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Disneyland Handcrafted Debuts on Disney+ and YouTube With a Restored, Fly-on-the-Wall Look at Disneyland’s Creation

Built from restored archival footage with period-accurate sound, the 75-minute film immerses viewers in Disneyland’s one-year build using no modern interviews.

Overview

  • The documentary is streaming now on Disney+ and is also available to watch for free on Disney’s official YouTube channel as of January 22, 2026.
  • Director Leslie Iwerks assembled the film from a large cache of decades-old reels in the Walt Disney archives, restoring roughly 50 hours of construction footage to high-resolution color.
  • The presentation avoids talking heads by relying solely on archival visuals and first‑person audio clips to create a cinema vérité, on-the-ground view of 1954–55.
  • Because the original material was shot without sound, period-accurate construction audio was meticulously rebuilt at Skywalker Sound to match the restored images.
  • The film foregrounds the compressed timeline and on-site improvisation of the yearlong build, and Iwerks says its release was championed by Disney+ executive Jason Recher after the completed project had sat on the shelf.