Cutting-edge robotics are coming to Disneyland Resort.
With new droids arriving in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge this week, and some of the most realistic characters ever created coming to Tiana's Bayou Adventure later this year, Walt Disney Co. is elevating the magic that is engineering this year. of theme parks.
Walt Disney Imagineering, the company's typically secretive arm dedicated to theme park development, has not been shy about testing bipedal droids that can jump in place, tilt their heads, and push humans around like robotic pets. A trio of them, known as BDX droids, made their one-day debut in Galaxy's Edge late last year, a surprise appearance that went viral among Disney and “Star Wars” fans. Knee-deep, the “droids in training,” as Imagineering called them, possess a wobbly cuteness.
They will return to Disneyland starting Friday and appear during the resort's spring “Star Wars” promotion known as Season of the Force, which runs through June 2. Their temporary appearance fulfills a long-held promise to bring more robotic life to Disneyland. Space fantasy franchises.
A trio of BDX droids will return to Disneyland on Friday and appear during the resort's spring “Star Wars” promotion known as Season of the Force, which runs through June 2.
(Mike Pucher / Walt Disney Imagineering)
The droids, and their ability to dance, coo and generally steal the hearts of guests, were shown off to the media Tuesday at an event highlighting current and future Imagineering technology, all part of the embattled president's promise executive Bob Iger to “push” Disney's investment. in their parks. Disney has pledged $60 billion over the next 10 years to its experiences division, with at least half of that total going to parks and resorts, according to a recent SEC filing.
In addition to the adorable BDX units, Disney showed off a series of next-generation robotics that signaled that the future of theme park attractions is one in which figures can not only move like us, but potentially move among us. The highlight: a figure of Duke Weaselton from “Zootopia,” which was used to promote the recent opening of a land themed from the 2016 film at Shanghai Disneyland. In a clever illusion, Weaselton was shown pushing a cart that turned out to be a robotic figure itself, one in which the Weaselton figure had just hitchhiked. The small media crowd was delighted when Weaselton ended the cameo by him jumping on the bandwagon.
Still, Imagineering chose to hide details about its most notable projects. Walt Disney World representatives teased the Florida park's Magic Kingdom expansion, saying construction permits would be filed in the coming weeks. Further along in the planning, Disney said, are changes coming to Disney World's Animal Kingdom, where a “Tropical America” land is planned to replace the DinoLand USA park area. Images from a research trip to Mexico were shown, as well as a zoomed-out piece of conceptual art, but no attractions were detailed.
Closer to home, Imagineering didn't mention any of the long-term projects they promised for Disneyland Resort, including an updated schedule for the “Avengers” attraction at Disney California Adventure, a location or an attraction for “Avatar.” ” experience-focused, which Iger referenced Wednesday at Disney’s annual shareholder meeting, or anything that could be considered part of the DisneylandForward project.
Concept art for an “Avatar”-inspired experience that could come to the Disneyland Resort. Disney CEO Bob Iger described the art as “creative inspiration.”
(Disneyland Resort)
The latter is awaiting final approval from the Anaheim City Council, which will likely vote in the coming weeks on a proposal that would allow changes to the park's zoning and give Disney more flexibility to reimagine its existing 490-acre footprint in Anaheim. The project promises a minimum investment of $1.9 billion in the theme park, accommodations, entertainment, shops and restaurants within a decade, according to city officials.
Josh D'Amaro, president of Disney Experiences, wrote in a blog post after Wednesday's shareholder meeting that more Disneyland-related attraction news was tied to the approval of DisneylandForward. “We were thrilled to present an inspiring piece of art developed for a potential new Avatar experience at Disneyland Resort,” D'Amaro wrote. “We're excited about the stories our guests could experience at Walt's original theme park following DisneylandForward approval, including the opportunity to experience all-new Avatar adventures with a visit to Pandora.”
