Animatronics are pretty cool — but how far would you go to get your hands on one? What about from Disneyland? Would you break in? Trespass? Try and sell them for big cash online?
Stolen Kingdom touches on all of this and more.
Directed by Joshua Bailey in his feature debut, this documentary dives headfirst into the weird, wonderful, and genuinely criminal underbelly of Walt Disney World fandom. At the center of it all is one question that’s haunted the Disney community for years: who stole Buzzy?
The film premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in early 2025 and went on to play Slamdance, open the Florida Film Festival, and sell out screenings throughout the year. The score comes from Brendan Canty of Fugazi.
The film is out in theaters May 21st and hits VOD on June 16th. Check out the trailer above!
Years ago, I did the “Backstage Pass (for adults)” and Walt Disney World. The tour was designed to allow (me) to see how things worked behind the scenes, including graphic designs (I was taught how to draw Mickey!) and how the animatronics worked. The end point – the character, is nothing more than servos and a costume, all connected via communications lines to a main computer that is elsewhere on the campus. It would not work without that link and computer.