Walt Disney – A Magical Life

[JohnD]

Laughing Place has shared more details from an early preview of Walt Disney – A Magical Life:

How Imagineers Made Walt Disney – A Magical Life a Reality

It's clear that great care and consideration went into creating the upcoming Disneyland attraction.

www.laughingplace.com

“Walt Disney – A Magical Life” to Feature Tweaked Version of “One Man’s Dream” and Disneyland History Exhibit Upon Opening

We found out plenty of new details about the brand-new show, which debuts on July 17th, 2025.

www.laughingplace.com

This would be awesome to bring to the One Man's Dream exhibit in HS. They said the DLP shows begins with a tweaked version of the show from DHS. In DHS, they would need to add the Walt AA which presumably would be shown after the screen for the short movie is lifted and curtains are parted. One can "dream", right?

 

[luv house of the mouse]

So my question is why they didn't go with a Hologram? The ones I have seen in person look like the person is right in front of you.

 

[Phroobar]

So my question is why they didn't go with a Hologram? The ones I have seen in person look like the person is right in front of you.

Disney likes to do things the hard way I guess.

Any idea if Walt will be walking around like the Frankenstein monster does at Epic Universe?

 

[SuddenStorm]

So my question is why they didn't go with a Hologram? The ones I have seen in person look like the person is right in front of you.

Part of Disneyland is marvelling at the technology. A state of the art animatronic will be far cooler to witness then a CGI generated Walt hologram.

Assuming this one isn't built by the people that built Finale Tiana....

 

[TheCoasterNerd]

So my question is why they didn't go with a Hologram? The ones I have seen in person look like the person is right in front of you.

Because an animatronic (3d, opaque, full range of motion, etc) will always look more realistic than a hologram (usually 2d or less detailed 3d, often translucent, etc). Plus it’s actually probably cheaper

 

[D.Silentu]

I think a part of it is that it would seem incongruent with the Lincoln figure that has been there so long. Especially apparent once the old and new shows go into rotation

 

[J2B]

Had a feeling the opening date would be July 17th.
Very befitting, and makes sense.

Still have mixed feelings about this…Walt AA.
But also admit I am curious to see how lifelike a figure they construct.
Just hard to know how to feel when I know this is something he never wanted to see happen.
Hopefully this will be done tastefully.

We shall find out in a few months…

-

it's a heated debate over on MiceChat.com As I understood it, Walt did-not-want an animatronic of himself. That would be all I needed to hear to not push forward

 

[Parteecia]

it's a heated debate over on MiceChat.com As I understood it, Walt did-not-want an animatronic of himself. That would be all I needed to hear to not push forward

Walt should've thought of that before he created a theme park that did it to others without their permission.

 

[Comped]

it's a heated debate over on MiceChat.com As I understood it, Walt did-not-want an animatronic of himself. That would be all I needed to hear to not push forward

A couple of people I've known who worked with Walt have confirmed this.

Theme Park Insider had a very interesting quote from a high level Imagineer I'd not seen elsewhere:

"We have a whole generation of guests and cast who don't know about Walt Disney, the man. They know the name and Disneyland, but to be able to keep his story as a permanent story at Disneyland - the only park that he ever walked in - is extremely important to us," Walt Disney Imagineering Executive Producer Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz said.

Did those CMs fall asleep during the part of Traditions when they talked about Walt and the company's history?

 

[D.Silentu]

Regarding cast members knowing little about Walt, I can see how they got there. Sure, they got a history lesson when they started the job. Yet, however many hours that training course was, it is pitted against a wider public perception of the man that is really soup to nuts. On the one hand you have the company's 'Uncle Walt' who wavered from saccharine patriarch to genius depending on the day. Then there's that public 'too good to be true' version, where he is the poster boy for virtually every politically incorrect fault of his generation and occasionally a Third Reich sympathizer, depending on who you ask. Edgy animated comedies have had a role in perpetuating that Walt, which for many adolescents is probably their first education on him. As I understand it, Disney was somewhat mythic in his own day, so it seems understandable that there are so many iterations of him in public consciousness. Undoubtedly 'Walt Disney: A Magical Life' has at least a partial aim to ground these perceptions by presenting a tangible version of the man. If the comment section on an article I read recently about this project is any indication, they have their work cut out for them.

 

[PiratesMansion]

A couple of people I've known who worked with Walt have confirmed this.

Did those CMs fall asleep during the part of Traditions when they talked about Walt and the company's history?

It was very clear that Walt didn't want himself represented in the parks, but let's be real here, very few people are getting a solid education on who Walt Disney was as a person, what he stood for, what he did, and so on. If anything, they're getting the patently false narratives (he was an antisemite, etc) second or thirdhand from the internet.

