There’s a certain joy that comes with walking into a Disney park anywhere in the world – but it’s hard to argue that any of them carry quite the same weight as Disneyland. This is the original park, the one Walt Disney himself saw open to the world.
As Disneyland celebrates its 70th anniversary – the gates first opened on July 17, 1955 – Disney has released a new documentary you can watch right now from the comfort of your home. Disneyland Handcrafted, now streaming on Disney+ and YouTube, pulls back the curtain on how the park came to life and why that hands-on, detail-obsessed approach still defines Disney today.
Much like The Imagineering Story, the Disney+ series that explored the creation of iconic attractions across Disney Parks worldwide, Disneyland Handcrafted comes from Leslie Iwerks and her team. Fittingly, the documentary itself was made in just one year – the same amount of time it took to build Disneyland – and it offers a rare, unvarnished look at the process.
The film draws entirely on archival material uncovered and restored in close collaboration with the Walt Disney Archives, including raw 16mm footage that had never been shown.
Walt Disney’s early embrace of television meant cameramen were on site throughout Disneyland’s construction, capturing the park as it took shape under intense pressure and tight timelines. There was even a rig on a tall tower where Sleeping Beauty Castle would eventually stand, with cameras capturing a time-lapse.
Decades later, Iwerks and her team painstakingly digitized, restored, and, in some cases, recolored that footage, preserving moments that had been frozen in time.
Running an hour and 18 minutes – available with a Disney+ subscription or, surprisingly, free on YouTube – Disneyland Handcrafted isn’t all pixie dust. It captures the real fear that Disneyland might not be ready in time and doesn’t shy away from the chaos of opening day, when plenty did go wrong. There’s tension, uncertainty, and risk – something that often gets smoothed over in more polished retellings.
Even after one viewing, Disneyland Handcrafted already feels like the kind of documentary that rewards a second. While no Disney+ viewing stats have been shared, it premiered on January 22, 2026 on YouTube and is already at over 87,000 views.
Still, the film lands on something deeply inspiring. These cast members took an orange grove in Anaheim, California, and built an entire Main Street inspired by the early 1900s, created first-of-their-kind rides, multiple lands, assembled a full riverboat off-site and moved it piece by piece, laid down an entire railroad — and yes, they even built a castle.
What makes Disneyland Handcrafted especially compelling now is how clearly it connects to the work Imagineers are still doing today. Many of the ideas that shaped Disneyland in 1955 weren’t limited by imagination, but by what technology – and construction equipment – could realistically support at the time. That same dynamic continues across Disney Parks, and more broadly Disney Experiences, where concepts can live for decades before the technology finally catches up.
Take the Haunted Mansion Parlor aboard Disney Cruise Line’s Disney Treasure and upcoming Disney Destiny. The space brings to life an idea original Imagineers once envisioned for the Haunted Mansion attraction itself – a ghostly aquarium filled with “ghost fish.” It was a concept far ahead of its time, waiting for the right combination of illusion, engineering, and show technology to finally come into existence.
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Or consider the Walt Disney animatronic now on display at Disneyland, a figure that blends storytelling, movement, and performance in a way early Imagineers could have only dreamed of.
From an orange grove in Anaheim to Main Street, U.S.A., from a hand-built riverboat to an entire railroad, the original Disneyland team didn’t wait for perfect conditions – they built anyway. Today’s Imagineers are doing much the same thing, carrying forward ideas sparked decades ago and finally giving them form. Different tools, same ambition.
I’ll have more to share soon, including a full review of Disneyland Handcrafted and a conversation with director Leslie Iwerks about the making of the documentary, what surprised her most during production, and why Disney’s earliest lessons still resonate today.
And with a winter storm bearing down on much of the Midwest and East Coast, Disneyland Handcrafted feels like the perfect watch – a warm, nostalgic trip back to where it all began, best enjoyed from the couch.
You can see the Disneyland Handcrafted trailer above, with the full documentary streaming right now on Disney+ and available for free on YouTube.
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jacob.krol@futurenet.com (Jacob Krol)
