Nearly 60 years after his death, Walt Disney has returned to Disneyland.
Romantics might argue that Walt never left his land, as his spirit continues to inspire countless fans and creators to this day. But it has been nearly 59 years since anyone has been able to see and hear Walt in his original theme park. Only filmed images persist, showing Walt in the Disneyland of the 1950s and 60s.
But starting this week, Disneyland visitors will be able to see Walt in the Disneyland of today. Walt Disney Imagineering has recreated the company's founder in Audio Animatronic form. On the same Disneyland Opera House stage where Disney's original Audio Animatronic figure of Abraham Lincoln once stood, Walt now holds court in "Walt Disney - A Magical Life."
I will entertain no ethical argument over whether The Walt Disney Company should have recreated its founder in animatronic form. Walt commissioned an animatronic of Abe Lincoln, who had been dead for less time when Walt was born than now Walt has been today. So what's fair for Walt to do is now fair for his creative successors at the company.
The only question is whether Disneyland has better stories to tell than that of its founder. The answer to that is, "Yes. Of course!" And Disneyland is filled with them. But Disneyland has not yet reached a limit where adding attractions and telling new stories is a zero-sum game. Even the current Lincoln animatronic that has occupied the Opera House has been installed on the other side of a turntable with Walt, allowing "Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln" to play in tandem with Magic Life, at some point.
So why not invite Disneyland's founder to introduce guests to Disneyland's backstory, just steps from the entrance to the park? Disneyland previewed the new show for invited reports this morning, in advance of its public debut on Thursday.
"Walt Disney - A Magical Life" begins with the "One Man's Dream" movie that has been showing for nearly 24 years at Walt Disney World. There's nothing new there for long-time Disney fans, but new fans may appreciate this opportunity to learn who Walt Disney was and how he started in this business, before meeting him face-to-face, at least in animatronic form.
"I grew up watching Walt Disney on television like millions of Americans, and every week he would come into our living room and he'd be leaning on the desk and telling us all about the exciting things that were in store for us," Walt Disney Imagineering Senior Creative Executive Tom Fitzgerald said. "But we realized that a lot of that was long ago, and a lot of people didn't have that connection with them and don't understand that Walt Disney was a person, as well as, obviously being a company, so we really wanted to sort of bring that connection of what we felt growing up with Walt, to an audience today."
When the movie ends and the screen raises, we see Walt in his Burbank office, leaning in front of his desk, fingers drumming as the voice of Bob Iger introduces him.
"As we were putting the show together, I thought, you know, I think [Walt] would be slightly embarrassed by this long lead-in of Bob Iger saying all of his achievements," Fitzgerald said. "And I remember Marty Sklar saying, you know, if you were in a meeting and you saw Walt's fingers start tapping, that meant he was impatient. So we asked the animators, while this is could you have Walt start tapping his fingers like, 'let's get on with it.'"
That's just one of the many details that Imagineers brought to this figure, which presents Walt as a far more friendly and less intimidating person than I imagined a person of his many accomplishments would be. This is a person with a literal twinkle in his eye.
"Everyone who met Walt Disney talked about seeing that glint in his eye, and we said, 'we have to figure out how to do that,'" Fitzgerald said. "The wonderful thing about Walt Disney Imagineering is that we have groups that say, 'well, let me figure that out.' And they figured out that the reason we get that little glint in our eye is because what's called a corneal bulge. Physically, our figures have not had that before, so they replicated a corneal bulge. So now when you look at them, you get that glint in the eye, which is amazing."
The three-minute encounter left me wanting more, to spend more time in the presence of an individual who has such creative and emotional influence on countless lives. But that is the magician's greatest trick - to leave you astonished, amazed and wanting more.
"Walt's story is an inspiration, and we wanted his story to be able to inspire our Disneyland, guests, especially our younger guests for them to follow their dreams as well," Fitzgerald said. "We have a deep love for Walt Disney and what he gave to us and so we're trying to give that back."
Before the show, Walt Disney Imagineering, the Walt Disney Archives and the Walt Disney Family Museum have collaborated on a new exhibit that offers a large collection of Disneyland concept art...
Items from the museum collection, including the original furniture from Walt's Town Square apartment...
And a display of groundbreaking Audio-Animatronic technology.
After the show, Disney has redecorated the exit hallway to include historic photos of Disneyland cast members as well as concept art of upcoming Disneyland attractions.
Walt Disney - A Magical Life will use a virtual queue when it opens Thursday, July 17 - the 70th anniversary of the opening of Disneyland.
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I have absolutely no issue with WDI presenting Walt in AA form, but it should actually look and sound like Walt, which is where the comparison between this and Great Moments of Lincoln looses traction. Most people alive when DL opened had never heard or seen a live moving image of Abraham Lincoln. That just isn't the case with Walt Disney (or many of the modern Presidents appearing in HoP), who has thousands of hours of film and video footage to review how he moved and spoke. It's one thing to butcher or caricature a US President (particularly ones with divided popularity), it's another to do that to the man that essentially invented the art form in which he is presented here. My guess is that the delay in debuting this attraction was because the figure was not up to standard, which I find concerning that this version that looks about 2 generations too soon is right on the edge of being grating - one could only imagine what this looked like a couple of months ago when this was originally slated to debut.
I don't think you're ever going to have a perfect presentation in this format, but I think there will be a lot of Disney fans out there shaking their heads at this likeness, which simply misses the mark.
@Beacher
They used actual archival audio of Walt Disney for his animatronic...
That’s meant to be Walt? Yikes! Maybe it looks better in person? Actually, nope. I’ve just watched a longer video with more close up’s. How did that face get the thumbs up for accuracy?!
@FredS - Thanks for explaining. There's something about the quality of his voice that seems off but maybe it just seems that way because the visual is so wrong.
One more note about Walt's gestures in the show. You notice how he keeps putting his left hand behind his back? That was when he was hiding his cigarette from the cameras IRL.
The figure looks more like the MyPillow guy than Walt. I hope they do some slight adjustments prior to opening. Maybe reduce the eyebrows a bit?
The technology here is crazy. I’m assuming that the amount of complex AA’s required for the head and face movements are the reason why his head looks disproportionately larger than his body. I’m warming up to it the more I see it. Great pains were clearly taken to get this right so I applaud the effort. It kinda gives Robert De Niro as Walt vibes a little, no?
This is a miss.
What a shame because this has potential to be truly revolutionary - the chance to actually SEE Walt Disney as if he was living and breathing.
Not sure what happened here - we’ve seen incredible advancements/achievements in the realism and fluidity of AAs from Imagineering over the past decade.
I’d think that a AA of Walt Disney himself would have the ambitious goal of setting an unthinkable Gold Standard in what is possible for an AA to achieve in human form. Sadly, this wasn’t the case… hopefully in 5-10 years time they’ll get there.
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I just saw a video of this new presentation. The movement and fluidity of the animatronic is extremely impressive. Maybe the best I've ever seen. However, the figure barely looks or sounds like Walt Disney. (Am I wrong?)