A few weeks ago I wrote a post called The Oldest Audio-Animatronics in Disneyland and featured the history behind the Jungle Cruise animals, the Enchanted Tiki Room birds, the Abraham Lincoln animatronic, the Small World dolls, and the pirates of Pirates of the Caribbean. Though these are all iconic and have been around since the dawn of Disneyland, there are several other audio-animatronics that have paved they way for the progression of the technology, and the use of robots for entertainment. Let’s take a look at some of Disneyland’s most iconic audio-animatronics of all time.

Indiana Jones by the Gates of Doom

The Indiana Jones ride, dubbed The Temple of the Forbidden Eye, opened on March 3, 1995. The attraction was born through a partnership between Disney and Lucasfilm Ltd, who had produced Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 11 years prior. The essence of the ride never changed from its original concept, which included the out-of-control vehicle, guiding you through the temple as it starts to crumble. Many Easter Eggs from the Indiana Jones films are hidden throughout it, including patrol trucks and mine cars used on the films. The props within the queue and the attraction are what make it such an elaborate and thrilling adventure, and the audio-animatronic of Jones is nothing short of impressive.

The Indiana Jones animatronic was a feature of the ride since it opened in 1995. Since the animatronics hadn’t gotten super realistic yet, and the Imagineers were mostly used to creating animals and not full size humans, the original figure was quite stagnant and didn’t resemble Harrison Ford at all. It wasn’t until a 2010 refurbishment of the ride that the animatronic was completely replaced with a new one that did look more like Harrison Ford, and had more advanced technology. The original figure had its back against the gates of doom so you couldn’t see inside it, but after the refurbishment the gates were opened slightly so you could see a blue-green light coming from it. His placement was changed to him leaning his right side against the door and his left arm directing you to the left.

“Great, I ask for help and they send me tourists.”

— Indiana Jones

Roz in Monsters Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue

Monsters Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue opened in Disney’s California Adventure in January 2006. It was the first Monsters Inc ride to appear in any Disney park. It replaced Superstar Limo, an attraction that lived in Hollywood Land for just a year after the opening of the theme park. The ride takes you through the events of the film, with Boo on the loose, running from Randall, and eventually getting Boo home by the end of the ride.

The ride doesn’t conclude just there though, as you exit the dark ride the very last sight you can lay your eyes on is an audio-animatronic of the character Roz, the administrator at Monsters Incorporated and the undercover Child Detection Agency leader. The Roz animatronic had been a part of the ride since its opening and has gone virtually unchanged since then. She still dons her pink sweater and glasses, and sometimes sports a Santa hat during the December month. The unique thing about this animatronic is it interacts with the riders, saying very specific things about the guests in the cab. Since the beginning, whenever she spots someone with Mickey or Minnie ears, she would say:

“Young lady in the first row, nice ears!”

— Roz

You may be thinking, “wow, is Roz alive?” Though I would love to tell you the answer is yes, unfortunately she’s not, and a cast member who can imitate Roz’s voice is stationed somewhere beyond the ride with a visual of the riders in each cab and a microphone.

“As riders turn the final corner in Monsters, Inc.: Mike & Sulley to the Rescue, they come upon Roz, an animated version of the crotchety dispatcher in the film. She twists her long neck and turns her spectacles toward them, using several of her 19 programmed functions. Then she surprises them with a personalized greeting.”

— Orange County Register, 2005

Roz animatronic. Image from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY-6PYX2v44

Mr. Potato Head outside of Toy Story Mania

Toy Story Midway Mania or simply Toy Story Mania, opened in May 2008, replacing the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It! attraction. The ride follows a similar format to its counterpart over in Disneyland, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, as they’re both interactive competitive attractions. Toy Story Mania is especially intriguing with the use of the 4D technology, making each midway game even more eye-catching. The queue for this attraction is typically a long one, as it’s one of the few interactive rides in California Adventure.

Before you even have a chance to get on the ride, you’re already being entertained! At the center of the queue facing outward is an 8-foot tall Mr. Potato Head dressed in carnival gear, telling jokes, singing songs, and amusingly removing one of his ears. For the year 2008, he was an extremely impressive audio-animatronic, and still continues to be one of the most loved in the park. He is known to break several records in Imagineering history at the time of his arrival:

Imagineers spent the most time programming him over any other audio-animatronic in history.
He has the most lines of dialogue preset out of any animatronic in the parks.
He wouldn’t be the toy he is without the removal of his body parts, so he is the first animatronic to be able to remove a part of itself and put it back together.
He is also the first animatronic who could form vowels and accurate words with his mouth.

