Disney invited us and a few others into the secret halls of Walt Disney Imagineering to see how they are bringing their founder back to life through the magic of Audio-Animatronics for Walt Disney - A Magical Life for Disneyland’s 70th anniversary, and it is shaping up to be a project filled with respect, authenticity, incredible little details, and a ton of Disney magic.
Walt Disney - A Magical Life will debut at Disneyland's Main Street Opera house on July 17, 2025, which will be exactly 70 years after Disneyland itself opened, and the show will invite guests from all across the world into Walt’s office to learn more about his story and how he changed the world of entertainment forever.
While we didn’t get to see the actual Audio-Animatronic of Walt Disney, what we did see and hear about has given me the confidence and excitement that Disney may just pull off this ambitious and meaningful project in spectacular fashion.
One Man’s Dream
When we were welcomed into a room at Walt Disney Imagineering for this presentation, we were told what guests can expect from Walt Disney - A Magical Life and why this was the right time to have Walt return to the only Disney Park he ever walked in.
“It's a huge responsibility, as I'm sure you could imagine, bringing Walt Disney to life in Audio-Animatronics,” Tom Fitzgerald, senior creative executive of Walt Disney Imagineering, said. “And I think we are giving the same care and attention that Walt and his team did with Lincoln many decades ago. We worked very closely with the Walt Disney Family Museum and our archives department, we looked at hours and hours and hours of footage and interviews to pull together what we think is the most authentic presentation possible, and we believe Walt's story is as valid and relevant today as it ever was. The idea of following your dream. The fact that you will have setbacks, but you can turn those setbacks into success. No matter what, follow that dream.”
Most importantly, the team assured us they are taking every precaution to bring Walt back the right way and not rush things. This project has been in development for more than seven years, and the idea of a Walt figure has even been an idea at the company for decades. However, it just didn't feel right until now.
“We have worked very diligently, for many years, with the Walt Disney Family Museum and with members of the Disney and Miller family and the board,” Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz, executive producer at Walt Disney Imagineering, said. “And so we've taken care to make sure that the family is along the journey with us and that we feel that we presented a faithful and theatrical presentation that keeps Walt alive in the medium that he pioneered and in the way that we present stories in our parks.
“To that effect, we’re authentically recreating the way Walt used his hands to accentuate points, his very expressive eyebrows, and even that glint in his eye that so many people who worked with him and knew him said he had. Also, the words spoken by Walt are spoken by Walt. They are taken from interviews over the years and pieced together so that everything Walt is saying is actually his own original words.”
While we didn’t get to see the actual Audio-Animatronic of Walt Disney yet, what they did share was a moment I’ll never forget. There was a storyboard in the room we were in that showed a glimpse of the tale guests will see in Walt Disney - A Magical Life, and when they pulled that aside, a life-size model of Walt Disney that they used for reference when making that Audio-Animatronic was right there. I can’t truly describe the feeling of seeing this, but it felt as though Walt Disney was in the room with us.
He was leaning against a desk, as he was known to do when talking and how he will appear in Walt Disney - A Magical Life, and every detail was accounted for. His hands were recreated from a bronze casting of his actual hands that was created by Adrian E. Flatt back in the 60s, he was wearing a suit made out of the actual material of suits he used to wear, each strand of hair was perfectly punched into his head and styled with the same grooming products he used to give it the same sheen it would have had, he wore his Smoke Tree Ranch tie he loved, and so much more.
Even beyond that, there were blemishes on his skin, small hairs on his hands and coming out of his nose, and even his nails were manicured in a way that wasn’t perfect but felt appropriate for a man who went about his day after an appointment. And that glimmer in his eye. I know it sounds cliche, but it worked. When you are looking at him, there is this undeniable light in his eye that makes this model even more believable thanks a bit of Imagineering magic.
We’ll see how the actual Audio-Animatronic turns out, but I truly felt as though Walt was there and that I was looking at a true piece of art crafted by a talented team of artists at the top of their game. It honestly left us speechless.
“Today, with all of our phones, every guest can zoom in and do an extreme close-up of our figures,” Fitzgerald said. “So, we had to sort of reinvent how we portray them. They have to look good from a distance, but they also have to look just as believable in an extreme close-up. That's new for us, particularly with human-based figures. We did a lot of innovation in coming up with a look that would be as realistic and authentic as possible to bring Walt Disney to life in the way that he brought Abraham Lincoln to life, but for a new era.”
This also links to another question we all had - Why was now the right time to bring Walt back? The answer is a complicated one, but it’s a mix of Disneyland’s 70th anniversary coming up, the technology reaching a point where they can do it the right way, and having the right people in the right places to honor his legacy.
A Legacy Well Preserved
Walt Disney’s daughter, Diane Marie Disney-Miller, passed away in 2013, and one of her biggest accomplishments was co-founding the aforementioned Walt Disney Family Museum with her family. This museum opened its doors in 2009 in San Francisco and holds over 30,000 items related to Disney.
The Walt Disney Family Museum was heavily involved in this project, and I had the chance to speak to its director, Kirsten Komoroske, about Walt Disney - A Magical Life, what they donated for the show and exhibit, and also how Walt’s living family feel about the project.
“Disney told us quite a while ago about Walt Disney - A Magical Life because they wanted to make sure that the family, including Walt's grandchildren, were involved and felt comfortable,” Komoroske said. “And I think that the primary feeling the grandchildren had was that, Walt was so fascinated by the technology and the Imagineers felt like their tech had advanced to a point where they could do this right and do it in a way that really did capture the man as he was in his professional life. There was just a lot of thought given to doing this thoughtfully and respectfully.”
