I woke up this morning to a plethora of tweets on X and posts on Instagram covering the new Walt Disney animatronic. Disney released new footage of Walt Disney – A Magical Life, the new stage show going into the Main Street Opera House at Disneyland. While the show officially opens on July 17, some people were given a sneak peek of the show and the Walt Disney animatronic. Pretty soon, pictures and videos of the new animatronic flooded the internet. 

And the response was probably not what Disney was expecting. 

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To say the response was mixed would be an understatement. People are straight up bashing this animatronic. This is mostly due to the animatronic’s face and how to most people, including myself, it doesn’t look completely like Walt Disney. There’s an uncanny valley quality about the face that makes it really unsettling. I think his features are a little too close together, his jaw isn’t as defined, and his cheekbones are too high. 

When this was first announced at D23 last year, it quickly became my most anticipated attraction from that Parks and Experiences panel (or at least tied with Villains Land and the Lion King flume ride in Paris) mostly because I look up to Walt Disney so much. While I admire his creativity, the characteristics of Walt Disney that I admire the most are his eagerness to take risks and his willingness to push the limits of what is possible. 

Walt Disney was told time and again that most of the things he wanted to do would fail. Before Snow White came out everyone called it “Walt’s Folly” and told him a full-length animated film wouldn’t be successful. Same goes for Disneyland, whose critics said that the park would fail miserably. Despite all these naysayers, Walt persevered because he knew more than anyone else what the people wanted. He was in touch with the general public, and satisfied needs that the public didn’t even know they had. 

The thing is, they were never going to get his likeness 100% right. I mean they can’t even do that for living former and current US presidents for the Hall of Presidents, what more someone who died over 55 years ago. There’s just something about recreating 3-dimensional and moving human faces that people cannot seem to completely get. 

In my opinion, this may partly be due to technology simply not being advanced enough to create a lifelike recreation of a person. Sure you can argue the Pirates of the Caribbean animatronics are human-like, but they resemble caricatures more than people. Even Jack Sparrow has so much makeup on that he’s not really Johnny Depp anymore. 

I think another problem is that so many people grew up seeing old videos of Walt. We have images and memories of him in our heads so it’s easy to find the flaws in the animatronic’s design. On the flip side, no one really knows what Abraham Lincoln looked like aside from a few paintings, which is why we can’t really see the “flaws” in his recreation because we don’t have a real basis for how he actually looked and sounded like. But with Walt, there are tons of videos and photos online and even on Disney+ of him. Add to the fact that the human brain can easily point out flaws and it’s no surprise that a lot of us Disney fans are dissatisfied with the animatronic. 

Which now begs the question, if it seemed like an impossible task, why attempt it in the first place? This is a Walt Disney animatronic going into the only Disney Park he ever stepped foot in for that park’s milestone anniversary celebration. This is the most important man in the history of a company that has millions of fans around the world. The Imagineers knew that those fans may be so disappointed and even angry if they didn’t get it right. So why even greenlight the idea when a lot of things could go wrong or could be misinterpreted? Even some of the Disney family were against this project, and that’s not even considering the ethical implications of creating a lifelike version of someone deceased, although they already crossed that line with Lincoln. 

But the thing is, this attraction isn’t just important, it’s necessary. And it’s necessary for a number of reasons.

The first is because younger generations have no idea who Walt is. There are millions of children around the world who think about characters like Elsa or Moana when they think of Disney. To them, Disney is encapsulated by these newer IPs with no affinity for the man who made all of this possible. Introducing Walt to younger generations keeps his memory alive and reminds everyone that there is a human face behind the huge media conglomerate people have now associated with the Disney name. 

Another reason this attraction is necessary is because it lets us fans know that original, non-IP ideas are still welcome at Imagineering. Now we can debate back and forth as to whether or not having the founder of the company take on audio-animatronic form constitutes an IP, but I think we can all agree that it’s not IP in the most conventional definition of the word. If anything, this Walt Disney animatronic and show is Disneyland IP being put in Disneyland (which sounds less odd the more you think about it). 

At a time when every new attraction being created for the Disney Parks is tied to film or tv properties, and at a time when those new attractions are replacing fan favorite attractions and areas, it’s refreshing to see something not based on any Disney IP open at a stateside Disney Park. 

Of course, the thing is that original ideas aren’t valuable solely based on their originality alone. Original ideas need to be good as well. Just take a look at Superstar Limo as a great example of a bad original idea. But even if some people might deem A Magical Life a failure because the Walt Disney animatronic doesn’t look like him, I still think it’s a success because Imagineering took the risk and did everything possible to make it a meaningful attraction. They innovated until they came up with the most advanced and life-like animatronic in the world. 

You can tell that this was a labor of love from everyone involved. It was in development for over seven years. They cleaned up his audio just so they could use his real voice. They developed new skin technology to make him look more realistic. He even does this small step forward after he stands up which might seem insignificant but it just shows how much care they put into the show. 

Now I know what you’re thinking. What’s the use of a risk if it fails? To that I say at least it sets a precedent where Imagineering has the space to take bold risks and also has the safety net necessary in case those risks fall short in the eyes of the public. Innovation can’t happen without risk. Even if the public might deem it a failure, the steps forward made for audio-animatronic technology could potentially impact future attractions in a good way. There are wins even in perceived failures, and that makes it a success in my book. 

So I will say, with the spirit of Walt in mind, the Imagineers should be applauded for taking this risk and making this attraction. Creating an audio-animatronic show about the founder of your company, and the man who pioneered audio-animatronics in the first place, is the epitome of risk. The improvements they have made have also pushed the boundaries of what is possible with audio-animatronics, something Walt would have been proud of. 

Also, this is more than just a tribute, it’s a living reminder of what the Disney Parks stand for and what has made them special to millions of people around the world. Imagineering took the exact kind of risk that Walt Disney himself was known for. At a time when their recent offerings have felt safe, it’s refreshing to see Imagineering take risks of this kind. So I hope Imagineering, at the end of the day, keeps moving forward, because that’s exactly what Walt would have wanted. 

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