Walt’s Early Years Raree-Shows
Walt Disney recounts stories from three periods in his childhood as period-inspired cut-outs animate on the stages of these toy theaters.
The first gallery in the Walt Disney Family Museum brings Walt’s early years to life through images, artifacts, documents, and three self-playing animations. Each animation is framed and hung on the wall in the different zones of the gallery devoted to defining the periods and places of Walt’s youth: Kansas City & Chicago, Chicago & Marceline, and France—the places he lived before heading to Hollywood. As Walt recounts episodes in his life, cut-out props, sets, characters and other elements animate across a stage evoking mechanically operated optical amusements of a bygone era. With sound effects and music behind their voices, the playful presentations help visitors vividly imagine some of the scenes that shaped one of the greatest storytellers of all time.