Iger said at the media event that Disney will be careful to spread its investment in its theme parks over the next 10 years. “We actually have a pretty good idea in the short term of what's being built, but we're purposely not going to allocate it all,” Iger said. “Because who knows? In five years we may end up with a blockbuster movie (think 'Frozen') that we may want to essentially exploit as an attraction, or a hotel or restaurant in our parks. That is why we have to maintain a certain flexibility.”
And yet, that doesn't mean there won't be plenty going on at Disneyland in 2024. Tiana's Bayou Adventure, a new theme to the popular Splash Mountain log flume ride, is scheduled to open later this year. Disney spent much of the afternoon revealing some of the attraction's key audio-animatronics. Tiana's Bayou Adventure will debut first at Walt Disney World and tells an original story that takes place after the events of “The Princess and the Frog,” the 2009 fairy tale starring the company's first black princess.
Expect Tiana's Bayou Adventure to be filled with large-scale show scenes. The press were shown four different versions of Tiana. At the beginning of the attraction, you will greet guests from an elevated position and then, as the ride continues, you will approach passengers; in one case, he even led a band of bugs. The attraction will culminate with a giant musical Mardi Gras celebration. Characters from the film, including Tiana's friend Charlotte La Bouff, adorned in a pink felt dress, and a regal Eudora (Tiana's mother) will welcome guests to the final scene.
It was immediately apparent how fluid the figures moved, with La Bouff and Eudora swaying at an inaudible rhythm. Tiana, too, seen in equestrian pants and an explorer's jacket, is full of exaggerated arm gestures and speaks to guests with an excited flourish. Prince Naveen was shown playing a banjo, his eyes rolling and blinking in time with his strumming. The figures, including an oversized Mama Odie sporting an abundance of colorful beads, are among the most realistic in Disney's arsenal. Accompanying Mama Odie was Juju, a snake companion who jumped over a plate of fritters, her forked tongue hanging out in dry but convincing slime.
A look at Louis, the trumpet-playing alligator from “The Princess and the Frog,” as he will appear in his audio-animatronic state.
(Christian Thompson/Disneyland Resort)
Some recent animated-to-animatronic figures, such as those seen in Toontown's Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, show more of a digital sheen due to projection technology, meaning their faces have a cartoon-like CGI feel. animated. Tiana's adventure in the swamp felt more tactile, with carefully sculpted faces and natural hair. Charita Carter, one of the Imagineers leading the project, said that while the “Princess and the Frog” property is fantastical in nature, it was important to base the attraction in the reality of New Orleans.
“Tiana is one of the few princesses who actually comes from a royal place,” Carter said. “It is a place that can be experienced. We have a comparable [one] that our guests would have, so it made sense. The city is so special. It sounds cliché to say that it is a magical city, but it is a magical city. When you get off the plane and hear the band playing in the baggage claim area, where in the United States do you go and have an experience like that? “So when you marry such a special place with a fantastic history, it is a wonderful and beautiful combination.”
The attraction does not yet have an opening date on either coast, but Disney has previously announced a summer opening at Walt Disney World and later this year at Disneyland.
Carter, one of Imagineering's most prominent Black executives, has been on the project as a producer since its reveal in the summer of 2020. That's when Splash Mountain became the subject of a heated debate on social media at a time of cultural and national reevaluation. Protests after the murder of George Floyd. (Images from the original trip have their roots in the outdated and racist 1946 film “Song of the South.”)
Disney, when making public its decision to give Splash Mountain a “Princess and the Frog”-themed makeover, cited the need for the attraction to embrace a new, “inclusive” concept. In a brief interview at Tuesday's event, Carter was asked to reflect on the four-year journey to bring Tiana's Bayou Adventure to life.
“When I got the call from the president at that time to lead this team as a producer, I cried,” Carter said. “It was realizing how important it is to take Tiana into a dimensional space: to be the first African-American princess, to be an American princess from a real place and to know that there are people who live in New Orleans, live in the South, that would be very important. to be able to relate to her in a special way. The weight of that. It was joy. But there was also the weight. Like, 'Okay, let's do this.'”
