.

A half hour into the disc, we head over to the oft-ridiculed Epcot Center for chapter four. Personally, I like Epcot and don't understand why it's the butt of so many jokes. Perhaps people don't like to use their brains when they're on vacation? Regardless, we start our tour with Epcot's icon, Spaceship Earth. After the brief overview on how it was built, they tackle the reliable monorail system surrounding all of the parks (is there a reason we're not using these in the real world?). Following that, we're taken behind the scenes on one of the latest attractions to hit Epcot - Soarin' (those who might've visited Disney's other ridiculed park, California Adventure, might recognize it as Soarin' Over California). Afterwards, there's a brief discussion of Epcot's fireworks show "IllumiNations: Reflections Of Earth" and how it utilizes compressed air to launch the million shells a year required. They also talk about the earth globe, which is the world's first and only spherical LED video screen.

A brief technical breakdown of Disney-MGM Studios' Twilight Zone "Tower Of Terror" is next on the agenda, followed by a behind-the-scenes look at a roller coaster that boasts a speed of 0-60 in three seconds, Aerosmith's Rock 'n Roller Coaster. Next, they spend nine boring minutes talking about the planning that goes into their stunt show "Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show". Thankfully, my girlfriend woke me up in time to find ourselves heading over to the latest park on the Disney landscape, Animal Kingdom. They talk about how it took two years to create the park from the swampland in Florida and how it was necessary to divert a river during construction. We also take a look at the creation of the Tree Of Life, which, in actuality, is an oil rig from the Gulf Of Mexico, and watch the sculptors working on the outer bark over the 12 months it took to complete it. Next, they talk about the dinosaur creations scattered throughout Animal Kingdom, including Lucky, a free roaming electric audio animatronic. I haven't been to Animal Kingdom yet, so I thought this part of the documentary was quite interesting. The final attraction, Expedition Everest, has a steel frame 199 feet above Animal Kingdom, it's 50 feet higher than the Tree Of Life and 10 feet higher than Cinderella's Castle and will have an extensive rollercoaster inside. However, though they mention that it'll take three years to complete the attraction, they don't specify when construction started.

Video: Modern Marvels - Walt Disney World has a non-anamorphic widescreen presentation that varies between 1.33:1 to 1.85:1, depending on the original source material. Consequently, the picture varies between very sharp and colorful to grainy and black & white.

Audio: Modern Marvels -Walt Disney World has a 2.0 Dolby Surround track. While my front speakers got most of the workout, with the dialogue and music, the rears had some ambient sound too. Nothing breathtaking, but adequate nonetheless. There are no other audio options, nor are there subtitles.

Supplements: Not a one.

Conclusion: Disney fans will be eager to add this disc to their collections, but for those with only a passing interest in the parks, you might want to take a chance catching it during a rebroadcast on the History Channel before buying it. And while I enjoyed some of the interviews with park creators/personnel and the behind the scenes looks, there were parts that dragged slightly and I don't think it would hold up to repeat viewings. I can't imagine myself watching this more than once - and i'm a Disney fan. Rent It.