Disney's Granddaughter Outraged by New Idea at Disneyland: "It Has No Soul"

The new Disneyland attraction is supposed to theoretically give all visitors a chance to talk to Walt Disney himself. In theory, because the granddaughter of the famous animator thinks it's a fraud.

Walt Disney, who died in 1966, is considered one of the most important creators of the film industry . The empire he created has become a symbol of childhood for many people around the world.

The famous animator's character is set to return as an animatronic figure in the new "Walt Disney's Magical Life" attraction, which will debut in July 2025 at Disneyland .

The character will speak with his voice, edited from archive recordings, and will perform realistic, human movements. This is the first Disney attraction of its kind , intended to recreate not a fictional character, but the aura of the company founder's presence.

Walt Disney - A Magical Life / photo: Disney

Cool? Well, not everyone is happy. Joanna Miller , the artist's granddaughter, disagrees with the idea.

Miller originally expressed her displeasure in a Facebook post

- The idea of ​​creating a robotic Grandpa to give people an idea of ​​what a living person was like just doesn't make sense. It would be a fraud, people can't be replaced. You can't capture the ease of his speech, his contact with the camera, or his excitement when he showed people what's new in the park. You can't breathe life into something that doesn't have a soul or the essence of a human being - she wrote.

After the post was published, she was invited to meet with Disney CEO Robert Iger and the Walt Disney Imagineering team.

As she admits in an interview with the Los Angeles Times , the conversation went quite calmly, and yet her appeal to withdraw from the project was not taken into account.

- I strongly believe that two minutes with a robot will do more harm than good to Grandpa's legacy. People will remember the robot, not the man - believes Joanna Miller .

The Disney family lost control over the animator and producer's image back in 1981, after selling the rights to his likeness for $46.2 million in stock . Since then, the company has had complete freedom to use his character. Despite this, Walt Disney Imagineering claims that the company's employees consulted on the project with the Disney Family Museum and members of the artist's family.

The attraction will most likely launch as planned, in July of this year. However, this is a good opportunity to consider whether artificial intelligence and robots can really replace humans and conversations with them?