As Disney fans, we’re all very familiar with fireworks shows. So much so in fact, that we likely even take them for granted. The amount of work that gets put into every last detail of these shows strictly goes on behind the scenes and we take in the beautiful results for a few moments before simply moving on to whatever is next.
House of Grucci, a new documentary from Hulu and ABC News Studios, takes us behind the scenes on the work of the Grucci family, America’s “first family of fireworks.” Several members of the family share the unique factors they believe have made their family business such a success and discuss the history, science and magic of fireworks.
There are a lot of elements of this story that are truly fascinating. There’s a family business turning into an empire in a field that impacts all of our lives one way or another. There’s the safety concerns of a family consistently handling explosive materials. There’s the design and technical aspects of it all, for those who are interested in how these incredible shows come to be. There’s even the history of fireworks and how they have gone from simple explosives to to the glowing spectacles we see today.
House of Grucci scratches the surface of all of those topics but unfortunately never takes a deep dive into any of them. Instead, the documentary focuses on the history and lives of the family themselves. And, no offense to the family, but that is not a story that is all that interesting. Seeing the family at work, on various occasions, makes for by far the most interesting moments of the documentary. There just aren’t enough of them.
The safety element of working with fireworks could make for some very tense moments, and the family does share a story of a tragic and heartbreaking incident from years ago at their facility. That story serves as proof that things can go very wrong in an instant when working in this field. That could be used for some very dramatic moments but unfortunately results in a missed opportunity.
Aside from the safety aspect, the whole thing is presented as very low stakes. The family talks at length of the pressure of putting on a show and all the things that could go wrong. However, the only time we get an extended look behind the scenes of a show, something goes wrong and, in the end, it amounts to nothing. They simply resolve the issue and the show goes on with no consequence. After that moment, it’s difficult to get invested in anything else this documentary shares.
The doc doesn’t even really deliver the fireworks you might expect to see. Of course, there is plenty of b-roll cut in from various shows executed by the family, but we never really get any extended looks and never see anything out of the ordinary as far as fireworks are concerned.
Overall, House of Grucci has some interesting elements that could make it a fascinating documentary, it just fails to really focus on any of them. This family has certainly done some incredible things and they work in a very interesting field, but their family tree and their day-to-day lives are just not nearly as exciting as that work. It has its moments, just not nearly enough of them.
You can watch House of Grucci now only on Hulu.