Decoding Disney World's HUGE EPCOT Ride Announcement

EPCOT is about to make a big ride change, and we’re pretty intrigued!

It was recently revealed that the animatronics on Frozen Ever After are getting updated! They’re using some newer technology (the ride opened nearly 10 years ago now) to update the figures, and we’re here to break down the upcoming changes for you.

When Frozen Ever After opened in 2016, the ride opened with animatronics that made use of projection mapping for facial features. When done right, it’s rather impressive. Unfortunately, we’ve seen the Frozen Ever After characters glitch several times over the years.

In the past 10 years, Disney has vastly improved its animatronic technology. When this ride first debuted, it was the first attraction to have all electric Audio-Animatronics figures, as well as the first to combine electric motors and 3D printing. They even had to scale the entire ride based on the size of Elsa’s wrist — it had to be a certain circumference to fit all the wires and electronics needed to make her hand motions fluid.

But now, animatronic figures are more impressive than ever, and we’ve especially seen these technological upgrades with some of Disney’s newer rides. The contrast is particularly evident when riding Frozen Ever After at World of Frozen in Hong Kong Disneyland. This version of the ride opened in 2023, and its animatronics are INCREDIBLE.

We checked out the ride during the land’s grand opening media event and were wowed by how similar the animatronics look to the cartoon characters — they really appear to be Anna and Elsa come to life! The movements are more fluid than ever before, and the faces are the most accurate yet.

Elsa in her ice palace at Hong Kong Disneyland

With this newer tech in mind, Disney has shared, “Early next year, this investment will bring a more true-to-film look for these beloved characters” in EPCOT. So it looks like we’ll be getting updates not only to Anna and Elsa, but possibly also Olaf, Sven, Kristoff, Marshmallow, and the Snowgies. (There are quite a few animatronics on this ride!)

Disney has noted that these changes will be coming in early 2026, so it’s likely that we’ll see a ride closure on the calendar in the near future. We’ll make sure to update you with details as they’re announced.