The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) has announced the award winners for the 31st Annual Thea Awards, and Disney collected a few honors. The announcement was made live at SeaWorld as part of IAAPA week, which brings the entertainment industry to Central Florida each year.
“For more than 30 years, the TEA has celebrated the creators, developers, designers and producers who make the themed entertainment industry special,” said Matt Barton, International Board President, TEA and Chairperson, 7thSense. “The Thea Awards are the epitome of excellence and our industry’s highest honor. The combined work of this year’s Thea Award winners brings joy to millions of guests worldwide while inspiring our industry to continue to push the envelope of creativity and innovation.”
“Imagineers around the world continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in immersive storytelling, delivering unique experiences and memorable character moments in ways that only Disney can,” said Bruce Vaughn, president and chief creative officer, Walt Disney Imagineering. “I’m so proud of the Imagineers and Cast Members recognized today for their outstanding contributions to our work and the broader themed entertainment industry.”
We couldn’t be prouder of the Imagineers and partners who brought these remarkable projects to life — congratulations to all the 2025 Thea Award recipients! With nearly 70 Thea Awards over the past 30 years, Imagineering’s legacy of creativity and leadership in themed entertainment keeps setting the bar for excellence. These awards celebrate our deep commitment to storytelling, innovation, and crafting immersive experiences that transport guests to worlds beyond imagination.
Technological Innovation: BDX Roaming Droids
In October 2023, Walt Disney Imagineering debuted their BDX roaming droids in Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. The droids were a realization of a multi-year promise by Imagineering to include roaming droids in the Star Wars land.
The BDX droids use AI learning to establish balance and to learn about walking. Imagineering says designing a bipedal robotic character with the balance and abilities of these robots is impressive, but that they took it a step further by combining procedural animation, modular hardware, and reinforcement learning to program a walking character capable of complex gaits such as a strut, prance, sneak, tromp, shuffle, hustle, saunter or meander.
Unfortunately, the BDX droids have not made their way to Galaxy’s Edge at Walt Disney World yet, but we’re hopeful that these droids can come to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the future to help build out a fully “lived in” land.
Theme Park Land: Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea
International theme parks have seen a lot of expansion recently, and nowhere was that expansion more well-received than Fantasy Springs in Tokyo DisneySea. Tokyo Disney Resort is known for their high-quality theming, and they built an entirely new “port” or section of their DisneySea theme park.
Fantasy Springs has three themed sections within the port, including Peter Pan’s Neverland, Frozen Kingdom, and Rapunzel’s Forest. The $2.3 billion land also included an in-park hotel and numerous highly-themed attractions.
Theme Park Land: Zootopia
Continuing the trend of international theme parks getting some wonderful expansions, Zootopia at Shanghai Disney Resort has also won an award in the theme park land category.
Zootopia in Shanghai Disney Resort is the first land to be built off of the popular franchise, and it features an attraction called Zootopia: Hot Pursuit, which takes guests through Zootopia’s iconic terrains in pursuit of a criminal. The land also features dining and live entertainment.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!