Saturday December 13th 2025, The Walt Disney Family Museum hosted another event celebrating Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary. “Walt Disney – A Magical Life” Event had Walt Disney Imagineering executives Tom Fitzgerald, Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz with The Walt Disney Family Museum’s Executive Director Kirsten Komoroske, hosting a behind the scenes look at what it took to bring the Walt Disney animatronic to Disneyland for the Parks 70th birthday.

The panel covered a lot of information on the project and shared several behind the scenes videos. The Walt Disney Imagineering team paid attention to the small details. Here are some of the highlights noted during the discussion:

• The project took 7 years to complete.
• The Walt Disney depicted in the show is “early 1960’s Walt”
• The lining of Walt’s coat has Steamboat Willie on it.
• Smoke Tree Ranch logo on his tie.
• They wanted to represent the best pieces from Walt’s office in the show.
• Wanted the feeling you dropped in Walt’s office and “Hightlight the man”
• The way guests view attractions has changed. Everyone has cameras that can zoom in.
• Walt’s travel bag in the show was replicated with 3-D scanning and printing technology.
• The Walt Disney Family Museum loaned 30 objects for the show (Furniture, Lamps and awards).
• WDI wanted to know details such as the brand of hair gel Walt used.

Tom Fitzgerald wanted to point out the new pre-show for the attraction. Plans for the park that were missing for a long time were found by the Archives team and are among the ten site plans on display in the opera house. These ten site plans have never been displayed together.

Tom Fitzgerald also noted that the attraction pre-show video is a favorite for him. The video features clips from archived interviews with folks that worked with Walt, such as Bob Gurr, Alice Davis, Marc Davis, John Hench, Floyd Norman, Marty Sklar and more.

A turntable has been installed on the stage that allows the theater to switch between Walt Disney – A Magical Life and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. The Mr. Lincoln Show now has a new background and a rebuild of the Lincoln animatronic figure.

Walt Disney Imagineerers Tom Fitzgerald and Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz signed autographs and took pictures with guests after the program.

Please visit The Walt Disney Family Museum calendar for future events and the Museum online store.

Thanks to David Yeh for helping with photos in this post. Thanks to Caroline Quinn and The Walt Disney Family Museum for inviting us to the Special Event.

The Walt Disney Family Museum continues its celebration of the 70th anniversary of Disneyland with its exhibit – Happiest Place on Earth: The Disneyland Story on display through May 2026.