SAN FRANCISCO -- The opening of the Walt Disney Family Museum here offers Disney fans yet another place to celebrate the inventiveness of the man behind some of the world's most popular animated characters, movies and tourist destinations.
The $110 million museum opened Oct. 1 in a lavishly renovated barracks building in San Francisco's Presidio.
Walt Disney's daughter, Diane Disney Miller, and her son, Walter E.D. Miller, said they chose the site to honor the life and work of Walt Disney in part because the Bay Area has become the global center of the animation industry.
While the Walt Disney Co., which owns the intellectual property rights to almost all the pieces in the museum, cooperated in the creation of the exhibits, it was the Walt Disney Family Foundation that funded the museum. It is operated independently from the Walt Disney Co.
An estimated 450,000 people are expected to visit the museum in its first year, said Richard Benefield, executive director.
Admission is $20, with discounts for seniors, students and children (tickets are available online at www.waltdisney.org).
A timed-entry system allows 60 visitors to enter the museum every 15 minutes. The system was designed to prevent crowding at the more popular exhibits, Benefield said. There is no limit to the time allowed inside.
Eighty percent of visitors are expected to be between the ages of 45 and 65, the baby boomer generation for whom Disney holds great nostalgic appeal, Benefield said.
"These are definitely the people who remember Walt Disney for the cartoons and his TV show. It's a walk down memory lane for them. But it also appeals to a broad section of Disney fans who can get really in-depth in the making of the animation, the movies and Disneyland."
The self-guided tour winds through 10 galleries that trace his life from his early years in the Midwest. Museum staffers (several are stationed throughout the galleries to answer questions) recommend that visitors allow about two hours for the museum, though avid Disney and animation fans having been spending four and even six hours there.
Some of the most dramatic parts of Disney's life are found in Gallery 2, which focuses on his struggles after his arrival in California and, after many setbacks, his creation of Mickey Mouse.
Throughout the galleries are screens showing snippets of cartoons, movies and videos of Disney discussing his career, along with interactive displays where visitors can learn more about achievements such as the making of the first Technicolor cartoons.
Disney's first merchandise, including crude Mickey Mouse toys and original art from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," three-dimensional model figures and magazines of the period, are all on display.
The exhibits don't gloss over Disney's setbacks, including a strike in 1941 that closed Walt Disney Studios for several weeks. Visitors can listen to tapes of the House Un-American Activities Committee hearing at which Disney testified that the strike had been an attempt by communists to take over the studio.
Each of the galleries is fascinating in its own way, but the most stunning visually is Gallery 8, where floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlook the Golden Gate Bridge, while the back wall shows Disney's creation of live-action nature documentaries.
Gallery 9 is expected to be the biggest draw. This large space includes a scale model of the locomotive that Disney installed on a half-mile track around his home, a model of Disneyland as Disney first envisioned it and an overview of the last 15 years of his life.
The museum also contains a large gift shop with merchandise unique to the museum, a small cafe and a theater that screens Disney movies three times a day (separate admission fee is required).