Disney Is Relaunching an Old Fan Favorite Program With Beloved Characters
Disney’s Wild About Safety program has been gone for a few years now. There was no announcement when it ended. No farewell post. No final distribution of tip cards. It just quietly stopped being part of the park experience, and most guests did not notice until they realized they had not seen Timon and Pumbaa on a safety poster in a while.
That is changing. Disney just confirmed that Wild About Safety is coming back, and this time there is an institutional partnership and updated content behind it.
What Wild About Safety Actually Is at Disney
The original Wild About Safety program launched in 2003 and featured Timon and Pumbaa from The Lion King as the unlikely faces of Disney’s safety education initiative. For years, cast members distributed collectible safety tip cards at parks and hotels around the world. Short films played across Disney properties. Activity books were available at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Posters appeared throughout parks and resorts. The program reached over a billion children and families during its run, a figure that reflects both Disney’s global scale and the effectiveness of the content’s integration into the guest experience.
Then it disappeared without explanation and without announcement, which is how a lot of beloved Disney programs end.
What the Relaunch Looks Like
Disney Experiences is bringing Wild About Safety back in partnership with FM, a mutual insurance company that has been working with Disney for more than 75 years, dating back to when Disney chose FM during the planning stages of Disneyland Resort in the 1940s. The revitalized program includes updated character artwork for Timon and Pumbaa, refreshed educational materials, and, according to Disney, enhanced visual storytelling designed to resonate with guests around the world.
The content covers attraction safety, reminding guests to follow posted rules, wear seatbelts, and keep extremities inside ride vehicles. Health and behavior guidance covers handwashing, covering coughs, and designated smoking areas. Supervision guidelines address Disney’s policies for younger guests, including that children under 14 must be accompanied by someone 14 or older and that children under 7 must be supervised to board attractions.
The program will appear across Disney theme parks, resorts, and cruise ships, giving it a broader reach than some iterations of the original managed during its run.
Why Timon and Pumbaa Work for This Disney Program
Safety education aimed at children’s life-or-death decisions depends on whether the messenger is someone kids actually want to listen to. Timon and Pumbaa are two of the most beloved comic characters in Disney animation history, and their entire dynamic is built around one of them doing something inadvisable while the other watches. That setup is inherently effective for safety messaging because children learn by watching characters navigate the consequences of their choices, and Timon and Pumbaa have been navigating the consequences of questionable choices since 1994.
A tip card featuring those two characters is something a child asks to keep. An activity book featuring them is something a child actually completes. That level of engagement with safety content does not happen with a standard informational poster.
What This Means for Families Visiting Disney
For families visiting Walt Disney World, Disneyland, or sailing on Disney Cruise Line, the return of Wild About Safety means safety orientation content that children will actually engage with rather than ignore. For parents who remember the original program, the relaunch offers a familiar framework with updated content. For families encountering it for the first time, it is a safety education experience that fits naturally into the broader Disney visit rather than feeling like something separate from it.
The program is back. Timon and Pumbaa are updated and ready. And this time there is a formal long-term partnership behind it that suggests it is not going anywhere quietly again.
