Disney Just Announced Major Changes to a Fan-Favorite Attraction — Including a Walt Disney Animatronic
One of Walt Disney World's most beloved and most-debated attractions is about to undergo its biggest transformation in more than 30 years — and for once, the changes are genuinely significant.
Disney announced Wednesday, May 28, that Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress at Magic Kingdom will close July 6, 2026, for a full reimagining that will replace all four of its current scenes with entirely new time periods. The updated attraction is expected to reopen in 2027.
What's Actually Changing
The current version of Carousel of Progress takes guests through four scenes depicting American family life in roughly the early 1900s, the 1920s, the 1940s, and a "present day" scene that — thanks to its last major update in 1994 — features such cutting-edge technology as car phones and laser discs.
The new version will move those time periods forward significantly. The four new eras will be the 1960s, the 1980s, the new millennium, and "The Possible Future." The shift makes sense: the attraction originally debuted at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, and its original roughly 60-year time jump will now be restored. As one Disney fan site noted, the current "today" era is set in a version of the present that predates most guests' lifetimes.
The beloved "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" — the Sherman Brothers song written for the original attraction — will remain. The core family of characters — John, Sarah, their children, Uncle Orville, and the dog Rover — will all return in updated form. Disney said Imagineers are preserving practical effects and physical comedy moments while refreshing the animatronics and environments throughout.
Walt Disney Himself Is Coming to the Attraction
The most significant addition is one that was first announced at Destination D23 in August 2025: an Audio-Animatronics figure of Walt Disney will open the show. In the new version, guests will see Walt in the offices of WED Enterprises — the division now known as Walt Disney Imagineering — dressed in a blue cardigan and slacks, just as he appeared on his weekly television series, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, during a 1964 episode previewing the World's Fair.
"If you're going to touch something that is beloved, then leave it better than you found it," Imagineering Portfolio Executive Michael Hundgen said during the announcement presentation.
Disney described the update as the fourth major overhaul in the attraction's history.
Why the Attraction Needed Updating
Carousel of Progress is genuinely historic — it was a passion project of Walt Disney himself and has been at Magic Kingdom since 1975. It is also, as theme park observers have long noted, chronically under-attended. The attraction can handle upward of 3,000 guests per hour but frequently plays to nearly empty theaters for much of the day.
Part of the reason is the disconnect between the attraction's stated theme — the march of technology and progress — and scenes that feel frozen in the mid-1990s. References to laser discs and car phones don't land the same way they did when today's park guests were not yet born. The refresh gives Disney a chance to reconnect the attraction to what it was always meant to celebrate.
What's Not Changing
Disney was explicit that the heart of the attraction is not being replaced — just updated. The rotating theater format, the family of characters, the song, and the optimistic spirit Walt Disney built into the original concept in 1964 are all staying. The goal, as Imagineers described it, is an attraction that feels like it has always been there while finally reflecting a version of "today" that guests can recognize.
Guests who want to see the current version have until July 5 to do so.
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