Disney is Turning Walt Disney Into Their “Most Lifelike Audio-Animatronic Ever”. I Learned All About it During Trip to Imagineering.

Disney is creating the “most-lifelike Audio-Animatronic ever” of Walt Disney himself as part of a new show that will debut at Disneyland later this summer during the Disneyland 70th Anniversary celebration.

Earlier this week, I was among a small group of media that traveled to Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, California, to learn more about the upcoming Walt Disney – A Magical Life show featuring this new animatronic. I’ll share the new information that we learned, why they chose to create this figure now, and my general take on an early version of the new Walt Disney figure.

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New Walt Disney Audio-Animatronic Figure and Show

Walt Disney – A Magical Life is this summer’s new attraction at Disneyland Park that will debut on Disneyland’s anniversary date, July 17. The new show will feature both a movie and the new Walt Disney Audio-Animatronic and will be added to the Main Street Opera House. As part of the addition, Disney is also creating a turntable to preserve the Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln show which will alternate with the new Walt Disney show after its initial run.

There is another change to a classic attraction that will also debut on this date.

Here’s the official description about what guests will see with the new Walt Disney figure: When the curtain rises on Walt’s office, guests will hear heartfelt stories, anecdotes, and words of wisdom shared by Walt using historical recordings. They will encounter him like never before, through a medium he helped pioneer with his team when they created the Audio-Animatronics figure of Abraham Lincoln.

The entire show is about 17 minutes in total run time, with a 15-minute movie and 2 minutes with the new figure. The movie will be an adapted version of the “One Man’s Dream” film that currently plays at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. That film tells the story of Walt’s early endeavors and his successes in Los Angeles and beyond. The film sets the stage for the climactic reveal of the figure in the final two minutes of the presentation.

The new Walt Disney Audio-Animatronic figure attempts to be extremely detailed and life-like. The creative team went to great lengths to ensure that the figure would look good to audiences both close up and far away. The Imagineers we heard from spoke to the importance of getting all the minor details right so that the figure would look good even on a zoomed in iPhone video.

The figure will speak using all historical audio recordings from Walt Disney. The audio comes from several sources and will be blended seamlessly to create the performance. The audio will be cleaned up but no new ideas will be put in Walt’s mouth that he didn’t say. This figure will recreate real moments that were captured on audio from Walt.

Imagineers are pushing the art form and technology of Audio-Animatronics storytelling in every way possible to capture Walt’s likeness and mannerisms. Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald explained that there are multiple “moonshot” efforts within this Audio-Animatronic that are “things that we have never done before, that the team tackled, some of them driven by things we asked for”.

They also discussed which version of Walt Disney they were bringing to life. Fitzgerald shared they created the figure based on the end of his career and were inspired by the Fletcher Markle interview for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1963. He said it was at a time when Walt was “at a pinnacle. He’s got the New York World’s Fair shows going and in development, he’s got Mary Poppins and he’s got the Secret Florida Project, and Disneyland is doing great”. The interview referenced is the one where Walt Disney gave his often quoted line about Disneyland being being built when Walt decided there needed to be “some kind of an amusement enterprise built for the parents and the children to have together”.

The set for the new show is inspired by Walt Disney’s actual office at the studio headquarters in Burbank, California. I visited this office last year and have a full Walt Disney office photo tour that you can view here. Today, that office has been restored to look exactly the way that it did the day Walt Disney died, for Disney employees and guests to visit.

Why Are They Doing This Figure Now?

Walt Disney Imagineering has put in more than seven years of work on this project and the idea has been percolating within Imagineering for decades. It was interesting to get more context to understand why Disney chose to unveil this project now.

Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald reflected on why they were creating this figure right now. He shared that the team had always wanted to represent Walt’s story at Disneyland but had to wait until technology caught up. “We’ve always had an interest in having some representation of the Walt Disney story in Disneyland,” he said. “The notion of bringing Walt into the show is something that we had to wait for the technology to get to the point where we could do it to the level we wanted — to give the respect to it, and have the complexity we need to bring it to life.” He shared that the advancements of recent Audio-Animatronics and the 70th anniversary moment made it the right time to do this.

