Frozen Ever After at EPCOT is getting some love in early 2026 just in time for its 10th anniversary. The ride’s audio-animatronics will be updated to more closely resemble those recently installed at the World of Frozen in Hong Kong Disneyland. Get ready to say goodbye to those rough projected faces!
The Disney Parks Blog announced that the Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff audio-animatronics will be updated to match the extremely impressive figures in Hong Kong Disneyland. That means more fluid movements and, best of all, real faces for the figures.
We know we – and much of the Disney community – has been harsh towards the animatronics with projected faces. That said, we recognize they were seen as a big step up in animatronic technology when they were first introduced. Technology changes and evolves, and the projected faces haven’t aged the best over the years.
The projected faces still work somewhat well in some cases, including for the dwarves in Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately, they don’t work very well for other characters, and when they break they really break. Nothing ruins the illusion more than an empty head. The projected faces also photograph extremely poorly, which maybe is just a complaint felt by Disney bloggers.