The museum donated over 30 items for this exhibit, including artifcats and furniture used in Walt’s private apartment above the Fire Station on Main Street. Some of these items include a green velvet upholstered rocking chair, glass lamps, and a floral embroidered tilt-top table that have never been publicly displayed at Disneyland before.
There will also be many of his awards and humanitarian accolades for guests to see. A few that caught my eye were his Emmy Award from 1955 for ‘Walt Disney’s Disneyland’ TV show, his Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Johnson in 1964, and even his plaque from the Racing Pigeon Association that honored him for “The Greatest Contribution Ever Made to the Sport of Racing Pigeons” thanks to the 1958 film ‘The Pigeon that Worked a Miracle.’
These items and more will all be part of the exhibit, Evolution of a Dream" that will open alongside Walt Disney - A Magical Life, offering even more a look into the life and work of Walt.
Most importantly, Komoroske shared with me that she believes this exhibit is continuing the legacy of Walt and Diane's mission of preserving his memory.
“Diane really wanted to tell the whole story of her father, who started from very humble beginnings and had some very significant failures, including losing Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and entering into some distribution deals that he ended up on the wrong side of,” Komoroske said. “But she really wanted to show that, despite these failures, he kept going and kept trying new things. He could have hung up his cleats after Mickey Mouse because he was such a success. But no, he wanted to do animated feature films, then he wanted to get into live action, and then he wanted to start a theme park. So she wanted people to be inspired by, it doesn't matter where you start from, it matters how you journey through life. And so to have that message at Disneyland more substantially is something the family is very, very grateful for.”
A Step Back in Time
The Walt Disney we’ll be visiting in this show will be of him from around 1963, as the team took great inspiration from his well-known Fletcher Markle Canadian Broadcasting interview from that year.
“This is when Walt was really at his pinnacle,” Fitzgerald said. “He's got the New York World's Fair shows in development, he's got Mary Poppins, he's got the Secret Florida project, and Disneyland's doing great. He's got all these motion pictures and things, and he just has so much going on, he's so alive, and he’s so excited to share all of this with us.”
As previously mentioned, he’ll be standing in his office and welcoming everyone to learn about his story. This office will be a mix of the actual one he had in Burbank and the office set that was developed for his many TV appearances. Easter Egg hunters will be delighted to know it will be filled with things to look for, including a photo of Abraham Lincoln, plans for Disneyland, and so much more. It’s all meant to feel like you’ve “dropped in and you get to have some great moments with him.”
As for exactly what he’ll be talking about in that office, we’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out. However, the messaging is clear.
"While Walt will begin by talking about his legacy, he’ll end by leaving you with a kind of profound thought," Shaver-Moskowitz said. "He may have had all these amazing achievements over his lifetime in storytelling and animation, but one of his greatest gifts was to understand the simple virtues of life and to connect with people on those. He was a very humble man despite being this titan of the industry, and that's the humanitarian piece of Walt that we're excited to bring forward as well.”
Throughout this entire presentation, there was so much reverence and respect given to Walt’s legacy and doing this the right way. To get a bit more perspective on the project and that side of things, I was also able to speak to Disney historian Jeff Kurtti, who has written over 40 volumes over the past 25 years about Disney and also worked at the company in the past. He is currently Chapman University’s Presidential Fellow, Walt Disney Studies, and he echoed these feelings as well.
“In the intervening decades since Walt's death, there have been no means to consistently present his reality, his persona, and his philosophy to new generations, where he once was an ongoing presence through the weekly television series, interviews, advertising, and so on.” Kurtti said. “This attraction and presentation offer a means for new generations to see and understand Walt Disney as a real person, and not a brand name, and to understand the work and philosophies that still inform the Disney Company today and resonate in world culture.
“Walt Disney as a real person is as absent from the culture of current audiences as Abraham Lincoln is, and as unfamiliar to modern audiences as Honest Abe is. This is an excellent chance to bring Walt into currency and conversation.”
Finally, he said something that really struck a chord with me. What impressed him the most about Walt Disney - A Magical Life is that this was a project The Walt Disney Company “did not have to do.”
“There's no sense of driving attendance or profit with this,” Kurtti said. “There's a sincerity in investing the time, abundant talent, and funding in celebrating the identity and ideals of the founder of the Company, for those who remember him fondly and for new generations.”
This is what gives me the hope that Walt Disney - A Magical Life will reach the heights it is aiming for. Disney is taking all the right steps to preserve Walt’s legacy and present it in a very meaningful way for guests of all ages and for those who aren’t even born yet.
We still have a bit to wait until Walt Disney - A Magical Life debuts at Disneyland to see if it all comes together, but there's a beauty in this part of the process and the show itself that echoes one of Walt's most famous quotes.
"Disneyland will never be completed," Walt said. "It will continue to grow as long as their imagination left in the world."
Walt Disney - A Magical Life will be a complete show, but it won't tell the whole story of Walt or of each individual who walks through those doors. What it will hopefully do, however, is inspire millions to follow their own dreams and show that they can come true. Walt did it, and so can you.
For more on Walt's story, check out our look at how a century of Disney magic began from Disney 100th anniversary.
Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst, Instagram, and TikTok, and listen to his show, Talking Disney Magic.
