Celebration: Disney's Town of Yesterday

In 1994, Disney built a town called Celebration. This is the story of the town, and those who lived there.
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Chapter 0 - 0:00
Chapter 1 - 6:50
Chapter 2 - 15:32
Chapter 3 - 23:49
Chapter 4 - 31:39
Chapter 4.5 - 43:41
Chapter 5 - 46:45
Chapter 6 - 1:21:22
Chapter 7 - 1:29:25
Credits - 1:51:55

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A Documentary by Tyler Thompson

TikTok: @watchtylerfilms
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A Special Thanks to:
- Andrew Ross
- Peter Rummell
- Jerry Ray
- Jackie Flanigan
- Tom Vitale
- Bob Rhodes
- Rene Castillon

Primary Sources:
- The Celebration Chronicles by Andrew Ross
- Sunbelt Blues by Andrew Ross
- Celebration U.S.A. by Doug Frantz and Catherine Collins

All music used with permission under Universal Music for Creators.

Sources for videos and photos are listed at the bottom right of the video. My best attempt was made to correctly attribute credit to each piece of media. If you find anything belonging to yourself that was uncredited or misattributed, please send me a message, and I will put any corrections in the description. Thank you.

[kevinmccoy]

Me, ninety minutes ago: "okay, another video for background noise."

I was so wrong. Original interviews, a site visit, and a well-structured narrative made this an incredible treat from a channel with shockingly few subscribers. Thanks for making this and good luck with your future success.

[yrobtsvt]

The YouTube recommendation gods have blessed me with this video. Come on over, Defunctland subscribers!

[sublimecelluloid]

This video is fantastic!! I figured you were a well known creator with a very established channel. Damn was I surprised to see that you’re just starting out! You deserve so much, and I am happy to be one of your first few subscribers :)

[NormanAllan]

Fascinating documentary. My family have lived here since late1996 when we did participate in the original lottery. Our two boys attended Celebration school with great success. In spite of Disney denials, during the early months we were the early family that constantly met "paid" dog walkers in the downtown parks. So clean our excited dog Casey loved to walk and baptize hundreds of trees long before any other dogs. Both our sons graduated with full scholarships and went on for great professional careers. Today's Celebration is similar to what was hoped but now has become so large and spread out you'd never recognize what was dreamt for in the early days. There is NO affordable housing and virtually no shopping within walking distance. To be honest it is now a town dominated by wealthy seniors. Quite a few second homes owned by the elite from many larger American towns. Easily half the town now owned by foreign investors. In our case 3 of our neighbors have never stayed in their vacation homes more then a few weeks a year. Walk around Celebration at night and much of the year it is more like a ghost town. Crime exists but you'll seldom hear or see anything about it.
In the end, it is a great town .Much like Walt wanted it is a veneer of the original plans and will probably stay that way forever.

[joysjourney]

This is an outstanding documentary, well done!

[vila_]

it’s a damned shame that this idea didn’t take off in the states. suburb culture has isolated people there. remote work and the pandemic made it worse, now many people spend all day on their private territory and only occasionally venture out into the public.

a lack of exposure to other people’s lives makes the idea of “other people” feel like an abstract concept, because there is no physical proof of it in front of you. like the trend of calling other people “npcs”, some people nowadays can’t imagine that others have inner worlds.

maybe that’s why so many people act rude in public now. we’re too isolated from one another. everyone in the grocery store is a stranger that we’ll never see again, so why care? each person is no different than an npc. communities like celebration are needed for humans to thrive, not just survive.

[addyvalencia]

I have absolutely no recollection of this place at all, but I was born here. It was always so strange to put “Celebration” as my birth place, but I haven’t known anything about it as my family moved away from Florida shortly after I was born. Thanks for the video and thanks YT gods for the rec! ♥️

[zzzvalvoline]

Walt would be horrified at how car dependent the US has become.

[pattieb]

I can't imagine the hours of research you have dedicated to this project. It is the most comprehensive, truthful look into Celebration I have seen. Congratulations and thank you.

