Our team had the pleasure of seeing an early-screening of Disneyland Handcrafted and are over-joyed to share what Disney fans can look forward to later this month! Disneyland Handcrafted is an all-new documentary, looking back at the building of Disneyland over 70 years ago. This one-of-a-kind documentary premiers on Disney+ on January 22nd and is an absolute must-see for any Disney fan.
In collaboration with Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary Celebration, Iwerks & Co. has created an intimate look into the handcrafted details of the year-long construction of “The Happiest Place on Earth”. The documentary feels as if you are living within each frame, experiencing the marvel of Disneyland and the pure wonder and gumption of Walt Disney himself.
Leslie Iwerks, Academy Award and Emmy nominated producer, director, and granddaughter of Ub Iwerks, led the incredible feat of capturing the grit and emotion of Disneyland’s origin. With the help of brain trusts like Tony Baxter, Don Hahn, and Becky Cline, the team utilized Disneyland construction footage that had been sitting on the shelves of the Walt Disney Archives and Walt Disney Family Museum for seven decades.
While it might seem surprising some of this footage has never been released, the format of the film was a monumental undertaking. In 1954, Walt Disney hired a documentary team to film the entirety of the Disneyland construction. The footage is both stunning and cinematic but was originally found out of sequence often without any sort of marker and with absolutely no audio. Not only was the film brought to vivid 2K resolution but George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic assisted in bringing authentic audio to the film. Once you know this fact, it is truly mesmerizing to experience the immersion of audio within each scene.
Disney fans may already know a lot about the making of Disneyland but everyone is guaranteed to walk away from Disneyland Handcrafted with a new perspective. Disneyland construction was only 10% planned out when it began and you can see that impact in the documentary. The way the Imagineers and construction workers used sheer ingenuity to build the Autopia cars, hand-paint stripes on bunting in Fantasyland, and free-hand rock work for the Jungle Cruise is both a labor of love and a shot in the dark. While you may have heard about women’s heels sticking to the asphalt on the opening day of Disneyland, seeing a truck get stuck in the concrete the day before the opening really paints the picture of how impossible of a dream it was to build Disneyland in just one year.
Perhaps the greatest gift from Disneyland Handcrafted is a new perspective of Walt Disney that humanizes him as a leader, dreamer, risk taker, and at times a very vulnerable man. While we often think of his brother Roy as being more practical and financially-minded, the documentary sheds light on Walt’s relationship with money. In fact, Walt always knew exactly how much Disneyland construction cost and what the company stood to lose. Most beautiful of all, sound bites of Walt give us a look into how his success and money only propelled him to dream. In a poignant scene of the Moonliner Rocket being installed in Tomorrowland, Walt talks about money not being something that should be stored away but instead used to spread joy and ignite inspiration.
In a world of instant-gratification, Disneyland Handcrafted is a wonderful reminder that happiness is future proof and the ideals that helped create Disneyland are just as relevant 70 years later. Disney fans will surely smile, laugh, and cry throughout watching Disneyland Handcrafted in what is the most authentic look at the making of Disneyland. The documentary closes with stunning opening day footage of people of all ages enjoying Disneyland. Reminding us of the pure joy that can come from a theme park handcrafted by real people who dared to dream.
Thank you to Leslie Iwerks and her team for creating a timeless tribute to Disneyland that will forever capture the hard work, ingenuity, and hope for happiness guests will enjoy for the next 70 years.
