On Wednesday, WDWNT was lucky enough to be invited to Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, California to get more information on the upcoming “Walt Disney – A Magical Life” attraction coming to the Main Street Opera House at Disneyland. This project is of great significance, of course, because it will feature the first-ever Audio-Animatronics figure of Walt Disney.
As Disney fans, the excitement of a never-before-seen animatronic is finding out what new features or technology are behind it. Sadly, little was fully divulged during our visit to WDI, but Imagineers did allude to some developments that will forever change the theme park game moving forward.
Walt Disney Audio-Animatronic Will Forever Change Disney Attractions
According to Tom Fitzgerald, Senior Creative Executive at Walt Disney Imagineering, the team felt confident in tackling the project following several innovations in the current generation of all-electric figures. For those unfamiliar, some of the achievements in this generation would be characters you’ll find on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom, as well as Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey in Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea.
Fitzgerald stated that the Walt Disney figure is the product of several “moonshots” built upon the technology behind those iterations in recent attractions. Disney told WDWNT they will speak more on the technology behind the Walt Disney audio-animatronics figure around the time of its debut, but Fitzgerald could say the following:
We’re always building on what we do from project to project, and I know we’re going to talk more about that when we get to July 17, but I can say there are many, many, what we call “moonshots” of things we have never done before that the team tackled. Some of them driven by things we asked for, in terms of movements he needs to do, and some of them just in terms of pushing the medium to say “I want this to be as lifelike as possible, what can we do?”
Tom Fitzgerald, Senior Creative Executive for Walt Disney Imagineering
Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz, Executive Portfolio Producer at Walt Disney Imagineering, then gave some extra context on the development process.
I always say that, you know, we didn’t order an animatronic to look like Walt, we built a Walt animatronic to deliver a performance that is specifically Walt. So, choices that were made, innovations that were made were to deliver that performance, to get the hand to deliver the points the way Walt did, to get the expressiveness in the face in a way that we only could…
Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz, Executive Portfolio Producer for Walt Disney Imagineering
Again, details on what specifically will make this Audio-Animatronics figure more impressive than others before it isn’t available to us just yet, but when asked if this robotic representation of the company’s founder will be the most advanced Disney has built to date, the following was said:
I’d say it’s the most lifelike audio-animatronic that we’ve created at Walt Disney Imagineering.
Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz, Executive Portfolio Producer for Walt Disney Imagineering
“Walt Disney – A Magical Life” will debut at Disneyland Park on July 17, 2025, the actual 70th anniversary date of Disneyland Resort. The attraction was previously scheduled to open on May 16, but was delayed. Alongside the show will be a new exhibit in the Main Street Opera House, dubbed “Evolution of a Dream.”
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