While editing Disney+’s “Imagineering Stories,” documentary filmmaker Leslie Iwerks was looking at archive footage and thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just sit in the footage and participate instead of listening to what’s going on?” That idea became the basis for her latest feature, “Disneyland Handcrafts.” This is an inside look at Walt Disney’s dream of building the Happiest Place on Earth, known today as Disneyland, and the artistry and grit it took to create it.
Iwerks focuses on the trials and tribulations of the year leading up to opening day of Walt Disney’s original Magic Kingdom in 1955. The documentary delves into that era using archival footage and investigates what was happening on site during Disneyland’s construction. Unearthed 16mm film reels that were unused during the production of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color and have been sitting in storage for years, along with original audio and video, help tell the story.
She explains that the title came from the editing room. “There were so many shots of hands, and the photographer really focused on the craftsmanship. We really focused on showing that this was hand-forged, hand-made.”
The idea was to tell the story purely through archival footage. Where did you start?
We created a seven-minute proof of concept, but the footage didn’t have audio, so we added sound effects. Sound effects had to be carefully created to bring it to life. It was a whole new layer of reality. We started thinking, “Let’s add some sound bites.” We looked at audio interviews about the construction of the park. And when I started looking into all these interviews, I started to realize that a lot of what people were talking about was about how difficult it is, what the challenges are, how impossible it is, how crazy it is. That became the story we wanted to tell.
A treasure trove of Disney archives. How did you feel when you received that footage?
Disney had scanned this material in 2014. But as far as I know, no one has actually used 2K. I cut it and used it. Once we had a rough cut, we took it to our Santa Monica post house, Different by Design, where they cleaned up the footage and were able to restore some of the footage that had a lot of grain, hair, and lines. There were probably close to 4,000 frames, which I cleaned up by hand.
From an audio standpoint, my first choice was Skywalker Sound since there was no audio. They came to me with a re-recording mixer, Bonnie Wilde. She spent at least a week mixing all this together. They edited and put in sound effects, and every shot was as real as what you saw.
They spent a day working on sound effects. The sounds of footsteps in the dirt, cement being thrown on the ground, the sound of the cement being laid, and rocks. Bonnie said this was one of the most difficult projects she had ever done, and it was even more difficult because it was authentic. It had to be completely authentic.
Going behind the scenes at the Jungle Cruise is fascinating, and you can see not only the animatronic details of the ride, but also how each crocodile’s teeth are hand-crafted and everything that went into building them. Why did we include it?
I saw that video when I was on a jungle cruise. It was fascinating to watch Harper Goff try to put together a rock record. We saw him talk about budgets in interviews, and he wasn’t good at math. These are stories of real people trying to build something but not really knowing, and Walt was able to say, “I actually know what the budget is, and you need to realize that.”
The sweetness of being on that boat is that he’s trying to decide if the people on the boat are getting too wet. It was really cute to see Walt sneaking onto the back of the boat without him knowing. The park’s original DNA becomes visible.
Did you learn anything about Walt while putting this together?
What really struck me about this was Walt’s humility. Early on, when they see him being interviewed, they say, “Well, you’re the greatest genius of all time.” And he says, “Well, I hope I can live up to that.” I just sensed the fear he had at that point that people were overpromising and he was going to disappoint. Setting up the movie this way sets the stage for all the drama that ensues.
In the end, it’s not about keeping a lot of money, it’s about giving it back. It means taking advantage of it. I feel like there are so many genuine lessons that remind us of good values, especially in today’s world.
Did Bob Iger give you any notes about the documentary?
He did. He showed me a great cut and said it was very moving. He liked it so much that he said, “I want to add more conflict.” He was like, “Go deeper and take the conflict seriously.” When I saw him again, I said, “Thank you for the note.” He said, “Oh, I got it. Oh, that’s nice.” We probably would have done that anyway. I was still editing it, so it wasn’t finished yet.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
“Disneyland Handcrafts” will premiere on January 22nd on Disney+ and Disney’s YouTube channel.
