A familiar voice is coming back to Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress. Debi Derryberry, who voiced daughter Patricia in the version that played at Magic Kingdom from 1994 until this summer, will return as Grandmother when the show reopens at Walt Disney World in late spring 2027.
The casting was announced Sunday, October 4, during D23 Spotlight Series: 55 Magical Years of Storytelling at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, where the Imagineers behind the refurbishment shared new details. Fantasy Land News was in the room.
Derryberry is the third voice confirmed for the new version. Bryan Cranston and Jamie Lee Curtis were announced at D23 in August as John and Sarah, the father and mother. Disney has not named the voices for the rest of the family. The casting has a nice symmetry. Derryberry, best known as the voice of Jimmy Neutron, spent more than 30 years as the daughter. Now she moves up two generations in the same family.
Carousel of Progress closed July 6 for its biggest overhaul since 1994. All four scenes are moving to new time periods, and a new opening scene adds an Audio-Animatronic of Walt Disney. You can already see new costumes and scale models from the show at Walt Disney Presents in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
It is a small piece of news, and it is the kind longtime fans notice. Keeping a voice from the old show in the family is a good sign for how this update is being handled.
In other news from the evening D23 Spotlight Series: 55 Magical Years of Storytelling at Disney’s Contemporary Resort:
- Carousel of Progress Walt Disney Scene: First Look at the New Talking Toucan Audio-Animatronic
- Carousel of Progress: Disney Saved Every Piece of the Old Show, and the Pumpkin Will Return
- D23 Spotlight Series Recap: 13 Disney World Ambassadors, Joe Rohde, and Carousel of Progress News
