WALT Disney’s granddaughter has slammed the entertainment giant for turning its legendary late founder into a “robotic grampa”.
Disney is unveiling an animatronic Walt Disney to celebrate Disneyland California’s 70th anniversary this July – despite repeated pleas from his granddaughter Joanna Miller.
Joanna Miller told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that her beloved grandfather, who died in 1966, would have hated being turned into a talking mechanical replica.
“I think I started crying,” she said, recalling the moment she first saw the figure. “It didn’t look like him to me.”
Miller said she voiced her concerns early on, sending a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger when the idea was first proposed.
She said she later met with Iger and the team responsible for creating the attraction, telling him: “I strongly feel the last two minutes with the robot will do much more harm than good to Grampa’s legacy.
“They will remember the robot – and not the man.”
Despite Iger being “very kind” and despite his promises to protect her grandfather’s legacy, she said her request that they scrap the animatronic was ultimately ignored.
Miller added it “pains” her to call out the very company he created.
The icon’s granddaughter was speaking solely on behalf of her grandfather and mother, according to The LA Times.
In a Facebook post in November, Miller blasted the company’s “robotic grampa” idea, calling it “empty of a soul or essence of the man” and saying it made her feel “so so sad and disappointed”.
She explained: “The idea of a Robotic Grampa to give the public a feeling of who the living man was just makes no sense.
“It would be an imposter. They are dehumanizing him. People are not replaceable.”
She also argued that her late grandfather had “told Sam McKim that he never wanted to be an animatronic”, claiming that she has been provided with first-hand proof to back this up.
The figure will appear in a new attraction, Walt Disney – A Magical Life, inside the park’s Main Street Opera House.
The proposal to show “what it would be like to stop by Walt’s office” was announced by Disney last year.
The company said it would be “a fitting tribute” to the man who made “significant advances with Audio-Animatronics”.
Originally called Disney Brothers Studio, The Walt Disney Company was founded by Walt Disney and his brother Roy O. Disney in 1923.
Walt Disney, who was an animator, film producer and entrepreneur, is regarded as a pioneer of Audio-Animatronics, famously bringing Abraham Lincoln to life at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.
Speaking at D23, the company’s annual fan event, Josh D’Amaro, chair of Disney Experiences, said: “Creating our first Walt figure is an idea that’s been whispered in the hallowed halls of imagineering for years, decades, even.”
He added: “We just had to wait for innovation to catch up with our dreams. And we’re finally ready.”
Disneyland in California, which opened on July 17, 1955, will celebrate its 70th anniversary this July.
