Leslie Iwerks’ Disney+ documentary “Disney Worldbuilders” premieres Aug. 20, with a D23 world premiere Aug. 16

Disney is turning its attention to the creative process behind its parks and franchises with a new feature-length documentary, “Disney Worldbuilders,” premiering August 20 on Disney+. The project is directed by Academy Award- and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Leslie Iwerks, who frames the film as a look at how storytellers translate ideas into destinations, then draw inspiration back from the places those stories create.

In “Disney Worldbuilders,” Iwerks sits down with a range of influential Disney creative leaders to trace how major fictional worlds become physical experiences at Disney theme parks around the globe. The conversations focus on memories, moments, and “creative breakthroughs” that shaped each participant’s career, with the film presenting a through-line between individual creativity and the broader Disney storytelling universe.

The documentary features Bob Iger and a second group of leaders associated with major creative franchises and entertainment units, including James Cameron, Jon Favreau, Kevin Feige, Jennifer Lee, Pete Docter, Dave Filoni, Jared Bush, and Josh D’Amaro. Disney says the film pulls back the curtain on these figures as “architects” of their respective franchises and worlds, including Avatar, Star Wars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pixar, and the animated universes of Frozen and Zootopia.

Disney describes the film’s central creative premise as a feedback loop: a story can inspire a place, and a place can inspire the next story. Disney says that practice goes back to Walt Disney himself, casting theme parks as both an outcome of storytelling and a continuing source of creative input.

Iwerks said she wanted to understand what drives the imaginations of the filmmakers and creatives behind some of the world’s most beloved stories. In her remarks accompanying the announcement, she described discovering that many of the participants’ creative journeys could be traced to a single childhood moment, including the feeling of walking through the gates of Disneyland and concluding that impossible dreams could become real.

The documentary will also have an early screening before its streaming debut. Disney says “Disney Worldbuilders” will premiere at D23, the company’s fan event, on Sunday, August 16, where attendees will see the film “in its entirety” before it becomes available on Disney+.

Disney+ is Disney’s direct-to-consumer streaming service, which has increasingly served as a platform for documentaries and long-form storytelling. By placing a behind-the-scenes creative film on Disney+ at the same time as it is spotlighted at D23, Disney is positioning the release across both mainstream streaming audiences and the company’s most invested fan community.

The company also emphasized continuity in Iwerks’ own Disney connections. It notes that Iwerks’ grandfather, Ub Iwerks, was Walt Disney’s original animator and co-creator of Mickey Mouse, and that her father, Don Iwerks, was a camera technician and inventor at Walt Disney Studios. Disney says both were Academy Award winners and Disney Legends, and it cites Iwerks’ documentary credits including “The Imagineering Story,” “The Pixar Story,” “Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible,” and “Disneyland Handcrafted.”

What remains unclear from the announcement is how Disney will structure the film’s franchise coverage beyond the broad list of worlds and creative leaders. The company does not provide a running time, a release schedule by region, or specific details about which theme-park lands are featured beyond a promise of a “window” into upcoming lands and an “ambitious” creative expansion period. Viewers will have to wait for the premiere to see how the film translates those relationships into concrete examples at individual destinations.

For Disney, the next question will be how audiences respond to a documentary that treats theme parks and screen franchises as parts of a single creative pipeline. The August 16 D23 premiere may also serve as an early indicator of how fans react to the framing, while the August 20 Disney+ launch will show whether the cross-franchise storytelling approach can broaden interest beyond theme-park aficionados.