With just days until the kickoff of Disneyland’s 70th anniversary celebration, Disney has revealed many new details of what will await guests at the Main Street Opera House when “Walt Disney – A Magical Life” debuts for the park’s actual birthday on July 17, 2025.
This information was provided to WDWNT at a special media presentation on Wednesday at Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, California.
Everything We Learned About ‘Walt Disney – A Magical Life’
Outside the Opera House, guests will be greeted by a new marquee with two titles, displaying in the center “Opera House now featuring two dramatic theater presentations!” with A Magical Life above Walt Disney’s name on the left, and to the right, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.
Inside the lobby of the Main Street Opera House, an all-new gallery experience titled “Evolution of a Dream” will display images, artifacts, and art — some never before seen — that show Disneyland before, during, and after Walt’s dream became a reality. Included will be pencil drawings and other concept artwork of the first and secondary preliminary plans of Disneyland.
Disney Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald told WDWNT that these missing pieces were found rolled up in a tube in recent years, and connect the dots between Walt’s earlier plans for Disneyland and what eventually opened to the public in 1955. This artwork will start the journey through the history of the park before splitting off into the five “original” lands.
Imagineering also worked with The Walt Disney Archives to curate relics and memorabilia from these early days of Disneyland, including vintage 1950s merchandise, correspondence, and more. The Walt Disney Family Museum has also selected over 30 artifacts for the lobby exhibit, including furniture and other items from Walt’s private apartment on Main Street, U.S.A. — which have never before been publicly exhibited at Disneyland Park.
Inside the theater, “Walt Disney – A Magical Life” will debut the first-ever Walt Disney animatronic. According to the Imagineers WDWNT spoke with, the attraction has been in development for about seven years, and the robotic version of Walt will feature many “moonshots” as far as technical innovations that will make him unlike any figure guests have ever seen before. Disney says they are pushing the art form and technology of Audio-Animatronics in every way possible to capture Walt’s exact likeness and mannerisms.
In “Walt Disney – A Magical Life,” guests will first experience a 15-minute film presentation of an adapted “Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream,” the documentary that still plays sporadically in Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort. The experience will then culminate in a 2-minute visit with Walt in his office, made possible through the magic of Audio-Animatronics storytelling.
When the curtain rises on Walt’s office (an amalgamation of what many saw on television and his real office in Burbank), guests will hear heartfelt stories, anecdotes, and words of wisdom shared by Walt using historical recordings. These recordings are from several different interviews and the like, but Imagineers are hard at work cleaning the original tracks up and blending them seamlessly together so that guests will feel as if Walt is stating them all in one presentation.
As far as his appearance, the figure was modeled after how Walt Disney would’ve appeared in 1963. Imagineers chose this particular timeframe as it was an exciting one in his life where he had so many big projects in development, from Mary Poppins, to the 1964 New York World’s Fair, to his last great dreams for Walt Disney World and the city of EPCOT.
Walt’s attire was also carefully researched with help from The Walt Disney Studios and The Walt Disney Family Museum, including his suit, shoes, tie, and rings. Imagineers were even able to meticulously craft their founder’s hands as a bronze mold of them was located.
After its initial run, the Main Street Opera House will welcome back “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln,” which will play in rotation with “Walt Disney – A Magical Life.” Using a model, seen below, we were shown how this will work, with a simple turntable allowing Walt and Abraham Lincoln to switch places throughout the day.
Are you excited to see “Walt Disney – A Magical Life” debut later this summer at Disneyland Park? Which aspect of the experience are you most excited about? Share your thoughts with us in the comments and on social media.
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