One of the best museums of our California trip. Easy to miss but not to be overlooked - a fantastic place for any fans of Disney or movies in general. Really interesting to learn about Walt from his childhood through to the birth of animation, Disney motion pictures and theme parks. Even has the original drawing of 'Mickey' mouse that Walt drew during a train ride. It's surprisingly large and you could easily spend 2-3 hours here. I would say more for adult movie fans than children although older kids may enjoy it.

This is a quality, thorough and interesting museum, however we experienced INFORMATION OVERLOAD! There is a LOT of reading and after a while we were like 'how much more?!!' Despite finding the story about Walt's life and how Disneyland came to be interesting, I started to feel delirious and skipped bits after about three quarters of the way through. A couple of interesting aspects that stood out were a model of Walt's apartment, an early model of Disneyland and samples of paint colors that are used. (Do not however, hover your camera/phone above the Disneyland model as you will be told off by a staff member!) The museum is housed in a lovely brick building with a cafe and a gift shop. Staff are dressed in formal red and black uniforms and are polite, just like you'd expect at any Disney experience. We purchased our timed ticket on-line before our San Francisco trip and arrived at the museum a few minutes early by ride share. Due to the timed ticket, the galleries weren't too busy. I would suggest going early in the day since there's so much to digest. I would not recommend this museum for children younger than 12, due to the sheer amount of detailed reading and information. I can't fault the museum, but I can't really say I overly enjoyed the experience since there was so much to take in. I feel it could be greatly simplified. If you found this review useful, please click the thank/like.

The name says 'family', but this is not really a family museum, where you will bring children. Currently, the museum is in two parts, and the one relating to Disney animals could be of interest to some children. They had some activities, such as coloring a prepared drawing that might keep a kid happy. Children might react to the various Disney animal characters they have seen in movies or on the TV. But....this is really an adult museum in two parts. The animals are familiar to almost everyone, and the points of interest are how they portrayed the characters and how they animated them. The main museum is a totally comprehensive analysis of the Disney family, focusing on its origins, on Walt, and on the accomplishments of Walt, his relations, the studio, and others. There are some 15 exhibition rooms, not counting the space devoted to the animals. We allocated around 3 hrs total, and we had to cut our visit short. Likely we could have spent 5 hrs overall, given the huge amount of material. Also, this is a museum that relates what Disney and his studio did to society at large. Some painful issues were developed (the strike in the early 50's, the studio's relationship to the HUAC) more than others (almost nothing abut Song of the South). You come away from this experience realizing that Disney was the right person in the right place at the right time to make and to take advantage of some of the best technology of the 20th century and, in some senses, to shape our society as a whole. One comes away amazed at just how much the Disney 'system' has affected our lives.