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Disneyland Handcrafted World Premiere Q&A with Director Leslie Iwerks 4K
Jan 9, 2026
Director Leslie Iwerks Q&A at the World Premiere of 'Disneyland Handcrafted' at the Walt Disney Studios on December 8, 2026! Read more about this special night and film here: https://dapsmagic.com/2026/01/leslie-iwerks-gives-gift-to-disney-fans-with-disneyland-handcrafted/
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0:04
of Disneyland and Handcrafted. My name
0:06
is Jason Recker. I have the great
0:08
privilege of leading the public
0:09
relations team at Disney Experience. So,
0:10
I get to talk about Disney parks and
0:11
churros all day. It's a pretty cool job.
0:14
But speaking of popcorn and churros, our
0:16
friend Thomas Masam and the folks at
0:17
Disneyland Resort have shipped up some
0:19
churros, some popcorn, some Mickey bars,
0:21
and everything for you afterwards.
0:23
Walt's office will be open for tours,
0:25
which allows you to step back into this
0:27
time period we're about to take you back
0:28
into. So, be sure to check that out. And
0:30
Mickey Mouse will be here. But before uh
0:32
we get started, without further ado, I'd
0:34
like to introduce the chief brand
0:35
officer of the Walt Disney Company,
0:37
Assad Ayans.
0:43
Hello. Great to see you. Welcome to the
0:46
premiere of Disneyland Handcrafted. Uh I
0:49
think it's pretty exciting that it is
0:50
Disneyland's 70th anniversary. And uh
0:54
you know it is uh this film, we're so
0:56
proud of this film because it does such
0:58
an incredible job just showing you what
1:00
it took. And you know Disneyland was not
1:02
always the icon that it is today. It was
1:05
an idea and it took an incredible team
1:08
of artists and craftsmen and dreamers
1:11
frankly to to bring it to life. And I
1:13
think what this film does really
1:15
beautifully is it takes you right there.
1:17
you're there with the orange groves and
1:18
you see kind of what it took to build
1:21
this incredible place and bring it to
1:22
life and um and and you know it was one
1:25
man's kind of impossible dream come true
1:28
and I think uh one thing I also want to
1:30
mention is we have some some some guests
1:32
with us today I want to mention Bob Gerr
1:35
who is uh here who is here with us and
1:39
uh is is the only kind of voice who is
1:42
is with us in this room today and um and
1:45
we're excited to have him here and also
1:48
uh Leslie I works our daughter as Disney
1:53
herself. She is the daughter of Don
1:55
Eyeworks Disney Legend and the
1:57
granddaughter of Disney legend and icon
2:00
of Eyeworks who created Mickey Mouse. Uh
2:03
we also have with us today uh Ju Guu
2:05
Green, also known better known as
2:06
Strawhead Goofy, who is who actually
2:09
started Ju Guu started as a frontline
2:11
cast member at Disneyland and has gone
2:13
on to have an incredible career covering
2:15
the entertainment industry. So Juju is
2:17
going to lead a brief Q&A with Leslie
2:20
for old film. So please welcome Juju
2:23
Green and Leslie.
2:32
Oh my god. Let me hear it, guys.
2:39
Like it.
2:40
Welcome everybody.
2:41
Oh my. This is a big theater, too. My
2:43
gosh. Seeing a lot of familiar faces in
2:46
here. Tiffany, hi. I see you over here.
2:50
Patrick, where's Cleo? Cleo. Cleo, where
2:52
you at? Cleo, there he is. There he is.
2:54
Dimmitri.
2:57
But it's a lot of Disney fans up in
3:00
here, a lot of Disneyland fans. I know a
3:01
lot of people have probably been to the
3:02
parks about a million times. And the
3:04
beautiful thing about Disneyland is that
3:05
it's never finished. Meaning that
3:07
they're always going to see something
3:08
new. But when it comes to this film,
3:09
Disneyland handcrafted. They're going to
3:11
see something no one's ever seen before,
3:13
something that's being brought to life
3:14
for the very, very first time. Leslie,
3:17
can you tell me what is it about this
3:19
footage that's uniquely makes you want
3:21
to kind of like share it with everybody?
3:24
Well, when we first of all, thank you
3:25
everybody for coming. It's so great to
3:27
see everybody. Um, when we were doing
3:29
the Imagineering Story, uh, my editor Mo
3:32
Stoy and producer Mark Catalina, um, had
3:35
the great idea to say, "Let's, you know,
3:38
what if we put this together in a sort
3:40
of an archivally con, you know,
3:42
construed way where you're not going
3:44
away to talking heads and other things.
