I was invited by Disney on an all expenses paid trip to cover the #HanSoloEvent and #PeterPanBluray. All opinions are my own.
In honor of Peter Pan arriving on Digital Today 5/29 and on Blu-ray 6/5, we had the amazing opportunity to tour Walt Disney’s original office!
Walt Disney truly pioneered the entertainment industry and is an amazing icon now. It is no wonder that all of his belongings were carefully photographed, cataloged, and stored away in the Disney archives. Disney has taken everything out of storage and put it back in Walt Disney’s original office in the exact spot on the Disney Studios Lot as it was when Walt was alive.
Everything in Walt’s offices has been put back in place thanks to lots of detailed photographs to show where everything was. Even the smallest detail is important, curtains, blinds, furniture, all original to Walt. Even the original paper clips and tissue boxes have been put back exactly as they were when Walt was using the offices. Wow!
It was so incredible to get to step into his office and feel all the creativity in the space. We started with a tour of Walt’s formal office, which is where you would enter first.
Then we moved into Walt’s working office which also had a kitchenette which was closable so you couldn’t tell it was there.
As we were touring there was music playing in the background. I particularly remember hearing “Let’s Go Fly A Kite” from Mary Poppins, it was magical.
As we took the tour we learned some fun facts that I wanted to share.
- Walt’s offices are filled with many of the gifts he received over the years.
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Ken Webber designed all of Walt’s furniture including his one of a kind piano, which was played by the Sherman brothers. They played “Feed the birds” from Mary Poppins which was Walt’s favorite song. The only person who has played the piano since Walt’s passing is Richard Sherman.
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Many of the books on the bookshelf were given to Walt as gifts and many are signed by the authors. All of the books were placed back on the shelf exactly as before, even down to the angles they are sitting at.
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Walt’s working office was recreated exactly as before with the exception that it was usually covered in papers and projects. A “creative mess” so to speak.
- Walt loved to collect miniatures.
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The aerial map of Disneyland on the wall of Walt’s working office has red strings showing completed projects and yellow strings showing future projects. For the Haunted Mansion, it says “Future home of 1,001 ghosts” which makes us wonder, what happened to the 2 ghosts? Since there are currently 999 happy haunts residing in the Haunted Mansion today. It has been said that there is always room for one more.
- People have reported flickering lights and there is even a story that once when someone was moving a book on the bookshelf the piano made a “ding”. could it be the ghost of Walt saying hello?
- Did you know Walt loved spam? Yep, for fun, they filled a cabinet in the kitchenette with some of Walt’s favorite easy to make/eat foods. Spam being one of them.
- In Walt’s formal office there are two bird cages with small birds inside. The birds moved and made noise making them a pretty cool back in the day. It is said that they may have provided inspiration for a room at Disneyland. Wonder which? A hint: It’s where “all the birds sing words and the flowers croon”. The Tiki Room!
- Walt used the bag, shown in the picture below, to transport scripts to and from home.
Also in honor of Peter Pan’s release (out on Digital today and on Blu-ray 6/5), we had the opportunity to do a Peter Pan themed scavenger hunt on the Disney Studios Lot!
We were divided into teams and I got team “Smee” and then we set off on a treasure hunt! We had a map and so many fun clues.
Along the way we had to look out for Peter’s shadow, gather pixie dust, and other fun movie themed items.
We had to answer Peter Pan trivia and perform tasks and challenges.
My favorite picture from our scavenger hunt is our recreation of this Lost Boys scene in Peter Pan. Yep, that’s me standing on my head!! It was 5 extra points, I wasn’t going to pass that up.
Another fun part of the scavenger hunt, we played shadow tag. If we saw another team we could tag their shadow for 5 extra points, but be careful cause if they tag your shadow first they get the points.
Another highlight from the tour was that I finally got to see the tunnel that goes between the animation building and the ink and painting building. It was created so that the artists could protect their work from the elements when traveling back and forth between the two buildings.
Team Smee didn’t end up winning, but it was so much fun! I felt like a kid and now I never want to grow up!
Peter Pan is available on Digital Today 5/29 and on Blu-ray 6/5!
