One of the major announcements out of 2024’s D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event was the upcoming debut of a Walt Disney audio-animatronic figure, but not everyone in the Disney family is happy about the development.

The figure is set to star in “Walt Disney — A Magical Life” at the Main Street Opera House for the 70th anniversary of Disneyland.

The animatronic has been long rumored and controversial. In support of the figure, Walt Disney’s grandnephew Roy P. Disney appeared at the event.

“Creating our first Walt figure is a huge responsibility, and we’ve brought members of the Disney family along with us for every step of the journey,” said Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro, “His great-nephew, Roy P. Disney, visited the Imagineering campus recently to see our progress.”

Now, those opposed to seeing the company’s founder immortalized in animatronic form are questioning why Walt Disney’s direct surviving descendants weren’t the ones speaking out in support. The Facebook page, “It All Started With Walt Disney,” is sharing messages and testimonies from relatives and individuals who knew Walt DIsney and his family.

The page’s organizer, Leo N. Holzer, posted the following statement in opposition to the animatronic based on the sentiments of Joanna Miller. Miller is Walt Disney’s granddaughter through his daughter Diane.

Isn’t it strange that Disney trotted out Roy Pat Disney and not one of Walt’s own grandchildren to deliver a stamp of approval on the Audio-Animatronic Walt Disney for a show in Disneyland’s Opera House?

Well, after I shared the information with Joanna Miller, Walt’s eldest granddaughter and who is as much as a bulldog as her mother Diane when it comes to protecting and preserving the Disney name and legacy, she IS NOT IN FAVOR.

“I am overwhelmed with disgust and anger. Mom would be ready to fight. I think it shows a lack of respect for Grampa.

“Walt is already BRANDED and used by the company everyday. Yet that he exists in film that was for his company and we have the real thing to see and listen to we do not need to turn him into a robot. I rather feel he is being used, victimized by the company.

“As someone else (posted), they will be able to make him do and say what they choose. The movements are not nessessarily ’his.’ Already the smile is wrong.

“I had thought he had built the company and that Grampa would be amazed at what it encompasses now. I thought that (the company/Bob Iger) was sensitive to the memory of Walt and the sentiments of his daughter, my mother, Diane.”

Joanna is arguably the most publicly active member of Walt’s side of the family. She attends many events at Walt’s Barn and recently completed a period-specific renovation of Uncle Robert Disney’s house. The craftsman home on Kingswell Avenue is where Walt first stayed upon his arrival in Los Angeles.

Holzer also shared a screenshot of a Facebook post by Miller, whose profile is restricted.

The page also shared a quote from former Imagineer Blaine Gibson taken from a 1995 interview:

“There are several reasons I would be against doing that … and it isn’t just the ‘sacred’ aspect of it. I know just how crude our medium is, relative to the human figure. You can’t get Walt’s smile … you can’t program that smile that I’ve got on Walt’s statue and have him be able to go into that. You’d have to move from a scrowl to a smile, because Walt at times would get a twisted up expression and one eyebrow would go up. He had a facial range that was absolutely beyond our capability.

Audio-animatronic technology has come a long way from the mid-1990s, which may have negated Gibson’s objections. Gibson passed away in 2015.

What do you think of the decision to make a Walt Disney animatronic? Let us know in the comments.

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