In honor of Disneyland’s 70th anniversary, a brand-new attraction “Walt Disney – A Magical Life,” opens at the Opera House on Main Street, U.S.A on July 17, 2025. This exciting experience offers an immersive look at the man who led the charge with innovative Audio-Animatronics® technology. Debuting alongside this new attraction is “Evolution of a Dream,” an exhibit featuring more than 30 of Walt’s personal artifacts on loan from The Walt Disney Family Museum. Together at Disneyland, they share Walt’s inspiring story like never before. The Walt Disney Family Museum and its Board of Directors would like to express support and admiration for the work that The Walt Disney Company has devoted to creating the new "Walt Disney – A Magical Life" attraction and its debut of the Audio-Animatronics® figure of Walt Disney.
Walt Disney Imagineering invited museum Board members—five of Walt Disney’s grandchildren and three of his great-grandchildren—to view the progress of the attraction’s development, which included a preview of the new Audio-Animatronics figure of Walt in its animated form.
Chris Miller—Walt Disney’s oldest grandson and a member of the museum’s Board of Directors—was among those who previewed the figure at two stages of development. “I watched the show with my sisters Tammy and Jenny and the Imagineering team welcomed our feedback,” said Miller. “The level of innovation and technological advancement has exceeded anything that has been seen before in Audio-Animatronics. While our family has our own memories of Walt as our grampa, we left the presentation feeling confident that he will be depicted in the show as the public remembers him from his introductions on the Disneyland and Wonderful World of Color TV series.”
“It was an honor to be welcomed by Imagineering to preview the ‘Walt Disney – A Magical Life’ attraction. Having this representation at the park that Grampa built is the right place for this, to educate people about who he was and introduce him to new audiences,” added Tamara Miller, Walt Disney’s granddaughter and vice president of the museum’s Board of Directors. “This attraction is a great opportunity for an audience to get a good representation of him. We believe that our grandfather would have been enthusiastic about the project. I look forward to having my children and grandchildren see this representation of my grandfather.”
As part of their research, the Imagineering team visited The Walt Disney Family Museum. “We were walking at The [Walt Disney] Family Museum,” recalled Walt Disney Imagineering Portfolio Executive Creative Producer Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz. “And they said, ‘You know, we have this bronze casting of his hands.’ We don't have Walt here to do a life mask, the way he used Abraham Lincoln's life mask to create Lincoln. We have a lot of photo references and things like that, but to actually have a casting of Walt's hands was extremely helpful. All of that—the layers and layers of care and documentation and information that we had access to try to make this the most authentic presentation of Walt—was everything to us.”
Walt Disney Imagineering also reached out to The Walt Disney Family Museum team for guidance in identifying items that Walt Disney regularly wore. Notably, a prevailing mystery was whether Walt wore a wedding band, and if so, what it looked like. Only his Claddagh ring—a traditional Irish ring originating from the 17th century—on his right hand was known. Another band occasionally worn on Walt’s left hand was rarely visible in archival photographs.
Museum researchers discovered that Walt, in fact, did not wear a wedding ring—men sporting wedding rings would not be popularized until the 1940s following WWII. However, in the 1930s, Walt was presented with a Legion of Honor ring from the Order of DeMolay, featuring DeMolay emblems around the band. Walt proudly wore this gold ring on his left ring finger throughout the rest of his life, and it can now be seen on the new Walt Disney Audio-Animatronics figure. The original Legion of Honor ring and DeMolay Founder's Cross are currently on display in the Awards Lobby of The Walt Disney Family Museum.
The museum and the Walt Disney Family Foundation also provided Disney family home movie footage and archival interviews for the film accompanying the “Walt Disney – A Magical Life” attraction.
Among the more than 30 objects the museum has loaned to the accompanying exhibit, “Evolution of a Dream,” are artifacts and furniture originally used in Walt’s private apartment above the Fire Station on Main Street, U.S.A. The special award collection celebrates Walt’s humanitarian efforts that include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Contributions to Worldwide Support of Conservation Award from the San Diego Zoological Society, and an Emmy® Award for Best Producer for the Disneyland television show. Objects on display include a green velvet upholstered rocking chair, glass lamps, and a floral embroidered tilt-top table—all of which have never been publicly exhibited at Disneyland before.
“The expertise and care that Walt Disney Imagineering has devoted to this project is nothing short of remarkable,” says the museum’s executive director Kirsten Komoroske. “Diane Disney Miller was driven to create The Walt Disney Family Museum to not only honor her father, but to also expose the public to the extraordinary—and real—man behind the globally impactful brand. We are endlessly grateful to The Walt Disney Company for their exceptional and considerate efforts to make Walt an integral part of the park experience. I think that Walt would be thrilled with the blend of cutting-edge technology and artistry, and I think that he would be touched by the tribute.”