It’s been nearly a month since the Frozen Ever After attraction reopened at EPCOT with upgraded Audio-Animatronics. In a new article from IGN, we’re getting a deeper look at the work that was done during the downtime. The report also has some new details about the upgraded Audio-Animatronics that have resulted in a lifelike representation of the human characters on the ride. In fact, it sounds like Anna and Elsa have something in common with Walt Disney, or, at least, the new Walt Disney Audio-Animatronic.
More Details on Frozen Ever After Upgrades, Including Walt Disney Connection
A report from the Orlando Sentinel previously outlined some of the changes that guests could expect when the Frozen Ever After attraction reopened early last month. The report included mention of the upgraded Audio-Animatronic heads and lighting updates. The new IGN article goes into a bit more depth with Ken Ricci, Executive Creative Development at Walt Disney Imagineering.
As previously announced, the Hong Kong version of Frozen Ever After served as the inspiration for the EPCOT attraction upgrades. Not only was Hong Kong the inspiration for the update, but the EPCOT Audio-Animatronic heads were actually “ported” over from Hong Kong.
Ricci said that there was no need to reanimate the figures due to the programming that was already in place for Hong Kong. Ricci described the work on the backend, saying that the EPCOT team had to “match the kinematics of the figures exactly to Hong Kong”, and that’s the mechanical vibrations”. Specifically, the team was focused on the mechanical vibrations within the figures.
Ricci said that the team had to update the wrists on Anna and Elsa to “make sure those motors and designs were the same as Hong Kong”. All of this work was in an effort to create mechanical figures that were as close to the Hong Kong figures as possible to be able to port the show data over from Hong Kong without the need to reanimate the figures.
All of this work, much of it completed or prepared in advance, allowed the team to minimize downtime for the attraction. Speaking of advance work, Ricci said that the team updated the show control processors on the cabinets overnight, before the attraction closed for a 2.5-week refurbishment.
There were some adjustments needed. While the team didn’t have to reanimate the figures, they did have to make adjustments to “work within the mechanical limitations of a robot.”
Beyond the IGN article, Disney has shared that their Facility Asset Management team also rolled up its sleeves, with the Global Engineering & Technology team examining every piece of drained flume to help ensure a seamless experience for guests when the ride reopened.
Turning our attention back to the upgraded figures, Ricci talked about how the eyes for the updated figures draw upon a technique that Disney shined a light on, literally, with the first-ever Walt Disney Audio-Animatronic figure at Disneyland.
Disney has turned to a 3D printed eye, complete with a glaze that reflects light, giving the eyes a lifelike twinkle. We first saw this technique highlighted with the Walt Disney figure, but it looks like the technique has been applied to the Frozen Ever After figures as well.
You get that glisten in their eyes now because it’s a 3D printed eye with glaze, and it now looks like a real eye that has that little shine from the light.
And if you look at Anna in the scene where she’s with Kristoff and Sven, she’s just got this emotion on her face that she never had before. And it’s very sincere and it connects to you. And that’s something you didn’t have before with the projected faces. Now, she has that little extra something special in her look.
In addition to upgrades to the figures, Ricci talked about how the team was able to update the lighting and paint throughout the ride.
“Guests will now notice that the scenes are brighter”, Ricci said. The update to lighting within the scene was possible due to the removal of the rear-projected faces. Disney also took the time to update some of the paint around the attraction thanks to the changes in lighting.
When you had the projected faces, we relied on UV black light for the scenes. With these new articulated heads, we changed over to white light in the scenes for their faces and we really punched up the paint. Since we were down, we also went back to all the black light scenes and punched up all the snow, refocused those lights, and we changed out any lighting fixtures that were due for an upgrade.
For more on the Frozen Ever After upgrades, including more photos and a full ride-through video of the newly updated ride, check out our article below!
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!