Imagineer Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz, the producer of the project, added more context to Tom’s point about waiting for the advances in technology. “Tom and I both worked on the 60th anniversary of Disneyland on adding the Hatbox Ghost to the Haunted Mansion. That was the same thing. It was there opening day. Imagineer Yale Gracey wasn’t happy with the effect and they pulled it. It wasn’t until the technology was right that you could really pull that effect off the way it was supposed to and this felt a lot of the same way.”

He added in another point about why they created the figure now – “I also think it’s extremely important. We’ve got a whole generation of guests and cast who don’t know about Walt Disney the man, they know the name and Disneyland, but, to be able to keep his story as a permanent story at Disneyland, in the only park that he ever walked in, is extremely important to us”.

When another member of the media raised a question about concerns from Joanna Miller, Walt Disney’s granddaughter, about Walt Disney being created as a figure, the Imagineers shared more about their considerations and sensitivities in that area.

Shaver-Moskowitz – “In all of our research we never found any documentation saying [Walt Disney didn’t want to be a figure] and can’t speak to what was told to people in private…but we have worked very diligently for many years with the Walt Disney Family Museum, members of the Disney-Miller family, and the board. We’ve taken care to make sure the family is along the journey with us, and we feel that we’ve presented a faithful and theatrical presentation that keeps Walt alive in the medium that he pioneered”.

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New Disneyland Exhibit Pre-Show

Before I get into the actual figure review and details on what I saw when I was less than a foot away from the figure, there were also interesting details on the new pre-show and never-before-seen artwork coming.

Inside the lobby of the Main Street Opera House, an all-new gallery exhibit titled “Evolution of a Dream” will display images, artifacts and art – some never before seen – that show Disneyland before, during and after Walt’s dream became a reality. Included will be pencil drawings and other concept artwork of the first and secondary preliminary plans of Disneyland. The new plans discovered capture the evolution of the site plan for Disneyland Park before the final setup was locked in.

The Imagineers shared that they found these pieces rolled up in a tube in the Imagineering archives. Fitzgerald commented that these are “some of the what I would call the missing teeth, some of the missing early plans of Disneyland, you know, if you look at the plans, you’re going, we go from here to here, but where’s that one and that one, and they were found rolled up in a tube”.

He continued “I think the fans are gonna love this because you really do see the evolution of the dream. You start to see, oh, here’s where the hub came, here’s where this came”.

In addition, the Walt Disney Family Museum has selected more than 30 artifacts for these experiences in the lobby, including original items from Walt’s private apartment which have never been publicly exhibited at Disneyland Park before. These artifacts will be on loan from the museum.

A special exhibit about the story and history of Audio-Animatronics technology will feature original and replica figures dating back to Walt Disney Imagineering’s earliest development of the technology. Attractions featured include Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, “it’s a small world,” Pirates of the Caribbean, and more.

At the conclusion of “Walt Disney – A Magical Life,” as guests leave the theater, they’ll walk through another new exhibit showcasing cast members at work through the years, as well as a stunning new mural paying tribute to Disneyland history, including entertainment and attractions, plus what’s to come. Imagineer David Carnaci shared “We’re highlighting and saluting our cast. It’s a history of our Disneyland cast members from 1955 to 2025. The diversity and inclusion of our cast, the way we look, the different costumes, all of those great things that we’ve seen over the evolution of our cast, as well as a giant mural highlighting the entertainment”.

Finally, another detail is that the Main Street Opera House will feature a new marquee with two titles, displaying in the center “Opera House now featuring two dramatic theater presentations!” with A Magical Life above Walt Disney’s name on the left, and to the right, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. I saw the design for this and it looks like it will fit in perfectly.

Up Close With the New Walt Disney Figure

After hearing this presentation from the Imagineering team working on the project, they revealed a full scale sculpt of the figure of Walt leaning against the desk. This didn’t move but it did approximate the styling of the new figure. I was able to get up close to the figure though no photos were allowed.

