After more than five decades, Walt Disney finally is coming to Disneyland.
Just weeks after Disney brought the company's late founder back to Disneyland in the form of an Audio Animatronic figure, Disney announced today at the Destination D23 event that the animatronic Walt will come to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, too.
Disney is bringing Walt to the stage in a new opening scene for a revamped Carousel of Progress in the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland. Walt himself oversaw the original version of that ride for the 1964 New York's World Fair. The ride then moved across the country to Disneyland before moving back across America again, to its current home in Florida.
No word yet on when the current version of Carousel of Progress will close, much less when the new version with Walt will open.
"Disney Imagineers love this attraction and the heart of it will stay the same while introducing the Carousel of Progress to an entirely new generation of fans, showing them that a great big, beautiful tomorrow is just a dream away," Disney did say in a press release., which included a concept image of the animatronic Walt's scene.
Walt will be dressed more casually than he is in the new Disneyland show, which you can watch below. But it is still a familiar look from the "Disneyland" TV show, on which Walt introduced the Carousel of Progress as well as many other Disney theme park attractions, including the Florida Project that became the Walt Disney World Resort.
In other new from Destination D23 today, Disney announced that the lights on the TRON Lightcycle roller coasters at Walt Disney World and Shanghai Disneyland will be switching from blue to red in honor of the upcoming "Tron: Ares" movie, which opens October 10. A Nine Inch Nails soundtrack will complete the overlay. The switch happens September 15 on the Magic Kingdom's TRON Lightcyle/Run and the next day on Shanghai Disneyland's TRON Lightcycle Power Run.
D23's Michael Vargo also revealed today that the next D23 The Ultimate Fan Event will return to Anaheim, California on August 14-16 next year. Tickets will go on sale next spring.
Finally in today's Destination D23 news, Disney dropped a trailer for a new documentary from Leslie Iwerks on Disney's theme park history. This time, it's for "Disneyland Handcrafted," about the design and construction of the original Disneyland, which has been celebrating its 70th anniversary this year.
The documentary will run on Disney+ and YouTube this fall. Iwerks is the granddaughter of Ub Iwerks, who co-created Mickey Mouse with Walt. Her father, Don Iwerks, created the CircleVision 360 camera. Leslie is an Oscar- and Emmy-nominated documentarian who created the acclaimed "The Imagineering Story" series for Disney+.
The sculpt I saw multiple times was spot on, but the actual DL AA's face looked wider, as if they needed more space for the animatronic mechanisms.
Someone said the DL Walt looks less like Walt and more like the MyPillow guy, and now I can't unsee that.
Lmao I heard that too and it’s spot on
This is a great move.
Bravo Disney!
Genius implementation that makes perfect sense. It breaths new life and popularity into an attraction that was so beloved to Walt himself.
Is it just me, or would this work better in EPCOT?
@velocicoaster: one might argue that the whole of Carousel of Progress might work better in EPCOT. Or rather what EPCOT started out as anyway.
Fits perfectly let’s hope he looks like the atrtist rendering and not my pillow guy.
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Carousel of Progress ‘bout to be a LL+ attraction lmao.
Joking aside, I’ve always loved this attraction and I’m so glad it’s getting some needed love. It’s funny- I often associate Tomorrowland as my “get out of the sun” sweet spot, with this show and the People Mover doing the heavy lifting. Speaking of heavy lifting, I wonder if any tweaks will be made to the AA Walt’s dome? Either way I’m excited for that too. This is good news for dorks like me :)