Disneyland is the first Disney Park and the only one that Walt Disney lived to visit, and even sleep in. I’ve visited his tiny apartment located above the Fire Station with its even tinier bathroom and its really tiny shower. It looked like any shower plan involved walking into and then backing out of the compartment. Walt’s apartment is located across Town Square, and the main windows look out toward the Opera House where the new show honoring Walt has opened. “Walt Disney, A Magical Life” celebrates both the man and his work and it is timely because there is generation who is not all that familiar with the man or his work.
The Disneyland Opera House has had several different lives. Built as a lumber mill and carpentry shop, it then showcased sets from the Disney film “Babes in Toyland”. Next came the Lincoln show that premiered at the 1964 World’s Fair which went through changes and revisions over decades. The changes occurred while the Disneyland telephone switchboard team worked on the floor above the man from Illinois.
President Lincoln was nearly replaced by the Muppets and was replaced for a time for the film “The Walt Disney Story”, which didn’t last long in the Opera House.
The Walt Disney Story on Main Street.
I have experience creating a show celebrating Mr. Disney because I was the Creative Lead for “One Man’s Dream”, which was part of the ‘100 Years of Magic” celebration at Walt Disney World. During the design and production, I discovered that delivering a show about Walt Disney is harder than it might appear. Everyone has their memory of Walt and people soon started picking at the show presented.
The new show in Disneyland employes advanced figure animation, projection technology and important exhibits, but as with the earlier shows about Walt people have found fault. “The sound is odd, the face is too fat, and the mustache is too thick” are among the comments.
The guests making the comments are both correct and wrong in their opinions, and the company Walt and his brother founded will need to accept that this show is an example of the old adage that you can’t please everyone. Sometimes you can’t please anyone, but congratulations are due to the team at Imagineering for trying.
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