Why a robotic imitation of Walt Disney is causing controversy

Euronews

05-06-2025

The urban legend goes that Walt Disney was cryogenically frozen to one day be brought back to life. While there's never been any truth to that, the pioneering American animator has, in-sort, been revived - as a robot.
To celebrate Disneyland California's 70th anniversary in July, the theme park recently unveiled an animatronic replica of their founder.
Disney's granddaughter, Joanna Miller, has denounced the creation - calling it "dehumanizing".
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Miller expressed her hurt upon seeing the mechanical figure: 'I think I started crying,' she said. 'It didn't look like him to me.'
When the project was first announced last year, Miller voiced her concerns in a letter to Disney's CEO, Bob Iger, later meeting with him and some of the members involved in the attraction's creation.
Miller told Iger she strongly felt that, for visitors, 'the last two minutes with the robot will do much more harm than good to Grampa's legacy,' adding that people would 'remember the robot - and not the man.'
While Iger was reportedly 'very kind', her pleas for the robot to be scrapped were ultimately ignored.
Miller also spoke out in a Facebook post last November, calling the idea of a 'Robotic Grampa' a disservice to the real Disney, who once loved to greet the park's visitors in person. 'You could never get the casualness of his talking, interacting with the camera, [or] his excitement to show and tell people about what is new at the park,' Miller wrote. 'You cannot add life to one empty of a soul or essence of the man.'
Miller made it clear to The LA Times that she was speaking on behalf of her mother and grandfather, noting that it 'pains' her to be speaking out against his company.
'When you get older, you just start to get pissed off. And you get tired of being quiet. So I spoke up on Facebook,' she said. 'The fact that it got back to the company is pretty funny.'
The Audio-Animatronics figure is due to debut in a new show titled 'Walt Disney – A Magical Life', which will open on 17 July 2025. 'Creating our first Walt figure is an idea that's been whispered in the hallowed halls of Imagineering for years – decades, even,' Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D'Amaro said during a company showcase. 'We just had to wait for innovation to catch up with our dreams. And we're finally ready,' he added.
A Disney press release explains how Disney's Imagineers - the creative minds behind Disney park attractions - had 'worked closely with the Walt Disney Archives to ensure we had the details as accurate as possible.'
As technology and, in particular, artificial intelligence (AI) has advanced, companies are increasingly experimenting with ways to bring back the dead. Last year, a film producer sued Disney for digitally recreating the late actor Peter Cushing's appearance in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope for 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Previously, Disney used CGI and unused footage to resurrect actress Carrie Fisher for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, while the voice of James Earl Jones, who played iconic baddie Darth Vader and died last year, was artificially repurposed for the Disney+ miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi.
While sometimes agreed upon by the actors themselves or their estates, any artificial recreations remain highly controversial as people become increasingly wary of technology trying to imitate and dehumanise art.
Meanwhile, despite the company riding a box office high with Lilo & Stitch - currently the second-highest grossing movie of the year - Disney announced on Tuesday that it is cutting hundreds of jobs worldwide to reduce costs and adapt to evolving industry conditions.
'As our industry transforms at a rapid pace, we continue to evaluate ways to efficiently manage our businesses while fuelling the state-of-the-art creativity and innovation that consumers value and expect from Disney,' a spokesperson said. 'As part of this ongoing work, we have identified opportunities to operate more efficiently and are eliminating a limited number of positions.'
While film fans continue to wait for an official announcement regarding the identity of the new James Bond and when the secret agent will be back on the big screen, gamers will be thrilled by the announcement of a new video game which hits consoles next year.
Developed and published by IO Interactive, the folks behind Hitman, 007 First Light just got its first trailer, which was released during PlayStation's State of Play.
'This is Bond as you've never seen him before - the youngest Bond fans have ever met,' reads the description. 'In 007 First Light, at only 26 years old, he isn't the fully fledged 007 you know from the tux-and-martini days but a man with sharp instincts, sometimes reckless, who is still learning when to fight, when to bluff, and when to disappear into the shadows."
The 'completely original standalone story', developed in collaboration with Amazon MGM Studios, will see a young Bond earn his designation as 007 – much like he did at the start of Casino Royale, Daniel Craig's first outing as Bond.
The trailer sees M describe the young spy as 'a bullet without a target' and assigns him a mission in hopes of giving Bond a sense of focus.
Check it out below:
The game was first announced in 2020 and a deeper look at 007 First Light's gameplay is set to be revealed this summer.
In 2021, IO CEO Hakan Abrak said: 'It was very important for us that it wasn't a movie adaptation. It's not a game about a specific movie, where the story has already been told. Every Bond defines a generation and it's amazing how they kept reinventing themselves over so many years.'
007 First Light will be the first James Bond game to release in 14 years. The last Bond title to launch was 2012's poorly received 007 Legends, released to celebrate the iconic film series' 50th anniversary.
Bond fans have already expressed their excitement for the new video game.
'I'm excited for this. I've got no doubt IOI can nail the infiltration gameplay and level design, hopefully they get the action elements right too,' wrote one fan, while another said: 'James Bond has been so under-utilised for the last few generations. I'm so stoked to see 007 make a return.'
Others have been wondering whether the game reveal is a sign that things are speeding up for a cinematic announcement.
The next James Bond film – now under the creative control of Amazon - is apparently being fast-tracked, with rumours suggesting that the 26th adventure will hit cinemas by the end of 2027.
That means that when the next Bond film arrives, it will match the record for the longest wait for a new 007 since Sean Connery first played the British spy in 1962's Dr No. The previous record was GoldenEye, which was released in 1995 - six years after Timothy Dalton appeared in Licence to Kill. The 2015-2021 pause between SPECTRE and No Time To Die already gave that record a run for its money, primarily due to the Covid pandemic which delayed the release of the film.
We already know that the 26th Bond film will be produced by Amy Pascal and David Heyman, and last month, we asked: Could Aaron Taylor-Johnson becoming Omega brand ambassador be the James Bond confirmation we've all been waiting for?
The wait continues...