They revealed a figure of Walt Disney posed in a grey suit with Steamboat Willie lining (not visible during the reveal), a black tie with the Smoke Tree Ranch (a development where Walt had a house) insignia, and slicked back greying hair. We learned that Walt’s attire was carefully researched including his suit, shoes, tie, and rings. Each hair in the figure was individually punched into the scalp. They worked carefully to match skin textures and color. I was ready to see the figure come to life in front of me.

The most immediate thing I noticed when they revealed the sculpt was an amazing glint in the figure’s eye. It felt like Walt was ready to share his latest dream with us. The Imagineers mused about how specific the programming team was being around the way that the figure blinks and makes eye contact with the audience but teased that we would have to wait to see the figure in July to fully understand this and other interesting movements.

I was most impressed with the hands on the figure. The team had access to molds of Walt’s hands that had been captured in the 1950s and saved at the Walt Disney Family Museum. These were the basis for the creation of the hands on the figure. You could see his specific rings and the wrinkles woven around his hand. His fingernails were slightly uneven giving this an even more human look.

When asked about the lifelike nature of the figure, they described that the figure was meant to be both theatrical and human in nature. They created the figure to hit the specific optimistic story beats created for the show. Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz described the moment saying “you’re in a theater setting in the same way Walt wanted to create Abraham Lincoln to feel that you’re in the presence of Abraham Lincoln, and you do, you feel his oration, you feel that stature, what it’s like to be there. That’s what we want to be like. With Walt, it’s much more of a disarming, humble, feel. You come into his office and he’s welcoming you and kind of musing about his legacy. So, everything we did was to create that lifelike feeling, but in a theatrical presentation, we weren’t trying to make this a human figure.”

My Take On Disney Creating This Show

Disney has spent millions of dollars on the development of this show. It won’t immediately drive new theme park attendance or sell more Lightning Lane Multi Pass, but it just might inspire a young park guest to dive deeper into Walt Disney’s story. This will have an even greater impact than the numerous documentaries and the wonderful Walt Disney Family Museum, as it will connect with many more people in this uniquely impactful way. The figure will bring him to life in a way that a screen cannot.

I can see the concern that some people and members of the family have. There are recorded comments from Walt Disney not liking statues of himself during his life. Some early Imagineers also said they were against him becoming an Audio-Animatronic. However, if those early thoughts were followed exactly, we wouldn’t have the Partners Statue or the statues of Walt Disney in the other theme parks. I feel that those additions have been a net positive for inspiring an interest in Disney history. I don’t believe that those comments in the past took into account what it would be like to be in a world where many didn’t know that Walt Disney was a person or how advanced the Audio-Animatronic technology would become.

Statues of Walt Disney have now existed for decades. Creating the Audio-Animatronic is the clear next step. While I never like to assume what Walt would think, I won’t believe that he would be offended by this. Walt Disney created the Abraham Lincoln Audio-Animatronic as the highest honor he could give to a figure he had the utmost respect for. Walt idolized Lincoln since he was a boy. He would never do something that would disgrace someone he held so dear. How could Walt Disney ever question being made into a figure as he did for Lincoln? When Walt Disney unveiled the Lincoln Audio-Animatronic at the 1964 World’s Fair, it had been 99 years since his death. Now, Disney is unveiling this figure 59 years after Walt Disney’s death. Walt Disney’s team is approaching this project with the same reverence that Walt Disney approached the Lincoln figure.

I give Disney lots of credit for investing in making sure that Walt Disney’s story is told. The fact that Disney is spending money and time from top Imagineering talents on creating this figure and show demonstrates how much they value the history and ideals of Walt Disney. It’s heartening to see people inside the company pushing to maintain the legacy of the man and the public’s connection to him as a real person. We can all discuss the resemblance of the figure to the man and the way that the figure moves once it debuts, but I’ll just be glad to see another spotlight on the wonderful story of the man who inspired me and so many others to dream big.

Be sure to follow along on Mickey Visit as bring you more coverage of this new Walt Disney show and other Disneyland news.

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