One of the big draws of Disney Plus is that it offers Disney a platform to put share some of the amazing behind the scenes looks at Disney parks they’ve given us over the years. While they haven’t added all—or even most, or much—of the historical Disney parks documentary coverage that’s been produced, they’ve made up for it with a few great exclusive offerings. Read on to learn about all the Disney parks documentaries and shows on Disney Plus!

About This Post

We’ve restructured this post a bit so it isn’t just one huge list, grouping it together by theme. There’s some overlap, but hopefully this helps you find some content you might be interested in. The themes we’ve chosen are:

Movies Based on Rides
Easy Watching
Documentary / Backstage
Historical Disney
Reality

Movies Based on Rides

Lots of rides are based on movies that preceded them, but there are actually a few cases where the rides came first. Here are some of the movies based on rides you might want to check out:

Pirates of the Caribbean (entire movie series)
Haunted Mansion (2023, not Eddie Murphy)
Jungle Cruise (2021)
Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021)
The Haunted Mansion (2003, Eddie Murphy)
The Country Bears (2002)

Easy Watching

These are things you might just put on if you’d like a taste of Disney but you aren’t interested in racking your brain with historical facts or following any sort of plot.

Haunted Mansion Ambiance Series

Haunted Mansion “Swinging Wake” and “Enter if You Dare” are two, 2-hour ambiance pieces (think holiday fireplace, but spooky ambiance instead of fireplace).

Disney Parks Sunrise Series

The Disney Parks Sunrise Series features hour-long videos of sunrises at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom.

Disney Illuminations (Paris)

Disney Illuminations (Paris) is a recording of the night time firework show at Disneyland Paris. It lasts 19 minutes.

Shanghai Disney Resort Grand Opening Gala

Shanghai Disney Resort Grand Opening Gala is a 23-minute video of an evening gala, complete with fireworks and projections, celebrating the opening of Shanghai Disney Resort in 2016. The gala took place in front of Storybook Castle.

Documentary / Backstage Disney

These are shows or movies that focus on the backstage aspect of the parks (particularly the modern parks, though The Imagineering Story spans the entire history of Disney parks).

New! - For the First Time in Forever: The Making of World of Frozen

This is a new, 16-minute film covering the making of “World of Frozen” at Hong Kong Disneyland.

The Imagineering Story

The Imagineering Story is the gold standard Disney parks content on Disney Plus, and chances are you’ve already come across it by the time you see this list. The six hour-long episodes take you through the history of the development of the Disney parks. I won’t belabor the point—this is can’t miss television for anyone interested in Disney parks.

The Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom

The Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a new series in partnership with National Geographic that takes viewers behind the scenes at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

The Most Magical Story on Earth: 50 Years of Walt Disney World

The Most Magical Story on Earth: 50 Years of Walt Disney World is a 90-minute documentary about the first 50 years of Walt Disney World that also serves as a marketing piece for the 50th anniversary celebration.

One Day at Disney

One Day at Disney is an hour-long documentary about the lives of the Cast Members who work for The Walt Disney Company. This is not a parks-exclusive show, but it does feature multiple segments about Cast Members at the park, and the whole thing is worth a watch.

One Day at Disney Shorts

The One Day at Disney Shorts are individual segments similar to those used in the full-length documentary. They aren’t the same ones from the documentary though—it’s all fresh content.

Like the documentary, the shorts aren’t exclusively about the parks. All are worth watching, but episodes 2, 5, 8, 11, 13, 14, 17, 19, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 33, 35, 38, 39, 42, 43, 44, 46, 49, 50, and 51 are most relevant to the parks.

Adventure Through the Walt Disney Archives

Adventure Through the Walt Disney Archives is an hour-long look at some of the items held at the Walt Disney Archives. It isn’t park focused and it doesn’t offer special looks at the parks, but it does have some cool items (like Walt’s name tag) from the parks.

Behind the Attraction

Behind the Attraction gives guests a behind-the-scenes look at the development and operation of Disney attractions (broadly defined—it includes a hotel, castles, and monorails). It’s a bit campy for our tastes, but it has some fun information.

Disney Insider

Disney Insider is a documentary series on Disney Plus. Each episode has around three five-minute segments spanning the Disney Company. Watch them all if you have the time (their non-park content is interesting), or scan the descriptions to find which ones have segments in the parks.

Decorating Disney: Holiday Magic

Decorating Disney: Holiday Magic is a 43-minute behind-the-scenes look at the work that goes into transforming the Disney parks for the holiday season. There’s a bit of history in there, but it’s mostly focused on the contemporary challenges behind some of Disney’s most impressive transformations, from holiday decorations at Magic Kingdom to the creation of Haunted Mansion Holiday at Disneyland.

Making the Disney Wish

Not technically a park, but this hourlong documentary chronicles the building of one of Disney Cruise Line’s newer ships, the Disney Wish.

Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge: Adventure Awaits

Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge: Adventure Awaits is a 2019, 90-minute special that aired on Freeform. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

Historical Disney

If you’re interested in seeing some older Disney parks content, you might like these options.

The Mouseketeers at Disney World

This is a 1977 episode of The Magical World of Disney that features the Mouseketeers visiting Magic Kingdom.

Disneyland Around The Seasons

Disneyland Around the Seasons is actually an episode of the 1960s series The Wonderful World of Color. It features walt Disney talking through some of the happenings at Disneyland in 1966. While it’s a tad slow at times, it’s awesome to see a throwback to the early days of the park.

The Pre-Opening Report from Disneyland

Similar to Disneyland Around the Seasons, The Pre-Opening Report From Disneyland is a 1955 episode of Walt Disney’s Disneyland. Walt provides a final look at the park before it opens. This is a must for Disney parks fans.

Saving Mr. Banks

Saving Mr. Banks is a biographical film chronicling Walt Disney’s pursuit of the rights to Mary Poppins. While not primarily set in the parks, there are some scenes in Disneyland and some other parks-related content.

Reality

Disney Holiday Magic Quest (2020 and 2021)

Disney Holiday Magic Quest is a reality competition that took place at Magic Kingdom in 2020 and 2021. There are separate items on Disney Plus for these.

Disney Summer Magic Quest

Disney Summer Magic Quest is a reality competition that took place at Epcot in 2022.

Disney Fairytale Weddings

There are three pieces of Disney Fairytale Weddings content on Disney Plus. These are all mostly parks or other Disney destination weddings, though some are tied to Disney through Adventures By Disney, Disney’s worldwide tour service.

The Disney Fairytale Weddings Special (2017) is an hour-long documentary (eh, Disney marketing piece) about weddings at Disney destinations.

Disney Fairytale Weddings: Holiday Magic (2017) is a 43-minute special in the same style, just with a holiday season focus. Finally, Disney Fairytale Weddings (2017, 2020) is a two-season television series continuing the concept, this time with focus on fewer weddings for each episode of 40ish minutes.