[JohnnySpotOn]

Thank you for the great documentary -- Just recently in April 2023, bought and moved into a home here in Celebration (Artisan Park Village) -- and absolutely love it! Great people from all over the world, wise-with-age and youthful, many with families, gorgeous amenities, pools, community centers, great shopping, grocery, restaurants, parks, sports fields and walking/biking trails that you can get lost in consisting of ~ 20 miles in/around the town....and many other fantastic happenings all the time -- don't miss the monthly magazine delivered to your door! The holidays here are amazing with beautiful decorations and lights everywhere --- especially love Halloween - the treats are plentiful and OMG Christmas -- it snows on Market Street every night! So many residents go FULL-ON Christmas spirit and it's THE best! I can't imagine living anywhere else..and just a 10-minute drive to the Disney parks. Thank you, Love Celebration 2024!

[edithnackers]

Algorithm, recommend this channel to everyone who likes Defunctland and Sun Bright Films. This was a fantastic video.

[prod.chadito]

My grandparents have lived across the street from Celebration for over 30 years. Sadly, they both passed but we were able to buy that house as our first home and I love the history the town. It has definitely changed but its awesome seeing things still there from time to time that Walt inspired. Disney is 100% Kissimmee's economy. Reading the comments reminded me of the 4th of July firework celebration they would have by the lake. Would go every year when I was younger. Great video!

[jeffsnyder]

I just moved to Celebration less than 2 months ago and I hope I never have to leave! It’s very uplifting to live in such a vibrant and beautiful community. Thank you for such an informative video!

[brettsavoie]

This video is incredibly well done. I don't really know what drew me to this video in this first place, but once I started I couldn't stop. Amazing work, one of the best youtube docs I've seen

[JohnMedved]

Great video! We've lived in Celebration since June 19th, 1996 and what you have reported is pretty accurate. We're still here and both of our kids went to the K-8 and then the HS. We still love the town.

[Wilderness-Will]

This is the best researched and presented about Celebration I've ever seen.

EPCOT and Celebration have always fascinated me because while the original plans grandiose and even kind of bizarre, I think Disney (the man) was way ahead of his time in recognizing that the postwar "build baby build" philosophy toward zoning and community planning would have disastrous consequences for the sense of community in American towns. We still haven't really reckoned with that problem today-- but Disney wanted to try, half a century ago, and he had the resources to set some powerful precedents-- he just didn't have the time. I have to wonder whether the world would be any different if that man had been granted five more years of life.

Celebration was a failure that I don't think necessarily deserved to fail.

Cotino and Asteria deserve to fail, and I pray they do.

[simplyselina]

I grew up in central florida for a time from like 97-02. Celebration is a part of my family’s history too. Going there during Christmas they’d make fake snow out of foam and put on winter wonderland displays. When my dad was ending this life my friends and I parked up there to do teenage/early 20s things and forget the world in a place that seemed just as magical but way less expensive than Disney. Really interesting to watch this video and understand the full story. I honestly thought it was still “Disney’s celebration” haven’t been since 2017 though and back then I had way too much to deal with to have actual thoughts. Miss you daddy, forever grateful for the memories we made in Florida.

[ChuckE.CheesesIllinois]

The most sureal thing i took away from this is that the school i went to as a kid, Walt Disney Magnet School, had some elements similar to celebration, especially in the whole "open classroms" and technology aspect

[kaniahankston]

I’m really glad that the Celebration school tried something different for the students. Education is not a one size fits all system, and some students do need more focused learning than others. It’s being done now in many ways with many districts, so I think Celebration was ahead of its time! If the community would’ve rallied behind the school’s different curriculum for a couple of years I think it would’ve done very well.

[kristenjmaddux]

Tyler, I’m only on the 4th chapter but must stop to give you kudos!! Unbelievable work here. This feels like award-winning research and documentary narrative — I hope somehow you get that due!
I am a Floridian, 90s Disney girl who remembers all this WELL. We were all so excited about Celebration. I especially loved the Disney Institute. I took MANY classes there and was always blown away by all they offered to us “regular” people who just wanted to have fun and learn something new — and under some of the best professionals around! Amazing.
There was a lot of cool, groundbreaking stuff Disney was trying out during this time and I really respect that.