Disneyland unveiled a new marquee attraction starring a robotic version of Walt Disney that has been seven years in development and was delayed several months so Walt Disney Imagineering could continue to work on the Audio-Animatronic figure of the park’s visionary founder.
Disneyland showcased “Walt Disney — A Magical Life” during a media preview on Monday, July 14 in the Main Street Opera House at the Anaheim theme park.
“Walt Disney – A Magical Life” will debut to the general public on Thursday, July 17 — the 70th anniversary of Disneyland’s grand opening in 1955.
Disneyland will use a virtual queue and not offer a standby queue during the initial opening days of “Walt Disney — A Magical Life.”
Disneyland visitors will have two chances a day to join the virtual queue via the Disneyland app — at 7 a.m. before the park opens and again at noon. You’ll need to have already entered Disneyland to join the noon queue.
The new show begins with a 15-minute adaptation of the “Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream” documentary film that has played for more than two decades at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida and has been re-edited for the new Disneyland presentation.
In the short film, Walt tells the story in his own words from his Missouri childhood to the creation of Mickey Mouse, his animation and film career and the opening of Disneyland.After the film, the screen rises to reveal the new animatronic of Walt Disney leaning against the edge of his desk in his office suite on the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank.The show concludes with a two-minute visit with an animatronic Walt as he talks about how he got started, his thoughts on his career and his dreams for the future.
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The project has stirred some controversy with one of Walt Disney’s grandkids concerned about him becoming a “robotic grampa.”
Joanna Miller, the child of Walt’s daughter Diane Disney Miller, started a letter-writing campaign to convince Imagineering to abandon plans to create an audio-animatronic version of Walt Disney.
“The idea of a Robotic Grampa to give the public a feeling of who the living man was just makes no sense,” Miller wrote on Facebook. “It would be an imposter. They are dehumanizing him. People are not replaceable.”
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The Walt Disney Family Museum board of directors — which includes five of Walt’s grandchildren and three of his great grandchildren — support the creation of the new audio-animatronic for the “Walt Disney – A Magical Life” show coming to Disneyland.
Tamara Miller believes her grandfather would have approved of the audio-animatronic being created in his likeness by Imagineering.
“We believe that our grandfather would have been enthusiastic about the project and fascinated by the advancements of the audio-animatronics technology that was first developed during his days at WED (now Imagineering) — a technology that he was always passionate about,” Tamara Miller said in a statement released by the museum.
Disneyland quietly pushed back the debut of “Walt Disney — A Magical Life” by two months from May 16 to July 17 as Walt Disney Imagineering continued to work on the Audio-Animatronic figure of the park’s visionary founder. The original date coincided with the kickoff of Disneyland’s 70th anniversary celebration.
Combining the new displays and exhibits in the Main Street Opera House with the debut of “Walt Disney — A Magical Life” into one moment tied to the 70th anniversary of Disneyland on July 17 delivers the biggest impact and highest quality experience possible, according to Disneyland officials.
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Along with the new show, several new exhibits have been added to the Opera House lobbies that look at the evolution of Disneyland, the history of animatronics and plans for upcoming projects.
The new “Walt Disney — A Magical Life” animatronic show will initially run solo before playing in rotation with “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.”
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The “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” attraction closed on April 16 for an extended refurbishment valued at $5 million, according to Anaheim building permits.
The 70th anniversary celebration of the original Disney theme park is set to run through summer 2026 at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.