Creators Wanted to Explore an Abandoned Disney Island. It Ended with Arrests and Lifetime Bans

Angela AndaloroFri, May 22, 2026 at 5:38 PM UTC

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Disney's Discovery Island
Credit: Bright Sun Films/Youtube -

Urban explorers relish the opportunity to examine abandoned or shut-down public spaces

Filmmaker Joshua Bailey talks about urban exploration at Disney properties in Stolen Kingdom

The documentary discusses how the Buzzy animatronic in EPCOT's Cranium Command went missing, bringing attention to explorers navigating Disney properties and even taking items from them to sell on the black market

Disregarding Disney's rules comes with risks.

Urban exploration of the Disney properties is at the heart of documentary filmmaker Joshua Bailey's Stolen Kingdom, which shows how the world of underground exploration of the theme park was blown open when the Buzzy animatronic in EPCOT's Cranium Command went missing, over 10 years after the attraction was closed to guests.

Early in the documentary, a narrator explains, “There are sort of three different people who are into the theme park urban exploring.”

“There's one thread that comes from before the days of the internet, and these are people who purely love the attractions on an artistic, on an emotional level. Then we got into a sort of middle ground of people who were into the past. They were into the history, but they were also into the money and the notoriety. Finally, I think we have a third stream of people who really don't have any personal connection to the theme parks. They see other people are doing this and they just want to take it one step further.”

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Vlogger Matt St. Cyr, known online as Matt Sonswa, says his own interest in Disney-related urban exploring began with hearing about Discovery Island.

“Deep within Disney World lies an entire theme park slowly being reclaimed by nature,” Sonswa shared.

Archivist How Bowers explained, “When Disney purchased property, there were elaborate plans. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, so they did the next best thing, which was turning into the cheapest attraction possible — native birds and some turtles and things. Basically set up a little mini ecological habitat. And I think a lot of us that did go to Discovery Island when it was open were curious, ‘Whatever happened to that place?' “

The area wasn't the most secure at the time that Sonswa decided to check it out. Of getting there, he said, “It was pretty much a disaster, but we made it happen.”

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He continued, “This is not normal content creation. Every time I want to go out and make a video, I risked my life. I risk my freedom. It's very, very dangerous. It's very illegal. You should not do it.”

Shortly after sharing his video on YouTube, Sonswa learned he inspired another content creator, who had conspiracy theories about what the island contained and was used for, which he planned to investigate during what he called “Operation Mousetrap.” Sonswa said, “It really sounded really concerning because he didn't elaborate on what it was.”

Richard McGuire thoroughly documented his time exploring Discovery Island. He was arrested after “several days” camping out on Discovery Island in the 2020 incident, over 20 years after Discovery Island closed. McGuire was charged with trespassing on posted property and was also ordered not to return to any additional Walt Disney World properties.

McGuire ultimately entered a plea of no contest to trespassing and paid a number of fines, in addition to being banned from Disney properties for life, per News6 Orlando.

The film also explores the black market aspect of navigating Disney behind the scenes, where individuals, from adventurous visitors to Disney employees, take little souvenirs from the park and go on to sell them for surprising amounts to collectors online.

PEOPLE spoke with Bailey about the documentary, where the filmmaker admitted, “The black market aspect was something that we weren't aware of before we shot the film, and was part of the decision in making it.”

“We learned more about it while shooting, but not a lot. It's a tough nut to crack. We just had no knowledge of there being a Disney prop black market."

Buzzy has never appeared in any of these listings, with his whereabouts unknown to this day.

After premiering at the Slamdance Film Festival last year, Stolen Kingdom is going on tour beginning May 21. Bailey is taking the film across the country for screenings at select cinemas until June 14. Stolen Kingdom will be released via TVOD on June 16.

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”