It’s hard to believe that 70 years old, one man’s dream became a theme park that eventually launched theme parks all across the world. But that’s exactly what Walt Disney did when he dreamed up Disneyland and created The Happiest Place on Earth, even against all odds.

©Disney

Now, we’ve learned a lot from shows like The Imagineering Story about how Disneyland and its rides were created, but a brand new documentary about the creation of Disneyland, Disneyland Handcrafted, goes even deeper with “the sights, sounds, and first-hand accounts” of those who helped create this iconic OG Disney theme park. Well, we got some NEW details about that documentary recently at a media event.

Disneyland Handcrafted takes a brand-new look at Disneyland’s creation. The movie uses archival footage and soundbites to give a “fly-on-the-wall perspective” of what it was like on the ground while Disneyland was being built.

Disneyland Handcrafted

At the media event, Disneyland Handcrafted director Leslie Iwerks, granddaughter of Disney Legend Ub Iwerks, talked about the film. One of the first things we learned is that much of the footage that was found didn’t have sound, so they had to add sound back in. Fortunately, when Disney made The Imagineering Story, it had a lot of those sound effects, etc., so the filmmakers borrowed from that.

Leslie Iwerks

The idea of the documentary is that the footage you’ll see is day-to-day footage of the people who were there as Disneyland was being created, so that viewers can live through the cameramen who were filming it at the time. One of the most surprising things when watching the documentary is that this is all old footage because it feels like you’re watching a movie that was put together with different angles and shots.

©Disney

There’s also a really great soundbite in the film that Iwerks says is the most impactful piece. It’s where Walt explains that he has little regard for money, but also has plenty of regard for money, and how some people think money is to be stored up in big piles somewhere, but he always thought that it was meant for one thing: doing things. Doing things like building Disneyland.

©Disney

You see, Walt was throwing something at an idea knowing that it could bankrupt him, and he worried about it. But you know what? He did it anyway despite being told by many people that it would never work. Well, joke’s on them 70 years later because Disneyland and Disney World are going strong, and Disney theme parks have been built around the world.

©Disney

However, Walt didn’t deny that building Disneyland and opening it on time was a miracle, as you can see in this clip from the film.

Disneyland Handcrafted launches on Disney+ and on Disney’s YouTube Channel on January 22nd, so mark those calendars!

We’ll keep you updated on more Disney news, so stay tuned to DFB for more.

“The Pressure Must Have Been Enormous on Everybody” — NEW Disneyland Documentary Director and Producer Leslie Iwekrs Spoke with Me About the Film

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Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney to attend their media preview of Disneyland Handcrafted. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