Seven decades after the opening of Disneyland Park on July 17, 1955, Walt Disney’s vision continues to inspire the magical touches that fill the park he loved. A new attraction based on the life of Walt Disney, Walt Disney – A Magical Life, debuted at the Main Street Opera House in Disneyland on July 17, 2025.
Guests first experience a cinematic journey through the film, “One Man’s Dream,” culminating in a visit with Walt in his office, made possible through the magic of Audio-Animatronics storytelling.
The Audio-Animatronics figure of Walt Disney is the most lifelike figure that Walt Disney Imagineering has ever created.
Imagineers worked very closely with the Walt Disney Archives and The Walt Disney Family Museum to ensure an accurate portrayal of the details of Walt and his office, ensuring that all of his nuances, his facial expressions, his hand gestures, all those things that made this performance, this theatrical presentation, feel uniquely Walt.
The team achieved innovations never done before in a humanoid figure, such as the first lean-to-stand motion for an all-electric figure, realistic skin through new methods, and a twinkle in the eye.
Imagineering studied muscle structure and the nuances of speaking and gesturing such as how the mouth falls when the figure is speaking, as well as the very Walt mannerisms and movements including the way Walt used his hands.
The technological leaps to achieve these far-reaching ambitions were called “moonshots” within the team that innovated them.
When the curtain rises on Walt’s office, guests hear heartfelt stories, anecdotes and words of wisdom shared by Walt using historical recordings. They encounter him like never before, through a medium he pioneered with his team when they created the Audio-Animatronics figure of Abraham Lincoln. This fitting tribute gives millions of guests a moment of wish fulfilment to feel what it was like to be in Walt’s presence.
