The Walt Disney Family Museum — Attraction in San Francisco

The Walt Disney Family Museum is a beautifully designed museum. It was funded by the Disney family and while it centers on the history of Walt Disney and his building of his empire, it also features an abundance of information about his creative process and the all the characters, movies, TV shows, theme parks and technological innovations he invented ... as well as his family's history, his properties and his own personal character.

The museum itself is thoughtfully designed. It begins with Disney's childhood in the Midwest and initially the appearance of the museum is extremely straightforward ... almost ordinary. But as one continues along, the museum becomes more and more innovative and features more and more interactive possibilities. It is sneakily on two levels, hiding the fact that it is quite large. As one moves on to the "Golden Era" of Disney ... the time when he began having large success with feature-length animated films like Snow White and Pinocchio ... the museum becomes more robust in its lay-out. There is no want of information as the museum provides a wealth of data on Disney's business dealings and his creative process. You'll be confronted with the intricacies of the multi-level animation camera and the pigmentation of Technicolor film. The museum does not shy away from some of Disney's more controversial aspects -- such as his fight against the animators union and his distaste of unions in general. Yet it also highlights Disney's partiotic crusade against Nazi Germany as well.

Following this period -- from WW2 into the early Fifties and Disney's first foray's into television and South American inspired films -- and a room full of extraordinarily interactive booths -- there is a wonderfully visual break from the hyper inside quality of the museum and takes the visitor along a corridor where one entire wall is glass and looks out over the Presidio, the Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge, providing ample sunshine and warmth.

At that point, the museum takes the visitor into the final large ampitheater where a spiral walkway descends through a three-story high area full of visual wonders, including a scale model of Disney World and an animatronic parrot that visitors get a chance to operate. It is a stunning finale to a museum of extraordinary depth of information and stunning visual treats. There are presentations of little known Disney lore ... such as his love of trains and his exquisite "steamers" ... rideable scale model trains that were built on his Hollywood Hills property and his visits with friend and surrealist painter Salvador Dali.

I would like to take just a minute to address some of the negative comments featured in some previous reviews ... only because they present some decidedly erroneous information. While it is true the museum features a lot of information about Disney building his business, and you may very well find this information boring, it is by no means the sole content of the museum. And while the amount of fun any person may have or not have here is entirely subjective, the assertion that there is nothing interactive nor are there any Disney characters here is simply not true. If by characters, one is referring to the live mascots one will come across at Disneyland, then no. It is not a theme park. It is a museum. However, there is an abundance of presentation of most of the Disney characters, often with the background information of how they were invented. Mickey Mouse especially is shown visually how he was created (from a previous character named Oswald the Rabbit that Disney lost the copyright to) and how Mickey evolved over the years. As for interactive materials, this is one of the most interactive museums I have ever been to -- coming close to the splendor and inventiveness of the Winston Churchill area of the Cabinet War Rooms museum in London.

It would be a shame that anyone or any family might miss this fabulous museum for simply taking one or two error-laden reviews...

It's a wonderful place to visit, the birthplace of our 80's and 90's childhood cartoons. Wow! I really felt amazed to see the imaginative person Walt Disney had been to have an idea and think of creating such memorable cartoons. This museum shows the start of an endless journey of Disney and Disney World. The museum itself is designed in such a way that it articulates the flow of work, design, projects, affiliations, movie making, sound designing, and picturizing a cartoon world. Such an inspiring person he is. The museum was well-maintained, and the service - starting from the entrance greeting, opening doors, navigation to registration, and support in every place - is extraordinary. This proves how disciplined the work was and the process to maintain the quality of the work. All the artifact displays are arranged in an order to explain the work of art. I felt that this is a little too much for kids under 10, as they may not be interested in all the write-ups. They just provided a couple of scavenger hunt game sheets, and at least a gift for finding the scavenger hunt would have been reasonable for the $15 charge. The cost of admission is a little high for kids above 6, but we expected some fun things for my 8 and 2-year-old, but they were disappointing. This place is specifically for kids who know about the creator and creations of Walt Disney. To that point, I recommend changing the pricing structure only for youth above 12 and adults. Overall, it's a good place for a one-time visit. Parking is available for a charge. The facility is maintained so well. Nice place to visit. But please rethink if you have kids less than 10 years old. They may...

I think the museum is absolutely worth your time and money if you’re interested in Walt Disney’s life or if you’re a fan of Disney. The museum was so much bigger than what I imagined, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing!

However, one thing that I didn’t like so much was the amount of text you had to read. There was so much information that I couldn’t really keep up with it, but a lot of the information was also interesting at the same time. I don’t, however, think you need to read exactly everything if you doesn’t want to. That’s entirely up to you.

Most of the staff was really nice and happy that we were there. The staff in the gift shop was especially really sweet and cheerful. However, there was one staff member that “guarded” the miniature Disneyland inside one of the rooms was not so service-minded. One think that bothered me was that she treated people differently. I wasn’t treated badly, but it bothered me when I saw other people and my friends being treated differently than some other people. For example, some weren’t allowed to take pictures over the railing but a couple of seconds later a few other people were allowed to do that - or so it seemed, because she just looked at them and didn’t say anything. There was a few more similar situations, but I think you get the overall idea. It would’ve been absolutely fine for her to let people know what they are and aren’t allowed to do, but she should’ve treated everyone the same.

Overall I’m quite pleased with my visit and would absolutely recommend it to one of my childhood friends who’s absolutely in love...