Walt Disney Imagineering has shared a behind-the-scenes look at how it created the new Grumpy statue now standing at Disney’s Magnolia Golf Course. It’s a compelling piece of work on its own, but the more interesting story is how this continues the efforts that Imagineering’s Research & Development branch is doing when it comes to printing large-scale props.
Grumpy Statue Is the Latest in Imagineering’s Growing 3D Printing Portfolio
In This Article
- What is WDI’s goal with advanced fabrication research?
- How does the marble Grumpy connect to the 3D-printed Jungle Cruise canoe?
- Why marble instead of fiberglass or bronze?
- How does the robot carving process work, and where does human artistry take over?
As we covered in January, WDI’s R&D division installed the first large-scale 3D-printed prop ever placed in a Disney attraction: an outrigger canoe on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. The canoe was produced in partnership with Haddy, an AI-powered industrial 3D printing company that Disney invested in through its Accelerator program. At the time, Imagineers said that the 3D-printed prop wouldn’t be the last. The marble Grumpy statue is a (somewhat) different technology and a different material, but it comes from the same place – WDI’s Research and Development division.
Xavier Molina, a lead engineer in that division, frames the Grumpy project in exactly those terms. “Research and Development is not just about making amazing robotic characters,” he says in the video. “We’re also doing things like advanced fabrication research to figure out how to make the parks of the future using the technologies that are just now coming online – and this is one of those projects.”
BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO
The statue is carved from natural Carrara marble, a deliberate departure from Disney’s standard outdoor materials. “Instead of making him out of one of the materials we normally go to, which might be something like fiberglass reinforced plastic or bronze, we’re actually making him out of natural marble stone,” Molina explains.
The process starts with a digital sculpt. WDI’s team researched what golf clubs and golf balls actually looked like in the 1920s to get Grumpy’s accessories right, then fed that file to a robotic arm, which carved through the marble block over several days. The footage of the robot at work is worth seeing – it cuts through stone in clouds of white dust, pulling Grumpy’s form out of a simple marble block using a custom Kuka arm. Once the machine finishes its pass, expert stone artisans take over by hand, refining the surface detail that gives the piece its character.
While Disney has not confirmed the fabrication partner on this project, the technology on display matches the work of Monumental Labs, a New York City-based company that operates an AI-powered robotic stone carving platform. Founded in July 2023 with a single robot and a single stone carver, Monumental Labs has grown to a team of over 19 designers, sculptors, fabricators, and engineers, and recently opened a 40,000 sq. ft. workshop housing multiple industrial robots.
Their process follows the same sequence shown in the Disney video: a 3D model is fed to 7-axis CNC robotic arms, which use large diamond-tipped discs to rough out basic forms, then switch to fine drill bits as small as 2mm to mill detail within fractions of a millimeter of the final surface. Human carvers finish every piece by hand, using both traditional chisels and modern power tools. The company has done previous work at Carnegie Hall and The Frick, and has received coverage from the New York Times, Fast Company, and Architectural Record for its work reviving stone craft through robotics.
Molina is careful not to frame any of this as technology displacing craft. He makes the opposite argument: that robotic carving is generating new demand for skilled stone artisans. “It’s something that is creating more demand for stone and stone sculptures than ever before,” he says. “More people have been actually going into stone carving as an art form than would have been before if this wasn’t there.” It’s a claim Monumental Labs makes too, describing their mission as training a new generation of craftsmen alongside the deployment of robots.
The finished figure shows Grumpy seated atop a boulder, tools in hand, with a sign reading “Grumpy’s Gauntlet” and his line from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: “Mark my words, there’s trouble a-brewin’!” The whole project came together in roughly a year. As we’ve covered, the Grumpy’s Gauntlet stretch at Magnolia debuted in March 2025 following the most extensive redesign in the course’s history, with holes 14 through 17 reconfigured as part of work tied to the nearby Floridian Way roadway project. The statue stands at the tee box for hole No. 14.
A 3D-printed canoe. A robotically carved marble statue. Two projects, same division, same stated intent. WDI’s R&D fabrication portfolio is growing, and Molina’s framing suggests this is still early days. We’ll be excited to see where this technology goes next and how it impacts the speed of delivery of props for new attractions and experiences in the Disney theme parks and beyond.
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!