Overview

• Disneyland will debut Walt Disney – A Magical Life on July 17, 2025, featuring a lifelike animatronic Walt delivering his own speeches in the Main Street Opera House.
• Joanna Miller has labeled the robot “dehumanizing,” arguing it reduces her grandfather to a “robotic Grampa” and undermines his human legacy.
• Miller met privately with Bob Iger and Imagineering to request cancellation but the company declined and redirected media inquiries to its August 2024 press release.
• Other descendants, including Chris Miller and Tamara Miller of the Walt Disney Family Museum, say they were consulted on the project and support the new attraction.
• After its first year, Disney will rotate the Walt animatronic with the park’s existing Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln exhibit, showcasing advances in audio-animatronic technology since 1964.