In more recent years he’s had refurbishments to his eyebrow and eye movements to make them more fluid.

“Hurry, hurry! Woody, Buzz, and all my pals have set up the midway mania playset just for you.”

— Mr. Potato Head

Ursula in Ariel’s Undersea Adventure

The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure was the first Little Mermaid attraction to be featured in a Disney park. It opened in California Adventure on June 3, 2011. Originally, attractions themed after the film were supposed to open 20 years prior in the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland Paris but were never saw through. The mechanics of the ride follow a similar layout to the Haunted Mansion with the shell ride vehicle, but imitates the various dark rides in Fantasyland. This ride is FULL of animatronics - from dancing fish, to an accordion playing Skuttle, to several singing Ariel’s. One of the Ariel’s was nicknamed dole whip Ariel, as her hair during the “Under the Sea” scene was twirled straight up like a dole whip. It’s since been changed to her hair flowing downward.

As the ride continues, it starts to get dark, and you hear Ursula singing “Poor Unfortunate Souls” to a crystal ball with a reflection of Ariel in it. The Ursula animatronic is the second largest animatronic ever made by Disney, the first being Maleficent’s dragon in the Fantasmic shows. She was designed differently than others before - to preserve her octopus-like nature, they needed to make her more squishy and stretchy than any other robotic figure. She stands at 7.5 feet tall and 12 feet wide, made with stretch velvet and flexible rubber to give her the fluidity she needed. Ursula has remained pretty much the same over the last decade, but her impressiveness has not faded away.

Ursula animatronic. Photo by: Loren Javier. Image from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lorenjavier/5775189587

Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? In Disney terms, would it be “which came first, the Pirates film or the Pirates ride?”. If you were ever wondering this, I can tell you now that it is in fact the ride. Walt Disney was interested in introducing pirates to his park, and the attraction was originally meant to be a walk-through wax museum of pirates and pirate gear. The idea was scrapped after a few designs were made for it, and Marc Davis, Yale Gracey, and Claude Coates worked closely on the design of the swashbuckling new ride and the pirate figures.

The ride didn’t have too much of a storyline, but was rather an inside look at the life of pirates atop treasure, fighting with pistols, attempting to escape jail and auctioning off women. It’s seen a few changes since its opening in 1967 (particularly with that last point, the auction scene became an auction of items in 2018), and one of its most loved changes is the addition of Captain Jack Sparrow throughout the ride. Once the movie franchise began in 2003, Disney began sprinkling parts of it throughout the ride to give it a bit more purpose. The Jack Sparrow animatronics were added in 2006, and have an uncanny resemblance to Johnny Depp. They are incredibly spectacular - for a good decade, the movements of the robots were the most human-like the park had ever seen. The first instance he’s is seen in the ride is when his head pops out of a barrel in the village. The second instance, you can see him standing, hiding behind some mannequins, looking around. The last instance is the final scene of the ride, where he sits upon treasure, waves his finger around and hums to the pirate song.

The resemblance between the Jack Sparrow figures and Johnny Depp was so apparent that Johnny made a visit to the park and took his place inside the ride and surprised guests in 2017.

“I’ve been expecting you for hours, my name is Captain Jack Sparrow, and I would like to swim to you and jump in your boat.”

— Johnny Depp visiting Pirates of the Caribbean

Spider-Man in Avengers Campus

One of the more recent additions to the park is the Avengers Campus in California Adventure, which opened in June 2021. It took Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission Breakout in with open arms, and the Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure attraction opened with it. You can also visit Doctor Strange’s mystic arts area, test some larger than life food at Pym’s Test Kitchen, and watch incredible stunts done by cast members dressed as characters from the Marvel universe.

Spider-Man can be seen in 3 places around the park: in the Web Slingers attraction, walking around doing meet and greets, and can be seen flying high above his attraction. The brief stunt show begins with a human actor doing cartwheels, flips and other fun tricks atop the building, and then they run off to be replaced with the new “stuntronic” droid that does 2 flips high up in the air and lands on another building. He flies more than 65 feet into the air, using a slingshot system with a motor that launches it into the air, with it landing in a net on the other side. The robot was programmed with sensors, so it knows when to tuck its legs and stick out its arms when lifted into the air. It took 3 years for Imagineers to develop the current robot - and is a major feat in the animatronic business.