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Disney Sets Jan. 22 Streaming Debut for ‘Disneyland Handcrafted’ on Disney+ and YouTube

The feature reconstructs Disneyland’s 1955 build from newly unearthed archives under director Leslie Iwerks.

Overview

  • Disney unveiled a new poster featuring Walt Disney scouting the Anaheim orange grove with Sleeping Beauty Castle faintly overlaid.
  • The film spotlights the one-year construction push to Opening Day on July 17, 1955, honoring the work of hundreds of craftspeople and Imagineers.
  • Producer-director Leslie Iwerks—granddaughter of Ub Iwerks and daughter of Disney Legend Don Iwerks—leads the project.
  • Iwerks’ team digitized over 100 hours of rarely seen archives, including unused 16mm reels, to present an unpolished, fly-on-the-wall view of 1955.
  • A premiere event on the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank is planned later this week, according to reports from fan outlets.