3:46
You are living in this footage." And so
3:49
what we did was we took all this over
3:51
200 reels of material and almost like an
3:54
archaeological dig, we forensically went
3:57
through each each reel and pulled it
4:00
apart and figured out what was where of
4:02
what time frame each shot was. And these
4:04
cameramen um you know that Walt tked to
4:07
do this to to shoot all this was you
4:10
know they they shot it observationally
4:12
they shot it you know time lapse they
4:14
shot it with aerial footage they shot it
4:17
uh behind the scenes and so all this
4:19
material
4:21
in my you know in my experience I've
4:23
never seen it and I could not believe
4:24
it. So we basically construed it
4:26
constructed it you know in scenes with
4:28
all these wide shots tight shots etc and
4:31
then built it through from from
4:33
beginning to end from the the basically
4:35
groundbreaking up through opening day
4:37
and ultimately uh scoured transcripts
4:42
all over the place to find the best
4:43
sound bites that tell the story of what
4:46
everybody went through and what Walt
4:48
went through to pull this off. and it
4:50
really started to sort of emboss itself
4:52
as like this really dramatic story. And
4:55
so that's what we created. And um we had
4:57
a great team, you know, our archival
4:59
team and our music supervisors,
5:02
everybody that came together to make
5:03
this so great. and also our brain trust.
5:06
Um, you know, who you are, you're in
5:07
this credits, but you know, just thank
5:10
you everybody who who came together to
5:12
make this film to make it so, you know,
5:16
just just rock solid as far as accuracy.
5:20
And the other thing I was going to say
5:21
is that this this was all silent film.
5:25
So, we had when we saw it, we thought,
5:27
"Wow, we got to build a whole
5:28
soundtrack." So we went up to Skywalker
5:30
and Bonnie Wild and Skyw the team at
5:32
Skywalker did this amazing job building
5:34
every single sound effect you hear
5:36
outside of the TV shows. All the
5:38
original footage was all silent.
5:39
Think about that y'all. Every single
5:41
sound effect that you hear was literally
5:44
handcrafted
5:45
and authentically. So I mean we it was
5:47
hand very much handcrafted and all the
5:49
sound effects were really you know
5:50
authentically from the time and a lot of
5:52
work went into this.
5:54
It sounds like a lot of painstaking work
5:55
and I can tell you're getting a little
5:57
emotional right now because you know
5:58
your crew is here, you're here and to
6:00
put in all that work to show everybody
6:02
this, it's a beautiful thing. Uh,
6:04
something that I really want to talk
6:05
about is like the legacy like something
6:07
that you brought up when we talked about
6:08
this uh outside of here was, you know,
6:10
Walt created something impossible,
6:12
right? And he still went out of his way
6:14
to kind of like get a crew together to
6:15
do all these shots and then it took all
6:17
these decades for us to finally see it.
6:19
And it's that legacy that makes this
6:21
such a beautifully told story told by
6:22
yourself and your crew and everyone
6:24
involved. Uh when it comes to the
6:26
legacy, you are deep in into the DNA.
6:28
Your father, your grandfather, legends.
6:31
You're a legend in this space.
6:34
Legend. I'm a legend.
6:36
I'm You're my legend. Okay. I'm sure
6:37
like for a lot of people in here, you're
6:39
the legend.
6:45
Thank you for backing me up there, guys.
6:48
But when it comes to kind of like you
6:50
kind of like growing up in Disney, can
6:52
you talk to me about like how your
6:53
perspective shaped how you told this
6:55
story?
6:56
Well, I mean, you know, when I was
6:58
growing up, my grandfather works um you
7:00
know, co-creator Mickey Mouse and
7:02
designer and and my dad, my mom, and and
7:05
who's here tonight? Uh
7:10
my dad 96 is here with us in spirit.
7:14
he's watching from afar um in Ohhigh.
7:17
But, you know, I grew up around this and
7:19
hearing these stories of my grandfather
7:21
and and just how watching my dad, you
7:24
know, do what he did and all the things
7:26
that he invented and created at Disney.
7:28
It was just such an honor to be over the
7:30
shoulder of him and sometimes come back
7:32
here to the back lot, walk around and
7:34
whatnot, go backstage at Disneyland and
7:35
Disney World. And that was just awe
7:37
inspiring as a kid. And so I think when
7:40
I saw this footage, it was really cool
7:42
for me because I never knew that, you
7:43
know, how Disneyland was created or
7:45
constructed. So, and I often think about
7:47
it like what other place on the planet
7:49
would you want to watch the making of a
7:51
building or or a location, you know,
7:54
like this has more of a fan base than I
7:56
think anywhere in the world.
7:58
We joke about like the Eiffel Tower. It
7:59
doesn't come here to Disney,
8:00
right? It's like this is the happiest
8:02
place on earth that Walt dubbed, you
8:04
know? So, that's this construction and
8:06
it's just more than construction. And
8:08
it's about the the DN the building of
8:10
the DNA of where all this magic was
8:11
created. And he really wanted to create
8:14
the happiest place on earth. He wanted
8:15
people to leave their worries at the
8:16
gate and he wanted to to make people
8:19
leave better as a better person than
8:21
when they when they arrived. He wanted
8:23
to elevate.
