A Visit to the Walt Disney Family Museum Part 2

Thanks for stopping my to read the second half of my visit to the Walt Disney Family Museum. This fun interactive Museum in San Fransisco holds so much Disney History it was too much for just one post. As you walk through this modern interactive museum you explore Walt's life chronologically, and we continue today in that vein.

Disneyland and Beyond
A New Era

The next galleries are dedicated to the success of the 1930's with the Silly Symphonies. Walt constantly encouraged his animators and musicians to try new things, colors and music. The next gallery is entirely dedicated to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, first animated feature in America made in Technicolor. We got to watch a video of Walt talking about the success of the movie. It was then that the Walt Disney Company started focusing more on features rather than shorts.

Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi were huge hits and a new studio in Burbank, California was built. But then came the time that was the toughest period in Walt's life. In addition to his father dying, there was a studio strike and the United States entered World War II. Walt went on a goodwill tour in South America and starts creating morale-boosting and propaganda films for the war.

Once the war was over, Walt started focusing on live-action films and nature documentaries. Some of the first nature documentaries are the "True Life Adventures" series, which earned Walt nine Oscars.

Model of the Disneyland of Walts Imagination
A True Visionary

Now in the 1960's, Walt's vision grows even bigger and and he starts the Mickey Mouse Club and the "Wonderful World of Color". With funding from ABC, he started buying land for Disneyland under the name WED Enterprises. In this gallery, there are early concept designs for Disneyland and televisions showing episodes of the "Wonderful World of Color" with Walt explaining his vision for Disneyland. Disneyland received over a million visitors in the first 2 months that it was open. In this gallery, there is a model of the Disneyland of Walt's imagination and a model train, since Walt was fascinated by them.

The last gallery focuses on Walt's death on December 15, 1966. The walls are covered with condolences to his family and the studio, in addition to the front pages of newspapers announcing his passing. I couldn't help but tear up again at seeing the drawings of Mickey Mouse and his friends crying. The world truly lost a visionary that day.

All Because of a Man, and a Mouse

If you're in the San Francisco area, a visit to the Walt Disney Family Museum is a must. Prepare to spend hours there, as there is a gift shop, snack shop and even classes for hand-drawn animation and voice-overs.

Do you think that you would like to visit the Walt Disney Family Museum? What part of Walt's Life would you look forward to exploring most? Leave a comment and let me know!