It’s About Time Disney Fixed These Broken Things at the Theme Parks

The Disney Parks are well known for creating extremely impressive rides and attractions. With life-like animatronics, advanced ride systems, and unique ride designs, these attractions become better year after year.

However, while Disney has a talent for creating amazing rides, they seem to struggle when it comes to maintaining them. Oftentimes, when something breaks down, if it doesn’t directly affect the function of the ride or Guest safety, the problem gets pushed to the side instead of being fixed.

As frequent visitors of the parks, this is a trend that we’d like to see come to an end. Disney’s rides and attractions are designed and built with a mass amount of amazing imagination. It’s saddening to see portions of rides not functioning to their full potential, leaving Guests with an experience that’s less than what was intended. Let's take a look at some of the current fixes we'd like to see Disney make.

1. Disneyland's Fantasmic! Dragon

During Fantasmic!, one of Disney’s best nighttime spectaculars, Guests follow along as Mickey Mouse takes a magical journey while he's dreaming. Many heroes and heroines appear in Mickey’s dream, but it’s not long until Disney villains appear and start causing problems. Mickey uses the power of his imagination to battle these fiends and is even able to fight off the worst of them all – Maleficent.

Maleficent is the strongest in her dragon form, which is exactly how she appeared during her battle with Mickey. The 45-foot-tall audio animatronic dragon really put Mickey’s small stature into perspective, making the hero's achievement even more incredible when he conquered the beast.

Unfortunately, this spectacle has not been seen by Disneyland Guests since April 22nd, 2023. On this date, the Maleficent dragon animatronic caught fire during the second performance of the night. The incident took place during a portion of the show where magical sparks shoot out of Mickey’s hands towards the beast.

After the fire, showings of Fantasmic! were postponed and didn’t return until May 24th, 2024. Multiple changes were made to the show during the closure, with the biggest being that the dragon did not return. Now, Mickey battles Maleficent in her regular form, as she rises up on a 35-foot-tall lift.

For those who have never seen the show, this may make for an impressive battle scene. However, for those who have seen the previous version of the show, this does not stack up well in comparison to the ferocious dragon. Many Guests hope to see the dragon return one day, but as of right now, there is no news of this ever happening.

2. Rise of the Resistance Cannons

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is one of Disney’s most immersive ride experiences. While on the ride, Guests feel as if they’ve been dropped right in the middle of a Star Wars movie and are living out their own Star Wars journey. The lifesize sets, characters, vehicles, soundtrack, and special effects all have a major part in making this ride feel like a reality.

The storyline of the ride places Guests in the middle of a battle between the First Order and the Resistance. After being captured by the First Order and kept in a holding cell, Guests are relieved when members of the Resistance break them out during a rescue mission.

In order to escape, Guests must board First Order fleet transport vehicles that are driven by reprogrammed R5 astromech droids. As Guests are whisked away on the transport vehicles, they find themselves in the Star Destroyer’s cannon room. This adds a bit of unease to the experience as the cannons are live and active amid the current battle.

Previously, these cannons moved forward and backward in a realistic manner as they were fired. This was a surreal experience that Guests had as their transport vehicles moved below and in between the firing cannons.

Unfortunately, this portion of the ride became less immersive since the cannons no longer move like this. Instead, they remain stationary. While Guests can still hear the cannons firing and see the light effects that go along with the shots, the movements of the cannons are missed.

As of right now, the transport vehicles move forward and backward during this portion of the scene, which alludes to the firing of the cannons. However, the more realistic version of this scene is much superior.

3. Expedition Everest Yeti

On Expedition Everest, Guests board a train and ascend up a forbidden mountain. As the journey progresses, they quickly discover that there is trouble nearby. The train screeches to a halt to avoid flying off the tracks that have been ferociously ripped apart. Before there’s time to panic, the train plunges backward into total darkness, twisting and turning throughout the mountain. As the wild train ride continues, the roaring sound of a ferocious beast can be heard. The tales that were told of a legendary Yeti are seemingly more than just folklore. Guests then see a shadowy form of the angry beast and soon after come face to face with the monster.

This Yeti animatronic used to be much scarier than it is now. Dangling down, the Yeti would reach its enormous arm out and swoop its outstretched hand towards Guests as they passed by. With its razor sharp teeth, loud roar, glowing eyes, and large hand looming towards you, the Yeti truly was a fright.

Today, however, the Yeti stays stationary and gives off a much less frightening experience. As the train passes by, a light with a strobing effect simply flashes on the Yeti, giving Guests a quick glimpse at the monster. This effect is also how the Yeti adopted its commonly used name – Disco Yeti.

Why Doesn't the Yeti Move?