Times have changed, and the narratives currently filling the internet are largely inaccurate. If the company wants to address that, this is about the best way they could do it IMO.

RE: the cast, unless anyone here has been through traditions recently, we have no way of knowing how much they were actually taught about Walt Disney, the man. The consensus seems to be that the entire program is a shell of what it once was, so it wouldn't surprise me if the company just isn't delivering the info that it used to. Even when there was more thorough training involved, they probably didn't need as much info on Walt himself because it hadn't been as long since he had been alive and a lot of it was likely common knowledge.

 

[Parteecia]

They seem to have justified it to themselves.

It 'keeps Walt alive in the medium he pioneered': Imagineers defend new Walt Disney robot

A lifelike robotic Walt Disney will soon be unveiled at Disneyland. But the animatronic has raised ethical questions on whether such creations are exploitative.

www.latimes.com

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

Anyone expecting this to be a grounded or true to life take on Walt I think is going to be disappointed. While it may not be as fluffy as it could be, I can bet they’re still wanting to present Uncle Walt like they always have. It is not in Disney’s best interest to depict Walt as he really was. That is not to imply he was an awful nasty person, but he was a complex one and that complexity is not always friendly to an audience who is meant to view him as a sort of company mascot these days.

 

[mickEblu]

Anyone expecting this to be a grounded or true to life take on Walt I think is going to be disappointed. While it may not be as fluffy as it could be, I can bet they’re still wanting to present Uncle Walt like they always have. It is not in Disney’s best interest to depict Walt as he really was. That is not to imply he was an awful nasty person, but he was a complex one and that complexity is not always friendly to an audience who is meant to view him as a sort of company mascot these days.

It’s a 10 minute show. How deep can they possibly get?

 

[MisterPenguin]

It’s a 10 minute show. How deep can they possibly get?

By minute 8, we'll be seeing the effects of a lifetime of smoking as the AA starts breaking down.

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

It’s a 10 minute show. How deep can they possibly get?

Not at all, but that’s what I’m saying.

People were talking above about this show maybe reorienting people’s view of Walt and I’m saying it won’t. It can’t and I don’t know that it’s intended to either.

It’s gonna be the same fictionalized Uncle Walt stuff it always is. Not just for time, but also because the company isn’t interested in presenting him any other way.

 

[Disney Irish]

Anyone expecting this to be a grounded or true to life take on Walt I think is going to be disappointed. While it may not be as fluffy as it could be, I can bet they’re still wanting to present Uncle Walt like they always have. It is not in Disney’s best interest to depict Walt as he really was. That is not to imply he was an awful nasty person, but he was a complex one and that complexity is not always friendly to an audience who is meant to view him as a sort of company mascot these days.

Walt had a public image and I expect they will be showing that public image, the same "Uncle Walt" as was shown to the public on TV, no more no less.

 

[Disney Irish]

Not at all, but that’s what I’m saying.

People were talking above about this show maybe reorienting people’s view of Walt and I’m saying it won’t. It can’t and I don’t know that it’s intended to either.

It’s gonna be the same fictionalized Uncle Walt stuff it always is. Not just for time, but also because the company isn’t interested in presenting him any other way.

This is oversimplified. None of Disney's edutainment shows in the Parks were ever deep dives into the topics, as there is never time in a 10-15 min show to get very detailed.

The idea of reorienting people's view mentioned by the poster was meaning that its meant to be the counter argument to the many falsehoods listed on the internet, ie bring that public image of Walt back into the public consciousness that has mostly gone away over the decades.

 

[mickEblu]

Not at all, but that’s what I’m saying.

People were talking above about this show maybe reorienting people’s view of Walt and I’m saying it won’t. It can’t and I don’t know that it’s intended to either.

It’s gonna be the same fictionalized Uncle Walt stuff it always is. Not just for time, but also because the company isn’t interested in presenting him any other way.

I wouldn’t say it’s fictionalized. It was his public persona which is what people want to see. The Walt from the Wonderful World of Disney and early days of Disneyland. Nobody wants “Argument with Lilian in the kitchen” Walt as far as I can tell.

How else should they present Walt in a 10 minute show at Disneyland?

 

[truecoat]

By minute 8, we'll be seeing the effects of a lifetime of smoking as the AA starts breaking down.

Welcome to a little bit of...*wheeze* Florida here in California. This is where the early planning is *cough* *cough* taking place for our so-called Disney World project *labored breath*. Now the purpose of this film *cough* is to bring you up to date about some of the plans for Disney World *cough* *cough*. But before I go into any of the details *wheeze*, I want to say just a word about the *cough* site *cough* for *cough* our Florida project.