A plan to fully automate Disneyland Resort, eliminating the need for most Disney cast members, recently leaked online. Disney Parks fans were horrified thinking about how different Disneyland Park, Downtown Disney, and Disney California Adventure Park would be without thousands of smiling faces.
Thousands of Disney cast members bring Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort to life. From custodial to attractions, each cast member plays a unique role in making the magic happen.
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However, the Disney parks we know and love weren’t always going to be staffed the way that they are now. According to Disney history content creator Kate (@disneycicerone on TikTok), Walt Disney once wanted to automate almost every position at Disneyland Park.
@disneycicerone Dedicated to all the amazing Cast Members out there who make the Disney parks magical for us all, day after day. I see you 💜 (and I’m so glad you’ve not been replaced by audio animatronics 😂) About Walt and animation, from animator Frank Thomas: “We always felt that he never really knew how you animated. And he resented this to a certain extent. He always kidded about it. He’d tease us and needle us about ‘I’m going to find a way to replace you guys,’ particularly if he got his animated figure [the first audio animatronics] starting to work. He’d say, ‘I’m going to teach them to animate. The first thing I’m going to teach them to do…’ With all this kidding constantly, you knew there had to be something in the back of his mind that was bugging him. He’d bring visitors down to the room lots of times and flip drawings and ask you to flip drawings for him and always be very complimentary, very impressed with the way the drawings worked. So he knew the mechanics of it, but what process you went through to take a story idea and somehow do something with it so the character came out on the drawing with life and personality of his own, I don’t think he really could grasp it.” And about the skipper-less Jungle Cruise boats, from Harper Goff: “On the Jungle Cruise ride Walt didn’t want any pilots in the boats. I thought that if people were alone with some gas engines they might panic and things would go wrong. I wanted a man on board: Going on the adventure with him would add to the thrill and he would keep kids’ hands out of the water. Walt found out that the human touch was important.” #castmember #castmembers #disney #disneyland #automation #disneyparks #disneycastmember #disneymagic #disneyhistory #junglecruise #disneyfan #disneystories #storybooklandcanalboats #fantasyland #waltdisney #disneytrivia #disneysecrets #disneyanimation #disneystudios #disneylandpark #disneyfacts #disneyfactsyoudontknow #automat #disneylandcalifornia #disneytiktok #disneytok
“According to Imagineer Harper Goff, Walt Disney loved the idea of a fully automated Disneyland,” Kate explained. “…Walt didn’t want any skippers in the Jungle Cruise boats, but luckily, Harper convinced him that having a human on board to keep kids’ hands out of the water and also in case of an emergency was a good idea.”
In Fantasyland, Walt Disney hoped that the attraction now called Storybook Land Canal Boats would feature nine-inch tall mechanical people and an animatronic train conductor.
“That automation would never come to pass, but in Tomorrowland, the Automat did,” Kate continued. “…You could get your entire meal from a vending machine.”
Disney allegedly also wanted to automate Walt Disney Animation Studios.
“Sometimes his irritation at not being able to grasp how to do animation well himself got the best of him,” Kate said. “He would threaten to replace all of his animators with audio-animatronics.”
“In the end, despite all of Walt Disney’s ideas and threats, he realized that the people that make the magic are the very heartbeat of Disneyland,” she concluded.
Disney Parks fans couldn’t imagine Disneyland Resort or Walt Disney World Resort without cast members.
“The Cast Members ARE the Disney Magic,” said @userfromtheeighties.
Would Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort be better off with more automation? In the comments, share your opinion with us.
