Frozen Ever After isn’t the only ride to have problems with screen-based animatronic faces. On Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in Magic Kingdom this week, at least one dwarf’s face experienced a malfunction, causing him to go completely dark.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Malfunction
Instagram user Hallie Jones (itallstartedwithamouse138) shared a video on December 27, 2023, of the ride’s Doc audio-animatronic. Doc was still moving with the ride’s audio, but his face was black with no eyes or mouth. Watch the video embedded below or by clicking here.
Unlike Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff on Frozen Ever After in EPCOT, the Seven Dwarfs have physical non-projected noses and Doc has physical glasses.
Jones wrote on the video “Waited 120 minutes for this” with a crying emoji and added in her caption, “Such a bummer when this happens at Disney. Especially when wait times can be crazy!”
She added, though, “Did we let it ruin our day? No, absolutely not. Things happen and everything Disney does is so intricate and complex that on a very rare occasion something may not work the way it is supposed to. And, that’s okay. I actually thought this was cool to see. I never knew what the faces would look like without the projections.”
Jones said the issue was fixed by the next day. At least this time, no dwarf tore Snow White’s arm off.
To see what the Seven Dwarfs’ faces should look like, watch our front row POV ride video below.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train opened on May 28, 2014, as part of the Enchanted Forest section of the New Fantasyland expansion to Magic Kingdom. A second version was an opening day attraction at Shanghai Disneyland on June 16, 2016. The ride is a spiritual successor to Snow White’s Scary Adventures, which closed permanently in 2012 and was replaced by Princess Fairytale Hall.
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