A new documentary film about how Disneyland almost never happened sat on the shelf collecting dust for years and nearly never made it off the cutting room floor, according to the filmmaker.
A 70-minute rough cut of “Disneyland Handcrafted” sat on the shelf in 2020 as Disney put the project on hold indefinitely, according to documentary filmmaker Leslie Iwerks.
“I was thinking this would never see the light of day,” Iwerks told the Los Angeles Times.
“Disneyland Handcrafted” debuted last week on the Disney+ streaming service and YouTube.
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“Disneyland Handcrafted” was culled from hundreds of hours of behind-the-scenes footage that Iwerks used in the making of “The Imagineering Story” docuseries that debuted in 2019 on the then-fledgling Disney+ streaming service.
“We thought, ‘Why don’t we put this together, put it in chronological order, and see what it looks like?’” Iwerks said, according to a Disney press release.
A craftsman works on the main entrance at Disneyland before the park opened in 1955. (Courtesy of Disney)Iwerks and her team brought the idea for what became “Disneyland Handcrafted” to Disney’s documentary film division and got a green light to develop the project — but the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down most of the world in early 2020 soon put the project on hold indefinitely.
After all, a documentary film about how Disneyland almost never opened in 1955 didn’t make a lot of sense while the Anaheim theme park sat closed for more than a year due to state-mandated pandemic restrictions.
ALSO SEE: Meet the ‘unsung hero’ who helped Walt Disney build Disneyland
Disney Experiences Vice President of Content Creation and Digital Integration Jason Recher. (Courtesy of Disney)Iwerks credits Disney Experiences Vice President of Content Creation and Digital Integration Jason Recher with rescuing and championing “Disneyland Handcrafted” after watching the rough cut.
“‘This is amazing. We should be making this film. This is history right here,’ Recher told Iwerks, according to Fantasyland News. “It really took one person’s vision to see the importance of this project and help bring it to life.”
A craftsman paints a hand-carved detail at Disneyland before the park opened in 1955. (Courtesy of Disney)Iwerks assembled a brain trust of Disneyland experts to review the shelved rough cut of “Disneyland Handcrafted” that included Disney Legends Tony Baxter and Don Hahn and Pixar Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter.
ALSO SEE: Walt Disney was ‘scared’ Disneyland would never be ready for opening day in 1955
“Disneyland Handcrafted” was born out of the Disneyland Movie Nights that Baxter regularly hosted where he screened unedited and silent reels of Disneyland construction from the mid-1950s. The screenings eventually moved to Pixar where Docter watched the “compelling and revelatory” low-resolution footage with his fellow animation studio employees.
“Leslie used this same footage to assemble a visual stopwatch of Disneyland being built,” Docter said, according to a Disney press release.
A craftsman paints a pirate ship at Disneyland before the park opened in 1955. (Courtesy of Disney)Hahn played the role of “story carpenter” as he helped Iwerks weave the human story of Walt’s relentless creativity into the framework of “Disneyland Handcrafted” rough cut.
“My job was to walk the beam with her and help refine the emotional architecture,” Hahn said, according to a Disney press release.
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