Many Guests long to see the Yeti function as it once did in its glory days. Over the years, multiple rumors have swirled within the Disney community, trying to pinpoint the reason for the Yeti’s stationary retirement. One of the most common theories is that the constant movement of Yeti caused cracks within the structure’s foundation and the continuation of the movement would create even bigger problems. A secondary theory is that there is a lack of access to the animatronic, which would result in portions of the ride needing to be removed in order to perform any sort of maintenance on it.

The real problem lies within the animatronic, itself. The force of the Yeti’s arm swing is equivalent to the force jet's takeoff. This motion, taking place approximately 600 times a day, resulted in the animatronic’s form suffering from the continuous amount of such force. The portion of the animatronic that suffered the most was the shoulder. While animatronics normally stand upright and absorb force within their feet, the dangling position of the Yeti animatronic caused issues within the arm. If the Yeti continued its moving motion, it could lead to potentially dangerous situations.

In order to move again, the Yeti would need to undergo major refurbishment. Imagineers would have to figure out a way for the animatronic’s size, movement, and force to all work in tandem, while allowing for long-term function. This is something that has been in discussion for years. Hopefully one day, Disney park goers will again be able to experience a moving animatronic on Expedition Everest. The Yeti deserves to be the ferocious beast it was intended to be, rather than the party animal that it currently is.

4. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad “Falling” Rocks

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is an attraction that takes Guests on a wild train ride through a haunted gold mine. On Walt Disney World’s version, there used to be a falling rock effect that was experienced during the last mine sequence. As the train passed under the rocks, they would tilt and move back and forth, giving the illusion that they were going to fall.

Today, the rocks are stationary. Allegedly, the reasoning for this is because one of the rocks actually did fall and resulted in a Guest injury. Rather than fixing the rocks and making sure they were safe, Disney simply stopped using them.

While safety is of the utmost importance, we wish that these moving rocks could be brought back to give Disney World’s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad more of a thrill. Disneyland’s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad uses sounds and projections to create an exciting final exit of the mine. If the falling rock motion is out of the question for Disney World, we’d love to see something done to this portion of the ride to make it just as thrilling as the other versions of the ride.

5. Buzz Lightyear Laser Cannons

Buzz Lightyear has his own shooter-style ride at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. On both of these rides, your mission is to help him stop the evil Emperor Zurg. Zurg is stealing batteries so he can power a new weapon. In order to stop Zurg, Guests need to hit as many glowing Z targets as possible with a laser cannon. The more targets that are hit and the more points that are acquired, the more helpful you are in the battle against Zurg and his robot army.

The only issue is, you may have trouble hitting your target, no matter how good of a shot you are. The laser cannons often don’t work well and seem to lack major calibration. It’s very hard (and frustrating) to enjoy an attraction where the main goal is to hit targets while source of ammunition is faulty.

We’d really like to see Disney get the laser cannons on these rides operating more smoothly. After all, we need to accurately be able to identify who the true Galactic Heroes are.

6. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run Hondo Ohnaka Animatronic

During the pre-show of Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run, Guests are greeted by an extremely impressive Hondo Ohnaka animatronic. When watching the animatronic give his spiel, it’s hard to believe that this isn’t the real Hondo standing in front of you. The movements of this animatronic are so smooth and natural and the detailing is amazing.

Unfortunately, even though this animatronic is one of Disney’s most impressive, it has come with its fair share of troubles. After experiencing breakdowns, there have been multiple occasions where the Hondo animatronic has been completely removed from the pre-show for lengthy periods of time and replaced by a video.

While the pre-show video successfully sets you up for the mission ahead, we prefer to get our instructions from the life-like animatronic. Hopefully the major kinks that this animatronic has experienced have been worked through so Guests don’t have to settle for a pre-show video anytime in the near future.

7. DINOSAUR Pterodactyl

DINOSAUR takes Guests on a high-energy journey into the past. During this race against time, the mission is to rescue an Iguanodon before a meteor strikes the Earth and wipes out all lifeforms.

This attraction is filled with many different dinosaur props and audio-animatronics. While some of these are very impressive, others don’t seem to be doing their fair share when it comes to the realism of the ride.

During one scene, the computer on the ride vehicle identifies a pterodactyl and then Dr. Grant Seeker shouts, “Incoming!”. However, nothing comes towards you. In the past, the pterodactyl used to swoop down towards Guests. These days, the pterodactyl remains stationary and you’re simply left with Dr. Seeker’s climatic warning and a screech from the pterodactyl as it hangs above you.

As with any other ride effect at Disney, we would like to experience this interaction with the pterodactyl as it was intended. However, since DINOSAUR is facing an extinction of its own now that it is confirmed it will close forever in 2026, this is one ride fix that we don’t anticipate we’ll ever see.

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