8:25
Thank you. And I think that's that's
8:27
what's emotional to me is just to think
8:30
his vision was in his head. The magic
8:32
was in his head. and he mobilized all
8:34
these people, all these engineers and
8:36
crafts people to to sort of follow him
8:39
to to do everything they could to bring
8:41
his dream to fruition. Um when something
8:44
like this was unheard of and people were
8:46
doubting him left, right, and center. So
8:48
um I think it's just a truly
8:49
inspirational story that we can continue
8:52
to build happiness that happiness is is
8:55
not an unforeseen ideal especially in
8:57
today's world and I think we need it
8:59
more than ever and so this film really
9:00
inspires me in that way.
9:04
that
9:06
and something something that you
9:08
mentioned before like you said like with
9:10
when it comes to walls determination to
9:11
see this thing through and to make it
9:13
happen like he did it in what like a
9:14
year some change or something like that
9:16
and
9:16
seven years
9:17
yeah it's crazy like there's buildings
9:19
that take like 10 years to make right
9:21
and we don't even get ordinance and
9:23
codes and things like that
9:24
no you can't even do your bathroom in a
9:26
year
9:29
you said earlier there's potholes that
9:30
can't be done in a year I
9:32
So, next time you guys have a pothole in
9:34
your street, you try to get it taken
9:35
care of by the city and they say, "Oh,
9:37
we can't do it. It's going to take a
9:38
while." You just say, "Walt Disney built
9:40
Disneyland in a year with a box of
9:42
scraps."
9:47
You can do it, too. Um, so when when it
9:51
comes to Disneyland, when it comes to
9:52
this film, when I watched this film,
9:54
because I got the privilege to like kind
9:55
of see it before a lot of people, there
9:57
was a lot of emotions that just kind of
9:58
like washed over me, especially being
10:00
like, you know, a former Disney cast
10:01
member. And I do have like hope that
10:04
like a lot of people are going to be
10:05
feeling a lot of things when they watch
10:06
this as well. But what is it that you
10:08
hope audiences feel when they watch this
10:09
film and they walk out of this? Well, I
10:11
can never, you know, tell people what to
10:13
think, but I can just say that I I
10:15
personally felt a whole new renewed
10:17
appreciation for what Walt Walt's vision
10:19
was and what he wanted and what he went
10:21
through, the all the adversity that he
10:23
went through to make make us all to this
10:25
day experience these parks around the
10:28
world. And to think that this was just a
10:30
dirt lot and then now there's 12 theme
10:32
parks around the world and this was the
10:34
blueprint. This is the DNA for all these
10:36
places. When you think about every
10:37
single minute on the earth, there is
10:41
happiness being created at these parks.
10:43
And these parks aren't just a park. They
10:45
are a place of pilgrimage for millions
10:47
of people around the world. Yearly, if
10:49
not monthly, if not weekly, but
10:51
certainly gener generationally. So, it's
10:54
it's it's not just a theme park. It's
10:56
something that means so much to so many
10:58
people around the world. But I've
11:00
traveled to all these parks and to watch
11:02
how many people experience every single
11:04
moment and take photos and just live and
11:06
breathe these characters in these
11:07
stories. And there's just it's it's
11:09
something beyond just the just the
11:11
parks. And that's Walt's vision is what
11:14
I think I I'm most impressed by.
11:16
Yeah.
11:16
And and then also it's just the fact
11:19
that this film was, you know, a project
11:22
that was a real passion project. And you
11:24
know, one day I showed show showed a
11:26
link with uh Jason Recker here at Disney
11:29
and you know, I said we this is a
11:32
project that needs to get finished, you
11:34
know, and he he saw it and he said, "My
11:36
god, this is great. We need to share
11:38
this." So he shared it with Alana Smith.
11:40
Thank you so much, Alana. And thank you
11:41
to Assad Az for championing this and
11:45
funding it. And ultimately to Bob Iger
11:47
and Josh Tomorrow who who ultimately saw
11:49
it and just and Bob Iger's Bob Iger's
11:53
when he saw it was it's really emotional
11:55
is great but you need more conflict even
11:57
more conflict and I mean what CEO tells
12:00
you that so you know kudos to Bob
12:03
that's great that's great well thank you
12:05
so much keep everyone here
12:09
I think enjoy it thank you so much for
12:11
coming
12:12
and uh to every please give it up
12:17
and I'm going to say that when you
12:20
finish the film make sure you guys keep
12:21
the conversation going talk about it
12:23
online on social media. I know there's a
12:24
lot of social media people out here.
12:26
Talk about it with your friends and your
12:28
family. Go on Rock to Tomatoes, letter
12:29
box, whatever you got to do to get the
12:31
word out on this film, your feelings on
12:32
this film out. We would greatly
12:34
appreciate it. Disneyland Handcrafted
12:35
Premieres on January 20 22nd, 2022.
12:39
That's not a word, is it?
12:41
And yeah. Yeah. On YouTube and Disney
12:43
Plus. Yes. And also big huge kudos to
12:45
the Disney Archives team, Becky Klein
12:47
and her whole team.
12:51
without any not be here. And Becky,
12:55
thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And go
12:56
to Walt's office. It's up there. You can
12:59
go see it after this.
13:01
All right. Well, thank you. Thank you,
13:02
Leslie. Outworks, everybody.
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