Disney is bringing everyone’s favorite walking, talking snowman to life with a fully free-roaming animatronic coming to select parks early next year. On Monday, Nov. 24, Walt Disney Imagineering unveiled a brand-new, hyper-realistic animatronic recreation of the beloved animated character Olaf from the Frozen franchise. “This debut marks a new chapter in Disney character innovation, one where technology, storytelling and collaboration come together to bring screen to reality,” the company wrote on the Disney Parks Blog. The announcement came alongside the release of a new episode of We Call It Imagineering, the company’s YouTube documentary series offering a behind-the-scenes look at the magic of Disney parks. “I can’t even imagine this. Like seeing people meet Olaf for the first time in his form, I think this is going to be just incredible,” Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences, tells Imagineers while looking at a prototype of the robot. “A really, really inspiring day,” D’Amaro adds. “Hands down, this is the best day of my life,” the Olaf figure, voiced by Josh Gad, responds with a laugh. Imagineers worked closely with the film’s original animators to bring the beloved character to life and make the movements as true to Olaf as possible. As opposed to the company’s previous free walking animatronics, like the BDX droids found in the parks’ Star Wars-themed lands, this figure required imagineers to create recognizable facial expressions. Olaf’s “snow” moves differently than the hard shell of the droids, he can also fully articulate his mouth, eyes and even has a removable carrot nose and arms. He can also engage and speak in conversations with guests. “Our latest Olaf is a fantastic example of representing an animated character as authentically as possible in the physical world a challenging task because animated characters most often move in non-physical ways,” Kyle Laughlin, senior vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, said in a press release. “For example, to make Olaf’s snowball feet move along his body, we paired state-of-the-art deep reinforcement learning with an artistic interface and advances in mechanical design.” Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. “Reinforcement learning,” is a specific branch of artificial intelligence Imagineering uses for this new technology. It enables the robotic characters to imitate artist-provided motion in simulation. The company says it helps Olaf acquire skills, like walking, in a fraction of the time previously required. The adorable new technology will be on display at both World of Frozen land locations, at Disneyland Paris’ Disney Adventure World and at Hong Kong Disneyland, early next year. The company also announced the official opening date for World of Frozen at Disneyland Paris: March 29, 2026. The new land features the family-friendly boat ride “Frozen Ever After,” a meet-and-greet with Anna and Else inside Arendelle Castle and a daytime show staged on Viking longships in Arendelle Bay.
https://people.com/disney-unveils-an-adorable-hyper-realistic-roaming-olaf-animatronic-11856051
