Disneyland will have its 70th anniversary soon. To mark the occasion, a show is premiering at the park featuring the first animatronic figure of Walt Disney.
The show, “Walt Disney — a Magical Life,” will open at the park’s Main Street Opera House on Thursday.
The California theme park said in a release that the show includes a 15-minute film followed by an appearance of the electronically controlled puppet on a set that re-creates the Disney Co. founder’s office.
The company said the figure depicts Disney’s appearance circa 1963, with attire and rings, realistic skin, gestures and mouth movements.
Disney Co. said the animatronic figure’s speech during the show is based on a blend of historical sources of its founder talking.
“We scoured through his speeches and documents to find the words that would bring him to life in a way that would feel as if we dropped into his office for a chat,” Tom Fitzgerald, senior creative executive at the Walt Disney Imagineering team that designed the animatronic figure, said on a 2024 release.
Disney himself showcased the first human animatronic figure, a replica of President Abraham Lincoln, at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. The theater showing “Walt Disney — A Magical Life” will ultimately play it on rotation with “Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln.”
