Disneyland Debuts Walt Disney – A Magical Life

Disneyland is celebrating its 70th anniversary through summer 2026, but there’s a milestone within the milestone. On July 17, Disneyland’s official 70th  birthday, the first-ever animatronic figure of Walt Disney debuts as the highlight of the new “Walt Disney – A Magical Life” show in the Main Street Opera House.

Disneyland is not only Walt Disney’s very first theme park, but it’s also the only one he set foot in, making the Anaheim, Calif. park the right place to introduce the first Walt Disney figure; however, there’s a reason Imagineers waited 70 years to do it.

“This is a huge responsibility,” said Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences, when he announced the attraction at D23: The Ultimate Fan Event in August 2024. “Creating our first Walt figure is an idea that’s been whispered in the hallowed halls of Imagineering for years. We just had to wait for innovation to catch up with our dreams — and we’re finally ready.”

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Walt Disney – A Magical Life

The new show begins with an updated version of “One Man’s Dream,” a documentary-style film tracing Walt’s life from childhood through his early career as a cartoonist, success as a filmmaker, creator of Disneyland and finally to the ambitious "Florida Project" he was working on when he passed away in 1966. The film, narrated by current Disney CEO Bob Iger, also incorporates archival audio recordings that allow Walt to tell his story in his own voice.

Walt’s story and the life lessons he learned — follow your dream, never give up, turn setbacks into success and give the world your very best — are still valid, so we wanted to inspire Disneyland guests, and especially our younger guests, to follow their dreams as well.

“I grew up watching Walt Disney on television,” said Tom Fitzgerald, senior creative executive for Walt Disney Imagineering. “Every week he’d lean on the desk telling us about the exciting things in store, but we realized a lot of people didn't have that connection, and we wanted to bring that to audiences today… Walt’s story and the life lessons he learned — follow your dream, never give up, turn setbacks into success and give the world your very best — are still valid, so we wanted to inspire Disneyland guests, and especially our younger guests, to follow their dreams as well.”

After the film, the curtain opens to reveal Walt himself, casually leaning against the desk in his office at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank and speaking directly to the audience just like he did on TV. It’s a moment that’s surreal, yet also familiar.

“It’s a moment of wish fulfillment,” said Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz, portfolio executive creative producer for Imagineering. “Only a handful of people alive today in 2025 have had that moment of being in the presence of Walt Disney, so to offer that to our guests — and to get to do that on Disneyland’s 70th anniversary — is super special for us.”

And Imagineers knew they needed to get that moment right.

Representing Walt Disney physically was the result of detailed research and partnerships with Walt Disney Archives and The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.

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“Creating a Walt Disney figure was incredibly important and we know we had to do that faithfully,” Shaver-Moskowitz explained. “The Walt Disney archives and Walt Disney Family Museum provided so much information on Walt, the clothing sizes he wore, the specific type of cloth used for his suits, down to the detail of his rings.”

Those rings, according to Kirsten Komoroske, executive director of the Walt Disney Family Museum, were accurately replicated thanks to research that determined the ring Walt wore on his left ring finger was a DeMolay Legion of Honor ring. Items in the office, including Walt's briefcase (with his initials intact), were borrowed from the Walt Disney Archives to be 3D-scanned. Although not visible to the audience, Walt’s jacket lining features a Steamboat Willie print, an homage to “the mouse that started it all.”

“Authenticity was incredibly important to us, and I hope it comes through in the presentation,” Shaver-Moskowitz said.

Imagineers also focused on recreating key characteristics they knew were critical in presenting Walt Disney — and then they figured out how to make an animatronic figure do them, including Walt Disney’s expressive eyebrows and the famous twinkle in his eye.

“Everyone who met Walt Disney talked about the glint in his eye, so we had to figure out how to do that,” Fitzgerald explained.

And once Imagineers learned that the cause of a glint in someone's eye was a corneal bulge, “they replicated a corneal bulge,” he said.

Imagineers also developed new technology for hands and fingers that could recreate recognizable “Walt poses” and a new “lean to stand function” to replicate Walt’s well-known body language from his television show.

While Disney purists may say the figure doesn’t look exactly like Walt Disney — and it doesn’t — Imagineers have captured his spirit, allowing guests to spend a magical moment with the man who created the Happiest Place on Earth.