A rare Walt Disney Archives exhibition is coming to Fort Worth, and the city is getting a distinction few others can claim: the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History will become only the second museum in the world to host it. “Capturing Life, Creating Character: The Art of Live-Action Reference” opens in the museum's upstairs Havener Gallery on November 14 and runs through February 14, 2027, giving North Texas families a rare, up-close look at how Disney animators built some of their most famous characters.
The show offers an inside look at the creative process behind Walt Disney Studios' animated films, according to CultureMap Dallas. It was curated and designed by the Walt Disney Archives and is currently on display at the Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center in Anaheim, California, where its initial run wraps up November 1 before the exhibition transfers directly to Fort Worth, per Deep Arrival. The Anaheim engagement marked the show's world premiere on August 8, meaning Texas visitors will be seeing it just weeks after the very first audience did.
Once it lands in Fort Worth, the exhibit will feature 60 photographs and 18 original artifacts pulled from the Walt Disney Archives, including screen costumes, historical production documents, and original artwork, according to WDW News Today. The exhibition also includes videos, interactive pieces, photo opportunities, and an audio guide, per CultureMap Dallas. One highlight is an interactive toy-doll experience that lets visitors explore how falling, spinning, and running affect hair and fabric motion, mimicking the same kind of physical details animators once had to study by hand.
How Dancers and Props Became Cartoon Legends
The whole concept traces back to the early 1930s, when Walt Disney and his studio animators began systematically filming live performers on soundstages so artists could study three-dimensional human movement and translate it into two-dimensional drawings, according to Teo Exhibitions. That technique produced one of animation's most famous real-life pairings: dancers Marge Belcher, later known as Marge Champion, and Louis Hightower served as the original live-action reference models for Snow White and Prince Charming in 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, according to D23.
Jesse Cannady, Senior Manager of Exhibitions & Loans at the Walt Disney Archives, said the exhibit celebrates the pioneering use of character reference in Disney animation. Cannady added that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs redefined animation through creativity, innovation, and storytelling nearly 90 years ago, per D23. Visitors to the Havener Gallery will be able to compare finished movie scenes directly against the real-world footage and objects that inspired them, the museum's upcoming display notes.
The Walt Disney Archives itself has a long institutional history behind this kind of curation. It was founded on June 22, 1970, by chief archivist Dave Smith under the direction of Roy O. Disney, with a mission to collect, index, and preserve historical documents, props, costumes, and creative assets from across the company, according to The Walt Disney Company.
Visiting the Havener Gallery This Winter
The exhibition is included with regular admission or membership to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, so there's no separate ticket needed beyond getting in the door, per CultureMap Dallas. The museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 am to 5 pm and Sundays from noon to 5 pm. Admission runs $16 for adults, $14 for seniors, and $12 for juniors, with children under two admitted free; tickets can be purchased in person or online.
Visitors planning a trip should also know about a recent entrance change. Effective August 11, general visitors and museum members are directed to enter through the Lansford Lane Omni Theater entrance, while school groups use the Gendy Street entrance to help cut down on lobby congestion, according to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. The museum itself has deep roots in the city, having originally opened in 1945 as the Fort Worth Children's Museum before adopting its current name in 1968 to reflect a broader regional audience. Its current 166,000-square-foot building in the Cultural District, designed by Mexico City-based architecture firm Legorreta + Legorreta, opened in November 2009.
More to See Beyond the Disney Show
The Disney exhibition isn't the museum's only major draw this season. Standard admission also includes a permanent three-story World Trade Center steel panel from floors 101 through 103, recognized as the largest physical 9/11 artifact on public display in Texas, as Hoodline reported in a story about an Arlington boy's comic drawings after a TSA friendship at DFW Airport. The museum has also built a reputation for hosting notable traveling exhibitions, having previously brought in Black Cowboys: An American Story before that show moved on to a Dallas run.
For now, it remains unclear where Capturing Life, Creating Character will travel next once its Fort Worth engagement concludes in February 2027. What is clear is that North Texas audiences are getting early access to a touring show that, outside of its Anaheim debut, has yet to appear anywhere else in the world.
