The new Walt Disney scene in Carousel of Progress is getting a second Audio-Animatronic: a talking toucan that will interact with Walt. Walt Disney Imagineering showed the bird Sunday, October 4, at D23 Spotlight Series: 55 Magical Years of Storytelling at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, and Fantasy Land News has the first photos.
Disney has said since May that the new opening scene is inspired by Disneyland Goes to the World’s Fair, the 1964 television special in which Walt previewed his World’s Fair shows from the WED workshop. In that special, Walt used a Tiki bird to introduce viewers to the term Audio-Animatronics. A prototype Tiki bird was on the early list of props for the scene. What is new is that the bird is a working figure. Imagineers said it is a brand-new Audio-Animatronic that will talk and interact with Walt, just as the bird did in the original special. In other news announced yesterday: Debi Derryberry Returns to Carousel of Progress as Grandmother at Walt Disney World
A First Look at the Toucan – The figure has a red crown, a cream and yellow chest, orange wings, and a green bill tipped in red. At the event, it sat on a wooden test perch with yellow tubing looped beneath it, on a table with props from the old show.
The Desk and the Easter Eggs – The set around Walt is getting the same attention. The desk in the scene is based on one used by Disney Legend Rolly Crump, a style known as an inbetweener’s desk. Crump started at the studio as an inbetweener before moving to WED, where he designed the Tower of the Four Winds, which also appears in the special. Walt Disney Animation Studios donated a desk for the project.
Imagineers said the scene will be full of Easter eggs. They want it to feel dense, so dense that guests will want to ride again and again to catch everything. The goal is for guests to feel like they are standing inside WED, the company Walt founded that became Walt Disney Imagineering. The Walt figure itself is being developed with The Walt Disney Family Museum.
The Imagineers Behind It – Steven Vagnini of D23 and Becky Cline of the Walt Disney Archives hosted the panel with the Imagineering team. Ash Brannon is Executive Concept Designer and was behind the Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin update. Jackie Herrera is Senior Producer and worked on The Magic of Disney Animation at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Brice Croskey is Senior Production Designer.
Carousel of Progress reopens in late spring 2027.
